THE CHURCH KEYS OR TONES

These church keys or tones are usually defined by the final note together with the key signature and clef in which they are presented, which determines their scale (or diapason). In Table 1 we summarize their most common Spanish presentation, both in treatises and in corresponding collections of compositions, and later provide in the Appendix a comprehensive listing by numerous authors.

Table 1

Finals, key signatures and clefs of the church keys or tones

Two systems of clefs were commonly used in this period: the ordinary, ‘natural’ clefs (also called ‘claves bajas’ (low clefs)) and the so-called ‘claves altas’ (high clefs), now best known as the chiavette, which, during the baroque period in Spain, were normally approached by transposing the written pitches down a perfect fourth.Footnote ⁸ Such practice is deduced from almost all theorists of the period, including Gaspar Sanz, Lucas Ruiz de Ribayaz, José de Torres, Diego Fernández de Huete, Santiago de Murcia, Pablo Nassarre, Francesc Valls, Antonio Ventura Roel del Río and Pedro Rabassa.Footnote ⁹ This practice was less standardized during the sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth, when other transpositions were also possible. As can be seen in Table 1, certain tones were almost always written in high clefs, while others were notated in both high and low clefs. We also present the actual pitches for the sake of clarity.

We list two usual presentations of the 8th tone. The one known as 8th por el final is formed from its final note (which comes, as we will see, from the final pitch of the corresponding psalm tone or, in some cases, from the modal final); it was often called simply ‘the 8th’, since it was considered to be the original 8th tone. However, the 8th por la mediación, which concludes on the mediation G (or C in high clefs) instead of on its final D (or G in high clefs), was more frequently used in practice. The term mediación (mediation), common at this time in Spain, refers to the note second in importance after the final in every tone, indicated as the main arrival point in internal cadences. Usually, it matches the reciting note – and, except in the 7th, the note concluding the medial cadence – in the corresponding psalm tone. As for the 7th tone, authors such as Lorente and Nassarre label the 7th tone in our list in Table 1 – with a final of D in high clefs and key signature without alterations (A and one sharp in actual pitches) – as 7th por la mediación, using then as the original 7th the tone with a final of A in high clefs without alterations (E and one sharp in actual pitches); nevertheless, later sources (mainly in the second half of the eighteenth century) will favour the 7th tone with a final of A in non-transposing clefs without alterations (see Appendix).

Theoretical expositions of the system of tones can indicate other important contextual features apart from finals, key signatures and clefs, such as the mediation, the principal and secondary ‘cláusulas’ (cadences) – whether indicating only the final note, several of them, or a complete series of cadential chords – and the entrance notes for the voices in imitation, as shown by Nassarre, for example, in Fragmentos músicos. We summarize Nassarre's presentation in Table 2, reflecting in this case only written pitches. Note a new tone, the segundillo, which we will comment upon below.

Table 2

Description of the tonos by Pablo Nassarre

Source: Pablo Nassarre, Fragmentos músicos, second edition (Madrid: Imprenta de Música, 1700), 60–63, 107–116. Nassarre offers a much longer explanation of the tones in his Escuela música según la práctica moderna (Zaragoza: Herederos de Manuel Román / Heredores de Diego de Larumbe, 1723–1724).

^a Since these tones end on their mediation (which acts as an actual final here), the ‘natural’ final would be used as actual mediation.

In contrast, a practical guitar handbook such as the Instrucción de música sobre la guitarra española by Gaspar Sanz indicates only a single harmony for the final note of each tone, without dwelling on an explanation of either key signatures or clefs (see Appendix). As we have seen, certain versions of the system can change the final of the tone and its key signature as well. In fact, in other countries, the most frequent usages differ markedly from the Spanish ones, as we shall see.

Furthermore, the total number of tones is regularly increased with the frequent inclusion of variants – we have already mentioned the case of the 7th and 8th por la mediación and por el final. Likewise the 4th por la mediación (accordingly with a final of A), which was rare and is therefore omitted here for clarity. Many authors also add the above-mentioned tone called ‘segundillo’ (with a final of B♭ in natural clefs and one flat in the key signature), interpreted sometimes as ‘2^o por la mediación’ and at others as the 5th or 6th tone transposed a second lower (‘punto bajo’, as we can see in Table 2 from Nassarre). Some make reference to the 8th with a final of G (in natural clefs) and without alterations (sometimes called ‘octavillo’ (little eighth)) from ‘the ancients’, although, as Nassarre states in Escuela música, ‘modern practitioners do not recall such configuration of the eighth’ (‘los prácticos modernos no hacen memoria de semejante figuración del octavo’).Footnote ¹⁰

Finally, sometimes authors explain further variants only for pieces created for psalmody (that is the case of the ‘natural 5th’, with a final of A in high clefs without alterations) and present the most common transpositions of the tones; others give some new options for such non-liturgical works as villancicos. Clearly, if one combines all of this with the complicated explanation that some theorists used to justify these tones, the final panorama is so intricate that it is easy to understand why this matter is often oversimplified or avoided today. In order to provide the clearest understanding of the tonos, we have opted to present their simplest and most common listing in Table 1, and later to summarize their relationships to the medieval modes (previously investigated in other works) and to apply them to Spanish practice of the time.

THE CHURCH KEYS COMPARED TO THE MEDIEVAL MODES

When the eight church keys and the eight medieval modes are placed next to each other, distinctions between the two systems become evident, though at first one might be tempted to look for similarities. For example, one could, in principle, recognize the 1st and 4th tones as similar to the corresponding medieval modes, and could thus include the 6th if one considers that this mode was often used with the B♭. Likewise, one could understand the 2nd, 5th and 8th tones as transpositions of their respective modes, which were certainly frequent already before the seventeenth century. But this same process of presenting as natural modes those that were transposed or presented with alterations in the key signatures subverts the very essence of modal theory, allowing that a single intervallic structure of the scale may be presented over different finals and even modifying the very intervallic structure from its theoretical presentation, as in the case of the 5th and 6th tones. As for the 3rd and 7th tones, they are obviously dissimilar to the corresponding medieval modes. Finally, the decisive difference according to the ambitus between authentic modes (with the final as the lowest note) and the plagal modes (with their final somewhere in the middle) now vanishes, since baroque theorists almost always explain and write their scale from the final, giving no indication whatsoever with respect to ambitus.Footnote ¹¹

In reality, many of these discrepancies between the two systems have precedents in certain applications of modal theory to polyphony that had already been appearing since the Renaissance in a variety of European music centres. Thus in his presentation of the modes, Gallus Dressler explains that the 2nd mode ‘generally is transposed by a fourth in polyphony’ (‘plerumque, transponitur ad quartam in figurali cantu’).Footnote ¹² He presents the most important notes of the same mode starting from the final G and seems to suggest the key signature with one flat for the 5th and 6th modes. On the other hand, modes with finals on A and C had been incorporated into the system of twelve proposed by Glareanus – assumed later by many theorists – as added to the eight traditional ones.

Nevertheless, the presentation of the eight church keys or tones in the form given in Table 1 (or one of its variants) as its own standardized system (including the remarkable substitution of the 3rd and 7th modes by their respective tones) seems to have been in effect since roughly 1600, reaching its maximum diffusion in Europe during the second half of the seventeenth century. In Spain, the tones remained relevant throughout the eighteenth century and were even discussed in treatises well into the nineteenth century, as shown in the Appendix.

The system of the eight church keys is essentially a later, practical phenomenon of the period, which writers regularly cultivated to reflect prevailing general acceptance among ‘los prácticos’ (performing musicians) and ‘los modernos’ (modern musicians), although not without reticence on specific occasions. Thus, as early as 1626, Francisco Correa de Araujo expounds upon the twelve modes and follows them with a series of short explanatory fantasias (tientos) in his Facultad orgánica. However, later in the treatise he appends another series of tientos ‘following the eight common tones’ (‘por los ocho tonos vulgares’),Footnote ¹³ though in fact he only uses five of them (see Appendix).

Additionally, Lorente, Torres, Rabassa, Roel del Río and Vargas y Guzmán (who borrows a great deal from Torres) demonstrate knowledge of the system of twelve modes, but likewise corroborate the system of eight tones as the most widely disseminated and practised system, being able to supply, by means of transposition, any of the earlier modes.Footnote ¹⁴ Valls, who cites Zarlino, Cerone and Kircher, adopts a radical defence of the twelve modes despite the fact that ‘modern practitioners count only eight tones’ (‘los prácticos modernos solo cuentan ocho tonos’), which, in his judgment, causes numerous irregularities and confusion.Footnote ¹⁵

Much to the contrary, the eight medieval modes are presented in Spanish baroque treatises as an elaborate theoretical system based on the revered teachings of the ancients that have been carried over since antiquity. Theorists of the period explain these modes when referring to plainchant, but, significantly, do not use them when dealing with polyphonic music. One must remember that, in treatises of the period, Spanish writers regularly include a preliminary section dedicated to Gregorian chant, which served not only to teach practical applications to the daily liturgy, but also as a way of initiating musical instruction and singing before attempting measured music (or ‘canto figurado’, using their terminology) and polyphony. In addition, the system of twelve modes, which was indeed applied to polyphony, enjoyed an elevated prestige within much European music theory of the period, above that granted to the eight tones. In Spain, though, it was clearly not embraced by most theorists or practising musicians.

PSALM TONES AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE CHURCH KEYS IN SPAIN

The origin of the church keys has been clearly explained in some recent publications.Footnote ¹⁶ Here we will give an account of the matter based on Spanish sources. This origin is situated as much in traditional modal theory as in certain daily musical practices which by the beginning of the seventeenth century had become particularly important in the liturgy of Counter-Reformation Catholicism, specifically the performance of psalms and other recited formulas (especially the Magnificat) in alternatim practice between the choir in plainchant and the organ, which embellished those formulas within a polyphonic fabric, creating pieces – almost always improvised – known as verses. The connections between the church keys and the psalm tones were often noted by theorists; Torres even completed his description of each church key with endings from both halves of the psalm tone.Footnote ¹⁷

As is well known, the formulas of the psalm tones were presented essentially in eight distinct types (though, at times, an additional tone called ‘peregrinus’ was included), whose structure was related to that of the eight ecclesiastic modes, but always presented significant differences with respect to them. Specifically, the repercussa of the mode always coincides with the reciting note of the psalm tone, although their finals diverge in the 3rd, 5th and 7th modes. There could be variant terminations – or differentiae – for every psalm tone in the attempt to provide the most proper connection with the antiphon which was usually sung after (and before) the psalm; however, when polyphony was involved (as in alternatim with the organ), these differentiae were usually standardized, with only one for each psalm tone.Footnote ¹⁸

The recitation formulas for the psalms were quite similar to those for the Magnificat (and other canticles), differing essentially in the addition of an initial intonation for all of the versicles of the latter. Frequently music treatises of the period dispensed with this initial intonation, since, in this regard, the matter that most interested the organist was the final of each half of the versicle, so that he would know how to cadence properly. Thus authors gave the same formula for psalms and canticles, grouping them under some generic term such as ‘psalmody’ or Seculorum (since the minor doxology or the Gloria Patri, which concludes with the words ‘saeculorum amen’, was recited after both chants with the same formula). Unless indicated otherwise, hereafter, whenever we refer to the psalm tones, we will understand the Magnificat and similar canticles to be included.

Example 1 illustrates the ‘entonaciones de los salmos’ as explained in Antonio Martín y Coll's Breve summa Footnote ¹⁹ alongside a modern transcription. Martín y Coll's presentation is similar to that of other theorists such as Lorente, Torres and Rabassa, although he includes an eighth ‘irregular’ tone, with a final of G and one flat that we omit. Moreover, in the earlier editions of his Arte de canto llano (see below), from which the Breve summa originates, Martín y Coll not only included an irregular eighth tone but also additional variants of all the tones. Table 3 summarizes the obvious differences between the structures of modes and psalm tones – differences which, as we shall see, explain some of the most striking dissimilarities between modes and church keys mentioned above.

Example 1

The Entonaciones de los Salmos, as demonstrated by Martín y Coll

Table 3

Differences between the modes and the psalm tones

Theorists often pointed out the necessity of transposing these recitation formulas on the organ in order to accommodate the most appropriate range of the chorus, a practice that remained unnecessary in a cappella singing, where performers might tune to virtually any pitch without relying on notation to reflect this flexibility. In a section entitled ‘Entonaciones de los salmos y cánticos, y transportación de ellos en el órgano para conveniencia del coro’ (Intonations of the psalms and canticles, and transposition of them on the organ to suit the chorus) Valls was especially explicit regarding this point:

The clearest explanations of this matter appear in Martín y Coll's Arte de canto llano, which remained relevant for generations of musicians, having been issued in Spain three times during the first third of the eighteenth century, then shortly thereafter in abbreviated form in both Spain and Guatemala as the Breve summa de canto llano. Martín y Coll explains that the transpositions that must occur ‘when psalms are sung with the organ’ (‘cuando se cantan los salmos con el órgano’) are those that affect the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 8th psalm tones.Footnote ²¹ This standardized system of transpositions was followed in numerous collections of organ verses for psalmody in the seventeenth century. We summarize their finals in Table 4, which is based on that of Bernadette Nelson, who presents a similar summary of finals used in numerous organ verses for psalmody compiled from Spanish manuscripts at the end of the seventeenth century and the first decade of the eighteenth, including many works by Juan Bautista José Cabanilles and other composers.Footnote ²² In Table 4 we compare these finals to the indications given by Martín y Coll, which largely agree with Valls's presentation (in the section cited above), as well as those of NassarreFootnote ²³ in his explanation of the variations of the tones for psalmody in alternatim practice. One can also see in the table that these transpositions of the psalm tones allow for reciting notes (the pitch over which one recites the majority of the text) that are much more comfortable for the male choir than the original, untransposed ones; indeed, they alternate only between G and A (or in one case, B♭). At the same time they require very few alterations, thus avoiding an awkward progression from one tone to another.

Table 4

Common transpositions of the psalm tones

In the 5th psalm tone, the two options given (E and C) do not correspond to different transpositions; rather, they reflect the possibility of harmonizing the final E – resulting from the transposition a fourth lower – either as the fundamental or the third of the final harmony. Valls suggests that the second alternative is the more modern since, when discussing the transposition of the 5th psalm tone on the organ, he indicates ‘In psalms, [the transposition is] to E-la-mi [E], or according to modern musicians to C-sol-fa-ut [C]’ (‘En salmos, por Elami, o según los modernos en Csolfaut’).Footnote ²⁴ Significantly, the alternative, with a final of C, does not appear in the above-cited first edition of Martín y Coll's treatise of 1714 (and is consequently listed in parentheses in our table), but was added in the following edition five years later and in all succeeding editions.Footnote ²⁵

It is easy to note the relationship between the finals and the key signatures in these transpositions of psalm tones and in church keys and, proceeding from the custom of accompanying (or substituting) reciting formulas with the organ, using the final note somewhat like a ‘root’ of the final harmony, and therefore as the final of the polyphonic tone. On the one hand, they correspond exactly with the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 6th and 8th por el final church keys. On the other hand, we must remember the differences indicated in the 3rd and 7th tones when compared to the medieval modes. One will see that the 3rd tone corresponds to the transposition that regularly is performed a perfect fourth below from the A of the psalm tone, and the same can be said about Lorente's and Nassarre's original 7th mentioned above.

The other church keys could probably have adopted their habitual form (presented in Table 1) in order to be applied to other music outside of psalmody. The 2nd and 5th church keys took the second transposition options in the psalms, which match the most common transpositions (reaching back to the Renaissance) of the corresponding modes in polyphonic works. In any case, numerous theorists still mention the first option too (E with one sharp in actual pitches) in their descriptions of the eight polyphonic tones, using it especially for psalmody (see Appendix). In fact, several of them refer to this as the ‘5th natural tone’,Footnote ²⁶ whereas concluding on C would be the ‘5th accidental tone’. These terms reveal, once more, the influence of psalmody on the church keys; in contrast, modal theory would have been inclined to view the second option as primary.

As for the 7th tone, the predominance of the tone por la mediación, with a final on D without alterations (A and one sharp in actual pitches) – which, of course, is not adjusted to the traditional 7th mode – was indeed striking. In fact, A without alterations prevailed in the second half of the eighteenth century. Nassarre suggests a possible explanation by affirming that the use of the final on D (in high clefs, A in actual pitch) in place of its ‘proper final’ on A (actual E) derives from the need to ‘differentiate it from the third’ (‘diferenciarse del tercero’).Footnote ²⁷ Again, this demonstrates the author's assumption that the origin of the church keys lies in the habitual practice of psalmody with all of its necessary transpositions. Nassarre later presents a third variant for the 7th tone, which follows directly from the traditional modes since it is written over G in high clefs without alterations (consequently, D with one sharp).Footnote ²⁸

Besides the practice of accompanying the psalm tones, and the role of traditional modal theory, a third influence in the evolution of the system of church keys bears some consideration. This involves the rapprochement between the church keys and modern major and minor tonalities, which, in practice, was taking root gradually. Thus the Mixolydian scale of the 8th tone por el final fell into disuse in favour of the major scale of the 8th tone por la mediación, just as the typical Phrygian scale of the 4th tone over E was equally converted into minor, finishing on the mediation A. Surely it is not accidental that Lorente refers to these two variants (using the mediation) as habitual and specific to villancicos,Footnote ²⁹ which were composed in a more modern style than that of traditional religious music in Latin. Moreover, the same reasoning might explain the gradual preference in the late eighteenth century for a final of A in the 7th tone.

FROM PSALM TONE TO CHURCH KEY

Although earlier respected modal theory did not cease to exercise a notable influence over the church keys, psalmody played a large role in the origin of this new system, just as new compositional styles tended toward new variants. What is so fascinating is that a system conceived in principle for performance of psalmody in alternatim practice with the organ would extend – although not without changes – to other liturgical works, and even to secular ones, and that it would develop into a general system of tonal organization for polyphonic music of the time. As Rabassa said, ‘it will be enough for the composer to know these eight [tones] in order to compose all types of works’ (‘le bastará al compositor saber estos ocho [tonos] para componer todo género de obras’).Footnote ³⁰

This system was accepted by practically all Spanish theorists of the time, and is reflected in the titles of many religious works (including masses, toccatas and tientos) as well as secular ones (frequently in passacalles, but sometimes also in songs and dances). For example, in the Compendio numeroso for harp and organ, Diego Fernández de Huete includes whole sets of songs and pasacalles ordered according to the eight church keys, and also a few dances,Footnote ³¹ and José Marín indicated the corresponding church key for each of his tonos humanos (accompanied secular songs),Footnote ³² as did such remarkable authors as Sanz, Guerau and Murcia in certain collections of pasacalles for Spanish guitar.Footnote ³³ Finally, we recall Lorente, who applied church keys to villancicos, explaining the more frequent variants for them.Footnote ³⁴

Nevertheless, the degree to which these practical works follow the features of specific church keys as indicated by theorists is not clear beyond the possible indication of the corresponding tone in the title of the piece. These characteristics are often easy to find in liturgical works, but can be quite vague in certain secular genres.Footnote ³⁵ The approach of the eighteenth century and the move to modern tonality would eventually convert the name of the church key into a simple equivalent of the corresponding tonality.

Still, scholars of baroque musical thought have yet to explain the full process by which practising musicians and theorists transferred the system of church keys from the organ accompaniment of psalmody to other genres. Certain factors need to be borne in mind. On one hand, alternatim practice with the organ was regularly applied as well to hymns and works belonging to the mass, whose musical structures were adjusted to the modes rather than to the psalm tones. However, it would not have been uncommon for organists to apply certain principles of their daily psalm performance to these other pieces, a practice that Valls denounces in his criticism of the system of eight polyphonic tones (or church keys):

On the other hand, one must remember that centres of professional musical teaching during this period were found principally in ecclesiastical (as opposed to court) music chapels, and that consequently the majority of treatises on music theory were written by prestigious organists (Correa de Araujo, Lorente, Nassarre, Torres, Martín y Coll) or distinguished chapel masters (Valls, Roel del Río, Rodríguez de Hita, Rabassa). With this in mind, it is not difficult to understand that the daily use of the church keys by church musicians might have motivated them to view all polyphonic music through this lens, and that their pedagogical writings and interactions would help quickly to spread this way of thinking through an entire musical world.

SPANISH PECULIARITIES

It seems that church keys originated in Italy, and later spread elsewhere. Although some aspects can be traced back to the sixteenth century, we find their first standard presentation in the work of Adriano Banchieri at the beginning of the seventeenth century;Footnote ³⁷ in Spain, Lorente expounded them for the first time in 1672, though Correa de Araujo seems to use them in a set of tientos in 1626, as we have seen.

It follows that many of the points treated here with respect to the Spanish system can be found in earlier Italian sources. These include the differences between the traditional modes and the church keys, their origin in alternatim psalmody and the use of transposition to narrow the overall range of the eight psalm tones, the occurrence of variants in Tone 7, and the use of a modal final in place of a psalm ending in the 5th tone. However, the Spanish tradition diverges from the Italian one in some significant ways. First, some tones have a different presentation. The 8th tone por el final and the 3rd tone only match their Italian counterpart when written in high clefs, but the actual pitches of their finals are always a fourth below (E and D respectively in Spain, for A and G in Italy). We have already mentioned the ‘5th natural tone’, absent in Banchieri and other Italian sources.

The case of the 7th tone is more complex. This tone can be presented in different versions by various Italian theorists, and there are even more differences apparent in other countries.Footnote ³⁸ Banchieri gives D with one flat, which results from transposing a 5th below the original psalm tone. Later theorists would consider E with one sharp (from the transposition a fourth below), which matches the above-mentioned natural 7th tone of Lorente and Nassarre (written as A in high clefs without alterations). Still, some prefer the modal scale – used in the antiphon – transposed a fourth below, probably because ‘the seventh makes five or six sorts of differentia’,Footnote ³⁹ presenting then D with one sharp; finally, others use D with two sharps. However, as we explained above, in Spain it was most commonly A with one sharp (D in high clefs), the so-called 7th por la mediación.

Secondly, the association of each tone with a specific set of clefs seems to be a Spanish peculiarity. We must remember the obligatory transposition down a fourth of music written in high clefs at that time. The result of this practice avoids the sharp in the key signature, so that the only alteration necessary would be the B♭. It is worth citing the explanation Torres offers regarding this practice: ‘que sin duda el tañerlas en España transportadas es porque las voces canten siempre por claves que no necesiten de añadirles sostenidos en su principio’ (without doubt, [the high clefs] are played in transposed fashion in Spain because voices always sing using keys that do not need added sharps at the beginning).Footnote ⁴⁰

By giving a particular set of clefs (high or low) and the corresponding key signature, Spanish theorists emphasize precise pitches for every tone. According to Illari, ‘la conjunción de claves y propiedad los ubica en el teclado con mayor fijeza que a los tuoni de Italia’ (the connection of clefs and key signatures places [the Spanish tonos] with greater consistency on the keyboard than the Italian tuoni’). The use of clefs in Italy would have a different function: ‘En otras tradiciones teóricas, como la italiana, los tonos no se corresponden con un juego de claves determinado. Se utiliza un juego principal (que coincide con las claves bajas españolas), y se lo cambia para indicar transporte del tono a una final que no es la propia’ (In other theoretical traditions, such as the Italian one, tones do not correspond to a specific set of clefs. A principal set is used (which corresponds to the Spanish low clefs), and is changed to indicate transposition of the tone to a different final).Footnote ⁴¹ Thirdly, Spanish tonos lose some of the modal properties that their Italian counterparts had obtained. Thus we do not find here the differentiation between authentic and plagal, usually associated with specific ambitus and species.Footnote ⁴² Interestingly, this continued to be an essential matter in explanations of modal theory for Gregorian chant offered by the same theorists, even though they did not deem it necessary to apply this to the church keys.

Finally, the great significance granted by Spanish theorists to explanations of the church-keys system is truly remarkable. Not only did they consider it to be applicable to every musical genre throughout much of the eighteenth century, but there are even some explanations of the system well into the nineteenth century (even if restricted now to church music). This does not prevent them, however, from acknowledging the origin of the system in the accompanying of psalm-tone formulae, which can be used (as in Torres) in order to complete descriptions of the tones.

The frequent use of tones por la mediación (in the 7th and 8th, and less in the 4th and segundillo), built on non-natural finals, is exclusive to the Spanish system. This practice must surely have arisen for the purpose of applying church keys outside psalmody, as Lorente did when describing the use of the 4th, 7th and 8th por la mediación in villancicos. In addition, theorists often dealt with ‘accidental’ (transposed) tones used in practice. For example, Nassarre devotes a whole chapter of his Escuela música to these ‘tonos accidentales’, explaining (only in low clefs) the ones commonly employed in vocal music: 1st tone ‘punto bajo’ (second lower, on C with two flats), 3rd tone ‘punto alto’ (second higher, on F♯ with three sharps), 4th tone ‘cuatro puntos alto’ (fourth higher, on A with one flat), 4th tone ‘punto bajo’ (second lower, on D with two flats), 5th tone ‘punto bajo’ or segundillo (second lower, on B♭ with two flats), 6th tone ‘punto bajo’ (second lower, on E♭ with three flats), 6th tone ‘medio punto bajo’ (minor second or semitone lower, on E with four sharps), 7th tone por la mediación ‘punto alto’ (second higher, on B with three sharps), 8th tone por el final ‘punto bajo’ (second lower, on C, with one flat), and 8th tone por la mediación and por el final ‘punto alto’ (second higher, on A with three sharps and on E with three sharps).Footnote ⁴³

Obviously, the extended life of church keys delayed the adoption of modern bimodality among Spanish theorists in relation to their European counterparts. We will deal with this process in the next section and will then extract some conclusions.

FROM CHURCH KEYS TO BIMODALITY

The church keys are not a distortion of the ancient modes, nor the result of a period of confusion. Rather, they constitute an autonomous system that had full validity for a considerable period of time, and which was adapted to an extensive musical tradition. Neither were they a simple body of primitive major and minor tonalities; however, as modern bimodality spread in Spain, the distinctions between them fade slowly to the point of simply being equated with major or minor keys.

This process would happen later in Spain than in other European countries. For most of the eighteenth century, mainstream music theory in Spain hung on to the church keys and took a long time to adopt bimodality.Footnote ⁴⁴ Among Spanish writers from the first part of the eighteenth century, we find a few instances recognizing the reduction of the tones to just two types, major and minor. Fernández de Huete, after describing the eight church keys (to which he adds the 8th por la mediación and the ‘8th tone a step higher, called de chirimías’), affirms: ‘Empero, estos diez se encierran en dos; porque, aunque en la división pueden ser muchos, en la formación no son más de dos: el primero se forma con tercera menor, y el otro con tercera mayor’ (Nevertheless, these ten [tones] can be encapsulated within two; because although they can be divided into many, in their construction they are not more than two: the first is formed with a minor third, and the other with a major third).Footnote ⁴⁵ For his part, although he presents the system of twelve modes and not that of eight church keys, Pedro de Ulloa arrives at the same conclusion:

It may be no accident that neither of the publications cited here were traditional treatises: the Compendio de cifras armónicas by Fernández de Huete is principally a collection of works (and practical examples for learning the art of accompaniment) for harp, with brief explanations for interpretation, and the Música Universal, written by the mathematician Ulloa rather than a musician, develops a peculiar approach to music with reference to mathematics, logic and rhetoric. On the other hand, the list of treatises that do not subscribe to modern bimodal theory is extensive, including those by Torres, Rabassa, Nassarre, Valls, Roel del Río, Rodríguez de Hita (despite its audacious innovations in other respects) and Ferandiere listed in the Appendix, and Música canónica, motetica y sagrada by Juan Francisco de Sayas.Footnote ⁴⁷

We could well presume that this largely conservative posture would be related to the connection we have outlined between the most important theorists and religious music, given the considerable weight that the latter carried within Spanish music altogether. This is at least the belief of Francisco de Santa María, who does refer to bimodality but points out, as late as 1778, that the eight modes or tones continue in full use in Spain: ‘en nuestra España, como lo más que se escribe es para la iglesia, y no para el teatro, se usan los ocho modos, o tonos, los que tienen en sus diapasones [escalas] algunas diferencias que les distinguen de los dos modos dichos’ (in our Spain, since the majority of what is written is for the church, and not for the theatre, the eight modes or tones are used, which have in their scales certain differences that distinguish them from the two said modes).Footnote ⁴⁸ Antonio Abreu also links the church keys to music chapels, although his background as a guitarist (as opposed to the religious background of Santa María) probably leads him to consider them more a burden from the past, since he assures the reader that only the major and minor modes exist: ‘en todo género de música, sólo hay dos tonos, uno de tercera mayor, y el otro de tercera menor; no obstante, en algunas capillas de música, aún se acostumbra a decir primero, segundo, etc., o punto alto o bajo; pero siempre vendremos a decir que el tal tono es el punto tal en modo mayor o menor’ (in every type of music, there are only two tones, one with a major third and the other with a minor third; nevertheless, in certain music chapels it is still customary to say first, second, etc. or punto alto o bajo [a step higher or lower]; but we will always come to say that such a tone is that [particular] note in the major or minor mode).Footnote ⁴⁹

During the second half of the eighteenth century, as the change toward bimodal tonality was being confirmed, many Spanish theorists took one of two different paths in recognizing a new musical reality: some, frequently following the steps of famous foreign authors (especially French ones), conceded the existence of two unique modes and abandoned earlier systems; others, maintaining the status quo, persisted in utilizing the eight church keys, but reducing them to a simple collection of major and minor tonalities, whose practical application was only to classify the twenty-four possible tonalities as seven or eight natural tones and the rest as transpositions of them.

In the former group is Antonio Soler, the famous composer whose keyboard works stand out because of their modernity in the Spanish context, and who may have studied with Domenico Scarlatti. He assumed in his Llave de la modulación that there are only two modes, which can be formed over each one of the twelve ‘términos’ (notes of the chromatic scale), except when one deals with music linked to plainchant.Footnote ⁵⁰ What is curious is that, contradicting the earlier citation of Santa María, Soler affirms that this is the common practice in Spain as in Italy.

As we approach the nineteenth century the bimodal system is being firmly established by Spanish authors: Eximeno in 1774,Footnote ⁵¹ Bails in 1775,Footnote ⁵² Santa María in 1778, Iriarte in 1779, Ureña in 1785, Cavaza in 1786, López in 1799, Ferandiere and Moretti in 1799Footnote ⁵³ and others. Many of them regularly mention earlier systems, although now as related exclusively to liturgical practices, including the works cited above by Palatín and Hernández, well into the nineteenth century.

Among those who continue using the church keys, one senses a more gradual evolution that suggests a modification of key signatures of the eight tones in a way that would reduce them to just two types of scale, major and minor; in this way the traditional Dorian key signature in the 1st and 2nd tones would be converted to minor with the standardization of the one flat for D and two for G, beginning with Ferandiere in 1771 (see Appendix). Similarly, the Phrygian scale of the 4th tone progressively disappears because of its falling into disuse (as Murcia had pointed out in 1714), the growing preference for the final on A in place of E (the 4th por la mediación mentioned from Lorente in 1672 onwards), or even the changing into major in one case (Vargas y Guzmán in 1773). Likewise, there was consolidation of the minor key signatures for the 7th tone and major for the 8th tone, which long before had coexisted with Dorian and Mixolydian key signatures respectively.

On the other hand, the habitual use of transposed tones grew to include an ever greater number of alterations, which resulted in twenty-four tones that spanned the entire chromatic spectrum. In fact, it would become common to use the names of the modern tonalities together with those based on the older tones: G (‘Sol’ or ‘Gsolreut’) major denotes the 8th tone, or C (‘Do’ or ‘Csolfaut’) sharp major denotes the 5th tone a half step higher (as in López).

It would be incorrect and anachronistic to blame a delayed acceptance of the bimodal system in Spain merely on the supposed conservatism of a majority of theorists. Most probably such theorists saw this system as an unnecessary simplification when compared to the eight church keys, each of them with its individual characteristics (which went beyond an intervallic construction indicated by the final and key signature), and which formed an essential part of the training of every educated musician. This sentiment is clear still in 1771 in the mockery that Fernandiere makes of foreign musicians regarding ‘the ridiculousness of their terms, particularly with regard to musical tones’ (‘las ridiculeces de sus términos, particularmente en los tonos musicales’), which is illustrated in the following anecdote: ‘Acuérdome cuando a un célebre virtuoso napolitano le preguntaron que qué tono era el que estaba tocando, a lo que respondió: Nosotros no entendemos de más tono que menor o mayor’ (This reminds me of when a famous Neapolitan violinist was asked which tone it was that he was playing, to which he responded: “We don't know any tone other than major and minor”).Footnote ⁵⁴

Nevertheless, the spread of new musical styles that disregarded such nuances, thanks to the wide-ranging diffusion of modern genres completely separated from liturgical practices, made the old theory obsolete. For this reason, even such a staunch opponent as Ferandiere, who had earlier ridiculed bimodal practice, in 1799 had to do away with the eight church keys and explain only the major and minor modes, although he still seems to demonstrate a weak (and ineffectual) resistance by clarifying that this is the ‘way of constructing the tones’ (‘modo de formar los tonos’), ‘supposing that music has no more than two tones, minor and major’ (‘suponiendo que no hay más tonos en la música que dos, mayor y menor’).Footnote ⁵⁵

The comments of Ferandiere in 1771 closely resemble those of Benedetto Marcello, who in his satirical Il teatro alla moda ironically suggests:

It is remarkable that Marcello's Il teatro alla moda was published a full half-century before Ferandiere's Prontuario músico. It seems that the church keys were abandoned in Spain much later than in Italy. This delay can be explained in part by the leadership exercised in Europe by Italian music of the period, whose innovations were later followed in other countries; yet this phenomenon can be attributed to other, more specific factors. Given the special relationship of this system with ancient religious music in which it had its origin, along with the notorious influence of the Catholic church on Spanish music, which we have noted, it is probable that the continued predominance in Spain of religious music and its institutions (such as its music chapels, the schools associated with them, or the music theory that they continued to teach), in comparison to other European countries, delayed the arrival of new theoretical currents. This can be applied as much to the survival of the eight church keys in opposition to the bimodal system as to the even later acceptance of a harmonic theory, based on the ideas of Rameau, that replaced traditional counterpoint, and even to the abandonment of the traditional hexachordal system of solmization.Footnote ⁵⁷

The exaggerated influence of the church on music in Spain had a more positive aspect, though, in the eighteenth-century Spanish belief in its own supremacy when it came to religious music. Although enlightened critics of the robust presence that the church maintained in Spanish society during the eighteenth century (whose historical and social causes cannot be fully addressed in this article) were constant, pride in Spanish religious music is not absent from the famous poem La música by the enlightened musical aficionado Tomás de Iriarte, who, even recalling the dominance of Germany in instrumental music, of France in music theory, and of Italy in opera, proclaims that ‘Spain has produced the wisest and most ingenious masters of religious music’ (‘España ha producido los más sabios e ingeniosos maestros de música eclesiástica’).Footnote ⁵⁸ As we have seen, knowledge of the church keys remained an important practical and conceptual component of these masters’ musical lives.