Until now, the history of Spanish religious music across a long time-period has not been told from the specific perspective of the cathedral. In English, Robert Stevenson's Spanish Cathedral Music in the Golden Age (Berkeley, 1961) still apparently stands as the most comprehensive work, though restricted to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. For the Middle Ages, many studies have been limited more by musical genre than by type of institution. And while there has been an increase in work focused on the musical life of specific cathedrals, these are often limited to specific periods, or take the form of catalogues of archives which have generally been neglected by scholarship.Footnote ¹ The most prolific, dedicated and consistent contributor to this field is José López-Calo, whose extensive publications include catalogues and studies of the cathedral archives of Granada (1963, 1991–2), Santiago de Compostela (1972, 1992), Avila (1978), Palencia (1980), Zamora (1985), Santo Domingo de la Calzada (1988), Segovia (1988–9, 1990) and Burgos (1995). While recognising that the archives of other cathedrals are the subject of current study by others, López-Calo has rightly seen ‘the music of Spanish cathedrals’ as a subject worthy of a synthesised account of its history, formal structure and practice.

The present book is far more than the mere organisation of its author's lifelong research and first-hand knowledge of primary sources into a compendium. It is a clear and carefully written book which makes no assumption of prior knowledge on the reader's part while also avoiding any patronising oversimplification. As the back cover states, it reconstructs a history ‘in a new way’, going beyond the ‘human element’ of governing authorities, composers and musicians, by centring on the internal development of the music itself. As the preface attests, this study is the sum result of the author's lifetime of research and authority on the subject, not only as a scholar and student, but also as a practitioner: a Jesuit priest, Father López-Calo has served both the church and musicology over a career spanning six decades. Concerned with the very history and nature of music in the cathedrals both as art (composition) and as discipline (performance), the narrative is matter-of-fact in its spiritual conviction, neither proselytising nor ever losing sight of its chief impetus, as devotional music.

Admirably structured, organised and researched, with copious footnotes, this comprehensive and timely pioneering study leaves virtually no stone unturned. The only obstruction to the reader's ability to till this fertile field is the lack of an index, still an unfortunate practice in many Spanish scholarly publications. Because a book dealing with such a broad subject may serve a variety of interests, an overview of each of its five chronologically divided parts follows.

The first section covers the history, concept and foundation of Spain's cathedrals, largely in relation to the development of music as worship in the earliest stages of what the introduction calls ‘five centuries of Spanish religious music’. It also situates the place, function and structural design of the cathedral as the setting of, and purpose for, the music and literature that would ensue. This substantial overview establishes the idea of the cathedral from Christ as the first cantor, through to the eighth century, and examines how it came to mean what it did for religious life in Spain. The origins of the Spanish cathedrals and their growth out of the monasteries of the Dark Ages to their establishment in the early Middle Ages is then traced in fine detail, against the parallel progress in the rest of Europe, from France at Cluny and the impact of Gregorian reform through to the birth of the Cabildos at the Council of Coyanza and their founding statutes. López-Calo asserts the raison d’être of his study as being ‘outlined in the three basic principles guiding the authorities of our cathedrals in creating the music they created: above all, the essential aim being the solemn worship of God; alongside that, and as a second object, the spiritual welfare of souls; and finally, the indispensable means of achieving these ends, the formation of artists of sound and adequate interpreters that make reality of these sublime goals of sacred music’.

The discussion now moves to the establishment of the rito hispano under the Visigoths, and its surprisingly swift transition to the Roman or Gregorian rite adopted in the Council of Burgos in 1080, for which López-Calo reports that a few complete imported codices from the early decades of the establishment of the Roman rite exist. From this point onwards, musical sources are discussed in greater detail, often with examples. We are presented with a spectacular panorama of one of the richest cathedral musical traditions of Europe, all the more important because it would essentially propagate itself throughout the colonies of the New World. Heralding this, a detailed look at how a norm for notation was established from French models gives original examples from various Spanish sources for its development and eventual stabilisation. A discussion of feast days lends another particularly interesting insight into forms of celebration that were particular to the Spanish setting, tracing their emergence as pointed notation, then presenting the early Chanteria in various examples, as a vital institutional component. Some of López-Calo's observations on the duration and solemnity of offices and processions derive from ideas first presented in his doctoral thesis, La música en la Catedral de Granada en el siglo XVI (2 vols, Granada, 1963). An overview of the use of organum likewise develops ideas from his earlier publications on the Codex Calixtinus.

With this extensive historical overview of the foundation and stabilisation of the Spanish cathedral school and tradition behind us, the section devoted to the Renaissance can begin describing ‘a new musical organisation’ with less need for non-musical background. A discussion of ‘the polyphonic chapel’ – vital to the period – compares the situations in Santiago, Placencia and Granada, after which the development of the form of Vespers is considered. Chapter 11 addresses a ‘new’ phenomenon of major importance to the period, musical settings of Spanish texts.

The fourth section moves from the stabilised traditions of the earlier periods to ‘the eighteenth century, which led throughout Spain to abandoning the music that had been used until then, and the beginning of a brand new artistic world, as much for religious music as for the secular’ (p. 463). As would be expected, the degree of change and speed at which it was implemented depended upon a cathedral's location and circumstances, particularly where the power to ‘modernise’ rested with the maestros de capilla. López-Calo challenges the conventional wisdom that holds that these changes were due mainly to Italian influence, asserting that it ‘was not as great in Spain as previously believed’ and that ‘a middle-ground is perhaps closer in reality’. After mentioning António Rodríguez de Hita, he holds up the example of José Martínez de Arce as a paradigmatic composer and concludes this interesting argument by suggesting that the Italian influence might be relegated to secondary importance. So great is this change, López-Calo tells us, that he confirms that the concept of a new musical style can be more appropriately called a language, and delves into its ensuing study with crisply organised comparative analysis, showing the musical differences between the composers at various cathedrals (Buono Chiodi at Santiago and Melchor López at Albarracín). A complementary chapter follows on instrumental music.

Finally, a chapter situating the nineteenth century in its historical context is followed by one each on vocal and instrumental music of this period. Not targeting specific words, these discuss transformations of style and language in the context of how they functioned in relation to religious texts. The discussion draws to some extent on the early musicological initiatives of composers Hilarion Eslava and Felipe Pedrell in ‘recuperating’ Spanish religious music for posterity. The book concludes with a single chapter on the twentieth century, inevitably different in structure on account of the political changes of this period. While a longer epilogue touching on the salient points of these particular ‘changes’ through the ages would have been an asset, the author explains that this was not possible, as the extension of the subject would have diminished the efficacy with which the book's earlier chapters were treated.

This book is an invaluable reference compendium for the researcher interested in delving deeper into a particular aspect of music in Spanish context. Its study will reward any reader in understanding Spanish religious repertory and sacred music literature, much of which certainly emanates from the cathedral tradition. And while we must note that La música en las catedrales españoles deals exclusively with the cathedrals of continental Spain, not her colonies, the book may serve well as a model for other national histories of the music of cathedrals.