The great Spanish composers of the Renaissance included Francisco Guerrero and CristГіbal de Morales, both of whom spent a significant portion of their careers in Rome and the great Spanish composer of the late Renaissance, who reached a level of polyphonic perfection and expressive intensity equal to Palestrina and Lassus, was TomГЎs Luis de Victoria, who also spent much of his life in Rome.

The Aragonese Gaspar Sanz was the author of the first learning method for guitar. Music for vihuela by Luis de MilГЎn, Alonso Mudarra and Luis de NarvГЎez stands as one of the main achievements of the period. Melting of styles occurred during the period when Spain was part of the Holy Roman Empire, under Charles V (king of Spain from 1516 to 1556), since composers from the North both visited Spain, and native Spaniards travelled within the empire, which extended to the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. Some renaissance songbooks are the Cancionero de Palacio, the Cancionero de Medinaceli (also known as cancionero de Uppsala as it is kept in Carolina Rediviva library), the Cancionero de la Colombina, and the later Cancionero de la Sablonara.Д®arly 16th century polyphonic vocal style developed in Spain was closely related to the style of the Franco-Flemish composers. Mateo Flecha el viejo and Castillian dramatist Juan del Encina rank among composers in the post Ars Nova period. In the early Renaissance, instrumental music was still influenced by Arabic music. The so-called Llibre Vermell de Montserrat (red book) is an important devotional collection from the fourteenth century. Other important medieval sources include the Codex Calixtinum collection from Santiago de Compostela and the Codex Las Huelgas. Music of the King Alfonso X Cantigas de Santa Maria is considered likely to show influence from Islamic sources.

The style of Spanish popular songs of the time is presumed to be closely related to the style of Moorish music. At the time of the reconquista, this music was almost entirely extirpated: once Rome had control over the Christians of the Iberian peninsula, the regular Roman rite was imposed, and locally developed sacred music was banned, burned, or otherwise eliminated. The music of the Christian church in Spain was known as the music of the Mozarabic Rite, and developed in isolation, not subject to the enforced codification of Gregorian chant under the guidance of Rome around the time of Charlemagne. Music notation developed in Spain as early as the eighth century (the so-called Visigothic neumes) to notate the chant and other sacred music of the Christian church, but this obscure notation has not yet been deciphered by scholars, and exists only in small fragments. Under the Moors, who were usually tolerant of other religions during the seven hundred years of their influence, both Christianity and Judaism, with their associated music and ritual, flourished. He perhaps is most famous in music history for declaring that it was not possible to notate sounds-an assertion which reveals his ignorance of the notational system of ancient Greece, so that knowledge had to have been lost by the time he was writing. His influences were predominantly Greek, and yet he was an original thinker, and recorded some of the first information about the early music of the Christian church. Isidore of Seville wrote about music in the sixth century. Determining exactly which spices flavored the stew, and in what proportion, is difficult after almost two thousand years, but the result was a musical style and tradition considerably different from what developed in the rest of Europe.

In Spain several very different cultural streams came together in the first centuries of the Christian era: the Roman culture, which was dominant for several hundred years, and which brought with it the music and ideas of Ancient Greece early Christians, who had their own version of the Roman Rite the Visigoths, a Germanic tribe that overran the Iberian peninsula in the fifth century Jews of the diaspora and eventually the Arabs, or the Moors as the group was sometimes known. However, regional styles of folk music abound, and pop, rock and hip hop are also popular. Jazz - Folk - Hip hop - Opera - Pop - RockДЇor many people, Spanish music is virtually synonymous with flamenco, an Andalusian genre of music.

Related subjects: Musical genres, styles, eras and events Music of Spain

Jondo trio