Music of Spain
The musical traditions of Spain have played an important role in the development of both western classical and Latin American music. Spanish music includes many different traditional styles from across the country, among which flamenco and classical guitar are probably the best-known abroad. Music from the north-west regions is heavily reliant on bagpipes, the jota is widespread in the centre and north of the country, and flamenco originated in the south.
Spanish music played a notable part in the early developments of western classical music from the 15th through the early 17th century. The breadth of musical innovation can be seen in composers like Tomás Luis de Victoria, styles like the zarzuela of Spanish opera, the ballet of Manuel de Falla, and the classical guitar music of Francisco Tárrega. Nowadays, in Spain as elsewhere, various styles of commercial popular music are dominant.
Origins
Throughout its history, the Iberian Peninsula has received musical influences from around the Mediterranean Sea and across Europe. In the two centuries before the Christian era, Roman rule introduced the music and ideas of Ancient Greece. Early Christians, who had their own differing versions of church music, arrived during the height of the Roman Empire. The Visigoths, a Romanized Germanic people, took control of the peninsula following the fall of the Roman Empire, and later the Moors and Jews arrived in the Middle Ages.These more than two thousand years of internal and external influences produced a large number of unique musical traditions that continue to shape Spanish music today.
Medieval period (6th–14th centuries)
, the prolific 7th-century scholar, wrote extensively about music theory and practice in his encyclopedic work Etymologiae, providing valuable documentation of musical customs in Visigothic Spain.Among the early Muslim rulers of Al-Andalus, music was generally tolerated and often encouraged. Abd al-Rahman I and Abd ar-Rahman II both kept singers and musicians at court, primarily brought over from the Arabian peninsula or the Levant. The most notable of these early Umayyad musicians was Ziryab, a lute player and singer whose method of teaching singing became widely influential in the region. This royal patronage extended to the nobility, who held concerts in their homes and procured musical entertainment for social events.
While some later monarchs such as Abd ar-Rahman III and Al-Hakam I were more austere, Almanzor revived musical patronage in the 10th century. During his reign, the education of noble girls included learning instruments such as the lute, rabel, manucordio, and organ. Court orchestras could be substantial—one in the reign of Muhammad II of Córdoba reportedly had "a hundred lutes and a hundred flutes". The Taifa of Seville was particularly notable for its musical culture, with ruler Al-Mu'tamid ibn Abbad being a musician himself.
Court music originally drew from Arabian and Levantine forms, but over time a distinctive Iberian style evolved, featuring the zejel and muwashah lyric patterns that also appear in Spanish poetry. These 'eastern' styles were also adopted by common people, who combined them with regional traditions.
Muslim rulers were usually relatively tolerant of Christianity and Judaism, especially during the first three centuries of their presence, allowing Christian and Jewish music to flourish. Music notation was developed in Spain as early as the 8th century to notate sacred music of the Christian church, though this obscure notation has not yet been fully deciphered.
The music of the early medieval Christian church in Spain is known as the "Mozarabic Chant", which developed in isolation prior to the Islamic invasion and was not subject to the Papacy's enforcement of Gregorian chant. As the Christian reconquista progressed, these chants were almost entirely replaced by the Gregorian standard. Meanwhile, earlier musical folk styles from the pre-Islamic period continued in the countryside, in the same way as the Mozarabic Chant persisted in the churches.
In the royal Christian courts of the reconquistors, music like the Cantigas de Santa Maria reflected Moorish influences. Other important medieval sources include the Codex Calixtinus from Santiago de Compostela, the Codex Las Huelgas from Burgos, and the Llibre Vermell de Montserrat, a 14th-century devotional collection containing pilgrim songs and dances.
Renaissance and Baroque periods
In the early Renaissance, Mateo Flecha el Viejo and the Castilian dramatist Juan del Encina ranked among the main composers in the post-Ars Nova period. Renaissance song books included the Cancionero de Palacio, the Cancionero de Medinaceli, the Cancionero de Upsala, the Cancionero de la Colombina, and the later Cancionero de la Sablonara. The organist Antonio de Cabezón stands out for his keyboard compositions and mastery.An early 16th-century polyphonic vocal style developed in Spain was closely related to that of the Franco-Flemish composers. Merging of these styles occurred during the period when the Holy Roman Empire and the Burgundy were part of the dominions under Charles I, since composers from the North of Europe visited Spain, and native Spaniards traveled within the empire, which extended to the Netherlands, Germany and Italy.
Music composed for the vihuela by Luis de Milán, Alonso Mudarra and Luis de Narváez was one of the main achievements of the period. The Aragonese Gaspar Sanz authored the first learning method for guitar.
Spanish composers of the Renaissance included Francisco Guerrero, Cristóbal de Morales, and Tomás Luis de Victoria, all of whom spent a significant portion of their careers in Rome. Victoria was recognized by contemporaries as having reached a level of polyphonic perfection and expressive intensity comparable to Palestrina and Lassus. Most Spanish composers returned home from travels abroad late in their careers to spread their musical knowledge in their native land, or in the late 16th century to serve at the Court of Philip II.
18th to 19th centuries
By the end of the 17th century, the "classical" musical culture of Spain had entered a period of decline, and would remain that way until the 19th century. Classicism in Spain, when it arrived, was inspired by Italian models, as in the works of Antonio Soler. Some outstanding Italian composers such as Domenico Scarlatti and Luigi Boccherini were appointed to the Madrid royal court, bringing Italian musical sensibilities to Spanish audiences. The short-lived Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga is credited as the main beginner of Romantic sinfonism in Spain.Although symphonic music was never too important in Spain, chamber, solo instrumental vocal and opera music was written by local composers.
File:Raquel Meller Time magazine cover April 26, 1926.jpg|thumb|right|Raquel Meller, a Spanish singer and actress, featured on the cover of Time magazine on 26 April 1926
Zarzuela, a native form of opera that includes spoken dialogue, is a secular musical genre which developed in the mid-17th century, flourishing most importantly in the century after 1850. Francisco Asenjo Barbieri was a key figure in the development of the romantic zarzuela; whilst later composers such as Ruperto Chapí, Federico Chueca and Tomás Bretón brought the genre to its late 19th-century apogee. Leading 20th-century zarzuela composers included Pablo Sorozábal and Federico Moreno Torroba. Due to the genre's popularity, many 19th-century composers wrote in the style.
Fernando Sor, Dionisio Aguado, Francisco Tárrega and Miguel Llobet are known as composers of guitar music. Fine literature for violin was created by Pablo Sarasate and Jesús de Monasterio.
Musical creativity mainly moved into areas of popular music until the nationalist revival of the late Romantic era. Spanish composers of this period included Felipe Pedrell, Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados, Joaquín Turina, Manuel de Falla, Jesús Guridi, Ernesto Halffter, Federico Mompou, Salvador Bacarisse, and Joaquín Rodrigo.
20th century
By the early 20th century, Spanish music was largely divorced from the intellectual sphere, an ongoing trend since the 18th century, and thus the literary movements of the period largely lacked overlap with musicians. However, the two spheres had begun to collaborate again by the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.Opera in Spain struggled in the 20th century, with many theatres closing, including the Teatro Real. However, orchestral music gained more opportunities, with the establishment of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid, the Sociedad Filarmónica de Madrid, and the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra in the 1900s and 1910s. Choral music saw a similar boost, with the establishment of permanent choirs across the country, and chamber music secured a place in the country with a number of quartets. The Madrid and Barcelona conservatories were "lively centers of musical life".
Franco era
During the 1940s and 1950s, Spanish music was shaped by the aftermath of the Civil War and Francisco Franco's dictatorship. The regime used censorship as a tool to control cultural expression, with the Falangist Vice-Secretariat of Popular Education banning the broadcasting of "so-called black music, swing dances, or any other kind of compositions whose lyrics are in a foreign language".Traditional genres like flamenco and classical music continued under the regime, though flamenco was at times restricted from public display. Popular music forms such as zarzuela and pasodoble remained prominent during this period. The regime's musical censorship was controlled by two agencies: the Directorate General of Popular Culture and the Directorate General of Radio and Television, which operated between 1960 and 1977 and classified approximately 4,000 songs as unfit for broadcast.