Tomás de Santa María

Tomás de Santa María (* between 1510 and 1520 in Madrid ; † 1570 in Valladolid or Ribadavia / Galicia ) was a Spanish composer , music theorist , organist and Dominican of the Renaissance .

Live and act

No information is available about the early years of Tomás de Santa María. On March 11, 1536 he entered the convent of Santa María de Atocha of the Dominicans in Madrid. According to his own statement in the foreword of his main work Arte de tañer Fantasía , he served as an organist in the order of preachers. There is evidence that he had repeated contact with the composer Antonio de Cabezón ; this suggests that there were connections on his part with the Spanish royal court or with court musicians there. His stay in the monastery of San Domingo in Guadalajara is documented for 1563 ; according to other statements he was organist in the convent of San Pablo in Valladolid. In 1565 his main work appeared in this city, which occupied him for a period of 16 years (until 1557). Tomás de Santa María died in 1570 either in the palace of the Duke of Rivadavia in Valladolid or in the small town of Ribadavia in Galicia .

meaning

Tomás de Santa María owes his long-lasting fame to his treatise Arte de tañer Fantasía , on which his musical history is based. It is the most comprehensive piano textbook of its time and gives the most detailed description of the improvisational practices of the 16th century with its high-quality instrumental art. Because of his coherent chord theory and his teaching of contrapuntal improvisation, he can be considered one of the most original and innovative music theorists of the 16th century. Although payments can be detected at various outstanding musicians of his country, in particular to Antonio de Cabezon, it is obvious that the vihuela - fantasies of Esteban Daza have most influenced his tenets. Since the first half of the second book of his Arte de tañer also includes instruction in the improvisation of harmonic progressions and the harmonization of psalm formulas, this work is the only known treatise of techniques that correspond to the basso seguente and other improvisational practices that are used in the 16th century are not noted in writing anywhere else.

plant

Libro llamado Arte de tañer Fantasía , assi para Tecla como para Vihuela, y todo instrumento en que se pudire tañer a tres, ya quarto vozes a mas in two books, Valladolid 1565, dedicated to Bernardo de Fresneda, Bishop of Cuenca , commissioner general and confessor of Philip II

• Book 1
  • Chapters 1–12: Explaining the basics of music and applying it to keyboard instruments
  • Chapters 13–20: Aspects of clavichord technique and performance practice with hand position, fingering, articulation , decorations ( quiebros and redobles ) and rhythmic inegalité
  • Chapters 20–23: Notes on the solo performance of polyphonic works and on diminutions ( glosas )
  • Chapters 24–26: Description of the modes and psalm tone formulas as well as application of the modes in polyphonic setting.
• Book 2
  • Chapters 1–30: Theory of consonance and dissonance and chords, with instruction in the improvisation of harmonic progressions and in the harmonization of psalm formulas ( fabordón )
  • Chapters 31–52: Systematic instructions for improvising four-part polyphony using imitations based on voice pairs
  • Chapter 53: Basic Mood Notes .

The whole work is richly illustrated with musical examples; Among these are some complete pieces with a length of up to 75 bars, which are mainly didactic.

Literature (selection)

Essays

• Alamonte C. Howell: Paired Imitation in 16th-Century Spanish Keyboard Music . In: The Musical Quarterly , Vol. 53 (1967), pp. 377-396, ISSN  0027-4631
• Diana Poulton: How to Play with Good Style by Tomas de Santa Maria . In: Lute Society Journal , 12, 23-30 (1970), ISSN  0460-007X
• Samuel Rubio Calzón: Las consonancias (acordes) en el Arte de tañer fantasía de Fray Tomás de Santa María . In: Revista de Musicología , Vol. 3 (1980), No. 4, pages 5-40, ISSN  0210-1459
• Macário Santiago Kastner : La teoría de Tomás de Santa María comparada con la práctica de algunos de sus contemporáneos . In: Nassarre. Revista aragonesa de musicología , Vol. 3 (1987), Issue 1, pages 113-127, ISSN  0213-7305
• John Griffiths, Warren E. Hultberg: Santa Maria and the Printing of Instrumental Music in Sixteenth-century Spain . In: Maria Fernanda Cidrais Rodrigues, Manuel Morais, Rui Vieira Nery (eds.): Livro de homenagem a Macário Santiago Kastner ( Festschrift ). Servico de Musica, Lisbon 1992, pages 345-360, ISBN 972-666-004-1 .
• Pedro Aizpurúa: Fray Tomás de Santa María y su “Arte de tañer fantasía” (c. 1515–1570) . In: Boletin de Real Academia de Bellas Artes de la Purísima Conceptión de Valladolid , Vol. 28 (1993), pages 267-282, ISSN  1132-6778
• Miguel Roig-Francolí: Modal Paradigms in Mid-sixteenth-Century Spanish Instrumental Compositions. Theory and Practice in Antonio de Cabezón and Tomás de Santa María . In: Journal of Music Theory , Vol. 38 (1994), pages 249-291, ISSN  0022-2909
• Miguel Roig-Francolí: Playing in Consonances. A Spanish Renaissance Technique of Chordal Improvisation . In: Early Musik , Vol. 23 (1995), pages 461-741, ISSN  0306-1078

Books

• Juan de Marieta: Historia ecclesiá de todos los santos de España . Cuenca 1596.
• Charles G. Jacobs: The Performance Practice of Spanish Renaissance Keyboard Music . Dissertation, New York University 1962.
• Warren E. Hultberg: Santa Maria's "Libro llamando arte de tañer fantasía". A critical evaluation . Dissertation, University of Southern California 1964.

swell

1. ↑ The Music in Past and Present (MGG), Person Part Volume 14 . Bärenreiter Verlag, Kassel and Basel 2005, ISBN 3-7618-1134-9 .
2. ↑ Marc Honegger, Günther Massenkeil (ed.): The great lexicon of music. Volume 7: Randhartinger - Stewart. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau a. a. 1982, ISBN 3-451-18057-X .

Web links

• Sheet music and audio files by Tomás de Santa María in the International Music Score Library Project
• Works by and about Tomás de Santa María in the catalog of the German National Library