The ''Cancioneiro de Elvas'' (in English: ''Elvas Songbook'') is one of the four

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

songbooks of

Portuguese music Portuguese music includes many different styles and genres, as a result of its history. These can be broadly divided into classical music, traditional/folk music and popular music and all of them have produced internationally successful acts, wit ...

from the 16th century - along with the Lisbon Songbook, the Belém Songbook, and the Paris songbook. It is one important source of secular music from the Iberian Renaissance. The songs are composed in

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

and

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

languages.

General description

The Elvas Songbook was found in 1928 in the library of

Elvas Elvas () is a Portuguese municipality, former episcopal city and frontier fortress of easternmost central Portugal, located in the district of Portalegre in Alentejo. It is situated about east of Lisbon, and about west of the Spanish fortres ...

, by the musicologist Manuel Joaquim. It was copied in the 16th century and is divided in two parts: *The first part is musical: contains 65 works of polyphonic (3 voices) secular music from

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

and

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. The poems used are

villancico The ''villancico'' (Spanish, ) or vilancete ( Portuguese, ) was a common poetic and musical form of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America popular from the late 15th to 18th centuries. Important composers of villancicos were Juan del Encina, Ped ...

s and

cantiga A ''cantiga'' (''cantica'', ''cantar'') is a medieval monophonic song, characteristic of the Galician-Portuguese lyric. Over 400 extant ''cantigas'' come from the ''Cantigas de Santa Maria'', narrative songs about miracles or hymns in praise of th ...

s. *The second part is literary: contains 36 poems without music. The musical part of the songbook has been studied and transcribed by three musicologists - Manuel Joaquim, Manuel Morais and Gil Miranda.

Dating of the Songbook

There are no dates in the manuscript, therefore it is impossible to know the precise date of compilation. However, some factors can help us to narrow the time frame: *There is a song in the songbook which uses a poem written by the poet Dom Manuel de Portugal, dedicated to his beloved Dona Francisca de Aragão. This poem is known to have been written in c. 1555; *The watermark in the pages of the manuscript is similar to one used in Italy until the decade of 1570. Thus, we can conclude that the Elvas Songbook was copied between the decades of 1560 and 1570, approximately.

Composers

There is not a single reference on composers in the songbook: all works are anonymous. However, if we compare this songbook with other Iberian songbooks, it is possible to establish concordances and thus know which are the composers of 7 (maybe 8) works from the 65 compiled. They are: *

Juan del Encina Juan del Encina (July 12, 1468 – 1529 or 1530) was a composer, poet, and playwright, often called the founder, along with Gil Vicente, of Spanish drama. His birth name was Juan de Fermoselle. He spelled his name Enzina, but this is not a signi ...

(4 works) *

Pedro de Escobar Pedro de Escobar (c. 1465 – after 1535), a.k.a. ''Pedro do Porto'', was a Portuguese composer of the Renaissance, mostly active in Spain. He was one of the earliest and most skilled composers of polyphony in the Iberian Peninsula, whose musi ...

(2 or 3 works) *

Pedro de Pastrana Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for '' Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter. The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meaning ...

(1 work)

References

*JOAQUIM, Manuel, ''O Cancioneiro musical e poético da Biblioteca Publia Hortência (Elvas)'', Instituto para a Alta Cultura, Coimbra, 1940 *MIRANDA, Gil, ''The Elvas Songbook'', American Institute of Musicology, Stuttgart, 1987 *MORAIS, Manuel, ''Cancioneiro Musical d’Elvas'', Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, 1977 {{authority control 16th-century books 16th century in music 16th century in Portugal Portuguese music history Renaissance music Renaissance music manuscript sources Elvas