Cristóbal de Morales and the early modern Magnificat

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Christiane Wiesenfeldt
• Subject Area: Musicology
• Term: from 2015 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 283398871

The aim of the given project is to depict the history of the early modern Magnificat depending on Cristóbal de Morales Magnificat cycle, with 14 editions the by far most wide-spread setting of the Canticum in 16th century Europe. The study follows the guiding assumption that the reason for the enormous international popularity of his cycle lies within the composition itself and that the archetypal character ascribed to the cycle in many contemporary documents was the result of a merging of various compositional models Morales drew from the extensive Magnificat repertoire he had access to in Seville and Rome. In a first step Morales Magnificat will be analyzed regarding their relation to 15th and early 16th century Magnificat traditions preserved in Spanish and Roman sources. Second it will be examined to what extend Morales cycle served as an archetype for succeeding Magnificat composers. As late 16th century Italian and Spanish theory treatises frequently refer to Magnificat of Morales, criteria for analysis can be obtained, that will be applied to trace the compositional reception of his Cantica in the second half of the 16th century. According to a reception topography drawn from the dissemination of his prints Spanish, Italo-Roman and German Magnificat will be analyzed in regard of their dependence on Morales as a model. By doing so the history of the early modern Magnificat can not only be depicted on the basis of a vast and yet empirically evident genealogy of compositional borrowing, the role of Morales as a historical key figure between Josquin and Palestrina can also be highlighted as can the long neglected eminence of Spanish composers in early European music history.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants