The General Archive of the Region of Murcia has restored a musical manuscript of sacred polyphony of the eighteenth century found in the church of Santiago el Mayor de Totana.
It is a work composed of thirty musical compositions of sacred polyphony, among which are motets, psalms for vespers and two masses.
The acting Minister of Tourism and Culture, Miriam Guardiola, today made delivery to the parish priest of the church of Santiago el Mayor de Totana, Francisco José Fernández, of the work restored in the Regional Archive, "a center that has the best infrastructure and with the latest technology for the protection and preservation of historical documents ", explained Guardiola.
The finding of the manuscript "significantly increases the documentary heritage of Hispanic Renaissance music and after its restoration and digitization will be available to researchers around the world, no doubt good news for today that is celebrated on Music Day."
From the Archive "we work intensely to preserve our documentary heritage".
Currently, the center holds more than 17 million documents located in warehouses with capacity for 84 kilometers of shelves in this leading center and reference become guardian of the rich documentary heritage, "an essential institution to better understand the regional history that Increasingly, it arouses greater interest among researchers from within and outside the Region, "the head of Culture explained.
The manuscript has undergone a complete restoration as it was deficient in its conservation status as a result of the loss of its covers, as well as different damages and deterioration caused by microorganisms.
The restoration that has been made to this polyphonic book has been complete.
It began with its unbinding and dry cleaning, and then wet processes were carried out: washing, deacidification, reintegration and consolidation and, finally, sewing and binding, following the same original structure.
For its conservation, a custom-made conservation box and special protections have been made.
18th century manuscript
The manuscript was found by the director of the Historical Music Workshop of the University of Murcia, Jorge Losana, in the summer of 2017 in the Church of Santiago el Mayor de Totana.
In its pages live works of possible Valencian origin with other compositions of authors of the sixteenth century around Seville, Cordoba and Granada.
There are motets and psalms by Francisco Guerrero, Ceballos, Santos de Aliseda, Tornel and Magister Pontac, and other small anonymous pieces, as well as seven psalms and nine versions of magnificats by Juan Navarro.
Among them, the 'Beatus vir' psalm stands out, attributed to the composer Rodrigo de Ceballos, who until now had not been located.
The works contained in the manuscript have the usual disposition of the Renaissance choir books, where each part is written separately from the others, with the high voices (cantus and tenor) in the folio's turn, and the bass parts (altus and bassus) in the rectum of the next folio.
Due to its size, the document could have been used as a book for a lectern, with which plain singing and polyphony were interpreted during liturgical celebrations.
This manuscript will be presented at the International Congress of Medieval and Renaissance Music of Basel (Switzerland) by Jorge Losana and by the research musicologist at the Higher Center for Scientific Research (CSIC) Emilio Ros-Fábregas.
In addition, some of his works will be performed by Cantoría and the Ensamble ECOS at the International Festival of Ancient Music of Sierra Espuña.
Also, from the workshop of Historical Music of the University of Murcia will develop a program of informative activities.
