Variously known as the Cancionero de Uppsala (Uppsala Songbook) or the Cancionero del Duque de Calabria (Duke of Calabria Songbook), both terms are used to refer to the anthology of "Villancicos de diversos autores, a dos, y a tres, y a quatro, y a cinco bozes, agora nuevamente corregidos. Ay mas ocho tonos de Canto llano, y ocho tonos de Canto de órgano para que puedan aprovechar los que a cantar començaren" 1, printed in Venice in 1556 by Jeronimo Scotto, one of the most qualified music printers of the time.
Only one copy of this small, choir-book format anthology (measuring 209 x 147 mm) is known to exist, and it is jealously conserved in the Uppsala University Library in Sweden.
There are various theories as to how the book reached Uppsala, but the only thing known for certain is that it was the musicologist and diplomat Rafael Mitjana who made the discovery.
Mitjana originally reported his findings to the international academic community in a booklet written in Swedish (Stockholm, 1907-8).
This was followed by a more extensive study titled Cincuenta y cuatro canciones españolas del siglo XVI (54 Spanish songs of the sixteenth century, Uppsala, 1909), in which he transcribed the texts and commented on the majority of the pieces contained in the Cancionero.
1- Literally Villancicos by various composers, in two, three, four and five parts, now newly corrected. There are also eight tonos in plainchant and eight tonos in polyphony, which may be used by those learning to sing. |
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