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In total, the Cancionero de Uppsala contains 55 villancicos set to music, which are ordered thematically and according to the number of voices required. The texts of the majority of the songs are in Spanish, although there are also villancicos in Catalan (four in total) and in Portuguese (two).
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Following the invasion of the kingdom of Naples by Franco-Spanish troops in 1504, Ferdinand, the son of Frederick III of Naples, who was the grandson of Alfonso the Magnanimous, became more of a hostage than a guest at the Spanish court. The alleged motive for the invasion was the illegitimacy of the Neapolitan dynasty, descended from Ferrante I, the bastard son of Alfonso the Magnanimous. Spain and France initially acted in mutual agreement, convincing Pope Alexander VI to excommunicate Frederick III, who immediately fled to Tours, where he died a short time later. But once the kingdom had been conquered both countries initiated a contest to divide up the territory. The Spanish troops, led by the Grand Captain, were victorious and Naples was consequently annexed to the Spanish crown until the beginning of the eighteenth century.
Following a term in prison in 1512 and his return to the court 11 years later, in March 1526 the Duke of Calabria married Germaine de Foix (1488-1536). The niece of the King of France, Germaine had lived in Spain since 1506, the same year she had married the widowed Ferdinand the Catholic. The Dukes made their home in Valencia, after being named joint Viceroys and Deputies of the kingdom, and their court, the direct heir to the Neapolitan, soon became one of the leading cultural centres in Spain.
The Dukes’ chapel became one of the best musical chapels in Spain. By May 1527 it had already been set up, as there is evidence that on the occasion of the birth of Prince Philip, the Emperor Charles V’s first-born son, the Dukes attended the Cathedral of Valencia to celebrate a thanksgiving act. A Te Deum was sung there, featuring “the vice-regal minstrels, trumpeters and drummers, the cathedral organist and precentors and those of the viceroys”. Unfortunately, there is barely any extant information about the musicians who served in the vice-regal chapel, whose magnificence was described by the illustrious historian and scholar, frail Joseph of Sigüenza at the end of the sixteenth century:
“The Divine Office was celebrated every day in their Chapel as in the Chapel Royal, with great solemnity. He [The Duke] had ordinary Priests for this, and a Bishop for the main feasts who said Papal Mass. And thus he formed the best Chapel of musicians and natural voices, as well as other types of instruments that existed in Spain. I doubt that later there was a better chapel in number, abilities and voices, because all the best musicians of these kingdoms were gathered there and all of them were delighted to serve him”.
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The Dukes made their home in Valencia, after being named joint Viceroys and Deputies of the kingdom, and their court, the direct heir to the Neapolitan, soon became one of the leading cultural centres in Spain.
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The writer Juan de Timoneda of Valencia alludes to the chapel of the Dukes of Calabria in two of the stories (said to be half fact, half fiction) contained in his book El sobremesa y alivio de Caminantes (Valencia, 1569). In the first, after affirming that the Duke was so fond of music “that there was no one in Spain who had so many and such excellent musicians, because of the high salaries he paid”, he goes on to say that “a great foreign musician came to the court to listen to the music performed at the Epiphany, since he had heard such high praise of it. After listening to it and being informed of the Duke’s income he said: For such a small capital this is a great chapel”. From time to time the Duke probably suffered certain financial hardships that prevented him from paying the salaries of his employees on time. This may have given rise to the anecdote about his chapel that Timoneda narrates in the second story, where the clever use of musical puns (using the notes mi and fa) are practically impossible to render in translation:
“Como el duque de Calabria dilatasse una vez la paga de sus cantores, importunábale el maestro de capilla a pedírsela, diciendo: -Mire vuestra excellencia que se dilata nuestra paga-. Respondía él: -Mírase-. Como por diversas vezes se la hubiese demandado con dezir “mire vuestra excellencia”, y el había respondido mírese, dixo un día el maestro: -Continuo se ha de estar vuestra excellencia en mi; para se buen cantor diga fa, fágase. Respondió el duque: -Perdonad, que vos me entonastes.”
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