The miracles recounted in the Cantigas are an extraordinary testimony to the medieval culture and imagination of Castile, and of the road to Compostela. Coming from the poetic tradition, or from closer historical reality, they are sometimes a very intimate chronicle of the life of Alfonso X and of his family. The poetic forms used, as well as the language, reveal the influence of the north and of the troubadours: virelai or rondeau, litanies. Always present in Spain, the French troubadours (Peire Vidal, Marcabru, and Guiraut Riquier, who was present at Alfonso’s court between 1270 and 1279) were a formal model for Alfonso X, who did not hesitate to condemn the poetry in national style of Pero da Ponte. Another model comes to mind, that of Gauthier de Coincy and his Marian poetry. But, unlike the Provençal school, the inspiration is more epic than lyrical. Alternation between soloist and choir is common, and the obvious consequence, once more, of the royal desire for a compilation destined for popular use. And if certain melodies are very simple and easily memorable, some, the province of the soloist, are magnificently ornamented.

The El Escorial manuscript contains miniatures that give precise information on the instrumentation of the Cantigas. Symbolically, Alfonso is represented at the beginning, singing and surrounded by four musicians, four clergymen and four courtiers. The miniatures show the players as Christians, Jews or Arabs, each of them with their own specific instruments: bowed of plucked strings, wind or percussion (Arabic guitar, cithern with bow, lute, psalter, bandurria, harp, dulcimer, tambourine, cítola). The problem of the melodic, and particularly the rhythmic, execution of the compositions is still the subject of controversy. The orientalist option, historically reasoned and recent, seems the strongest option, but what Orient are we talking about? Can the Court of Castile be compared to that of the Maghreb (North Africa)? This warm and colourful perspective on the music is the most attractive, but it is also the most complex from the musician’s point of view.

Journey through the Cantigas

In order to understand the Cantigas, an overall vision is not enough. It is necessary, as with the discovery of a country, to take the time to stop at certain well chosen points, and penetrate their interior life. This is what I propose to do now.

One of the best known cantigas, and the most frequently peformed, is the 100th, Santa Maria, strela do dia. It is a simple poem to the Virgin. In the tradition of the medieval conductus, it is a non-narrative prayer sung a cappella, exalting the virtues of Mary, in three long verses, alternating with a refrain of four lines: “Santa Maria, strela do dia, mostra nos via, pera Deus e nos guia.” This is a typical cantiga de loor, a song of praise, announced by the title: Esta é de loor.

Cantiga 209, Muito faz grand’erro, is one of the pieces in which Alfonso X himself appears, in an event that occurred during his reign: the illness which befell him at Vitoria and which was declared fatal by the doctors. The King placed himself in the hands of the Virgin, lying down on the Book of the Virgin (probably the collection of Cantigas), and was saved. This is, then, the narration of a miracle, magnified by he who was its beneficiary. The cantiga, for female voices, accompanied by a single note held by an instrument, has a strophic structure of eight verses with refrain. The harmony is very simple—fifths, octaves and unisons.

Some narrative cantigas are inspired by literary sources contemporary with Alfonso X. One of these, for example, tells of the miraculous healing in Berria of a man whose foot had been amputated, and who, lying near the altar of his church, was healed and given a new foot while asleep. This miracle is related in the Liber Mariæ of Gil de Zamora, a contemporary and friend of Alfonso X.

But the Virgin could also come to the aid of unbelievers: Cantiga 181, Pero que seja a gente, concerns the King of Morocco, Aboyuçaf, who allies himself with the Christians under the banner of the Virgin and defeats their enemies near the Morabe river. Because “os que a Virgen mais aman, a esses ela ajunda” (“those who love the Virgin, those She helps”), says the refrain, alternating once more with numerous couplets. Such a cantiga also demonstrates the interest of the collection as an historical source. Cantiga 229 is in this respect an eyewitness report: it recounts an event that occurred between 1196 and 1197, during the building of the church of Nuestra Señora la Blanca, at Vila Sirga, near Palencia. The kingdom, during the time of Alfonso X’s grandfather, Alfonso VIII of Castile, was the object of an attempt at annexation by Alfonso IX of Leon, allied with the Moors through the intermediary of Pedro Fernández Castro, who had joined the Muslim army after the defeat of Castile at Alarcos in 1195. Raids were made against the towns of Madrid, Cuenca, Talavera and Alcalá. Under attack, the workers on the site at Vila Sirga fled. The Moors wanted to destroy the defenceless building, but the Virgin took away all their strength, so that they could not even remove the smallest stone: “non poderon acabar d’arrancar a meor pedra de quantas estavan y.” The structure always alternates couplets (AAAB, CCCB, DDDB, etc.) and refrain (BB). The melody, in binary rhythm, begins unusually, with a ternary ligature.