Much of today’s research into the nature of musical pleasure can be divided into two distinct areas – the study of the overtone spectra of musical consonance and the study of human physiological responses to musical sounds. The former is largely focused on adult participatory responses and the latter on the detection of biochemical activity.…[Read more]

Recent studies of consonance combined with related neurological studies of musical pleasure both point to the prenatal exposure to the human voice as the origin of our affinity for harmonics sounds. The response of a neonate to the maternal voice is compared to the adult response to music, and the physical components of tonal sounds provide an…[Read more]

In 1927, Madrid experienced a great musical activity to celebrate the first anniversary of Beethoven’s death. This chapter focuses on the activities organized by orchestras, societies, associations, etc., and their reflection in the press of that time. Critics from the main Madrid newspapers such as Adolfo Salazar, Juan José Mantecón, Víctor Es…[Read more]

The premiere in 1882 of the Ninth Symphony by the German composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) at the Teatro Principal in Madrid marked a significant historical and musical milestone for the history of Spanish symphonic music. Until then, the reception of the great German composer in Spain had been limited since the 1840s to individual…[Read more]

Study and edition of the Complete Villancicos of Padre Antonio Soler (1729-1783), Chapel Master of Escorial Monastery in Spain

Study and edition of the Complete Villancicos of Padre Antonio Soler (1729-1783), Chapel Master of Escorial Monastery in Spain

Without fail a study in any depth of our fondness for music must eventually address the issue of consonance and dissonance. Past approaches to this issue have been bounded by a limited knowledge base and, further, marred by logical flaws, occasional hand waving, and the myopia of reductionism. Despite the explosion of progress in the last few…[Read more]

Publications on form in popular music have largely assumed the formal sections germane to pop-rock to be the formal designs of “popular music.” But the most popular music of our time—music charting on the Billboard Top-40—has absorbed the influence of electronic dance music (EDM) in a way that has fundamentally changed its formal structu…[Read more]

Tritones sounding over subdominant harmony, either as suspensions, accented passing tones, or incomplete neighbors, constitute a class of sonorities regularly heard in film and television music. I collectively refer to these phenomena as “subdominant tritones” (SdTT), and theorize a link between the SdTT and emotions it engenders. The article pre…[Read more]

Eighteenth-century Spanish music experienced a golden age thanks, especially, to the proliferation of centers such as the chapels, which articulated and structured the musical life of our cities: the main sound activity was centered on ecclesiastical music, both liturgical and paraliturgical, with which religious festivities were solemnized.…[Read more]

After the period of splendour experienced by the musical chapel of the Collegiate Church of Santa María la Mayor in Talavera de la Reina during the 18th century, we witnessed a period of decline, which was part of the crisis experienced by Spanish religious music during the 19th century. The effects of the War of Independence, the successive…[Read more]

This article focuses on Spanish music in the 18th century, which experienced one of the most brilliant periods in its history. This was undoubtedly due to the splendour achieved by keyboard music, which reached an extraordinary level of development after the arrival in Spain of the Neapolitan composer Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757), harpsichord…[Read more]

The musical chapel of the Collegiate Church of Santa María la Mayor in Talavera de la Reina is a significant case of how an ecclesiastical institution articulates the musical life of a city: in this sense, it can be stated that the main musical activity in the aforementioned Toledan city has revolved around the chapel of the Collegiate Church…[Read more]

The publication of Cervantes’ Don Quixote served as inspiration from the very moment of its creation for a whole series of artistic manifestations, among which those related to the art of sound stand out. Among the famous Spanish composers of Romanticism, the Sevillian composer Manuel del Pópulo García shines and stands out with his own light. H…[Read more]