Lars Christian Rosager

CA 514 Ellison
12/19/12

Discover Francisco Guerrero: to Be a Quintessential Spanish Composer

To say that Spanish Renaissance music is defined only by learned, contrapuntal

sacred style would be to omit undeniably vital cultures in music history. Spain, defined

during the Renaissance not as one, but rather as many different ethnic locales where the

musical style was established in part by folk music and drama both sacred and secular,

was very receptive of Franco-Flemish influence. The widespread effect of Josquin des

Préz and his musical descendants (including, but not limited to, Gombert, Clemens and

Willaert) was felt heavily across the Franco-Spanish border. Apart from the folk tradition

and dramatic musical accompaniment, a typically Spanish sacred style was emerging.

Taking general guidelines from their neighbors to the north, composers in Spain settled

into a few standard approaches of their own: clear and simple melodic phrases,

contrapuntal conservatism and a distinct sense of religious emotion sometimes described

as fervent, ardent, or passionate. Cristóbal de Morales (ca 1500-1553) was the best

known Spanish composer of his time, and he was central to the establishment of a

national Spanish style.1 The most common opinion is that the preeminent Spanish

composer following Morales chronologically is Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611).

Despite the tendency to hold Victoria in the highest esteem, Francisco Guerrero (1528-

1599), though often considered a composer of lesser import, had been more

representative of sixteenth century Spanish culture. In studying Guerrero’s life and work

1
Donald J. Grout and Claude Palisca, A History of Western Music Third Edition (Norton
1980), 218.
 2

alongside the history of his native land, it will be shown that he is the more authentic

symbol of the aggregate cultural disposition.

What was happening in regard to the people of Spain and their values during

Francisco Guerrero’s lifetime? Most importantly, Spain was not yet Spain as we know it

today. From 1479, Castile was the Spanish Empire’s center where many policies were

issued that would affect the Iberian Peninsula, the Netherlands, Italy, North Africa, and

America. In spite of Castile’s titanic influence, to call all inhabitants of the Iberian

Peninsula Castilians would be an unfair generalization. Jews and Muslims were being

expelled during the late fifteenth century and into the early sixteenth century, so the

imperial vision of a modern Spanish state was undoubtedly Catholic. Even though

various dialects and spiritual customs were to be found, Castilian was imposed as the

official language so that the empire could boast a tighter unification in conquered

territories2. A popular, individualist sentiment was being cast against the absolutism

linked with the Vatican and the royal court of Castile. The struggle between a national

cultural identity based on localized social castes (inherited professions) and an identity by

way of royal decree is present in much sixteenth and seventeenth century literature.3 This

popular/monarchic or folk/ecclesiastic dichotomy will be studied in the field of music,

and Francisco Guerrero will be the focus as a representative of music’s ability to provide

social commentary.

2
Evelyn Picon Garfield and Ivan A. Schulman, Las literaturas hispánicas: introducción
a su estudio Volúmen I (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1991), 113-24.
3
Anthony J. Cascardi, Ideologies of History in the Spanish Golden Age (University Park,
Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania University Press, 1997), 1-16.
 3

Guerrero was born in 1528 in Seville4, a major city in Andalusia, Spain. Although

relatively far from intermittent warfare between Spanish and French forces in the

Pyrenees Mountains, Seville was not far removed from a previously vibrant Islamic

culture in Granada. The royal inquisition of suspicious Muslim and Jewish converts

thought to be practicing non-Christian religions secretly, begun officially in 1478,

continued throughout the Iberian Peninsula and even Spanish territories in Latin America

and the Netherlands until the early nineteenth century. During the beginning of

Guerrero’s life, Charles V of the Hapsburg family ruled over a huge Spanish Empire in

Western Europe. War was frequent between Spanish and French allies. Protestants and

Turks challenged the Roman Catholic Spanish Empire. Political overview goes to show

that Guerrero’s early years were not peaceful times.5 Tension was undoubtedly high, and

the church did all it could to reestablish Catholic values in all spheres of life.

Universities tended to prefer conservative, traditional instruction to a more daring

Italianate approach. Erasmus, representative of a progressive humanist movement

gaining attention in other parts of Europe, was at odds with what Spanish authorities

approved6 regarding education and religion, powerful institutions with undeniable effects

on the identity of Renaissance nations.

Francisco Guerrero was first educated in music by his older brother, Pedro

Guerrero. In 1545, Francisco studied with Cristóbal de Morales, the most successful
4
Robert Stevenson, “Guerrero, Francisco,” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online
(Feb 2010), accessed September 19, 2012 http://0-
www.oxfordmusiconline.com.opac.sfsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/11929?
q=francisco+guerrero&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit.
5
Bamber Gascoigne, “History of Spain” HistoryWorld, from 2001 ongoing, accessed
September 20, 2012 http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/plaintexthistories.asp?
paragraphid=ede.
6
Carlos G. Noreña, Studies in Spanish Renaissance Thought (The Hague, Netherlands:
Martinus Nijhoff, 1975), 48-50.
 4

Spanish composer of the early sixteenth century. Maintaining employment from the

church for the rest of his life, Francisco Guerrero continued the development of a Spanish

style of sacred music from Morales.7 Curiously, both composers are known for their

rebellious attitudes, which, though not altogether unfounded, did bring about career

difficulties and travel adventures that complicated their lives.89 Morales, often so

confident in his artistic ability that he would offend employers by overstaying leaves of

absence or let his temper go on less than perfect choristers, led an unpredictable

professional life made worse by poor health. Guerrero’s individualism may be marked

less by artist/patron conflict and more by personal spirituality. He made a pilgrimage to

the Holy Land in 158810 and wrote a book on his journey, a useful text for studying the

composer’s personal life.11 The journal is entitled El viaje de Jerusalén

(JourneyTraveling to Jerusalem). It is here that one may speculate about Guerrero’s

mystic side. Mysticism, often mentioned in conjunction with alumbrismo, was a type of

spirituality altogether independent of the Catholic political authority with which the

7
Stevenson, “Guerrero, Francisco,” Grove…, http://0-
www.oxfordmusiconline.com.opac.sfsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/11929?
q=francisco+guerrero&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit.
8
Robert Stevenson, “Morales, Cristóbal de,” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online,
accessed September 19, 2012 http://0-
www.oxfordmusiconline.com.opac.sfsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/11929?
q=francisco+guerrero&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit.
9
Stevenson, “Guerrero, Francisco,” Grove…, http://0-
www.oxfordmusiconline.com.opac.sfsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/11929?
q=francisco+guerrero&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit.
10
Francisco Guerrero, Missa surge propera, Peter Phillips and the Tallis Scholares, CD
liner notes—Gimell, 2005, accessed October 17 2012 http://www.gimell.com/recording-
Francisco-Guerrero---Missa-Surge-propera.aspx.
11
Julian Alonso Asenjo, “En torono al Viaje a Jerusalén de Francisco Guerrero,”
University of Valencia, accessed October 12, 2012
http://parnaseo.uv.es/Lemir/Textos/Viaje/Viaje/Alonso.htm.
 5

nobility aimed to control the Iberian Peninsula since a half century before Guerrero’s

birth.

“Its [alumbrism’s] adherents claimed that the human soul, having attained a
certain degree of perfection, was permitted a vision of the divine and entered into
direct communication with the Holy Spirit. From this state the soul could neither
advance nor retrogress. Consequently, participation in the liturgy, good works,
and observance of the exterior forms of religious life were unnecessary for those
who had received the “light.”12

Since ancient cultures’ first documentation of musical activity in Egypt and

subsequently Greece13, music’s enabling man’s worship of the divine was of primary

focus. Music for religious purposes continued to receive the most attention from

acclaimed composers during Francisco Guerrero’s lifetime and long after, but a musical

culture outside the church was steadily growing. To dismiss the interests of lay people

and document Western music on a purely ecclesiastical basis would be ignorant of many

important historical changes taking place in sixteenth century Spain and elsewhere in

Europe and beyond. Before further study of secularized religion and musical culture of

the people, an examination of music composed for church will convey what Morales,

Guerrero, and Victoria had in common.

12
Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, s.v. “Alumbrado,” accessed October 12, 2012
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/17894/Alumbrado.
13
Gustave Reese, Music in the Middle Ages (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1949),
3-13.
 6

This is the opening of the Kyrie movement from Morales’s Missa de Beata

Virgine. It was published in Rome in 1544 in the first of two books of masses that

Morales hoped would secure patronage from the dedicatees, Cosimo I de’ Medici and

Pope Paul III.15 The vertical red lines designate the voices’ first entrances of the

movement. Ovals group together triadic harmonies that begin together, and in the

14
Cristóbal de Morales, Missa de Beata Virgine from the collection Opera Omnia (Rome:
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Delegacion de Roma, 1952), 1.
15
Stevenson, “Morales, Cristóbal de,” Grove…, http://0-
www.oxfordmusiconline.com.opac.sfsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/19078?
q=missa+de+beata+virgine+morales&search=quick&pos=2&_start=1#firsthit.
 7

absence of the fifth degree, thirds and sixths are marked. If one note of the triad or

imperfect consonance (third or sixth) begins before another, it is not marked. The

purpose of annotating here is to study the use of imitation and chordal passages in sacred

styles compared with secular works.

16
Francisco Guerrero, Pastores loquebantur in The Sixteenth Chester Book of Motets:
Christmas & Advent Motets for Six Voices, ed. Anthony G. Petti (London: J. &W.
Chester/Edition Wilhelm Hansen, 1982), 21.
 8

Here is the same analytical approach to Guerrero’s Pastores loquebantur, a work

first published in 1585 along with several pieces by Victoria, and later in 1589 as part of a

collection of music only by Guerrero.17 The treatment of each voice’s first entrance is

actually quite similar to that of Morales. Granted the Guerrero is a6 (six voices) and

Morales’s work is a4, Guerrero takes advantage of an opportunity to compose a

prolonged and creative opening in imitative style. One similarity can be noticed in the

second voice’s entering so shortly after the first in both examples. Following the second

voice after a longer duration, the third entrance is treated differently by each composer.

Morales vertically aligns the two contrasting entrances of the first and second voices,

creating an altered form of the music for the first pair of voices. Guerrero offers what

could essentially be interpreted as a repetition of the opening material, a female trio

followed by a male trio. More importantly than the entrances in imitation is the

prevalence of triads both complete and incomplete (with and without the fifth). Although

one would expect more instances of chords in the longer excerpt of Guerrero, it must be

observed that Morales’s triad structures jump around between voices much more than do

Guerrero’s. In the Guerrero, triads encompassing every voice occur frequently, on almost

17
Ed. Petti, The Sixteenth Chester Book…, 43.
 9

every beat.

18

Victoria’s Agnus Dei from the Missa Quarti Toni is not unlike the previous two

works. It is composed for mixed voices a5 with more homorhythmic chordal writing

than Morales, but less than Guerrero. Again, triads beginning together that span across

all the voices are more rare than in Guerrero, so the large amount of secular music by

Guerrero has possibly had a stylistic effect on his sacred work. Including these three

18
Tomás Luis de Victoria, Missa quarti toni (Toledo, Ohio: Gregorian Institute of
America, 1949), 18.
 10

examples shows their relative similarity in comparison with Guerrero’s secular

compositions.

Long before the sixteenth century, secular music exhibited rhythmic qualities

essentially absent in Gregorian based sacred tradition. The rhythmic modes, a

compositional device derived from classical prosody19 and applied to spoken language

contemporary with the music built from it, will provide the foundation for a basic

understanding of the question of rhythm in Guerrero’s A un niño llorando.

The rhythmic modes are built off of two basic cells, the trochee and the iamb.

Trochaic rhythm divides three beat cells into two unequal parts; the first part lasts for two

beats and the second lasts for one. Iambic rhythm divides a three beat cell into one beat

followed by two. In modern notation, these rhythmic patterns would appear as a half

note followed by a quarter for a trochee, and a quarter note followed by a half for an

iamb. Originally, much earlier than Guerrero, musicians tended to set poems to one

rhythmic mode. There were six different patterns all derived from the trochee and the

iamb. According to custom, one of the six pervaded each composition. The only

derivation would take place at the cadence or on other rests at an appropriate point in a

given phrase.20

19
Reese, Music in the Middle…, 207.
20
Ibid., 206-20.
 11

Just like the three excerpts of sacred music, the vocal entrances (there is only one

in this excerpt) and triads are marked. Not only do triads abound, but the regularity of

rhythm plays into the phrasing much more strongly than in any of the sacred examples.

The trochee, or first of six rhythmic modes, carries the phrase into the cadence on,

“puede dar,” which consists of one iamb and one sustained triad to end the phrase. Such

a repetitive treatment of rhythm is typical of secular and instrumental dance music,

genres in which Guerrero worked much more extensively than Victoria. Remember,

Victoria set only sacred Latin texts for ecclesiastical purposes.

As much as the Catholic Monarchs and their royal descendants fought for a nation

based on the conservative policies associated with Vatican, Spanish history was already

far too developed by multicultural sources. Antisemitism and anti-islamic sentiment was

not absent from the populace; however, artists in various media portrayed Spanish

folklore and everyday life as a viable representation of contemporary culture. Lope de

Vega founded his revolutionary dramatic theory on the life of the lower class; romance

21
Francisco Guerrero, A un niño llorando, ed. Paco Marmol and Manolo Casaus (Choral
Public Domain Library: Creative Commons Attribution, 1999), accessed November 20,
2012 http://imslp.org/wiki/A_un_niño_llorando_(Guerrero,_Francisco).
 12

melodies22 and folk poetry flourished in music by many composers who also served in the

royal courts. In some respects, the arts aimed for the opposite of the royal authority’s

goals.

This is Francisco Guerrero’s setting of a poem by Lope de Vega. Right away, one

will recognize its contrasts with all of the previous musical examples. The lower two

staves represent instrumental parts, two viols sustaining a tonic-fifth drone for a solo

voice. This type of accompaniment is reminiscent of Islamic music. Essentially devoid

of counterpoint and harmony, much of Muslim tradition is built from a perfect fifth drone

and a solo voice (with or without an instrument in unison) in improvisatory style.

Judging from a recording by Montserrat Figueras and Hesperion XX directed by Jordi

22
Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance (New York: W.W. Norton & Company,
1954), 622-23.
23
Lope de Vega and Francisco Guerrero, “Si tus penas no pruebo,” Soliloquios amorosos
de un alma a Dios, Montserrat Figueras & Hesperion XX, dir. Jordi Savall, Entremeses
del Siglo de Oro – Lope de Vega y su tiempo: 1550-1650, accessed September 19, 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CaGiwq5Eog.
 13

Savall, Guerrero’s voice part may be interpreted in a free, rubato style.24 Like A un niño

llorando, this text is written in the vernacular. The subject matter of Lope’s verse is

fascinating in its similarity to currents of mysticism in Spain and Guerrero’s pilgrimage

to Jerusalem.

Sweet Jesus, if thy trials I do not prove,

My life is one of sorrow and of pain;
For the soul I gave thee, give them in exchange,
And if this favour thou shouldst grant to me, oh God,
That thou dost love me I shall see!

Love me well, and in giving prove thy love,

For lovers' rule ordains
That they should share the pleasures and the pains.
My portion, then, would be unfair
If I the pleasures and thou the pains should bear.

The tone is intimate. The narrator is humbled in the presence of God, and a

human being’s self doubt in the eyes of the divine heightens the verses’ power to bring

religion to an individual without the church as an intermediary. Lope’s original title for

the text, Soliloquios amorosos de un alma a Dios (A soul’s passionate soliloquies to

God), was quite daring at the time due to mixing detached, devotional sentiment with

passion generated by individual desire.25

During his travels to the Holy Land, Francisco Guerrero encountered cultures and

religious sects that welcomed the Spanish party (in his account, he always uses the first

person plural). He often made rest stops at churches belonging to Greeks and Armenians,
24
Ibid.
25
Line Amselem-Szende, “Encarnación de Lope de Vega en los Soliloquios amorosos de
un alma a Dios,” Criticón, 87-88-89 (2003) Centro Virtual Cervantes: 19-34, accessed
September 19, 2012 cvc.cervantes.es/literature/criticon/PDF/087-088-089_025.pdf.
 14

and, though he tells frightening stories of attacks by tribal peoples and pirates, his

relatively peaceful interactions with Muslims indicate a much more tolerant outlook than

any mindset within Spain at a time when Near Eastern culture was highly suspect.26

Perhaps Guerrero was an exception to the rule that being Spanish meant being anti-East.

What constitutes nationality? Arriving at an acceptable definition is no simple

task, especially for a modern American conducting a study removed from sixteenth

century Spain by five centuries and 5,000 miles. Yet, enough objective reasoning may

convince even the most informed student of early Spanish music that Francisco Guerrero,

if not a first tier composer most famous in history, does, in effect, embody his native land

in musical works as well as through his lifestyle.

There are several factors that comprise a heritage that, in part of in full, contribute

to cultural identity: birthplace, ancestry, language, residence, community, philosophy,

vocation, spirituality, and, in the life of a creative artist, traditions or schools with which

his/her work identifies. To recall the predecessors of Francisco Guerrero and Tomás Luis

de Victoria fortifies the claim that the former had stronger ties to Spanish culture.

Cristóbal de Morales, although he emphasized his music as a continuation of the

Flemish master Josquin des Préz,27 was key in the Spaniards’ developing of a national

idiom. It was Morales who taught Guerrero after Pedro Guerrero, Francisco’s older

brother.28 Francisco Guerrero even composed a musical tribute to Morales. Giovanni

26
Francisco Guerrero, El viaje de Jerusalén (Spain: 1590, USA: Editorial Vita Brevis,
2010), 1-7.
27
Stevenson, “Morales…, ” Grove…, http://0-
www.oxfordmusiconline.com.opac.sfsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/19078?
q=cristobal+morales&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit.
28
Stevenson, “Guerrero…,” Grove…,
www.oxfordmusiconline.com.opac.sfsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/11929?
q=francisco+guerrero&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit.
 15

Perluigi da Palestrina was Victoria’s mentor.29 Palestrina, the great Italian master of the

Counter-reformation, was not unimportant in Guerrero’s education. It is possible that the

two men had met at some time. However, it is generally agreed that Victoria followed the

Palestrina school most directly. Guerrero, though well traveled and receptive to foreign

ideas, maintained a permanent residence in Spain. Victoria was educated and

professionally active for most of his life in Italy. Guerrero embraced secular styles of

music, using compositional techniques similar to instrumental tradition and setting

vernacular texts for the theater. Victoria showed no interest in instrumental or secular

music.30 Because the national solidification of the arts in sixteenth century Spain took

place through a learned inclusion of folklore and historically multicultural elements,

Francisco Guerrero, in embracing popular forms, established a complete, well-rounded

artistic representation of his homeland.

29
Robert Stevenson, “Victoria, Tomás Luis de,” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music
Online, accessed September 19, 2012 http://0-
www.oxfordmusiconline.com.opac.sfsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/29298?
q=tomas+luis+de+victoria&search=quick&source=omo_gmo&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit.
30
Grout, A History…, 271.
 16

Bibliography

1. Amselem-Szende, Line. “Encarnación de Lope de Vega en los Soliloquios

amorosos de un alma a Dios” In Criticón, 87-88-89 (2003). Centro Virtual

Cervantes: 19-34. Accessed September 19, 2012

cvc.cervantes.es/literature/criticon/PDF/087-088-089_025.pdf.

2. Asenjo, Julian Alonso. “En torono al Viaje a Jerusalén de Francisco Guerrero.”

University of Valencia. Accessed October 12, 2012

http://parnaseo.uv.es/Lemir/Textos/Viaje/Viaje/Alonso.htm.

3. 9. Cascardi, Anthony J. Ideologies of History in the Spanish Golden Age.

University Park, PA: Pennsylvania University Press, 1997.

4. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. S.v. “Alumbrado.” Accessed October 12, 2012

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/17894/Alumbrado.
 17

5. Garfield, Evelyn Picon and Ivan A. Schulman. Las literaturas hispánicas:

introducción a su estudio Volúmen I. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1991.

6. Gascoigne, Bamber. “History of Spain.” HistoryWorld. (from 2001 ongoing):

Accessed September 20, 2012

http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/plaintexthistories.asp?paragraphid=ede.

7. Grout, Donald J. and Claude V. Palisca. A History of Western Music Third

Edition. Norton, 1980.

8. Morales, Cristóbal de. Missa de Beata Virgine from the collection Opera Omnia.

Rome: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Delegacion de Roma,

1952.

9. Noreña, Carlos G. Studies in Spanish Renaissance Thought. The Hague,

Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff, 1975.

10. Edited by Petti, Anthony G. The Sixteenth Chester Book of Motets: Christmas &

Advent Motets for 6 voices. London: J. & W. Chester/Edition Wilhelm Hansen,

1982.
 18

11. Phillips, Peter. Francisco Guerrero – Missa surge propera. CD liner notes—

Gimell, 2005. Accessed October 17, 2012 http://www.gimell.com/recording-

Francisco-Guerrero---Missa-Surge-propera.aspx.

12. Stevenson, Robert. “Guerrero, Francisco.” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music

Online. (Feb 2010): Accessed September 19, 2012 http://0-

www.oxfordmusiconline.com.opac.sfsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/11929

?q=francisco+guerrero&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit.

13. Stevenson, Robert and Alejandro Enrique Planchart. “Morales, Cristóbal de.”

Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Accessed September 19, 2012

http://0-

www.oxfordmusiconline.com.opac.sfsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/19078

q=cristobal+morales&search=quick&source=omo_gmo&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit

14. Stevenson, Robert. “Victoria, Tomás Luis de.” Grove Music Online. Oxford

Music Online. Accessed September 19, 2012 http://0-

www.oxfordmusiconline.com.opac.sfsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/29298

q=tomas+luis+de+victoria&search=quick&source=omo_gmo&pos=1&_start=1#f

irsthit.
 19

Like the articles in the previous two citations, the information here gives a

chronological overview of Victoria’s life and music. A short description

preceding the biographical and musical summaries mentions Victoria to be the

greatest composer in Renaissance Spain, a point I have addressed in my work. Of

particular importance is the fact that Victoria never composed outside of settings

for sacred Latin texts.

*REVIEW PURDUE OWL RE JOURNAL VIA WEB

This article is from a university student who has chosen to study a more

obscure work by Lope de Vega, a Spanish author who worked during the Golden

Age in Spain. Francisco Guerrero set several of his poems to music. Vega’s

dramatic work includes music by Guerrero, often in the form of villancicos. The

poems studied in this article are, according to the author, an essential part of

Vega’s output as they touch on two subjects that are often studied separately:

religious devotion and passionate romance.

This publication includes a piece of music by Francisco Guerrero that was useful to

compare with music by Vittoria and Morales. Aside from the one piece by Guerrero, the

book contains music by other composers that did not pertain to this research. The

notation is good and not full of modern dynamics and articulations by later editors

This publication offers not only historical information of the Iberian Peninsula, but a

connection with literary culture. The historical scope is broad, from Early Christian times

and the Middle Ages to the so called, “Modern Age”. An explanation of many literary
 20

forms is quite useful, but most appropriate for this project was the portion on the

Renaissa

Cascardi is clearly of prime importance as a scholar. The conclusions he draws between

Spanish literature and sociopolitical history are invaluable. The themes he addresses in

literary classics are related to issues in modern life and long term historical trends. This

author presents great rhetorical questions, making the reader think on an independent

plane with plenty of source material from the