Almost all the manuscripts to conserve this repertory are today housed in locations other than those for which they were originally copied. Today, the authentic copy of the Magnus Liber Organi, is no longer conserved in the choir of the cathedral of Paris, although Anonymous IV once saw it there. But the music survived as long as it was conserved in copies that kept the tradition alive. For this reason, proof that this music was performed can be found in codex copied as late as the early years of the 14th century, when the prevailing musical styles had changed to such a degree that they were practically unrecognisable. One of these manuscripts is the Codex Las Huelgas, the only manuscript with these characteristics which is still held in the centre for which it was originally copied: the Cistercian feminine monastery of Santa María La Real de Las Huelgas in the Castilian city of Burgos. This also adds a factor of sociological interest: the performance of polyphony in a feminine monastery, although this was no ordinary monastery.

The monastery

Between 1132 and 1148 the King of Castile, Alfonso VII, founded no less than 13 monasteries of the Cistercian order in his territories. Between 1158 and 1214, his successor, Alfonso VIII, added a further six, including the monastery of Santa María la Real. Officially founded in 1187, its construction has been interpreted as a gesture of gratitude by the King after the reconquest of Cuenca nine years earlier. As one of the King’s preferred destinations, it was soon favoured by a series of temporal and spiritual privileges (the abbess possessed ecclesiastical privileges normally reserved for priests and even bishops), stirring up problems with some of the nobles and prelates of the time. The founding King and his wife Leonor’s wishes became a reality when within a few years the monastery was run by an abbess who governed a choir of one hundred mothers of God from a noble background (duennas) and forty girls from the same social class. Moreover, forty “sisters” (freias) were put in charge of attending to the nuns and there were twenty chaplains responsible for performing most of the divine Office. Not surprisingly, the monastery’s power was subject to comment and gave rise to sayings such as “if the Pope of Rome was ever to marry, his bride would be the abbess of Las Huelgas”. If the richest and most famous monastery in the Western world during the twelfth century was the French abbey of Fontevraud, where some members of the Plantagenet family are buried, it now had a rival, the monastery of Las Huelgas, which was a pantheon for Castilian royalty.

The nuns performed the Divine Office in the choir, singing the plainchant postulated by the rules of the order. Magnificent books were thus copied and illuminated, despite Cistercian austerity. The presence of a manuscript containing polyphony, clearly directed at worship in abbeys, leads to the conclusion that this important Castilian monastery was an exception to the austerity of the order of Saint Bernard. During one of its periods of greatest splendour, one of the most important manuscripts in the history of Western liturgical music was copied. And this in a feminine monastery, in an order which prohibited the interpretation of polyphonic music in the choral services.

The manuscript

The fascination the Las Huelgas Codex has inspired is comparable only to the richness of its contents. The impressive variety of liturgical, para-liturgical and secular musical forms, compositional styles (organum, conductus, motets, monodic and pedagogical pieces), together with works composed in posthumous homage to important people associated with monastic life, or compositions with an early Ars Nova flavour, form the largest collection of Spanish polyphony of the Middle Ages, establishing a precedent for what would become the greatest era of Renaissance polyphony in later centuries.

Discovered in 1904 by the Benedictine monks of Silos, Casiano Rojo and Luciano Serrano, in their search for Gregorian códices, it was first presented by Higinio Anglès in an edition which is still valid today from many points of view (El Còdex Musical de Las Huelgas. Música a veus dels segles XIII-XIV, 3 vols., Institut d’Estudis Catalans, Barcelona, 1931) and included a facsimile of the manuscript. Anglès provided the definitive proof of the composition and performance of polyphony during this period in the Iberian Peninsula, which was still doubted by European musicologists at the time his edition was published, as they believed the Peninsula only played host to the practice of vocal music following the arrival of Franco-Flemish musicians. The Codex’s discovery and subsequent publication thus played a decisive role in the reconsideration of the Hispanic origin of other important sources of polyphony from a period closely related to this manuscript, such as the case of the codex of the Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid, Mss. 20486, a genuine representative of the Notre Dame repertory. The Madrid Codex was copied around 1260, although we are unaware of the religious centre for which it was intended. It was held in the capitular archive of the cathedral of Toledo until 1869, when it was moved to the Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid, its present location. But its presence in Toledo is insufficient proof of its use as a choral manual at the cathedral, since it is not present in the inventories of the cathedral’s holdings until the beginning of the 17th century. Recently, I discovered a reference to a 13th-century inventory of the library of Archbishop Gonzalo Pérez de Toledo, who mentions a book of his own property that seems to coincide with the characteristics of the small codex. In any case, it belonged to a private owner and wasn’t for public liturgical use. The history of this manuscript is that of many like it, which were fortunate enough not to have perished in fires or have been destroyed through negligence. The fact that today we still do not know where it was intended for, makes the circumstances surrounding Las Huelgas even more exceptional.

Contents

The manuscript’s heterogeneous and extensive contents have a direct relationship with the notation in which it is transmitted. Its 18 quinternions form more or less homogenous musical units. Their present order is the result of a later binding that changed the order of the final quinternion of the codex and perhaps even led some of them to be misplaced, something Anglès had already noticed when he made his transcription. The growing interest in the polyphony of the period has resulted in the publication of a new, complete transcription by a scholar with an extensive knowledge of the repertory, Gordon Athol Anderson (The Las Huelgas Manuscript, Burgos, Monasterio de Las Huelgas, 2 vols., Corpus Mensurabilis Musicæ 79, American Institute of Musicology, Hänssler Verlag, Neuhausen-Stuttgart, 1982). This new version has sparked controversy in regard to the various possibilities of transcribing a repertory recorded in notation pertaining to a later period than that in which it was principally disseminated, which coexisted along side other musical styles and repertories at the beginning of the 14th century. The Codex Las Huelgas is thus fundamental to understanding notational developments at the end of the 13th century and the rhythmic interpretation of works conceived a century beforehand.

Despite the extensive bibliography generated by Anderson himself about this and other related themes, many of his versions have not surpassed those of Anglès, despite the half-century which separates them. Traditionally the Codex Las Huelgas has been considered as the best representative of what is known as Franconian notation. This type of musical notation, which is rhythmically very advanced, takes its name from the theorist Franco of Cologne, who around 1260 (note that this date precedes that of the treatise which provides the key to transcribing Notre Dame polyphony) codified his rules in the treatise Ars Cantus Mensurabilis. Prior to this, another theorist, Johannes de Garlandia, had advanced some of these principles in his De Musica mensurabili positio (around 1240). The literal application of Franconian criteria, as sustained by Anderson in his study, works very well for the pieces of Las Huelgas in which the notation is clearly expressed. Notwithstanding, there are many freer rhythmic peculiarities in other pieces, which exceed the speculations of Johannes de Garlandia, Franco of Cologne and other theorists of the epoch. A close examination of the manuscript as a whole reveals that no one single criteria or notational school predominates. Both pre-Franconian and Franconian notation and some precepts of the Ars Nova form part of the notation used in Las Huelgas. In 1987, during a symposium about the Codex Las Huelgas held in Cuenca, the musicologist Wulf Arlt magnificently illustrated the problems created by these forms of notation which, like those found in the Las Huelgas Manuscript, reflect periods of transition and problems which composers of the period were well aware of, despite experiencing difficulties with the written expression of the music.

The presence of a collection of sacred works (a little over a quarter of the 186 pieces that make up the manuscript) composed in the conductus style, but structured as organum stylistically closer to the repertory preceding that of Notre Dame or resembling certain clausulas of this period, make Las Huelgas a particularly interesting manuscript for scholars of music notation and its evolution. Its widely varied repertory and its seemingly prolonged use led someone to incorporate some notational “advances” during the 14th century based on the addition and omission of plicas to indicate breves and longae in the purest Franconian and post-Franconian style. But plicas were especially added to many semibreves, in clear collusion with the new theories of Johannes de Muris, Jacques de Liège and Philippe de Vitry. Although these additions are clearly visible in Anglès’s facsimile, some can only be resolved by directly consulting the Codex. Not even the marvellous facsimile edition recently published by Testimonio Editorial, in collaboration with Patrimonio Nacional (Madrid, 1998), can resolve some of the notational subtleties and puzzles, which must be directly checked against the original.

Order

With respect to the Codex’s present state of conservation after its most recent restoration, Prof. Fernández de la Cuesta has reconstructed the final part of the manuscript, finally establishing the order of the last quinternions of the Codex, replacing Anglès former arrangement. Fernández de la Cuesta himself also identified a small Gothic lower-case letter at the end of each section in the lower, right-hand part of the page, which was practically hidden by folds made during the binding process, and which alphabetically indicated the correct order of the quinternions. This order reflects the internal coherence of the Codex’s contents: four quinternions at the beginning and at the end of the Codex contain organa and conductus respectively, leaving the ten remaining quinternions for prosas and motets, in equal proportion.

From f. 152v onwards, the manuscript contains the name of the man who would seem to have been its compiler, scribe, composer, corrector (in his own words) of both the notation and the works which appear on earlier pages and even the copyist of the final section. Johannes Roderici or Johan Rodrigues—as given in notes in the margin of the Codex itself—figures as a composer (f. 152v, f. 155: johan[n]es roderici me fecit; f. 160v, f. 162, f. 163v, f. 166: joh[a]n[ne]s roderici me fecit); corrector (f. 106v: a mi cantat me co[n] la tenura q[ue] ioh[a]n rrodrigues me en mendo [sic]; f. 109v: cantat me sin miedo q[ue] ioh[a]n rr[odrigue[s] me enme[n]do) and acordador (f. 107v: la tenura fallesce aq[ui] et nos ot[ro]s [sic] acordados estamos q[ue] ioh[a]n rr[odrigue]s nos acordo mas sin la tenura non[n] valemos mas q[ue] valen las c[am]panas sib cabdiello o tanto). It was possibly Roderici (or Rodrigues) who corrected some of the oldest musical passages of the manuscript in the middle of the 14th century, adding plicas and omitting other notational features considered out of date. Today, it can be surmised that most of his work consisted of composing new works, but his intervention is clear in some pieces in which notes that could seem to be somewhat “dissonant” were altered. Scratch outs in the parchment reflect this practice in works such as the motet Virgo virginum, whose tenor is taken from the versicle of the gradual Benedicta (previously composed in organum on f. 5v-6) and reflects some changes with respect to the original piece. Legal documents held in the Las Huelgas Archive present us with a series of persons whose names coincide with that of this figure. Some have a more or less direct relationship to the most senior nuns of the monastery, whom they attended as servants, scribes and even notaries. This is the case with a copyist in the service of the Castilian princess Isabel, the daughter of Sancho IV, who at the beginning of the 14th century, could have been an amanuensis in her service with the same name. He was even possibly one of the incumbent priests or chaplains in the nuns’ service. Recently, Wesley D. Jordan, one of the most indefatigable of the scholars who have examined the manuscript and its setting, suggested the possibility that Rodrigues was of Portuguese origin. His theory is based on the fact that a Portuguese nun, Doña Branca, initially educated in the Portuguese monastery of Lorvão, spent some years of her education in Las Huelgas, approximately around the turn of the 14th century. Apart from her retinue, the princess was also accompanied by a personal attendant named João Rodrigues.

The bulk of the manuscript seems to have been copied by the same hand, although according to Anglès, this is sometimes difficult to discern because of the difference between musical notation and normal handwriting, which is often influenced by the change of pen, ink or copying the music and the text at different times. However, in total more than a dozen different hands could have contributed to the copying of the manuscript and its presentation in its current state.

The Codex Las Huelgas is not alone in the musical context of the period, but it is undoubtedly that which best reflects the primitive origin of the polyphonic music of the period of Notre Dame. Its almost completely liturgical character distinguishes it from other contemporary sources such as the Bamberg Manuscripts (Bamberg, Cathedral Library, Ms. Lit. 115, olim, ED.IV.6, ca. 1290), exclusively containing motets and some hocket in the final section) and Montpellier (Faculty of Medicine, H 196), the most ambitious collection of motets of the epoch, both in Latin and the vernacular. The first six quinternions of this manuscript (ca. 1280) could be related to the Las Huelgas Manuscript: the first of them contains liturgical pieces (organa for the Mass and the Office) and the others pre-Franconian notation which transmits the repertory. The latest source is the manuscript of the Royal Library of Turin (Vari 42, ca. 1300). Of French origin, its relationship to the previous manuscript is undeniable, although its contents are much more reduced. None of them can compete with Las Huelgas in its variety of styles, or formal and notational richness.

Las Huelgas is also beyond comparison in regard to its copying process, the quality—or lack thereof— of its parchment and the illustration of its folios. It is surprising that a polyphonic book, the quintessence of liturgical solemnity, wasn’t copied on better quality parchment. Many pages had already deteriorated before they were even copied, as is reflected by the notation itself, and the poor quality of the parchment, which is sometimes very dark, leads to the conclusion that the repertory was somewhat “proscribed” in the monastery itself. Its conservative character and variety of musical styles make it a veritable anthology of sacred music, including pieces which were composed as far back as 1050 (the conductus Catholicorum concio, which pertains to the polyphonic school of St Martial of Limoges and is still recorded in Las Huelgas in modern notation) to pieces from the Ars Nova such as a polyphonic Credo in three voices which would later be found in one of the first polyphonic cyclic masses conserved: the Mass of Tournai.

There is only one exception to the liturgical and para-liturgical content of the manuscript. The final section of the Codex, the most heterogeneous, contained a surprise which was fitting to its royal dedicatees: a solfeggio lesson in two voices, probably the oldest of its genre, and definitely pioneering in the musical pedagogy of the Iberian Peninsula. Its format—copied in two columns to a page—is not found anywhere else in the manuscript and the piece is incomplete. Much has been said as to whether it was an exercise intended for the nuns themselves to help them to learn the “solmization” system, but a close reading of the text reveals some peculiarities. One of them brings the role of music, concretely that of polyphony, and the duennas in the monastery into question: the text of one of the voices of the exercise (vos virgines carthucenses...) is written in second person. Thus, it was not the nuns themselves who were singing, but others. The use of the adjective carthucenses (Carthusians) itself, in reference to the Cistercian nuns of such a powerful monastery leads us to question whether Las Huelgas was their place of origin. Apart from these details, the solfeggio lesson presents various elements characteristic of the Ars Nova, together with others from earlier periods: its unequivocal notation, a small mutation as a typical exercise of Medieval solmization and a timid hocket.

The inclusion of four funereal chants (planctus) composed for illustrious figures associated with the monastery cannot be overlooked either: Rex obiit for the death of its founder, Alfonso VIII (†1214); Plange Castella misera for the death of Sancho III (†1158), the eldest son of Alfonso VII and the brother of Fernando II of León, for whom another planctus is conserved in the Florence Manuscript, Pt. 29.1 (Sol eclypsim patitur). The abbess María González de Agüero (†ca. 1335) is the dedicatee of O monialis concio burgensis and finally, Qui dabit capite meo, whose dedicatee remains unknown. The style of these funeral chants in one voice recalls the monodic conductus of the period of Notre Dame. Their archaic notation makes them difficult to perform, but their beauty is only comparable to the rich ornamentation of some of the monastery’s tombs. Another Cistercian monastery, Santa María de San Salvador de Camas, in La Rioja, houses the tomb of María Urraca López de Haro with a reproduction of her funeral procession, depicting figures which could be said to be performing chants of this type.

The Codex Las Huelgas thus represents both traditional and modern aspects of the musical language of its epoch. Its character as a liturgical manuscript distanced it from the more modern tendency of exclusively composing collections of motets with a secular or para-liturgical character (Bamberg, Montpellier, etc.). The large number of one-off pieces it contains makes it an exceptional source. Its discovery established the foundations of a solid polyphonic school in Spain, dispelling the doubts raised by the Codex Calixtinus, a manuscript copied in a French centre. It is of little importance to us today whether or not the manuscript was destined for the nuns themselves. Recently evidence of some petitions from the monastery for specialised song-books in Paris has been unearthed. Naturally there were nuns responsible for music making in the monastery. Documents held in the monastery contain the names of some of them (Sancha García, who was in charge of music from 1188 to 1211, or others who undoubtedly would have been familiar with the Codex, such as María Guillén and Urraca García, who shared the post from 1296 to 1319). But there is no definitive proof that the nuns themselves regularly performed polyphony. Moreover, some of the manuscript’s signatures don’t seem to leave the duennas as the only protagonists. But that doesn’t matter. Their melodies were heard in those vaults and even today a substantial group of nuns keeps this tradition alive, performing some of the liturgical pieces contained in the manuscript.

Translated by Yolanda Acker