De notación hispánica a notación aquitana: escribir música en la Iberia medieval

Abstract

This article focuses on the peculiarities of the Old Hispanic and Aquitanian musical notations, as found in Iberian liturgical manuscripts from the 10 to the mid-16 centuries, and it proposes some reconsiderations of previous scholarship on Iberian music palaeography. Specifi cally, this palaeographical survey engages with two changes that occurred in music writing in the Peninsula in the period under consideration. Firstly, the Old Hispanic notation was replaced by Aquitanian notation at the end of the 11 century. Subsequently, the graphical appearance of Aquitanian notation changed due to the infl uence of the Gothic script. These two changes developed in quite different ways: the fi rst was swift and rapid whereas the second was slow and gradual. In this overview, I present some previously neglected sources as illustrative examples of Aquitanian notation. These sources have been studied for the fi rst time recently and are now available for consultation in the “Portuguese Early Music Database”.