Beyond church and court: city musicians and music in Renaissance Valladolid

Texte disponible mis en page sur le site de l'éditeur : http://em.oxfordjournals.org/content/37/3.tocInternational audienceThe study of urban music has often been focused on court or church studies and, as a result, the analysis of music and music-making has been largely limited to these two particular environments. The 'new' vision proposed in the research presented here seeks, however, to examine the place that music occupied in the whole social system, following natural laws of association and dissociation. The role played by music in this new broader context can thus be integrated into what French historiographers have called the 'history of representations', a vision associated with private or public performances and their aesthetics. As musicologists, we are seeking to broaden our knowledge in this area by contributing to present-day interest in the musicians and music-makers in the everyday life of a Spanish town, telling the story of 'those without history'. The present article seeks to offer a documentary view of civilian life in 16th-century Valladolid: this will lead us to examine how music melted into the urban tissue in order to understand more about the way music was performed, taught, sold and transmitted