Singing, Reading, Writing, Playing

Practising with Tomás de Santa María

August Valentin Rabe

Chapter PDF

How did people practise at the keyboard instrument in the 16th century and how might attempting to answer this question help us with practising and teaching today? As neither historical musicology nor music pedagogy has yet addressed this research question, the topic remains a desideratum. In his 1910 classic, Otto Kinkeldey paraphrased some of Tomás de Santa María’s passages on practising, but this first spark failed to ignite any further scholarly engagement with this topic.¹ Today, in the context of ever more fine-grained historically informed performance practice, historically informed teaching practice has become a burgeoning field.²

The lacuna is partly due to the extreme dearth of sources: few clues on how people practised survive from the first half of the century.³ But Tomás de Santa María’s Arte de tañer Fantasia, published 1565, provides the most detailed and valuable source on practising keyboard instruments from any time in the 16th century.⁴ Santa María, who had signed a contract⁵ with the printer Francisco Fernandez de Cordova to publish an impressive edition of 1500 copies of his treatise, had probably been preparing the encyclopaedic treatise since around 1541.⁶ His book on tañer fantasia, i.e. extemporising polyphony, primarily concerns the clavichord, but the title and prologue explicitly clarify its additional applicability to the vihuela and all other instruments on which polyphonic playing is possible. The text provides a detailed description of several ways in which individuals might practise essential keyboard skills. But Santa María’s thoughts and suggestions on the subject are scattered throughout the two-volume treatise.

In this chapter, I consider these passages together for the first time. Doing so not only discloses the treatise’s overarching didactic concept but also allows for a description of individual areas of practice. I finish by deriving a model for practising in stages from the analysis and summarise some of the advice that keyboard instrumentalists can productively put to use when practising, teaching, and making music today.

My choice of topics is necessarily selective. I am deliberately omitting special performance areas such as hand position, fingering or ornamentation. On one hand, research has already been conducted on these topics.⁷ On the other, a full understanding of Santa María’s instruction in these areas would require extensive practical evaluation and testing. As this is still pending, this cannot be included in the current article.⁸

As its title indicates, the two-volume book aims to teach the ‘art of playing fantasia’. The first volume deals with prerequisites, the second with the actual art of polyphonic playing.

Among the prerequisites, Santa María lists solmization, hexachords, hexachord mutations (Volume I, chapters 1–4 ), the basics of mensural notation (I, 5–6) and musica ficta (I, 7). He also discusses a (keyboard) instrument’s limitations compared to the singing voice – for example, the absence of certain pitches and the impossibility, due to the tuning system, of forming all intervals from every note (I, 8–12). He also deals with what we would call hand position, touch, articulation, runs and scales, fingering, rhythmic playing and ornamentation (I, 13–19b⁹). This is followed by instructions on how pieces notated in mensural notation may be used productively in one’s instrumental practice (I, 20–22). Following a brief examination of diminutions (I, 23), the author turns to the eight modes and their transpositions (I, 24–25), concluding with a detailed treatment of clausulae in two, three and four parts (I, 26).

The first volume covers many topics also widely addressed in Musica practica treatises or textbooks that treat composition in mensural notation. This fact alone demonstrates that one of Santa María’s central approaches to playing the keyboard is through singing and making music from mensural notation in an ensemble with other musicians.

The second volume begins with a detailed treatment of the topics of consonance and dissonance (II, 1–10). Following this, there are several series of chapters discussing homophonic texture. The ‘rising and falling in consonances’ (subir y baxar a consonancias) begins with a variety of ways in which stepwise motions in the treble can be set polyphonically (II, 11–13). This concept is elaborated in a series of chapters on how tonal progressions in semibreves in the treble – starting from repeated notes and progressing through increasing intervals to octaves – can be worked out (II, 14–22). The same content follows for minimae (II, 23–28) and even semiminimae (II, 29) and fusae (II, 30). Next, the author turns to polyphonic composition. Over twenty chapters exhaustively present the possibilities for voice entries and combinations in paired imitations (II, 31–51). As the following chapter (II, 51) explains, these chunks of polyphonic music can then be joined together to form pieces.¹⁰ Following an essay on how to organise keyboard lessons (II, 52), the work ends with brief tuning instructions for clavichord and vihuela.

Despite its highly systematic structure, the text still retains a direct relationship to practice. Although Santa María refers to ancient authorities such as Boethius, Augustine and Aristotle and equates the rules of counterpoint with laws of nature, all the notated examples constitute ‘real music’ rather than just abstract rules. They clearly comprise especially composed small units that form meaningful sections when played together and they conclude with clausulae. The lucidity of his presentation of how to arrange voice entries in paired imitations surpasses ‘classical’ compositional treatises such as those by Franchinus Gaffurius or Johannes Tinctoris, which barely touch upon these subjects. For those interested in Santa María’s thoughts on practising and teaching, several essay-like, reflective passages sketch the broad outlines of his didactic ideas (e.g. I, 5; I, 20; II, 31; II, 52).

Santa María’s chief approach to improvising polyphony at the keyboard is to study pieces that were not originally intended primarily for keyboard and had been written down in choir-book or part-book format in mensural notation. Santa María calls this music canto de organo in contrast to canto llano, the liturgical monophony written down in one style of chorale notation. He is also committed to this approach notation-wise. All examples are written in partitura, in which the individual voices are either not aligned vertically or only roughly, and strokes through all the systems only serve to separate the examples from one another – but not, for example, to indicate breve-length units (see Fig. 1).

Fig. 1: Santa María, Arte, II, fol. 73^v. The four voices are not aligned vertically.

Santa María’s didactic concept revolves around the idea that composed, mensurally notated polyphony (Canto de organo) should be experienced in a variety of ways. These are reading, singing, writing and playing. As chapter I, 5 makes clear,¹¹ each of the individual voices should be sung by oneself as well as with others – as in the performance situation suggested by the mensural notation in separate parts. Additionally, one should play individual voices and whole pieces – possibly partly or completely notated in tablature¹² – on the instrument. During these activities, great attention should be paid to the compositional techniques used. Santa María compares this method of analysis through music-making to reading the works of learned authors.¹³ Just as reading is a source of daily inspiration from which perfection springs for a man of letters, so the study of polyphonic works is essential for the keyboard player.

Santa María gives a more precise idea of what this means in terms of practising and teaching in the 21^st chapter of the first volume. Here he gives ‘brief hints’ on ‘how the beginner can quickly master any piece’.¹⁴ This includes the study of pieces that have been intabulated from mensural notation. He describes three activities:

• Playing each note observing its correct value (‘entéder todas las figuras, y dar a cada vna su entero valor’) with an even pulse (‘tañer a Compas’).¹⁵

• Singing each individual voice and appreciating its solmization (‘cantar cada boz por si, entendiédo la Solfa de rayz’).¹⁶

• Analysing and understanding all the consonances and dissonances in the polyphonic texture (‘entender todas las Consonancias y Disonácias que lleuare la obra, assi las que fueren a duo, como los que fuere [sic!] a tres y a quatro’).¹⁷

First, rhythm and tempo are clarified – in terms of both individual note values and a constant tempo throughout the piece.¹⁸ The insistence upon rhythmic accuracy is particularly understandable when making music from mensural notation or partitura notation, in which the individual parts are only approximately organised rhythmically in relation to each other, if at all (see Fig. 1). However, the precise playing of rhythms and notated pitches on the instrument only constitute one aspect. Alongside this rather ‘technical’ step, the student has to ‘interpret’ the melody – not, however, by playing it on the keyboard instrument, but by singing each individual voice with solmization syllables. Solmization is important because, first, it clarifies the relationships of the individual pitches to each other, and, second, it reveals the relationship between what is sung and the modal system, which Santa María illustrates, for example, with diagrams of the scala decemlinealis and the Guidonian hand.¹⁹ Additionally solmization facilitates the identification of the contrapuntal possibilities, such as the intervals that can be formed, when to apply musica ficta, when to avoid mi contra fa, or how and where imitative voices can enter. While solmization initially only refers to the individual voice, it later offers an analytical view of the whole contrapuntal structure, which should also be analysed and understood by those who wish to ‘master’ a work.

Above all, this kind of analytical approach allows the player to transfer findings from the study of obras (polyphonic works that may or may not be intabulated) to their own polyphonic fantasias. The nature of the subjects (passos) and imitations in notated compositions should first be analysed in detail.²⁰ This includes, for example, determining how many voices follow each other, what the rhythmic distance between them is, and the intervals at which they enter. Particular attention should be paid to how the voices enter. Whether they begin before, during or after a clausula or cadence, for instance, demonstrates ‘the thing most exquisite, and of the greatest beauty and artistry of anything in music’.²¹ Thus, one should consider and memorize the type and nature of the clausulae and cadences of the pieces analysed for use in one’s own playing.²² Last but not least, the consonances and dissonances between all the voices and the solmization of each voice should be carefully studied and memorised so that they can be applied to one’s own playing in order to lend it ‘richness and abundance’.²³

This ‘polyphonic-literary’ education and engagement with mensurally notated composition form the backbone of Santa María’s didactic approach. Some further indications of historical practising and teaching techniques can be found in the penultimate 52^nd chapter of the second volume. Conceived as a two-page enumeration of twelve elements, the author reviews almost all the topics covered in the treatise, assigning each a position in the arduous learning journey of a student and their teacher. Even though some of the elements are explicitly formulated as successive learning steps, it should be clear that most of them are processes that take place over several years and that although the scheme is articulated as a sequence, it will necessarily involve some overlapping and deviations. In some of the elements, however, Santa María provides additional information that complements the content of the first volume – particularly focussing on the role of memory and the use of pre-existing compositions when practising the art of fantasia.

Santa María requires the student to write down the material covered in the lesson with the teacher – note for note and including all ornaments, and to sing all the individual parts:

Fourth let the pupil endeavor, after having received the lesson and having studied it well, to put it into notation just as the teacher gave it to him, with the glosas and everything else, and with nothing omitted. Also let him endeavor to sing each of the four voices individually.²⁴

The ‘lesson’ probably refers to sections of the piece that was worked out together, rather than pre-existing written-out compositions. What had been worked out had to be memorised accurately during the lesson so it could be written down at leisure later. Writing what is played down adds another crucial step in the learning process, which in itself presents a set of completely different challenges in terms of learning psychology. Phrases that a player has – perhaps unconsciously – ‘in his ear’ or ‘in his fingers’ now have to be arranged on paper and synchronised with staves, clefs and the other voices. This requires a detailed awareness of the architecture of the extemporised piece, as well as an examination of the rules not only of notation, but also of counterpoint and composition. As written pieces, the ‘lessons’ become obras, which can now be sung, practised, analysed and compared with other obras.

Santa María recommends students practise transposing complete pieces to all the degrees that the modal system allows and memorising their most imaginative passages in order to utilise them in their own fantasy-playing.²⁵ Another way to use obras creatively is to extract any single voice of the polyphony and place it first in the discant, then in the other voices, and harmonising it homophonically ‘with consonances’ (a consonancias).²⁶ Freer and correspondingly more demanding possibilities arise in contrapuntal playing over a chorale cantus-firmus or single voices of polyphonic compositions.²⁷ These various types of playing serve to perfect what Santa María calls the fantasia a concierto, i.e the art of extemporising imitative polyphony.²⁸

One of the most valuable chapters on practising is the 22nd of the first volume. This deals with the way obras may be experienced in a way that improves the player’s ability to produce a fantasia a concierto. The chapter is designed as a compilation of various exercises, from which a systematic model can be derived to enable effective practising today:

1. Analyse subjects, imitations, clausulae and counterpoint in a pre-existing composition. Memorise the subjects and any particularly notable passages.
2. Try out and vary different possibilities with these memorised subjects: the number of voices, the way in which they follow each other, the intervals and pitches at which the voices enter, clausulae, the use of consonance and dissonance.
3. Vary the pitches you start from.
4. Increase your repertoire of subjects.

Rather than a sequence to be completed consecutively, these exercises are inherently significant in themselves and can be undertaken concurrently. One need not even start with a complete piece, but an excerpt or even a fragment the learner has heard. Exercises such as silently analysing compositions, singing or mentally practising memorised excerpts without an instrument are also included in the spectrum of tasks described by Santa María.²⁹

In Santa María’s conception, practising could eventually be imagined as an endless spiral: mensurally notated obras are read, played alone and together with others, possibly intabulated and then analysed. Passages are memorised, practised on the instrument, transposed, varied in terms of their contrapuntal possibilities, and reassembled in the student’s own pieces. These new pieces can then in their turn be treated as obras, analysed and compared with other obras.

Santa María recommends focusing on a few subjects and practising them thoroughly:

In order for beginners to progress the fantasy, they must practice repeatedly with the subjects (passos) they know, so that through usage art is made a habit, and thereby they will easily [be able to] play other subjects.³⁰

In modern terms, the main goal of such practice is for playing to become habitual,³¹ with motoric patterns or chunks of motoric patterns that can be performed automatically – and thus demand little cognitive effort. At the same time, instrumental-musical expertise is also shown in the flexibility of the motor skills that the player has at his/her disposal (e.g. regarding fingering, keys, distribution of voices to the hands) to craft segments of musical meaning sonically: ‘skilled pianists can associate the same pitch-key pattern with any number of motoric patterns’.³² Practising such chunks of musical meaning takes place at several levels, that can be grouped into two main areas:

1. Learning to recognise their acoustic and graphic appearance in the notation, and consolidating this through reading, memorising and writing; and

2. gaining motoric control over chunks of motoric patterns in the vocal, speech and movement apparatuses of the body through singing and playing.

Santa María explicitly and separately recommends these interdependent processes for practice as they run in parallel. Such an approach clearly differs from the instrumental training practice still prevalent at many conservatoires, where ‘purely technical’ practice, strongly focussed on motor components, aims primarily at performing pieces perfectly. In this respect, the kind of practising that Santa María proposes could also be described as multimodal and multi-perspectival. As a result, the learning goals that practice aims to achieve are open and varied, although the various strands flow together in the fantasia a concierto. Nevertheless, there is no way to avoid spending years studying the instrument – then as now.

So that all the foregoing may be fruitful and beneficial in the fantasia, one must practice it many times each day with great perseverance, never losing confidence but holding to the certainty that continual work and practice will prevail in all things and make the master, as experience shows us at every step. And therefore a wise man has said that the stone is not carved out by the water drop that falls one time or two, but continuously.³³

Endnotes

Art. ‘concierto (a)’, in: Lexique Musical de la Renaissance – Traités musicaux en espagnol, <http://www.ums3323.paris-sorbonne.fr/LMR/index.php>

Warren Earle Hultberg, ‘Sancta Maria’s Libro llamado Arte de tañer Fantasia: A Critical Evaluation’, PhD thesis, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 1964

Louis Jambou, ‘Ornaments’, in: Grove Music Online, <https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.49928>

Otto Kinkeldey, Orgel und Klavier in der Musik des 16. Jahrhunderts. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Instrumentalmusik (Leipzig, 1910)

Mark Lindley, ‘Fingering’, in: Grove Music Online, <https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.40049>

Ulrich Mahlert (ed.), Handbuch Üben. Grundlagen, Konzepte, Methoden (Wiesbaden, 2006)

Bernadette Nelson, ‘Bermudo’s Masters and Models of Excellence for Keyboard Players in Sixteenth-Century Spain’, in RdM 39, no. 1 (2016), 77–115

Diego Ortiz, Trattado de Glosas sobre Clausulas y otras generos de puntos en la Musica de Violones […] (Rome: Valerio & Luigi Dorico, 1553)

Jessie Ann Owens, Composers at Work: The Craft of Musical Composition 1450–1600 (New York, 1997)

August Valentin Rabe, ‘Benutze nun die Tafeln selbst’. Sammeln, Schreiben, Lehren und Üben mit einem Fundamentum (ca. 1440–1550), Wiener Forum für ältere Musikgeschichte 14 (Vienna, 2024)

Miguel A. Roig-Francolí, ‘Playing in Consonances: A Spanish Renaissance Technique of Chordal Improvisation’, in: EM 23 (1995), 461–71

Elam Rotem, ‘Consonances According to Tomás de Santa María’, in: Early Music Sources.com, <https://www.earlymusicsources.com/youtube/consonances> (accessed 25 July 2023)

Thomas de Sancta Maria. Libro Llamado Arte de Tañer (1565) Chapters 13-19, translated by Sion M. Honea, Historical Translation Series, <https://www.uco.edu/cfad/files/music/sancta-maria-libro.pdf>

Tomás de Santa María, Libro llamado arte de tañer fantasía (Valladolid: Francisco Fernandez de Cordova, 1565), <http://bdh-rd.bne.es/viewer.vm?id=0000158382&page=1>

Tomás de Santa Maria, The art of playing the fantasia, ed. Almonte C. Howell and Warren E. Hultberg, 2 vols. (Pittsburgh, 1991)

Jonathan de Souza, Music at Hand. Instruments, Bodies, and Cognition, Oxford Studies in Music Theory 11 (New York, 2017)

Barbara Tversky and Jeffrey M. Zacks, ‘Event Perception’, in The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Psychology, ed. Daniel Reisberg (Oxford, 2013), 83–94

Sebastian Virdung, Musica getutscht und ausgezogen, [Basel]: [Michael Furter] [1511] (vdm: 3), <http://resolver.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/SBB0001444100000000>