Cantigas alfonso x el sabio biography
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the Poema de Mío Cid) or some form of learned verse mostly written by clerics (e.g. Such a choice may seem strange, but there are several reasons that explain this:
1. Galician-Portuguese was already prestigious because of its close relationship –thanks to the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela— with Provençal poetry, the principal voice in lyric poetry from the 12th to the 14th centuries;
2. it provided greater variety of metre/ versification and wealth of vocabulary and imagery;
3. Some of Alfonso’s early years were spent in Galicia;
4. Galician-Portuguese was already practiced in his father’s court;
5. it confirmed the independence of Galician-Portuguese poet troubadours from Provençal poets who had previously dominated the poetic landscape;
6. or simply the fact that there were many Galician troubadours in his court.
For Alfonso, it also happened that the peculiar relationship between the poet/ lover and his lady as developed in the Provençal tradition would be a most appropriate vehicle to convey the king’s devotion to his particular “lady”, the Virgin Mary.
The Cantigas de Santa Maria form one of the largest collections of vernacular monophonic songs to survive from the Middle Ages. He immediately removes it, realising that his wife’s virtue is intact, thanks to Holy Mary.
It is the power and compassion of the Virgin that form the common thread in all the Cantigas, but for modern readers the appeal is the human dimension of the predicaments that people find themselves in.
Under Alfonso’s father, Fernando III, Castile had undergone a remarkable territorial expansion.
1280.
The Cantigas are poetic hymns that describe miracles attributed to Mary, who answers the prayers of all those devoted to her. g. [**Sancho VI of Navarra (1150-94) had also earned the title of “el sabio” although his impact on Spanish history is negligible by comparison.]
Sources.
Burns, Robert I ed. Emperor of Culture: Alfonso X the Learned of Castile and His Thirteenth-Century Renaissance Philadelphia 1990.
Carrión Gutiérrez, José M Conociendo a Alfonso el Sabio Murcia 1997.
Keller, John E and Annette Cash Daily Life Depicted in the Cantigas de Santa María Lexington 1998.
Kulp-Hill, Kathleen (transl) Songs of Holy Mary of Alfonso X, the Wise Tempe, Arizona 2000.
Márquez Villanueva, Francisco El concepto cultural alfonsi Madrid 1994.
O’Callaghan, Joseph The Learned King: The Reign of Alfonso X of Castile Philadelphia 1993.
Miniatures from Cantiga 35: Web Gallery of Art: Image Info about artwork, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15884841.
For an explanation of Cantiga 35, (clerics being saved from pirates), seehttp://csm.mml.ox.ac.uk/index.php?p=poemdata_view&rec=35
Image of Alfonso X and musicians: Domínio público, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1141048
Cantiga 144: Miracle of the bull: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cantigas_de_Santa_Maria_CXLIV_-_Milagro_del_toro_de_Plasencia.jpg
Cantiga 42 contains “baseball” game in upper right hand frame https://www.google.com/search?q=cantigas+de+santa+maria+42&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjjjOablbXgAhWlCDQIHbThCnoQsAR6BAgEEAE&biw=1087&bih=581#imgrc=_&spf=1549939180885
By Unknown - cantigas de santa maria, Public Domain,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moors
For those interested, there is a web page of the cantigas with introduction and more: http://www.cantigasdesantamaria.com/
For viewing numerous illustrations from the Cantigas, google “cantigas de santa maria images.”
For articles on the Cantigas and images of a variety of musical instruments in the Cantigas, seehttp://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cantigas/
**March 21, 2021: My thanks to Carmen English who brought to my attention the fact that Sancho VI of Navarre was also known as “el Sabio.”
Alfonso X ('El Sabio')
(1221- 1284)
King of Castile and León (from 1252) and brother-in-law of Edward I of England.
as disciples of the devil or as child murderers. Their arrangement echoes the stained glass windows of Gothic cathedrals and churches, but here embedded in pages, not walls.
Of course, it is the intercession of the Virgin Mary that is central to the tales in which these images and scenes appear, and her figure with the Christ child can normally be found at least in one (often the last) of the half a dozen or so miniatures that fill a page and represent a particular story (see Cantiga 35 illustration above).
Alfonso may not have completed Fernando’s dream (nor his own) of driving the Moors out of al-Andalus and pursuing them into North Africa, but he did complete a conquest of another kind: he unified the political units and provided them with a linguistic, legal, and cultural infrastructure.
Fernando is known as “el santo” (“the saint”) but there are many “santos” in Spanish history; there is, however, but one “sabio” (“learned”), a fitting and abiding recognition of Alfonso’s legacy to his country.
It has been called "one of the greatest monuments of mediaeval music."
Alfonso, though in many ways an unsatisfactory monarch, founded Spanish historiography in the vernacular and is sometimes called the father of Castilian prose.
Many troubadours found favor at his court, and it was here that the MS known as the Cantigas de Santa Mar�a comprisong over 400 songs was compiled; Alfonso himself may have composed some of its melodies. One of the miracles Alfonso relates is his own healing in Puerto de Santa María.23
Top Pieces on 8notes by Alfonso X el Sabio
Santa Maria, strela do dia (from Cantigas de Santa Maria)
Alfonso X and the Cantigas De Santa Maria: A Poetic Biography
They consist of 420 poems with musical notation.
Alfonso X commissioned or co-authored numerous works of music during his reign. The other contains music for 414 of the Cantigas.
The miniatures are fascinating rendering of religious scenes, banquets and processions, battles between Moors and Christians, country life with animals and plants, games, domestic and classroom scenes, falcon hunting, bull-baiting etc.
However, Galician-Portuguese was an established medium that enjoyed support at the court.
Although Alfonso wrote some 40 satirical, even scurrilous poems in Galician-Portuguese, his fame rests on the 420 Cantigas de Santa María (Songs to Holy Mary), completed ca. This volume explicates the historical circumstances surrounding the events described in the cantigas.
One contains over 1250 extraordinarily rich miniatures that provide a cross-section of life in the latter half of the 13th century. The rulers of Provence and the Iberian kingdoms frequently exchanged visits, and troubadours and jongleurs belonging to their entourages undoubtedly assisted in what might be called the cross-fertilization of the indigenous verse and music; it is hardly surprising that we find a style similar to that of the troubadours in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.
A Partial Troubadours, Trouvères and Minnesingers Discography | IIA: Troubadours, Trouvères and Minnesingers
the poetry of Gonzalo de Berceo, Libro de Alexandre, Libro de Apolonio).
What lyric poetry there was in Castilian were mainly popular songs which had not yet acquired the cultured polish of courtly love or the favour of courtly poets.
Themes include Alfonso’s longing to defeat the Moors of Granada and drive them out of Spain (#s 169, 181, 215, 323, 345, 360), his fear of betrayal by his nobles, and his feelings of gratitude to the Virgin for helping him over his several illnesses.
In accordance with the king’s will, some of the melodies are still sung in the Cathedral of Seville (where Alfonso is buried) on Mary’s feast days.