Definiciones y usos del término “concierto” en la documentación catedralicia española entre c. 1750 y c. 1830

Abstract

According to the New Grove, the coexistence of the terms concerto and concert allows us to distinguish between an instrumental genre characterized by the confrontation between one or several soloists and the rest of the ensemble, on the one hand, and an event where music is performed, on the other. However, in Spanish, the term “concierto” is used interchangeably in both senses. For this reason, this text aims to answer the following question: what does “concierto” mean in the Spanish cathedral documentation during the second half of the eighteenth century and the first decades of the nineteenth century? The word “concierto” is associated with secular spaces, while its connection with religious contexts has been scarcely studied. This article aims to serve as a starting point to address this last topic. Firstly, I analyze the definitions and meanings gathered in various sources such as historical dictionaries, musical treatises, literary works or periodic publications. Subsequently, I show examples from thirteen Spanish cathedrals, which illustrate how this term was used in these institutions during the period mentioned above. In this way, the practice of performing instrumental music in cathedral ceremonies is documented, as well as some repertoires associated with these events are discovered.

Keywords

• concert
• concerto
• instrumental music
• spanish cathedrals
• late eighteenth – early nineteenth centuries