The musical inventory of Mexico Cathedral, 1589: a lost document rediscovered

Abstract

Thanks to a detailed inventory dated 1589 recently found in Mexico Cathedral, it is possible to reconstruct the polyphonic repertory performed there in the 16th century. This document shows how Spanish and European music, both manuscript and printed, quickly reached Mexico and formed part of the music performed as part of the liturgy of one of the most important cathedrals in the New World. The inventory is signifi cant not only for the variety, breadth and detail of its contents, but also because it allows this reconstruction of the pre-1600 repertory in use at the cathedral even though almost all the musical sources themselves have been lost, and even more so because very few such inventories from this early have been found in Hispano-American cathedrals. The inventory includes printed collections of works by Josquin, Colin, Morales, Francisco and Pedro Guerrero and Victoria, as well as Latin- and Castilian-texted by renowned European composers such as Verdelot and Lassus, and local composers such as Carabantes and Franco. Although the repertory included in the inventory refl ects the musico-liturgical needs of a single institution at a given moment, it also refl ects the kind of music available in a New World cathedral towards the end of the 16th century. This article includes an analysis of the contents of the inventory and emphasizes the importance of this new document, lost for over 60 years since it was briefl y mentioned in an article by Lota M. Spell.