Songs of Mortals, Dialogues of the Gods: Music and Theatre in Seventeenth-Century Spain

Description: This is the first comprehensive survey of seventeenth-century Spanish theatrical music to be written, and the first book-length study devoted to the music of the Spanish baroque in English. While particular aspects of the field have been explored before, no previous single study has succeeded in defining the place and function of music in the Spanish theatre of the Golden Age, and the nature of the extant repertory. This book explains the various musical-theatrical genres that flourished in seventeenth-century Spain, answers essential questions about their nature and development as court and public entertainments, and looks at the anomalous production of three operas in a period dominated by genres such as the semi-opera and the zarzuela. Based on a thorough study of the extant music, the plays, numerous historical documents, and descriptions from the period, Stein builds a complete picture through a historical and contextual approach illustrated by musical and literary analysis. This book considerably advances our understanding of the culture of the baroque period in Spain, by making important statements about the nature of the Spanish musical baroque and its relation to European musical and theatrical developments.

Review Quotes: "At last, thanks to the Herculean labours of the American scholar Louise K. Stein, an extensive piece of terra incognita has been sighted and charted, and I have little doubt that her handsomely produced book provides an essential new perspective on Hispanic civilisation....This is an absorbing book, nothing if not comprehensive, both in the highly detailed description of the music and drama, and in the wealth of contextual information...all well organised and integrated."--The Musical Times