Music, Identity and the Inquisition in Fifteenth-Century Spain

Author(s): Eleazar Gutwirth

Source: Early Music History, Vol. 17 (1998), pp. 161-181
Published by: Cambridge University Press
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EarlyMusicHistoy (1998)Volume
17. X)1998Cambridge
University
Press
Printedin theUnitedKingdom

ELEAZAR
GUTWIRTH

MUSIC, IDENTITY AND THE

INQUISITION IN
FIFTEENTH-CENTURY SPAIN*

'Citola,odrecillonon amarcagmilhallaco.'
(Thecitola and the bagpipesdo not suit an Arab man)l

Sometimebetweentheyears1330and1343,JuanRuiz,Archpriest
of Hitain Castile,includedthismaximin hisliterarymasterpiece,
the Librodebuenamor.Thisverse,like othersin the poem,attrib-
utes an ethnicidentitybothto objectsandto vocalmusic,a form
of ethnicmarkingthat has been preservedin Spanishcultureby
linguisticusage:the Arabicparticlea[l] in the prefixto wordsfor
musicalinstrumentssuch as adufe(squaretambourine),ajabeba
(transverseflute)or anaJ%I (a straighttrumpetfourfeet or more
in length)is a possiblereminderof this phenomenon.2 Abouta
centurylater,the chronicler Alonsode Palencia(d. 1492)applied
similarethnicmarkingswhenspeakingof the musicof a young
Castilianconverso who was to becomeone of the most powerful
courtiersof KingEnriqueIV,DiegoAriasDavila:'perrurasego-
biensia. . . cantibusque arabicisadvocabat sibicoeturusticorum'.3
When, some forty years ago, MenendezPidal attemptedto
reconstruct the historicalcontextof theLibrodeb?uen
amor(includ-
ing its verseson musicand musicalinstruments)in a waythat
wouldboth explainits historicalbackground andconfirmits his-
toricalvalidityandaccuracy,he consideredthe particularcase of
* This articleis a revisedversionof a paperpresentedto the HispanicCulturesResearch
Groupdirectedby Dr Inger Enkvistat the RomanskaInstitutionof the Universityof
Lund,Sweden,in September1996.I shouldlike to expressmy gratitudeto Dr Enkvist
and all the other participantsfor their commentsand encouragement
Librodebuenamor.TheBookofTrueLove,trans.S. R. Daly,ed.A. N. Zahareas(Philadelphia,
1973),lines 151S17.
2 R. Stevenson,SpanishMusicin theAgeof Columbus (The Hague, 1960),pp. 22-3.
3 Palencia,Cronica deEnriqueIV, ed. A. Paz y Melia (Madrid,1973),D6cadaI (lib. iii, cap.
5), and MenendezPidal (see note 4).

161
 EleazarGutwirth
this fifteenth-centuryJewish There is some significance
converso.4

in the fact that, on the one hand,the fourteenth-centuryChristian

Castilianmasterpieceappearsto showsuchfamiliaritywithArabic
music and that, on the other, MenendezPidal should have used,
as historicalembodimentof the poet's views, the case of a musi-
cian of Jewish birth and cultural backgroundwho became a
courtier.Of course,the texts used by MenendezPidal now appear
to be far more problematicand ambiguousthan they did at the
time5 (he claimed,for example,that in the songs of the Sephardi
women of North Africa, as sung in the early twentieth century,
could be heard 'the sounds of the Castile of the Catholic
Monarchs').6Nevertheless, his emphasis on the significanceof
fifteenth-centuryHispano-Jewishmusicalpracticehas nowbecome
an acceptedpart of scholarlyconcern.Whetheror not they accept
the fifteenth-centurydatingfor the originof the musicaltraditions
that have been collected and studied only in the nineteenth and
twentiethcenturies,historiansof music have repeatedlyreturned,
for more than a century,to the problemof the musicalpractices
of fifteenth-centuryhispanicJewry, that is to say to the music
which the Jews exiled from Spain in 1492 may have taken with
them to theirvariousdestinations.7Paradoxically,despite the rich-
4 R. MenendezPidal,Poeszajuglarescayjuglares (Madrid,1957),p. 229.
5 On the Latin and Frenchsourcesor analoguesof some of the referencesto musical
instrumentsin the Librode buenamor,see F. Lecoy,Recherches sur le Librode buenamor,ed.
A. D. Deyermond(Farnborough,1974), p. 260, who discussesthe list of instruments
whichgreet Loveandits dependenceon previousmodelsevenin apparentlylocaldetails
such as Moorishinstruments.See also D. Devoto, 'La enumeracionde instrumentos
musicales en la poesia medieval castellana' in Miscelaneaen Homenagea H. Angle's
(Barcelona,1958-61),pp. 211-22. Similarlyproblematicis the other source,thoughfor
differentreasons.The problemsof usingPalencia'schroniclefor anyoneconnectedwith
EnriqueIV are well known,and in the case of DiegoAriasthey maybe compoundedby
his Jewish origins. On the problemof the representationof Jews and judaisers in
Castilianchroniclesof the period,see E. Gutwirth,'TheJewsin 15th-Century Castilian
Chronicles',Jewish QuarterlyReview,84, no. 4 (1984),pp. 379-96. There is little evidence
to showthat PalenciakneweitherArabicor Hebrew,or thathe coulddistinguishbetween
these differingmusicaltraditions.
6 R. MenendezPidal,Poeszapopularypoeszatradicionalen la literaturaespanola.Conferencia lezda
en All Souls' College26/6/1922(Oxford,1922).
7 See for example E. Gerson Kiwi, 'On the Musical Sources of the Judeo-Spanish
Romance',MusicalQuarterly,50 (1964),pp.31-43;H. Avenary,'OldMelodiesto Sephardic
pizmonim'(in Hebrew),in Tesorode losjudios sefardies,3 (1960),pp. 149-53;idem,'Cantos
espanolesantiguosmencionadosen la literaturahebrea',AnuarioMusical,25 (1971),pp.
67-79; J. Etzion and S. Weich-Shahak,'The Spanish and the SephardicRomances:
MusicalLinks',Ethnomusicology, 32 (1988),pp. 1-37;idem,'TheSpanish"Romances viejos"
and the SephardicRomances:MusicalLinksacrossFiveCenturies',Atti delXVI Congreso
della Societ2Internazionaledi Musicologia(1989),pp. 7-16.

162
 Music,Identityand the Inquisitionin Fifteenth-CenturySpain
ness of the repertory,and the evidentimportanceand the frequent
use made of the songs that have been collected in our own cen-
tury (in disciplinessuch as the literaryhistoryof fifteenth-century
Spain), the fifteenth-centurysources mentioned in the scholarly
literatureon the subjectare both scant and problematic.A recent
study has gone so far as to affirmthat 'existing data concerning
the music of the Jews in Spain prior to the expulsion is almost
nil'.8The question would appear to be why such a rich tradition
seems to haveleft so veryfew tracesin the pre-expulsionevidence.
It is againstthis backgroundof the paucityof sourcesmentioned
in the scholarlyliteratureand their problematicnaturethat it may
be suggested that there does, in fact, exist a type of fifteenth-
century evidence which, though neglected, may nevertheless be
used to reconstructsome aspects of Hispano-Jewishmusicalprac-
tice and their meaning: namely, the records of the Spanish
Inquisition.Here attention may be focusedon Diego Arias Davila
himself, because of the importance attributed to his music by
his contemporaries(Palenciais only one of them) and by later his-
torians (such as MenendezPidal) on the one hand, and because
of the relative wealth of material providedby the Inquisition
recordsthemselveson the other.
Diego Arias (d. 1466)was a civil servantof some socialand polit-
ical importance,being, at various times, contador mayor (an office
akin to chief treasurerof the kingdomof Castile), secretaryto the
king, chief notaryof the king'sprivilegesthroughouthis royaland
seigneuriallands, notarypublicin the king'scourt,and a member
of the royal council. His name appearsin the marriagecontract
drawnup in 1455betweenEnriqueIV andJuana,the sister of the
Kingof Portugal,thus showinghis activeinvolvementin the dynas-
tic affairsof the crown.Ariaswas also part of the alliancebetween
EnriqueIV and the most powerfulmen of the realm:Alfonsode
Fonseca, Archbishop of Seville; Don Pedro Giron, Master of
Calatrava;Alvarode Estuniga,Count of Plasencia;JuanPacheco,
Marquessof Villena; and AlfonsoPimentel, Count of Benavente.
He was in turn the founderof a dynastywhichincludedthe Bishop
of Segovia;a prothonotaryof the kingdom;an early conquistador
8 See E. Seroussi,'BetweenEasternand WesternMediterranean: SephardicMusicafter
the Expulsionfrom Spain and Portugal',Mediterranean
HistoricalReview, 6 (1991), pp.
198-206.

163
 EleazarGutwirth
who foundedPanamaandwas the first governorof Nicaragua;and
the counts of Punonostro.9For us, it is his cultural and artistic
activities that are of greater interest. His opulent mansion in
Segovia excited the envy even of noble families such as the
Mendozasbecause of features of its design and furnishingssuch
as the golden ceilings, the cups and vases encrustedwith precious
jewels, and the bedsheetsof fine hollandlinen. Ostentationon this
scale naturally evoked comparisonswith the magnificence of
emperors,popes and cardinals,and the reportsof contemporaries
mention the numerousseekers for his favourwho would wait on
him laden with presents.It is probablethat Ariaswas a patronof
poets and of the manuscriptilluminatorsand painterswho stayed
in his house. His wife's reading habits were consideredremark-
able by her Segovianneighbours,who recalledin detail the splen-
did bindingsof her books.His son, the bishopof Segovia,and his
book-collectingactivities are famou$and are a source of pride to
Segoviansto this day. The bishophas been creditedwith the early
introductionof features of Renaissancearchitectureinto Spain,
particularlyin the design of the bishop's palace at Turegano.l
Fromthe fifteenth-centuryInquisitionevidenceon Arias one may
reconstructaspects of musicalpracticewhich are usuallyignored:
informationabout repertory,the places in which musical perfor-
mance took place, the nature of the audience and its critical
responses,and, most importantlyfor us here, the significanceof
this music in its social and historicalcontext.

9 On the conversosin fifteenth-century Castile in general,see Y. Baer,A Historyof theJews

in ChrzstianSpain, vo1. II (Philadelphia,1978).On Diego Arias'sInquisitionfile and its
historical interpretation,see E. Gutwirth, 'Jewish-ConversoRelations in XVth c.
Segovia',Proceedings of theEighth WorldCongressofJewish Studies,B (Jerusalem,1982),pp.
49-53;idem,'Elementosetnicose historicosen las relacionesjudeo-conversas en Segovia',
Jewsand Gnversos,ed. Y. Kaplan(Jerusalem,1985),pp.83-102;idem,'Onthe Background
to Cota's Epitalamio Burlesco',RomanischeForschungen,97, 1 (1985), pp. 1-14; idem,
'AbrahamSeneor:SocialTensionsand the Court-Jew', Michael, 11 (1999),pp. 169-229;
idem,'FromJewishto ConversoHumourin FifteenthCenturySpain',Bulletin of Hispanic
Studies, 67 (1990), pp. 223-33. All referencesare to the excellent transcriptionsby C.
CarreteParrondoin FontesIudaeorumRegniCastellae,vp1.III (Salamanca,1986),hereafter
cited as 'FIRC'.
' On DiegoAriassee the notes to the studiesof his Inquisitionfile mentionedabove;also
J. RodriguezPuertolas,Poeszacrzticaysatzricadelsigloxv (Madrid,1984),andJ. M.Azaceta,
El Cancionero deJuan Fernandezde Ixar (Madrid,1956)pp. 447ff.

164
 Music,Identityand the Inquisitionin Fifteenth-CenturySpain
THE SPACES OF JEWISH MUSIC

The Inquisitors'recordsrelating to the Arias Davila family show

the extent to which his contemporariesfelt the places where his
music was performedto be important.A numberof descriptions
of his singing have been preservedin these documents, and of
course there may have been other depositionsgiven before the
Inquisitiontribunalwhich have not survived.The file itself repre-
sents only a selection from the books of the Segovianand other
Inquisition tribunals, and the depositions were given at least
twentyyears after the events which they describe.This is in itself
an eloquent testimony to the memorable nature of his perfor-
mances. Moreover,some of these accountswere given at second
hand by witnesses who remembered hearing about his perfor-
mances but had not experiencedthem personally;evidentlythey
were also the subject of private conversationsamongst Diego
Arias'scontemporaries.Specificationsof the place of performance,
usually included in these accounts, differ somewhat from the
better-documentedones of Christiansecularmusic orJewish and
Christian liturgical music in fifteenth-centurySpain: the syna-
gogue, the church,the privatechapel and the streets duringpro-
cessions.ll In May 1489, Rabbi Simoel, doctor to the Duke of
Albuquerque,testified under oath that he had heard maestre
Josep, his father, speakaboutDiego Arias'smusic,and that it had
been performed'while walking one day . . . [and] they were left
alone separatedfrom the other people who were with them'.l2In
April 1486, Rabbi David Gome testified that he had heard one
Jacob talk about Diego Arias'ssinging;this time the performance

For the placeswhere musicwas performedin fifteenth-century Spainand their analy-

sis, see e.g. K. Kreitner,'Musicin the CorpusChristiProcessionof Fifteenth-Century
Barcelona',EarlyMusicHistory, 14 (1995),pp. 153-204;see alsoT. Knighton,'Ritualand
Regulations:The Organizationof the CastilianRoyalChapelduringthe Reign of the
Catholic Monarchs',Misceldnea... Jose' Lopez-CaloS. J., coord. E. Casares and C.
Villanueva,vol. I (Santiagode Compostela,1990),pp. 291-320,whichemphasisesthat
the royalchapelwas not so mucha spaceas a bodyof clergy.There are imagesof per-
formancespaces in, for example,the breviaryilluminatedin Flandersduringthe last
decadeof the fifteenthcenturyfor Queen Isabella(nowLondon,BritishLibraryAdd.
MS 18851)on fol. 164,whereKingDavidis shownsurroundedby the singersof the 'old
song'of the Old Testament.See J. Backhouse,TheIsabellaBreviaCy(London,1993),pl.
24. For the performanceof Christiansecular music in Spain see also M. C. Gomez
(133S1442), vol. I (Barcelona,1979).
Muntane,La musicaen la casa realcatalano-aragonesa
12 FIRCNo. 104,p. 62.

165
 EleazarGutwirth
had takenplace in an inn whereDiegoAriashadbeen lodgedwhile
in Medinadel Campo,in a roomwhich had a table laid out with
tablecloth.l3Jacob Castellano, a Jewish vecino of Medina del
Campo,referringto the event, recalledthat 'it happenedtwenty-
six years ago [that is to say, around 1460],when this witness was
about twelve years old ... Diego Arias came to the said city of
Medina [del Campo]; he lodged in the house of FranciscoRuiz
and the late Gomez Gongalezand don Ynge [i.e. Yuge = Joseph]
Abeataand don Uulema. . . andwhile being there in the said lodg-
ing . . . [in] Diego Arias'sretraymiento where he was with the said
Jews.'l4 Rabbi Mosse aben Mayor testified that he had heard
[Ynge] Yuge aben Mayor talk about Diego Arias's singing in
Villalpando,where Diego Arias lodged in the house of the wit-
nesses' mother. 'Some nights after he came from the palace [. . .]
after he had dined he would ask for the said Yuge to be sent to
him, and he would go down to a great kitchenwhere he was and
he would order everybodyout and would order the said Yuge to
shut the door and would tell him to sing.'l5Later, in May 1487,
DonJuda($aragozatestifiedhowDiego Ariashad sung to him 'one
day going on the way to Chinchon'.l6
So Diego Arias sangJewish songs on the road,inJewish house-
holds,in the privacyof his own house,in a kitchenand in his room
at an inn in Medinadel Campo.These were not the publicspaces
implied by Palencia'saccountbut, on the contrary,places where
intimacyand privacywere of the essence of the occasion.Alonso
Henriqueztestified in Octoberof the same year that Diego Arias
had told him that 'if there was anythingafter this world for the
soul . . . it was the voices of the prayersof the Jews which would
do for him becausebehindthe said monasteryof La Mercedthere
was a synagogue'.l7The places where music was performedwere
evidentlypresent in these memories,but Diego's reportedcom-

13 FIRC No. 179, p. 102.

4 FIRC No. 187, p. 106. On the significance of the retraymiento,see E. Gutwirth, 'Habitat
and Ideology: The Organization of Private Space in Late Medievaljudersas',Mediterranean
Historical
Review,9 (1994), pp. 205-34. For yet another place where music was possibly
performed (it was certainly a place for prayer), the huertaof Diego Arias near the gate
of San Martin, see FIRC No. 82.
5 FIRC No. 111, p. 203.
16 FIRC No. 219, p. 115.
7 FIRC No. 66, p. 43.

166
 Music,Identity
andtheInquisition
in Fifteenth-Century
Spain
ment is an observation on the intersectionbetweenspace,musi-
cal meaningand the conflictbetweenChurchand Synagogue.
WhatAriaswasaffirming, in fact,wasthatnearhistombtwokinds
of musicwouldbe voiced:the Christianmusicof the monastery
of LaMercedandtheJewishmusicof thenearbysynagogue. Music
wasnot seenas divorcedfromthe spacesof religiousidentity.The
ideahaswiderimplications, someof whichare expressedin liter-
arytexts;forexample,a poemby PeroFerrusin the Cancionero de
Baenais basedpreciselyon the contrastbetweentwomusicaltra-
ditionswhichrepresent,metonymically, the two religions.This
poemalsoappealsto stereotypesof whatwasthoughtin medieval
Spainto be a distinctive'Jewishvoice'.Whatmayneedemphasis
is that suchideas,despitefirstimpressions, werenot mereliter-
ary topoithat existed exclusivelywithin the boundsof written
literarytexts,but formedpartof a widerspectrumof socialmen-
talities;the archivalrecordsof the Inquisitionprovideus with
evidenceof theiroralcurrency.l8

AUD I ENC E

We may also partlyreconstructthe audiencefor Diego Arias's

singingfromthe Inquisitionrecords.Mostof the witnesseswho
testified to Diego Arias's singing were neither conversosnor
Christians,but Jews. This has a certainsignificance.Previous
neglectof this kindof archivalmaterialmayhavebeenbasedon
preconceptions aboutits exclusiveconcernwithconversos.But the
file, it maybe argued,has left evidencenot onlyaboutthe activ-
ities of the Inquisitionandof theconversos
butalsoaboutthe men-
talityof the Jews and, in particular,of a relativelywell-defined
groupwithinJewishsocietythat maybe looselydescribedas the
leadersof the community andtheirassociates,peoplewhomoved
withina concretegeographicarea (centralCastile)andwhohad
relationswithSegovia.AbrahamSeneor,for example,wasa resi-
dent of Segoviaand a chief tax collectoras well as beingChief
Judgeand ChiefRabbiof theJews;JacobCastellano,theJewish
18 This toposwill be studiedin detail elsewhere.PeroFerrus'sCantigahas been frequently
cited in the literature;see, for example,the Cancionero
deBaena(Leipzig,1860),p. 319.
In the usualinterpretation,the reverseof myown,it is seen as an unproblematicmodel
of 'convivencia'.

167
 EleazarGutwirth
vecino of Medinadel Campo,was an officialof the Jewish commu-
nity;RabbiDavidGome is describedas someonewhowas resident
in Medinadel Campo;RabbiSamuelwas the doctorof the Duke
of Albuquerque,while the SegovianAlonso Henriquezwas also a
Jew in Diego Arias'slifetime. They were all part of Diego Arias's
circle, that is to say people who were in contact with well-placed
officialsin EnriqueIV's administration,and as such can hardlybe
describedas a popularaudience. Nevertheless,accordingto one
testimonygiven in 1486,those 'wholived with Diego Arias'would
talk about his Hebrewsongs: 'que oyo decir a muchosque vivian
con Diego Arias';'peoplewho lived with him' is a frequentphrase
in the romanceliteratureof the period to describe'his servants',
i.e. the servantswho lived in his house. This reportedremarkmay
be used to reconstructDiego Arias'sbehaviourin the privacyof
his home.l9Some of the testimonies given before the Inquisition
show that Arias'saudiencealso includeda numberof conversos. On
19 April 1489 a descriptionof one of his performanceswas given
by the uncle of FernandoAlbarez, who, after describingDiego
Arias's singing, added, 'y estale escuchando e oyendo Alonso
Gongalezde la Oz e otros biejos' ('andAlonso Gongalezde la Oz
was listening and hearinghim, with other old men').20These fam-
ilies (de la Oz, del Rio, etc.) also belong to a well-definedgroup
within Segoviansocietyin the secondhalf of the fifteenthcentury.
Their names appearfrequentlyin Segovianbusiness and admin-
istration records;they belonged to the city counciland were part
of the upper echelons of the urbanoligarchy.

REPERTORY

The Inquisitionrecordsrepeatedlyrefer to specificitems of music,

in contrast to other texts (theoretical texts in this or other
Inquisitionfiles with less detailed testimonies)where the music is
not described.Nevertheless, some of these testimonies refer to
Jewish songs not sung by Diego Arias,while others refer to songs

9 On these individuals,see the studies mentionedin note 9 above.Other recordedlis-

teners are the Jew AbrahamSaragossi,Diego Arias'smajordomoin Segovia;Culema
aben Shushan,a Jewishtax-collector;andJudahSaragossa,a SegovianJewishcommu-
nity officialc. 1482.See FIRCp. 74; p. 73; p. 115 and p. 102.
20 FIRCNo. 111.

168
 Music, Identity and the Inquisition in Fifteenth-Century Spain

without giving their titles (e.g. 'las bozes de las oracionesde los
judios'). For the sake of conveniencewe may try to itemise them
as they appearin the documents:
1 un pismonique dicen los judios Col meuacer
2 la hararu
3 vendicionescantadas
4 canta el berso que dize el capellanjudio quandosaca la
Tora en hebrayco
5 Mismady cohay etc
6 cadis
7 Vay hod lo asamay
8 el pizmo
9 algun salmo cantado
10 el sediente
The highly corrupt character of the transcriptionsfrom the
Hebrewin the recordstells us a good deal about the lack of sig-
nificanceof the individualmusicalitems for Christiannotaries.It
must be addedthat while it is true that these documentsare later
copies of fifteenth-centuryoriginals, the mis-transcriptionof
Hebrewwordsor Jewish names by Spanishnotaries is very com-
mon indeed, even in fifteenth-centurytexts. Nevertheless,most of
these references may be identified, either by emendation or
throughtheir contexts, as follows:
1 A pizmon[see below] which the Jews call 'Qol Mevaser'
2 the Haftarah
3 the blessings sung for the Haftarah
4 Atah Horetah and other verses
5 Nishmat Kol Hay
6 Kaddish
7 Va-YekhuluHa-Shamayim[i.e. Kiddush- the
Sanctificationover the wine]
8 the pizmon
9 a sung psalm
10 'el sediente'
21 For this transcriptionof a prayer'sname, see E. Gutwirth,'Fragmentosde Siddurim
espanolesde la Geniza',Sefarad,40 (1980), pp. 389-401. The evidencefor the musical
characterof 'BarukhShe-'Amar'and the practiceof 'prolongingits tune' is from the
thirteenthcenturyand from the Franco-German region,and thereforeis not directly
relevanthere. Kiddushis transcribedas hedi(cf. No. 182)and also as beraha.
AtaHoretah
is mentionedin YudaPillos'stestimony.FernanAlvarez'stestimonyrefersto the verses
after removingthe Scroll.

169
 EleazarGutwirth
TALKING ABOUT MUSIC

Thesereferencesto musicin the recordsof the Inquisitionreveal

a fieldwhichpreviously hasnotbeendevelopedbystudentsof late-
medievalHispano-Jewish music,by articulating,in Castilian,a
specificallyJewish discourseaboutmusic.Thisorallytransmitted
andeveryday materialcontrastssharplyin characterfromthe cor-
pusof theoreticalandlearnedtexts aboutmusicin Hebrewfrom
the period.These generallyrefer to music from a perspective
groundedin naturalphilosophy, medicine,cosmology,magicand
mysticism; as suchtheyarewelldefinedanddelimitedbythe con-
ventionsof theirrespectivegenresandtextualsources,ratherthan
being spontaneousappreciationsof musicalexperience.22 The
Inquisitionrecordshelp to reconstructsomethingwhichis not a
staidrepetitionof ancientideasaboutmusic:rather,it is a dis-
course- possiblymoreoriginalandcertainlymorespontaneous -
of appreciation andevaluationof musicalexperience.
Ononeoccasion,forexample,wearetoldthatDiegoAriasasked
aJew'whetherhe knewhowto singsomethingin his Hebrew,and
he answeredthat he did'.23 Musicis here not onlya questionof
knowledge, 'si sabia',butalsoof ethnicity,'suhebrayco', wherethe
possessivepronounindicatesthe converso's perceptionof theJews'
'possession'of Hebrewlanguage,poetic texts and songs.Diego
Ariasusesthe termpizmon (transcribed bythe notaryas 'pismoni'),
andit is of someinterestthat he doesnot use otherterms.'Qol
Mevaser'is indeeda pizmon (the term was definedby medieval
Jewssuchas TanhumYerushalmi in his dictionary(s.v.pazzem) as
the unchangingrefrainto be performedin chorusby the audi-
ence),24but it seems that by this time the Hebrewterm had
enteredthe romancevernacular in use in the dailyspeechofJews
andconversos as a genericdesignationforJewishsongsfromthe

22 Cf. e.g. M. Idel, 'MusicandPropheticKabbalah',Yuval,4 (1982),pp. 150-69;N. Allony,

'TheTermmusiqah in MedievalJewishLiterature'(in Hebrew),Yuval,1 (1968);I. Adler,
ed., HebrewWritings Concerning
Music(Munich,1975).
23 FIRCNo 104,p. 62. Anotherwitnessdescribedan occasionwhenDiegoAriaswassinging
'a una solavoz' (solo)in Hebrewandall the othersresponded.See FIRCNo. 71.Another
descriptionof his singingwas 'a voces',i.e. loudly.See FIRCNo.81.
24 H. Shay'scriticaleditionof the dictionaryon the basis of the St Petersburgand other
Genizafragmentsis imminent.In the meantime,see the quotationand commentsof
Y. Ratzhavi,'Formand Melodyin the Jewish Song of Yemen' (in Hebrew),Tazlil,8
( 1968),p. 16.
170
 Music,Identityand the Inquisitionin Fifteenth-CenturySpain
liturgy.Anotherwitness tells us how 'the said Diego Arias helped
him and said that he did not get the melodyright but that it was
the way he started to sing, and then they both sang':25'ajudo'may
have little meaning beyond 'helping'but it may also be a term
with resonancesfrom synagogalinstitutions where a 'helper' of
the precentor(hazzan) acted as a one-manchoir.26 AnotherJewish
witness describedDiego Arias's performanceas follows:'cantalo
muy bien y bienelo cantandopaso a paso',27using Spanishmusi-
cal terminology;even today the expression'paso a paso' retains
the meaning of 'cada una de las mudanzasque se hacen en un
baile', althoughit also denotes the precisionand deliberatepace
of an activity.In anothercase a witnessdescribedtheJewishliturgy
using the term responsotaken fromthe Christianliturgy:'he began
to sing a responso which the rabbi sings at the beginning of the
prayer"Mismady cohay". . .X28 or, elsewhere,'to say the saidrespon-
sos'. In modern Castilian, restonso has a relativelywide range of
associations;not only 'responsorioque separadodel rezo se dice
por los difuntos',but also 'ciertasprecesy versiculosque se dicen
en el rezo despues de las lecciones en los maitines y despues de
las capitulas de otras horas'. In another testimony made before
the tribunalwe read that 'he began to sing accordingto his voice
a responso which he sang very tunefullyas the Jews do and with as
much grace or even better . . . for about a quarterof an hour'.29
(Note that this witness used the phrase'muchoa son' - 'in tune'.)
So the impressionleft on this Jewish listener,Jacob Castellano,
more than two decades after the performancewas not only musi-
cal but was also inseparablefrom ethnicity:Diego Arias sang 'en
la forma que los judios lo dicen y con tan buena gracia o mejor':
'as the Jews do and with as much grace or even better'.30

25 FIRCNo. 104,p. 62.

26 R. SolomonbenAdret,She'elotW-Teshavot, vol. I (BneBeraq,1982),p. 300, refersrepeat-
edly to 'the helper'of the Huescancommunity'sprecentor.I interpretthe references
to 'helperas replacement'of the cantoras only one aspectof the 'helper's'functions.
27 FIRCNo. 111.
28 FIRCNo. 179,p. 102.
29 FIRCNo. 187,p. 166.
30 Ibid.

171
 EleazarGutwirth
MUSIC AND SOCIETY

These considerationsbringus to the more generalquestionof the

significanceof Diego Arias'sperformanceof Hebrewsongs.While
on the one hand the music of the Jews and the conversos has not
been a subjectof much interest to students of the recordsof the
Inquisition,on the other the studyof conversos' activitiesin general
is a field with a long history.Some attention, albeit brief, to the
positions expressedin the historiographyof the subject is neces-
saryto clarifysome of the waysin whichit contrastswith our own.
As is well known,there are a numberof studies of what are usu-
ally termed the 'ritosy costumbres'(rites and customs)of the con-
versos.3l These bringtogetherreportsfromthe Inquisition'srecords
from the 1480s onwards,in which witnesses describe what they
believe to be the 'judaising'practices of neighboursor acquain-
tances, such testimonies usually being used by the prosecution.
Students of Spanish history in the period of the Inquisition
have often used these accounts as evidence of the 'judaising'or
'Judaism'of the conversos. The reader of such studies cannot help
formingthe impressionthat there is a certain homogeneityabout
their descriptionof these practices,that is to say that they func-
tion througha generalcategoryof 'judaising'or 'Judaism'(depend-
ing on the writer) and that all the 'rites and customs' are more
or less similar and equallyplaced examples or exponents of this
general category.
Our particularcase, that of music performancesas recordedin
the file of Diego Arias, is related to (though not identical with -
see below) a defined and particularfield, namely liturgy.Within
the conventionsof the study of the conversos based on Inquisition
records,these cases of singingJewishprayersbelong to a general
homogeneousand somewhatshapelesscategoryof 'rites and cus-
toms'. If we cannot followthese historiographictraditions,it is in
part because the apparentshapelessnessand homogeneityof the
resultingimage thus constructedtrivialisesthe importanceof the
evidence and is belied by the methods adopted in related and
neighbouringareas of recent research, such as the history of
ChristianandJewishliturgy.Indeed,historiansof liturgyknowfull
31 R. SantaMarfa,'Ritosy costumbresde los hebreosespanoles',Boletznde la RealAcademia
de la Historia, 22 (1893), pp. 181-8, is an earlyexponentof this long tradition.

172
 Music,Identityand the Inquisitionin Fifteenth-CenturySpain
well that not all prayersare identicalor interchangeable,and that
there are categories of prayers,functions,placement and devel-
opments within liturgy. It is only too easy to ascribe these con-
tradictionsto a technical explanation, namely that students of
Spanish paleography,medieval documents and fifteenth-century
Romance- i.e. the general historiansof the conversos' 'rites'- have
been unaware of the corpus of scholarshipdealing with Jewish
liturgyin Hebrewin general and of the intense late-medievalpro-
ductivity of codificationof Hispano-Jewishliturgy in particular.
Conversely,studentsofJewish liturgyhave had little contactwith
these medievaldocumentsor with detailed studies of the conversos
of fifteenth-centurySpain. Yet such an explanation,while it is
partly true, does little justice to the more profound problem
touchedon by such studentsof liturgyas, for example,Hoffman.32
He has recentlywritten on the difficultiesof describingreligious
experience and appropriatelycites Wittgenstein, who observed
that it is impossible for the non-religiousperson to contradict
the religious. Putting himself in the position of the former,
Wittgensteinwrites:
I thinkdifferently. . . I havedifferentpictures. . . [In attemptingto con-
tradict a religiousperson]I give an explanation:'I don't believe in ...'
but the religiouspersonneverbelieveswhatI describe.I can't say.I can't
contradictthe person . . .' We workwith differentpicturesthat we take
for grantedand with whichwe orderexperience.33
Perhapsunwittingly,students of the conversos' practicesseem to
have adoptedthe Inquisitors'point of view,in as muchas all these
practices have been considered to be equally indicative of the
'heresy'of 'judaising'.But for the twentieth-centuryhistorianwho
wishes to come to terms seriouslywith the understandingof the
significanceof the songsof conversos suchas DiegoArias,mere para-
phraseof the Inquisitionrecordsis not sufficient,despite the ven-
erablehistoriographictraditionthat lies behindit. Historianswho
search for some coherencein these apparentlyincongruouslists
(which include both morningand evening liturgies, festivals and
the Sabbath), rather than adopting the Inquisitor'sperspective,
might turn instead to recent scholarlyresearch in the field of
32 L. A. Hoffman, Beyondthe Text:A HolisticApproachtoLiturgy(Bloomington, Indiana, 1987),
p. 36.
33 Hoffman, Beyondthe Text,p. 37.

173
 EleazarGutwirth
liturgy.Here much recent writing has expresseda certain dissat-
isfactionwith exclusiveconcentrationon the texts of the liturgy,
and has tried to create a more inclusiveapproachwhich takes the
worshipper'sexperience into account. This trend, it might be
argued,is not entirelydissimilarto the historians'dissatisfaction
with the incoherent and heterotopiclists of 'rites and customs'.
Hoffman34speaks of the process of discoveringsome underlying
message that a prayercommunicatesdespite variationsin its spe-
cific wording.That is to say that a first step in movingawayfrom
traditionalstudies of the Inquisitionrecordswouldbe to pay some
attention to the liturgicalstatus of converso music.
The 'Col meuacer'of the Inquisitionfile is a liturgicalpoem by
the seventh-centurypoet EleazarHa-Qalir;as such it is an addi-
tion to the originalolder liturgywhich belongs to the prayersfor
rain on Hoshana Rabba, the penultimate day of the Feast of
Tabernacles.There is no evidencein the text that the occasionon
whichSamueland Diego were walkingwith other peoplewas that
particularfeast. Neither of them was fulfilling a religious com-
mandmentby singingin a duo, separatedfroma quorum.Another
example would be the testimony about the prayershawl: 'Diego
Arias quandoesta de gorja o de placer . . . toma una gran toca y
ponesela sobre los hombrose cabeza a formade taler.' To put on
'a great shawl' is not fulfillingthe commandmentof sisit or tas-
sels. In fact, if the cloth has four corners,has a certain measure
and has no szszt, aJew wearingit might be transgressingthe com-
mandment.The phrase'a formade taler' indicatesthat it was not
a talit proper.35Diego Arias was not fulfilling a religious com-
mandment by putting a tablecloth over his head in an inn in
Medina del Campo.36Anotherwitness tells us that Diego 'canta
el bersoque dize el capellanjudio quandosaca la Toraen hebrayco
y cantalo muy bien y bienelo cantandopaso a paso como el capel-
lan faze quandosaca la Tora'.37Diego Arias, who was not taking

34 Hoffman,BeyondtheText,pp. 36ff.
35 FIRCNo. 111.Anotherversionwhichcirculatedin Segoviawas that it was a bedsheet
- 'sabana'- ratherthan a tablecloth.See FIRCNo. 77. DavidGome'stestimonyis that
'en aquellosmesmosdias los deciael dichoDiegoArias'('he said it on thoseverydays'),
p. 102.This seems to be the exceptionto the generalrule of not specifyingthe liturgi-
cal season.
36 FIRCNo. 179,p. 102.
37 FIRCNo. 111.
174
 Music,Identityand the Inquisitionin Fifteenth-CenturySpain
out a Torah scroll from the Ark, was not engagingin a liturgical
act. But for the readers of these recordsit might be helpful to
bear in mind that some of the verses to be recitedon the occasion
of the takingout of the Torahfrom the Arkon the Sabbathmorn-
ing and festival morning prayers are relatively late additions,
which some medieval congregations thought to be tiresome
[tirhuh].They have recently been discussed by historians of the
liturgy.For Reif,38the additionof these verses to the liturgyis a
manifestation of an important trend related to the history of
SpanishJewryin this periodand, moreprecisely,accordingto Reif,
to the search for grandeurand institutionalisation.Such a devel-
opmentis expressedin, amongstother fields,that of late-medieval
Hispano-Jewisharchitecture,where 'the styles of the synagogues
becamemoreelaborateand absorbedat least some limitedamount
of the grandeurof their neighbours'houses of worship'.39 It may
be concludedthat this example - like various other acts which
neighbours or inquisitors, or even certain modern students of
Inquisitionrecords,might have thought to be 'rites and customs'
of the Jews - turns out, upon an inspectionwhich does not ignore
Jewish liturgicalcodification,to be somethingelse entirely.
Diego Arias's musical tastes were not restricted to the Arabic
songs with which, accordingto Palencia'saccountand Menendez
Pidal'sanalysis,he captivatedaudiencesin the countrysidearound
Segoviaduring his youth. Nor does an awarenessof Jewish litur-
gical practice permit us to describe his performanceof Jewish
songs as merelythe fulfilmentofJewish liturgicalduties. It seems
quite clear that we are confrontedwith a case of what may be
called 'culturalidentification',in whichthe converso
perceivesmusic
that was originallyliturgical as an expressionof ethnic and cul-
tural identity. The equivalentin the field of music to the litur-
gists' attempt to reconstructthe liturgicalexperienceas a whole
(rather than just its texts, isolated from any human experience)
would be to take into account the experience of performance,
something that could be done by consideringthe late-medieval
Hispano-Hebraic evidence. This also involves searching for a
'shape'to the musical experience,howeverdifficultsuch a search
may be and howeverdistancedfrom the shapelesslist providedby
38 S. C. Reif,Judaism
and HebrewPrayer(Cambridge,1993),p. 210.
39 Ibid.

175
 EleazarGutwirth
Inquisitionnotaries.The search for such 'shapes',forms or struc-
tures is, however,an integralpart of the workin the field of litur-
gical history;liturgists themselvesspeak of 'introductory'prayers
and 'final'prayers,of prayersas 'the form of communalexpres-
sion', and so forth.40
These are not the approachesof the 'Ritosy Costumbres'school.
Rather, they attempt to understandthe worshipper'sdifferent
experiencesof differentprayers.A carefulreadingof the evidence
suggests that Arias'sfifteenth-centurycontemporarieswere aware
of the particular character of any given musical performance.
Thus, one witness remarkedthat Diego's singingwas done when
he was 'de gorja o de plazer',4land howeversimplisticthat opin-
ion, it does show that contemporarieswere well aware of some
particularstate of mind or attitude related to singing. 'De gorja',
however,also has some furtherassociations.Covarrubias,whowas
closer to Diego's language,recalledthe associationsof these same
wordsin terms which denote a pre-linguisticstage. Derivedfrom
the Latingurges,it refersto the singingbird'sthroator to the child
'whowishes to speak and attempts it without using other instru-
ments'.42Similarly,the meaningof 'scoffing',a characterisationof
Diego Arias's singing by another witness, refers to a deliberate
message in the singing. Somewhatcloser to the mark was the
implicationof another witness, Don Abraen Seneor, who on 21
April 1486 'said that he had heard many who lived with Diego
Arias . . . that he sang in Hebrewin orderto contrahacer
the singing
of the Jews'.43Here AbrahamSeneor uses the verb contrahacer to
describethe characterof Diego Arias'smusic,whichis to say that
a Jewish contemporaryof Diego Arias may be said to be alluding
to a musicalphenomenonwhich has counterpartsin a numberof
medievalcultures.In a related area, that of literature,it may be
noted first of all that Hebrew poetry had used the contrafacta
mode from a very earlydate, and that in Spain the use of themes
or metres taken from Hebrewsecularlove poetryin the composi-
tion of religiousand liturgicalpoetryin Hebrewis particularlywell
documentedfor the eleventh and twelfth centuries.The Hebrew

4o Ibid.
41 FIRCNo. 111.
42 Covarrubias,Tesoro
dela lenguaespanola
(Madrid,1610)s.v.gorfa.
43 FIRCNo. 190,p. 107
176
 Music,Identityand the Inquisitionin Fifteenth-CenturySpain
liturgical or religious mawashahat or paramawashahat are classic
examples.But even in the fifteenthcenturya poem couldbe writ-
ten in a consciousattempt to create a variationon an earlierpoem.
The case of Bonafed'sdreampoem or his 'mawasAshah in the form
of a mustagib'(that is to say, a love song in a form usuallyused in
the compositionof penitentialliturgicalhymns)are examplesfrom
Saragossadating from the first half of the fifteenth century.44In
ChristianSpain, the literarytextual parodyof the canonichours
in the Librodebuenamoror the 'vueltaa lo divino'of popularsongs,
especially the villancicos, are well-knowncases of what may be
termed a constantmovementbetweensacredand profanewritten
texts.45Perhapsmore relevant is the case of the incipits or tune
markers of fifteenth-centuryHebrew lamentation poems which
informus about the non-Jewishmelodies used in Hebrewprayer.
These are similarly relevant examples of the currencyof phe-
nomena related to musical contrafactain Diego Arias's time.46
This recognitionof the need to studythe resonancesof the music,
rather than trivialiseit, is similarlythe underlyingassumptionof
Tess Knighton's search for and successful identificationof the
tunes of the troubadourswhichunderliesome of the compositions
of fifteenth-centurySpain and their cultural context.47Romeu's
extensive discussionof the transpositionof secular and religious
themes and melodiesin the songs of the Cancionero dePalaciomay
be relevanteven if the dates of the compositionsare at times some
decadeslater than Diego Arias'sdeath.48Such featuresof musical
44 E. Gutwirth, 'A mawasAshah by Solomon Bonafed', ed. A. Saenz Badillos, Actas. . . Congreso
PoeszaEstr4fica(Madrid, 199 1), pp. 13 744.
45 O. Green, 'OnJuan Ruiz' Parody of the Canonical Hours', HispanicReview, 26 (1958),
pp. 12-34; M. P. Saint Amour, A Studyof the Villancicoup to Lopede Vega:Its Evolutionfirom
Profaneto SacredThemesand Specificallyto the ChristmasCarol(Washington, 1940); M. Frenk,
Entrefolkloreyliteratura(Mexico, 1971), pp. 58-63; F. Marquez Villanueva, Investigaciones
sobreJuan AlvarezGato (Madrid, 1960); J. Rodriguez Puertolas, Fray Inigo de Mendoza:
Cancionero(Madrid, 1968) pp. xxvi ff.
46 E. Gutwirth, 'Language and Hispano-Jewish Studies' (in Hebrew), Pesamim,41 (1989),
pp. 156-9.
47 T. Knighton, 'New Light on Musical Aspects of the Troubadour Revival', Plainsongand
MedievalMuszc,2/1 ( 1993), pp. 7543.
48 La musicaen la cortede los ReyesCato'licos(siglosXV-XVI), vol. iv-i: Cancionerode Palacio,
introduccion y estudios porJ. Romeu Figueras (Barcelona, 1965), cap. v. For him the
songs of the Cancionero de Palacio are like Provensal troubadour and goliardic poetry in
their hyperbolic use of divine metaphors and in their employment of the language of
devotion in speaking of profane love. Thus we find a bacchic song which is a parody of
a Marian hymn; love masses; the agony of love depicted in terms taken from the litur-
gical offices of Easter and the dead; and the gospels quoted in profane love songs.

177
 EleazarGutwirth
sensibilitydid not change overnight.These are by no means iden-
tical with Diego Arias's case. He was certainlynot turning any-
thing 'a lo divino',but neither was he creatingan erotic parodyof
the liturgy.However,such comparisonshelp us to get closerto the
mentality from which spranghis 'contrahacer'- to use Seneor's
term. It may be arguedthat the most relevantparallelsare those
late-medievalcases where religiousmusic is performedin secular
settings with secular(suchas regionalor political)or at least non-
liturgicalmessages or functions.The studies of ChristopherPage
are a most useful case in point. As he writes: 'The idea of hymn-
melodiestorn fromtheir liturgicalsetting and set adriftin a world
of domestic and public performanceneed not surpriseus; John
Stevenspointedout long ago that some plainsonghymnshad cur-
rencyas popularsongsin later-medievalEngland.'49 In his research
on the music of the Thomas of Lancastercult, Page points out
that 'When clerics familiar with the use of Hereford sang
Lancaster'spiece a wealth of liturgicalmeaningwouldbe released
and channelledinto the new cult, Thomaswouldbe implicitlycom-
pared with St Ethelbert ... the parallelswould assuredlynot be
seen as accidental;he would also be assimilatedto his namesake,
Thomasof Hereford.'50 The case of Diego Arias,ratherthan being
an exampleof one of the usual literarytextual contrafacta,is pre-
cisely one of 'hymn-melodiestorn from their liturgicalsetting and
set adriftin a worldof domesticandpublicperformance'.But what
couldbe the 'wealthof liturgicalmeaning'that 'wouldbe released
and channelled'by Diego Arias'ssinging?
In this context, bearing in mind the differencein the pace of
research in these different fields, it may be possible to suggest
some possibilitiesfor understandingthe wayin whichEnriqueIV's
courtiercould have perceivedthe vocal music he performedand,
by implication,how to treat such evidencein general.
The firstpossibilitymight be a musicalone. Althoughthe music
is lost, we do have some pointersand musicaltraditions.It is also
evident from the context that these prayers were sung, and
nowhereis there a sense that it was the music itself that was an

49 J. Stevens,MusicandPoetryin theEarlyTudorCourt,2nd edn (Cambridge,1979),p. 50; C.

Page, 'The RhymedOfficefor St Thomasof Lancaster:Poetry,Politicsand Liturgyin
FourteenthCenturyEngland', LeedsStudiesinEnglish(NS),14(1983),pp.134-51.
50 Page, 'The RhymedOffice',p. 138.

178
 Music,Identityand the Inquisitionin Fifteenth-CenturySpain
innovation.(We may recall that 'Nishmat'is describedas a song
as early as the BabylonianTalmud, where in BT Pes.118a it is
called a 'song',birkat ha-shir.)Some of the others have preserved
a musicalcharacterto this day.
The second possibilitywould focus upon the question of mem-
ory. The converso's singing was related to and relied on the earli-
est sources of his identity, namely his documented Jewish
childhood.The songs were memorable,it may be argued,because
most of them had somethingin common.They were accompanied
by some symbolicactionwhichset them apartin his memoryfrom
the rest of the liturgy.In the case of 'Qol Mevaser'the action is
the hitting of the branches- hoshanot - althoughDiego Ariaswas
doubtlessunawareof and uninterestedin its probableearly func-
tion as a magic ritual which imitated the sound of the rain. But
it would doubtless (because of its impactingcharacter)leave an
indelible trace on the memoryof aJewish child who, like Diego
Arias, attended services. The raising of the wine cup at the
Kiddushceremonywouldbe a similarcase, and the ascent to the
Torahof youngmen at pubertywouldbe equallymemorable.The
solemn ceremonyaccompanyingthe removalof the Torah scroll
from the Ark,priorto the reading,is an equallysymbolicand dra-
matic action.
The third explanationwouldsimilarlyhave to do with the expe-
rience of music by the congregationand, more precisely,with the
deeper structuresof the liturgy, in this case the position of the
individualsongs within it. Thus 'Qol Mevaser',which seems to be
based on a dialogue between precentorand congregation,occurs
at the end of a series of prayersfor rain and before a liturgical
act. The song, then, has a specific position between prayersfor
rain and the action; it occupies a transitionalspace. 'Nishmat',
anothersong rememberedand sung by Diego Arias, is the prayer
which marksthe change from the weekdaymorningliturgyto the
specialliturgyof the Sabbathmorningprayers,and so againdelin-
eates the transition from one liturgical stage to another. The
verses to be recited on taking the Torahscrollout of the Ark have
been seen as part of the process of the formalisationof Jewish
communitiesin late-medievalSpain. It is quite evident that it is
a transitional prayer from the recited morning liturgy, which
is left behind, to the institution of the Reading of the Law,
179
 EleazarGutwirth
whichis characteristicof the Sabbathmorningservices.Unlike the
earlyhardalah, for example,whichfor Hoffman5lcontaineda clear
'message'of a diadic nature which separatedlight from darkness
and confirmedthat opposition,the songswhichattractDiegoArias
are of a differentkind.Their 'shape'or, rather,placementwithin
the liturgysuggests a contrarysignificance:they disturbthe clear
differentiationbetween two opposites.
It is by now well knownthat in constructinga written image of
Diego Arias's group - the conversos - fifteenth-centurywriters of
varioustendencies (chroniclers,poets, theologians)did not always
see a clear distinctionbetweenJewishconversos and non-Jewishcon-
versos. Rather, they used various means to express a certain dis-
quieting blurringof these clear distinctions.Some speak of the
conversos as people who were 'neitherJews nor Christians';others
used metaphorsof symbolicclothing or space to suggest that the
main trait was change rather than the identitywith one religion
or the other.A poemwrittenin fifteenth-centuryCastile expresses
this visually,by a techniquein which the meaningchangedwhen
the poem was read in one columnor in two columns.The case of
the Alborayque is one of the better knownand most frequentlymen-
tionedof these writings.In later centuriesthese underlyingimages
would develop into a theology which would centre upon biblical
models of indeterminacysuch as Queen Esther,whoseJewishness
was a secret.52Needless to say, I am not arguingthat Diego Arias
had analysedhis early experiencesof liturgicalmusic in this way.
Nevertheless,it is quite unlikelythat he wouldhavefailed to intuit

51 Hoffman,BeyondtheText.
52 The royalchroniclerPulgar'sevaluation,'ni guardauanvna ni otra ley', is well known,
as is the general tenor of the anonymousLibrodelAlborayque, which comparesthe con-
versosto the hybridhorseof Mohammed;so is the parodyof a will byAlfonsoFerrandes
Semuel,who orderedthe Torahto be placedby his head, the Quranat his breastand
see the studiesmentioned
the Crossat his feet. For the representationof the conversos,
in note 9 above,and theirbibliographicnotes.Forthe 'popularmotifnamongst'the mar-
ranosin Spain'of 'holyQueen Esther',who had changedher religionto bringsalvation
to Israel,see G. Scholem,Sabbetai Sevi (London,1973),p. 761. For its currencyin the
messianicmovementsee ibid.,pp. 803, 804, 851, 887. There is no need to discusshere
the theologicaldualityof the hiddenGod amongstsome exsonversos in the seventeenth
century.Nevertheless,whenanalysingthe dualitythemein discussionsof Estherbywrit-
ers such as Pensode la Vega, one shouldalso bear in mind the impactof baroquecul-
ture and the conventionsof rhetoricas pointedout by M. Bnaya,'Lanauseadel manjar
ordinario.Agudezay hermeneuticaen J. Pensode la Vega',in Losjudaizantes enEuropa,
ed. F. Diaz Esteban(Madrid,1994),pp. 55-63.
180
 Music,Identityandthe Inquisition
in Fifteenth-Century
Spain
that music had a character,or that he would have seen the vari-
ous differentsongs only as interchangeable,homogeneousexpres-
sions of one religion or heresy, as did the Inquisitorsand some
modernreaders.
Tel Aviv University

181