Music As We Know It

This famous medieval composer who was born in Toledo in 1221 and died in 1284 in Seville had become one of the most outstanding intellectuals of the Middle Ages. From 1252 Alfonso X king of Castile, Leon and Galicia was not just a distinguished composer, musician, poet and writer. He also created advanced code of laws, founded universities of Salamanca and Toledo, gained considerable fame in astronomy and established Castilian as a language of higher learning. His scientific achievements earned him a nickname throughout Europe - people of different nations called him El Sabio, which means “The Wise”.

Alfonso X commissioned or co-authored numerous works of music during his reign. Yet, the most important of his works is the vast compilation Cantigas de Santa Maria (”Songs to the Virgin Mary”). Luckily for us, The Cantigas collection is one of the largest musical treasures that survived from the Middle Ages. It consists of about 420 poems that are for the most part on miracles attributed to the Virgin Mary.

A famous medieval composer Jacob Senleches was also known as an excellent harpist. He developed many rhythmic and notational innovations in a medieval style known as as the ars subtilior. We are aware of his creative period that lasted from 1382 through 1395 through some scant information and a small number of transmitted exquisite compositions. However, up to this day, specialists consider Jacob as one of the central personalities of ars subtilior.

He was possibly born in the French town of Senleches and served at the court of Eleanor of Castile. One of the survived composition tells us that he laments her death in 1382 and resolves to seek his fortune in other countries. Later we find him at the service of Cardinal of Aragon Pedro de Luna. And the last written record about him came to us from a supplication to the Roman pope Benedict XIII. In this document Jacob Senleches was asking for the benefice attached to a parish church in the diocese of Cambrai.