Ensalada (music)

The ensalada (Spanish for salad) is a genre of polyphonic secular music mixing languages and dialects and nonsensical quodlibets.

The term is known mainly through a publication, Las Ensaladas de Flecha Prague (1581), by Mateo Flecha the Younger, that contains six long four-part vocal compositions by his uncle Mateo Flecha (1481–1553).^[1]^[2]^[3] Each of these ensaladas is divided into several sections, ranging from seven to twelve. The music is for four voices.^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]

Apart from the ensaladas by Mateo Flecha, there are also two examples by Mateo Flecha the younger, two by Pere Alberch Vila, several by Bartolomé Cárceres, one by the unknown F. Chacón and several anonymous sources. There is also an instrumental ensalada for organ by Sebastián Aguilera de Heredia.

Works

Prague 1581

El Fuego (the fire) – Flecha
La Bomba (the pump) – Flecha
La Negrina (the black girl) – Flecha
La Guerra (the battle) – Flecha
El Bon Jorn (the good day) – Vila
La Justa (the joust) – Flecha
La Viuda (the widow) – Flecha
La Feria (the fair) – Flecha (the younger)
Las Cañas (the pan-pipas) – Flecha (the younger)
La Trulla - Càrceres
La Lucha (the struggle) – Vila
Los Chistes (the jokes) – Flecha
Las Cañas II (the pan-pipes II) – Flecha
El Molino (the mill) – Chacón

Supplement^[8]

El Jubilate – Flecha
La Caza (the hunt) – Flecha
El Toro (the bull) – Flecha
La Negrina (the black woman) – Cárceres
Las Cañas III (the pan-pipes III) – Brudieu

Francisco de Peñalosa

Por las sierras de Madrid, for 6 voices.
Tú que vienes de camino, for 2 voices.

Garcimuñóz (attributed)

Una montaña pasando, for 4 voices

Anon.

Quien madruga Dios le ayuda. Romancero 1612

Sources

Manuscripts

Barcelona, Biblioteca de Catalunya, Ms 454 (Cancionero de Barcelona).
Barcelona, Biblioteca de Catalunya. Ms 588 I
Barcelona, Biblioteca de Catalunya. Ms 588 II.
Cancionero de Medinaceli Palma de Mallorca, Fundación Bartolomé March^[9]

Printed editions

Cancionero de Uppsala. Villancicos de diversos autores. Jerónimo Scotto. Venecia. 1556
Las ensaladas de Flecha. Mateo Flecha el joven. Editor: Lorge Negrino. Praga. 1581. (only bass survives)
Le difficile de Chansons. Second Livre. Jacques Moderne. Lyon. La justa, titled La Bataille en Spagnol.

Transcriptions for voice and vihuela

Orphénica Lyra, Miguel de Fuenllana.
Silva de Sirenas, Enríquez de Valderrábano.
Libro de música de vihuela, Diego Pisador.

References

Historia de la Música en España e Hispanoamérica 2. De los Reyes Católicos a Felipe II, Maricarmen Gómez (ed.). Madrid-México D.F., Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2012 (chapters II-III). ISBN 978-84-375-0677-7

^ "Ensalada" in Harvard Dictionary of Music (1969), p. 294, at Google Books
^ Wasby, Roger H. Matheo Flecha. 1995
^ "Matteo Flecha" in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Volume 6 (1980), p. 632
^ New Oxford History of Music, Volume 4 (1990), p. 407
^ Esses, M. Dance and Instrumental Diferencias in Spain During the 17th and Early 18th Century (1993) p. 35
^ Stevenson, Robert. Spanish Cathedral Music in the Golden Age (1961), p. 314, at Google Books
^ Knighton, Tess. Devotional music in the Iberian world, 1450–1800: the villancico and related (2007), p. 30, at Google Books
^ Las Ensaladas (Praga,1581) con un Suplemento de obras del género, Maricarmen Gómez Muntané (ed.). Valencia, Generalitat (IVM), 2008. 3 vols. ISBN 978-84-482-4890-1
^ also known as Madrid, Biblioteca Privada de Bartolomé March Servera, R. 6829 (861); olim Biblioteca de la Casa del Duque de Medinaceli, MS 13230.