Early Music, Vol. xliii, No. 1 © he Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. doi:10.1093/em/cau145, available online at www.em.oxfordjournals.org Advance Access publication January 21, 2015 23 Giuseppe Fiorentino  ‘Cantar por uso’ and ‘cantar fabordón’: the ‘unlearned’ tradition of oral polyphony in Renaissance Spain (and beyond) T he theory, transmission and practices of extem- pore counterpoint in the Renaissance have increasingly been attracting the attention of schol- ars over the last few decades. 1 Within the Spanish musical tradition, a variety of historical sources, such as counterpoint treatises and actas capitulares, are providing an insight into how these crats were actually taught and performed by learned musi- cians and singers in chapels. 2 In addition to this tradition of extempore contrapunto, which I deine as the ‘learned oral tradition of polyphonic music’, some Spanish sources suggest the existence of an ‘unlearned oral tradition of polyphonic music’, usu- ally performed by non-professional musicians and by men and women without any formal notion of music theory. he music of this ‘unlearned’ oral tradition, performed both in liturgical and secular contexts, was oten considered an essentially ‘artless’ repertoire, and was related, to some extent, to the term ‘fabordón’. In this article I examine the various sources that describe this unlearned oral tradition of polyphonic music. ‘Cantar fabordón y sonar al destempre’: 1463–1627 he Libro de vida beata by the humanist Juan de Lucena (1430–1506) is probably the earliest source that makes reference to the Spanish unlearned oral tradition of polyphonic music, as well as being one of the irst sources in which the Spanish term ‘fabor- dón’ is mentioned. 3 his text, originally written in Rome in 1463 and published for the irst time in Zamora in 1483, is a ictional dialogue about happi- ness between three important Spanish men of letters of that period: 4 Iñigo López de Mendoza, Marquis of Santillana (1398–1458), Juan de Mena (1411–56) and Alfonso de Cartagena, Bishop of Burgos (1384– 1456). Among many other topics, these characters also debate the power and inluence of music on society. his is López de Mendoza’s opinion: he Music, lovely science, awakens the spirits and com- forts people. here is nothing as sweet as hearing diferent voices intone without discord. If people in Castilla sung by reason like musicians [por razón como músicos], we would be better tuned. But as everyone sings by ear [por uso], when a person sings within the sot hexachord the other one sings in the hard hexachord [sy el uno en bemol, el otro en bequadro], when a person sings on a line, the other one sings on a space [el uno va en regla, sy el otro en espacio]. he fabordón way of singing [el cantar fabordón] and the playing out of tune [el sonar al destempre] reveal what we deserve. 5 In this passage the author is comparing two ways of singing polyphonic music: on the one hand we have the discordant singing ‘por uso’ or ‘cantar fabordón’; on the other hand, the harmonious ‘singing by rea- son’. Here, singing ‘por uso’ (literally ‘singing by use’, or ‘by ear’) is not in conlict with written polyphonic music, but is directly contrasted with ‘singing by reason’. Hence, the author is clearly comparing two diferent oral traditions of polyphonic music: the irst related to unlearned musicians who sing ‘by ear’ and to ‘cantar fabordón’; the second to profes- sional musicians who sing following the rules of music (‘[cantar] por razón como músicos’). With at Universidad de Granada - Biblioteca on March 3, 2015 http://em.oxfordjournals.org/ Downloaded from