Edition of Works by Matheo d’Aranda

In 2014 I prepared an edition of Matheo d’Aranda’s surviving polyphonic works for the number 11 of the Polyphonia series of musical editions published by the Edições MPMP of Movimento Patrimonial pela Música Portuguesa.

This edition comprised the two known works (besides the two treatises) by the Spanish composer Matheo d’Aranda (c.1495-1548), an influential figure in Portuguese music of the first half of the 16th century. The two surviving works presented here are both for four voices (SATB): an Adjuva nos Deus and two fragments of a Credo. To be noted that the second fragment of this Credo still uses the pre-tridentine text setting “Et vitam futuri saeculi” (instead of the post-tridentine and actual “Et vitam venturi saeculi”).

These works are together in a folio that was found in the late 70s by musicologist Cónego José Augusto Alegria at the end of an antiphonary at Évora’s public library. I only know one CD recording of these two works, that was made by Coro Polifónico Eborae Musica, directed by Francisco d’Orey, back in 1996.

The edition for this recording did not use almost no ficta as it was transcribed by Alegria in the 70s. Besides this recording by Eborae Musica, there is the live recording I made with Ensemble da Sé de Angra in one of our concerts in February 2013 (that is presented in this post) that is in accordance with the editorial changes I made in this new edition published in the n.º 11 of thePolyphonia series in edições mpmp.

Sheet music available at Edições MPMP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XO3PqlVWgI