The Romance Tongues of Spain - Case Study Example

Castilian Lyric 2 No. of pages – 8 – 6530 Among the vast wasteland of Northern Spain, fertile and luxuriant valleys are situated between volcanic ridges, its lower slopes of which are covered with chestnut, oak and pine. These valleys were sheltered from the sword-like winds that blew across the Pyrenees. It was in these valleys, that the Christian Spain gathered her strength and her spirit in her great struggle against the Saracem. Prior to the era of the Saracem conquest, the Castilian Tongue was nothing but mere jargon. It lacked grammatical arrangement and was composed of Roman lingua rustica and rude Gothic. The final phases of the evolution of the Castilian took place subsequent to the Arabic Invasion. In the early part of the fifth century, the Visigoths entered Romanized Spain but was not much impressed by its culture or language. They strictly followed the traditions and language of their homeland. As time went by, they began to inter marry and therefore allowed their children to learn the Roman Tongue which in turn evolved to be a kind of Pidgin-Latin. Since Latin was used as a literary tongue in that part of Spain where the Castilian speech evolved, over time became a proper language. The Romance Tongues of Spain: Three Romance or Roman languages were in the hands of the Christians in that part of Spain – in Catalonia and Argon, the Provencal, Catalan or Limousin; in Asturias, Old Castile or Leon the Castilian; and in Galicia, the Gallego. During the Provencal – Catalan period, courts of love were held with great seriousness and proved that the art of love competed with the forces of law and religion. From the glorification of the relations between the sexes, there arose a science of chivalry which gradually spread to Castile. This fired the imagination of the Spanish mind and they came to accept and appreciate Romantic Literature. In time, all foreign languages lost their alien character and evolved from the crucible of Spanish thought- Castilian. The Troubadour poets of Provence and Catalonia were responsible in accomplishing the perfection of rhyming verse. These songs have great musical sense and the predominant theme is –“the exaltation of love” Castilian poetry and romance was greatly influenced by Provencal and Catalan troubadours. The Galician, a romance language which grew from the same root as the Portuguese, was nearly akin to Castilian. It is not rich in guttural sounds and has less of the Teutonic in its compositions. Galician influence upon Castilian literature ceased at an early period. The Rise of the Castilian: The evolution of the Castilian from the original Latin spoken by the Romans in Spain, was complicated in many ways. Due to Gothic blood by those who spoke it, it was rich in aspirates and has a stronger framework than any of the other Romance languages. Due to the ceaseless struggle of this strong race that spoke it, the Castilian tongue rose to become a colloquial and literary tongue even against the Saracen occupation of their native land. "It was indeed a rude training which our forefathers, mighty and hardy, had as a prelude to so many glories and to the conquest of the world," says Martinez in his novel Isabel de Solis. 10 "Weighed down by their harness and with sword in hand, they slept at ease for no single night for eight centuries." The Castilian renditions of poems are quite lengthy and that is why they are written down in very minute characters, sometimes making it very difficult to read. Many of these verses consisted of about seven to eight thousand lines. They are the oldest examples of elaborate verse in any modern language with an exception to English and Norse. These chansons were sung in the large halls of Feudal dwellings and the subject matter dealt with was to do more with the clash of arms than human emotions but written in a masterly manner. Later the use of rhyme crept in and the entire laisse ended in a single rhyming sound. The Ballads: The Ballads or Romanceros were of two classes – the spontaneous folk songs and those which are mainly cantares de gesta. The Spaniards called these love poems as romanceros. These poems became the sole property of the common people. Commenting on the condition of Spanish literature in his day the Marquis de Santillana (1398-1458), himself a poet of note stated -"There are contemptible poets who, without order, rule or rhythm, make those songs and romances in which vulgar folk and menials take delight." Hence, these love ballads relegated the peasantry and the lower classes and the upper classes who found time for reading depended on the chronicles and the cantares de gesta. Indeed in no other European country did the seed of romance find a soil so fitting for its germination and fruitation than in Spain. The first literary romance of Spain was of Ayala, Chancellor of Castile (d.1407) who in his Rimado dePalacio, deplores the time he had wasted reading such “lying sttuff” such as Amadis de Gaul. By general consent of the critics it is declared to be the best and most distinct of all Spanish Romances. 21 Tasso thought of it "the most beautiful and perhaps the most profitable story of its kind that can be read." The late 16th and 17th centuries were extremely lucrative for the publishing sector in Spain. These romanceros were then written down and collected to form an Anthology which was then printed and sold to the general public. This was the time of a torrent of hastily written inferior fiction which was bold, shameless and had such heights of distorted imagination of romance. It was ridiculous and insulting to human intelligence and decent taste. It lacked beauty and true imaginative skill and simplicity of the earlier romances. Yet another unpleasant and extravagant manifestation of this popular craze was in the form of religious tales such as The Celestial Chivalry and the Knight of the Bright Star where Biblical characters were endowed with chivalry and go on adventures. We can hardly find a Spanish romance without a rich reference to a Moor who is refered to as a Caballero and a worthy foe. This was due to the Castilian occupation of Moorish parts of Spain that had left an indelible mark on the Spaniard who seemed to have cast a halo of romance around the character of the ancient foe. About the 11th century AD to the present times, Spanish literature written in Castilian which was the major language of Spain gained popularity. Jarchas: During the 5th decade of the 11th century, the earliest literary works written in Castilian, were short lyric poems which were known as “Jarchas”. They were attached to the texts of the early Hebrew or Arabic poems written in Spain. The “Kharja” which means “final” in Arabic is also called “Jarcha”in Spanish is the final refrain after a “muwashshah”. It is written in either Arabic or Hebrew and consits of five stanzas each consisting of four to six lines. The two final lines which come as a refrain is what is called a “Jarcha.”This genre of poetry dating back to the 11th century is Among the oldest in any Romance language. It is certainly the earliest recorded form of lyric poetry in “Ibero Romance” The Jarchas have their roots in popular lyric songs which are simple and emotive with graceful expressions of love. The Jarcha is often taken out from the longer poem and read out separately. Jarchas are composed in Mozarabic languages and not in Castilian. They had a different sensibility in their poems which centered around superiority of the lady, service to love and joyful suffering. Jarchas later came to be the poetic form called zéjel. An example of a typical Jarcha with its translation- Vayse meu corachón de mib: ya Rab, si me tornarád? Tan mal meu doler li-l-habib! Enfermo yed, cuánd sanarád? My heart has left me, Oh sir, will you transform me? So great is my pain for my beloved! It is sick, when will it be cured?, The pain of longing for the absent lover is expressed in this verse. This theme was later developed in the Galician- Portuguese “Cantigas de Amigo”. References GARCIA GOMEZ, Emilio, Jarchas Romances, serie árabe, ISBN 84-206-2652-X GALMÉS DE FUENTES, Álvaro, Las Jarchas Mozárabes, forma y Significado ISBN 84-7423-667-3 NIMER, Miguel, Influências Orientais na Língua Portuguesa, ISBN 85-314-0707-9 KHARJAS AND VILLANCICOS, by Armistead S.G., Journal of Arabic Literature, Volume 34, Numbers 1-2, 2003, pp. 3-19(17)[1] Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kharja" Chase, Gilbert. The Music of Spain. New York, NY: Dover Publications, 1959. This is a revised and enlarged version of the first edition published in 1941. Fully indexed with photos and illustrations the author explains the origins, development and influence of Spanish music. Cantigas de Amigo -(songs about lovers) During the end of the 12th century, the Cantigas de Amigo flourished. They were lyrical compositions traditionally from the Galician-Portuguese poetry which centered around the theme of friendship.There are four types of Cantigas- Love Frienship Mockery and Curses. The most relevant aspects of the Cantigas de Amigo is the stylistic use of parallelism and leixaprén. The verses of the second stanza become a variant of the verses of the first because the stanzas are connected two by two. Parrallelism can be of two types- Perfect and imperfect. When using the Perfect kind of parrallelism, the last word of the verse is substituted with another synonym or the same words are repeated but in a different order so as to change the order of rhyme. In imperfect, the verses of the second stanza reproduce freely the sintactic structure the meaning of the verses in the first stanza. The chorus that is repeated at the end of each stanza is called the “refrain.”There is consistent and abundant use of motifs, themes, diction, metrics and traditional style that is ‘intutive’ Famous authors of “cantigas de amigo” included Martín Codax, Airas Nunes, Pero Meogo, Xohán de Cangas, Mendinho and Joan Zorro. The “cantigas de amigo” are not commonly found and hence can be found in the Colocci Brancuti Cancionero of Lisbons National Library and in the Cancionero of the Vatican Library. Castilian Villancicos(Peasant songs) or ‘carol’ The word ‘villano’ stands for a peasant or an inhabitant of a small village in Medieval Spain. The ‘villancico’ was a poetic and indigenious musical form unique to Iberia. These traditional songs had an audience who were unable to read or write and that is why the songs or verses were essentially spoken. The number of verses varied between two to five and they were mostly sung in urban areas during Christmas time. The poetic villancico has its roots in two sources – one is the Arabic zéjel which is a poem written in vulgar Arabic and the other was the Galician-Portuguese poetic form called as the Cantiga de estribillo. Author of the “Music of Spain” had this to say -"basic pattern rested on the device of the initial refrain" By and large, the Villancicos were written for two voices (polyphonic) and at times for four voices or even solos with an accompaniment of instruments. The various themes used were religion, history, love and even jocular themes were also used. The Villancicos successfully transmitted the rich culture of Spain to its neighbors such as Mexico, Latin America and Guatemala. Peasant songs and their romantic depiction: Spain has the most fascinating and individualistic type of folk music than any other country. This music is primarily uses dance rhythms of African or Asiatic origin. This influence was predominantly due to the fact that the Moors who invaded their country lived there for many years and superimposed their culture on all Spanish art. The Geography of their country and the poverty stricken people contributed greatly to the unmistakable individuality of Spanish music. Due to its mountainous landscape the poverty stricken peasants do not travel far and therefore have no contact with influences that are liable to make them forget their traditions and culture. Folk songs of unrivalled uniqueness still flourish. The florid manner of Asiatic melody and rhapsodic influence are strikingly evident in these songs. The melodic love songs have an emotional appeal and exceptional beauty. Some of the songs depict their lonely life in the mountains. There are still other songs of humorous and gallant character that are sprightly and joyous of pace. Some examples of famous or popular folk songs are - "Spanish Dance" (Granados) Played by Pablo Casals Columbia Record A 5847 "Folk-songs of Andalusia and of Aragon" Sung by Mochuelo Columbia Record C 2085 "Folk-songs of Santander" Sung by Ramon Garcia Columbia Record C 2165 References Chase, Gilbert. The Music of Spain. New York, NY: Dover Publications, 1959. This is a revised and enlarged version of the first edition published in 1941. Fully indexed with photos and illustrations the author explains the origins, development and influence of Spanish music. GARCIA GOMEZ, Emilio, Jarchas Romances, serie árabe, ISBN 84-206-2652-X GALMÉS DE FUENTES, Álvaro, Las Jarchas Mozárabes, forma y Significado ISBN 84-7423-667-3 KHARJAS AND VILLANCICOS, by Armistead S.G., Journal of Arabic Literature, Volume 34, Numbers 1-2, 2003, pp. 3-19(17)[1] Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kharja" NIMER, Miguel, Influências Orientais na Língua Portuguesa, ISBN 85-314-0707-9 http://uk.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761568203 /Catalan_Literature.html www.tribalsmile.com/music/articles_314.shtml Read More