Basque keyboard music of the eighteenth century: A study of its contribution to the Iberian repertory

Abstract

This study attempts to analyze and place in a historical context, the keyboard music written during the eighteenth century by composers born in two of the provinces of the Basque Country, Vizcaya and Guipuzcoa. Although some of these composers wrote pieces in other genres such as solo (versos) and polyphonic religious music, it is in the keyboard pieces that their response to contemporary trends in European musical taste, and the resulting developments in musical elements such as harmony and form can be observed. Also, in this repertory, the interaction of the Basque composers with the leading musicians working on the Peninsula at the time can be more clearly detected. These surviving sonatas and other keyboard pieces show that, in the eighteenth century, the implementation of new styles was not limited to the musical centers closely related to the courts of Madrid and Lisbon. Of the published studies on Spanish keyboard music there is insufficient data about the Basque composers, and the few books dedicated solely to the subject are mainly biographical surveys. The Basque keyboard music of the eighteenth century has been neglected due to the difficulty in finding printed scores as well as reference works that would help in their study. It is hoped that this study will provide a better understanding of this repertory, and that it will receive its deserved place among the keyboard literature produced by other cultures in the same period.