Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 1627

Grol in 1627, the year it was captured by Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange.

The last recorded Aurochs are killed in Poland.

Year 1627 was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Monday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar.

Events[link]

July–December[link]

• July 4–July 19 – Turkish Abductions: The Barbary pirates raid Iceland.
• July 20–August 19 – Eighty Years' War: Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, lays siege to Grol, the last Spanish stronghold in the eastern Netherlands, and captures it after a 1-month siege.
• July 22 – The English, under the Duke of Buckingham, invade Ré Island in support of the Huguenots in La Rochelle. The invasion does not go well.
• July 27 – An earthquake destroys the cities of San Severo and Torremaggiore in southern Italy.
• September – The Siege of La Rochelle begins.
• November 20 – Thirty Years' War: Bogislaw XIV, Duke of Pomerania, signs the Capitulation of Franzburg, in which Pomerania is forced to pay for the Imperial army that Wallenstein sent to occupy it. Nonetheless, despite the treaty, Pomerania is devastated by the Imperial troops.
• November 28 – Polish-Swedish War: A Polish-Lithuanian fleet defeats a Swedish fleet in the Battle of Oliwa.

Date unknown[link]

• A Dutch ship makes the first recorded sighting of the coast of South Australia.
• The aurochs are hunted to extinction, the last being killed by poachers in Poland.
• England places the first European settlers on Barbados.
• After the First Manchu invasion of Korea, the Joseon Dynasty of Korea becomes a tributary state of the Manchus, but still pays respects to the Ming Dynasty of China. After rejecting a Manchu alteration to the original diplomatic terms in 1636, the Manchus invade again in 1637.
• Rock blasting invented: black gun powder is first used in mining, in a mineshaft under Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia.
• Archduke Ferdinand III of Austria, heir apparent of the Habsburg Monarchy and a future Holy Roman Emperor, already King of Hungary ascends to be king of the religiously troubled Bohemia where his (still living) father's repression of Protestantism had triggered the ongoing Thirty Years' War in 1618.

Births[link]

• January 25 – Robert Boyle, English scientist (d. 1691)
• February 19 – Shivaji, also known as Chhatrapati Shivaji Raje Bhosle, founder of the Maratha Empire in western India in 1674 (d. 1680)
• March 27 – Sir Stephen Fox, English statesman (d. 1716)
• May 29 – Anne, Duchess of Montpensier
• November 29 – John Ray, English biologist (d. 1705)
• date unknown
  • Sir John Flavel, English dissenter (d. 1691)
  • Philip Fruytiers, Flemish painter (d. 1666)
  • Roland Roghman, Dutch painter (d. 1692)
  • Turhan Hatice, regent of the Ottoman empire (d. 1682)

Deaths[link]

• February 22 – Olivier van Noort, Dutch navigator (b. 1558)
• March 6 – Krzysztof Zbaraski, Polish statesman (b. 1580)
• April 19 – Sir John Beaumont, English poet (b. 1583)
• May 2 – Lodovico Grossi da Viadana, Italian composer (b. 1560)
• May 24 – Luis de Góngora, Spanish poet (b. 1561)
• June 27 – Sir John Hayward, English historian (b. c. 1560)
• August 21 – Jacques Mauduit, French composer (b. 1557)
• September 20 – Jan Gruter, Dutch scholar (b. 1560)
• October 28 – Jahangir, Mughal Emperor of India (b. 1569)
• date unknown
  • Hendrick Jacobszoon Lucifer, Dutch pirate and buccaneer (b. 1583)
  • Thomas Middleton, English playwright (b. 1580)
  • Sir John Suckling, English politician (b. 1569)

References[link]

Girolamo Frescobaldi

Girolamo Frescobaldi (Italian pronunciation: [dʒiˌɾɔːlamo fɾeskoˈbaldi]; September, 1583^[1] – March 1, 1643) was a musician from Ferrara, one of the most important composers of keyboard music in the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. A child prodigy, Frescobaldi studied under Luzzasco Luzzaschi in Ferrara, but was influenced by a large number of composers, including Ascanio Mayone, Giovanni Maria Trabaci, and Claudio Merulo. Girolamo Frescobaldi was appointed “organist” of St. Peter's Basilica, a focal point of power for the Capella Giulia (a musical organisation) from July 21, 1608 until 1628 and again from 1634 until his death.^[2]

Frescobaldi's printed collections contain some of the most influential music of the 17th century. His work influenced Johann Jakob Froberger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Henry Purcell, and countless other major composers. Pieces from his celebrated collection of liturgical organ music, Fiori musicali (1635), were used as models of strict counterpoint as late as the 19th century.

Life[link]

Ferrara, Frescobaldi's birthplace, in 1600

The composer was born in Ferrara, Italy. His father Filippo was a man of property, possibly an organist, since both Girolamo and his half-brother Cesare became organists.^[3] (There is no evidence that the Frescobaldi of Ferrara were related to the homonymous Florentine noble house.) Frescobaldi studied under Luzzasco Luzzaschi, a noted composer of madrigals and an organist at the court of Duke Alfonso II d'Este. Although Luzzaschi's keyboard music is relatively unknown today (much of it has been lost), contemporary accounts suggest he was both a gifted composer and performer, one of the few who could perform and compose for Nicola Vicentino's arcicembalo.^[4] Contemporary accounts describe Frescobaldi as a child prodigy who was "brought through various principal cities of Italy"; he quickly gained prominence as a performer and patronage of important noblemen. Composers who visited Ferrara during the period included numerous important masters such as Claudio Monteverdi, John Dowland, Orlande de Lassus, Claudio Merulo, and, most importantly, Carlo Gesualdo.

In his early twenties, Frescobaldi left his native Ferrara for Rome. Reports place Frescobaldi in that city as early as 1604, but his presence can only be confirmed by 1607. He was the church organist at Santa Maria in Trastevere, recorded as “Girolamo Organista”, from January to May of that year.^[5] He was also employed by Guido Bentivoglio, the Archbishop of Rhodes, and accompanied him on a trip to Flanders where Bentivoglio had been made nuncio to the court. It was Frescobaldi's only trip outside Italy.^[6] Although the court at Brussels was musically among the most important in Europe at the time, there is no evidence of Peeter Cornet's or Peter Philips' influence on Frescobaldi. Based on Frescobaldi's preface to his first publication, the 1608 volume of madrigals, the composer also visited Antwerp, where local musicians, impressed with his music, persuaded him to publish at least some of it. While abroad, Frescobaldi was elected on 21 July 1608 to succeed Ercole Pasquini as organist of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.^[7] Frescobaldi remained in Flanders, however, through the summer and did not return to Rome until 29 October (delaying his arrival with an extended stay in Milan to publish another collection of music, the keyboard Fantasie).^[8] He took up his duties on 31 October and held the position, albeit intermittently, until his death.^[9] He also joined Enzo Bentivoglio's musical establishment after the latter settled in Rome in 1608, although he grew estranged from his patron after an affair with a young woman.^[10] A scandal involving competition between Bentivoglio and the Medici family eventually forced him to leave his position.

An 18th century painting of the interior of St. Peter's Basilica, where Frescobaldi worked until his death

Between 1610–13 Frescobaldi began to work for Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini. He remained in their service until after the death of Cardinal Aldobrandini in February 1621.^[11] On February 18, 1613, he married Orsola Travaglini, known as Orsola del Pino.^[12] The couple had five children: Francesco (an illegitimate child born May 29, 1612), Maddalena (an illegitimate child born July 22, 1613), Domenico (November 8, 1614, poet and art collector), Stefano (1616/7), and Caterina (September 1619).^[13]

In October 1614, Frescobaldi was approached by an agent of the Duke of Mantua, Ferdinando I Gonzaga. Frescobaldi was given such a good offer he agreed to enter his employ. However, at his arrival in Mantua the reception was so cold that Frescobaldi returned to Rome by April 1615.^[14] He continued publishing his music: two editions of the first book of toccatas and a book of ricercars and canzonas appeared in 1615. In addition to his duties at the Basilica and the Aldobrandini establishment, Frescobaldi took pupils and occasionally worked at other churches. The period from 1615-28 was Frescobaldi’s most productive time. His major works from this period were instrumental pieces including: a second version of the first book of toccatas (1615-6), ricercars and canzonas (1615), the cappricios (1624), the second book of toccatas (1627), and a volume of canzonas for one to four instruments and continuo (1628).^[15]

St. Peter’s Basilica gave Frescobaldi permission to leave Rome November 22, 1628. Girolamo moved to Florence,Italy into the service of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, a Medici. During his sojourn there he was the highest paid musician and served as the organist of the Florence baptistery for a year.^[16] He stayed in the city until 1634; the period resulted in, among other things, the publication of two books of arias (1630). The composer returned to Rome in April 1634, having been summoned into the service of the powerful Barberini family, i.e. Pope Urban VIII Barberini,the highest prize offered to any musician.^[17] He continued working at St. Peter's, and was also employed by Cardinal Francesco Barberini, who also employed the famous lutenist Johannes Hieronymus Kapsberger. Frescobaldi published one of his most influential collections, Fiori musicali, in 1635, and also produced reprints of older collections in 1637.^[18] No other prints followed (although a collection of previously unpublished works appeared in 1645, and in 1664 Domenico Frescobaldi still possessed pieces by his father that were never published). Frescobaldi died on 1 March 1643 after an illness that lasted for 10 days. He was buried in Santi Apostoli, but the tomb disappeared during a rebuilding of the church in late 18th century. A grave bearing his name and honoring him as one of the fathers of Italian music exists in the church today.^[19]

Music[link]

Facsimile of Aria detta la Frescobalda (1627), the earliest known set of variations on an original theme

Frescobaldi was the first of the great composers of the ancient Franco-Netherlandish-Italian tradition who chose to focus his creative energy on instrumental composition.^[20] Frescobaldi brought a wide range of emotion to the relatively unplumbed depths of instrumental music.^[21] Keyboard music occupies the most important position in Frescobaldi's extant oeuvre.^[22] He published eight collections of it during his lifetime, several were reprinted under his supervision, and more pieces were either published posthumously or transmitted in manuscripts.^[23] The ensemble canzonas of 1634 are most likely the most thoroughly revised of Frescobaldi’s works. Of the forty pieces within the collection, ten were replaced and another sixteen were revised to various degrees. This extensive editing attests to Frescobaldi’s ongoing interest in the utmost perfection of his pieces and collections.^[24]

Frescobaldi’s compositional canon began with his 1615 publications.^[25] One of the publications issued in 1615 was Ricercari, et canzone. This work returned to the old-fashioned, pure style of ricercar. Fast note values and triple meter were not allowed to detract from the purity of style.^[26] A second publication of 1615 was the Toccate e partite which established expressive keyboard style. Frescobaldi did not obey the conventional rules for composing, ensuring no two works have a similar structure.^[27] From 1615-28, Frescobaldi’s publications connect him with the Congregazione exactly when the group’s activities determined the Roman musical trends.^[28]

Frescobaldi’s next stream of compositions expanded their artistic range beyond the keyboard music that he had focused on previously.^[29] Frescobaldi's next four publications after 1627 were composed for instrumental and vocal ensembles in both sacred and secular genres.^[30] The collections of thirty sacred works of 1627 and forty ensemble canzonas of 1628 are structural opposites. However, both are written in a more traditional style that makes them appropriate for church use.^[31] The Arie musicali, published in 1630, were probably composed earlier while Frescobaldi was in Rome. These two volumes utilize keyboard pairs, the romanesca/ruggiero and the ciaconna/passacaglia, within the vocal mode.^[32]

In 1635, Frescobaldi published Fiori musicali. This group of works is his only composition devoted to church music and his last collection containing completely new pieces.^[33] The Fiori experiments with many types of genres within the liturgical confines of a mass. Almost all of the genres practiced by Frescobaldi are present within this collection except for the popular style.^[34] Frescobaldi cultivated the old form of organ improvisation on a Gregorian chant cantus firmus that is best displayed within the Fiori muscali. The organ alternated with the choir on versets and improvised in a contrapuntal style.^[35] Works from the 1634 collection Fiori musicali were still used as models of strict counterpoint in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Aside from Fiori musicali, Frescobaldi's two books of toccatas and partitas (1615 and 1627) are his most important collections.^[36] His toccatas could be used in masses and liturgical occasions. These toccatas served as preludes to larger pieces, or were pieces of substantial length standing alone.^[37] The Secondo libro, written in 1627, stretches the conception of the genres included in the first book of toccatas. More variety is introduced with different rhythmic techniques and four organ pieces.^[38] Both books open with a set of twelve toccatas written in a flamboyant improvisatory style and alternating fast-note runs or passaggi with more intimate and meditative parts, called affetti, plus short bursts of contrapuntal imitation.

Virtuosic techniques permeate the music and make some of the pieces challenging even for modern performers—Toccata IX from Secondo libro di toccata bears an inscription by the composer: "Non senza fatiga si giunge al fine", "Not without toil will you get to the end." Such short remarks appear also in works from Fiori musicali; one of these refers to a fifth voice that is to be sung by the performer at key moments during a ricercar, and the key moments are left to the performer to find. Frescobaldi's famous note for this piece is ""Intendami chi puo che m'intend' io"—"Understand me, [who can,] as long as I can understand myself". The concept is yet another illustration of Frescobaldi's innovative, bold approach to composition.

Although Frescobaldi was influenced by numerous earlier composers such as the Neapolitans Ascanio Mayone and Giovanni Maria Trabaci and the Venetian Claudio Merulo, his music represents much more than a summary of its influences. Aside from his masterful treatment of traditional forms, Frescobaldi is important for his numerous innovations, particularly in the field of tempo: unlike his predecessors, he would include in his pieces sections in contrasting tempi, and some of his publications include a lengthy preface detailing tempo-related aspects of performance.^[39][40] In effect, he made a compromise between the ancient white mensural notation with a rigid tactus and the modern notion of tempo. Although this idea was not new (it was used by, for example, Giulio Caccini), Frescobaldi was among the first to popularize it in keyboard music.

Frescobaldi also made substantial contributions to the art of variation; he may have been one of the first composers to introduce the juxtaposition of the ciaccona and passacaglia into the music repertory, as well as the first to compose a set of variations on an original theme (all earlier examples are variations on folk or popular melodies).^[41] Frescobaldi showed an increasing interest in composing intricate works out of unrelated individual pieces during his last years of composing.^[42] The last work Frescobaldi composed, Cento partite sopra passacagli, was his most impressive creative work. The Cento displays Frescobaldi’s new interest in combining different pieces that were first written independently.^[43]

The composer's other works include collections of canzonas, fantasias, capriccios, and other keyboard genres, as well as four prints of vocal music (motets and arias; one book of motets is lost) and one of ensemble canzonas.

Legacy[link]

Commemorative plaque at the birthplace of Girolamo Frescobaldi

Contemporary critics acknowledged Frescobaldi as the single greatest trendsetter of keyboard music of their time. Even critics who did not approve of Frescobaldi’s vocal works agreed that he was a genius both playing and composing for the keyboard.^[44] Frescobaldi’s music did not lose direct influence until the 1660s, and his works held influence over the development of keyboard music over a century after his death. Bernardo Pasquini promoted Girolamo Frescobaldi to the rank of pedagogical authority.^[45]

Frescobaldi's pupils included numerous Italian composers, but the most important was a German, Johann Jakob Froberger, who studied with him in 1637–41. Froberger's works were influenced not only by Frescobaldi but also by Michelangelo Rossi; he became one of the most influential composers of the 17th century, and, similarly to Frescobaldi, his works were still studied in the 18th century. Frescobaldi's work was known to, and influenced, numerous major composers outside Italy, including Henry Purcell, Johann Pachelbel, and Johann Sebastian Bach.

Bach is known to have owned a number of Frescobaldi's works, including a manuscript copy of Frescobaldi's Fiori musicali (Venice, 1635), which he signed and dated 1714 and performed in Weimar the same year. Frescobaldi's influence on Bach is most evident in his early choral preludes for organ. Finally, Frescobaldi's toccatas and canzonas, with their sudden changes and contrasting sections, may have inspired the celebrated stylus fantasticus of the North German organ school.

Media[link]

	Fiori Musicali: Toccata avanti la Messa della Domenica Performed on the Taylor and Boody organ at Marquand Chapel, Yale University Fiori Musicali: Kyrie della Domenica Performed on the Taylor and Boody organ at Marquand Chapel, Yale University Toccata 3 Performed by Sylvia Kind on a harpsichord of the type made in the early 20th century
Problems listening to these files? See media help.

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Domenico Morgante, Girolamo Frescobaldi, in "Dizionario Enciclopedico Universale della Musica e dei Musicisti" (DEUMM), Le Biografie, vol. III, Torino, UTET, 1986.
• Hammond, Frederick. Girolamo Frescobaldi. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1983. 1-96. ISBN 0-674-35438-9
• FREDERICK HAMMOND (1–7, bibliography), ALEXANDERSILBIGER (8–15, work-list): 'Frescobaldi, Girolamo Alessandro, §1: Ferrara, Rome and Flanders, 1583–1608', Grove Music Online (Accessed December 4, 2006), <http://www.grovemusic.com/shared/views/article.html?section=music.10219.1>
• Artz, Frederick B. From the Renaissance to Romanticism: Trends in Style in Art, Literature, and Music, 1300-1830. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1962. 143-205.
• Bukofzer, Manfred F. Music in the Baroque Era from Monteverdi to Bach. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1947. 43-54.
• Silbiger, Alexander, ed. Frescobaldi Studies. Durham: Duke University, 1987. 1-10.

External links[link]

• Free scores by Girolamo Frescobaldi in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Free scores by Girolamo Frescobaldi in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Kunst der Fuge: Girolamo Frescobaldi - MIDI files
• Free scores by Girolamo Frescobaldi at the International Music Score Library Project
• An aria of Frescobaldi sung by male soprano Radu Marian

Pedro Ruimonte (or Rimonte, Ruymonte) (1565 – November 30, 1627) was a Spanish composer and musician who spent much of his career in the Low Countries.

Early years[link]

He was born in Zaragoza, the son of Pedro Ruimonte and Gracia de Bolea y Latas, and was baptized in the Church of San Pablo in 1565. Pedro had three sisters, Justa, Gracia and Catalina. It is believed that he studied under Melchor Robledo, who gave public classes on music in La Seo, although he also could have studied with several other noted musicians who were in the city in the 16th century. Until his arrival in Brussels, nothing further is known of him.

Stay in Flanders[link]

It is believed that Ruimonte arrived in Brussels in 1599 as a young man in the choir of the retinue of Archduke Albert of Austria and the Princess Isabel Clara Eugenia, new governors of the Low Countries.

On August 17, 1601, he wrote to his sister, stating that he was maestro de música en la capilla de Sus Altezas Serenísimas (master of music in the chapel of His Majesty). In 1604 he announced himself on the title page of Missae sex as Maestro de la Capilla y de la Cámara de Sus Excelencias (maestro di capella and of the chamber of His Majesty). In 1614, the title page of Parnaso español de Madrigales y Villancicos reads Maestro de Música de la Cámara de los Serenísimos Príncipes Alberto y doña Isabel Clara Eugenia, Archiduques de Austria. It is probable that this difference in title is due to the arrival in 1605 of Géry de Ghersem, maestro of the Chapel Real of the Court of Madrid, who was to take charge of the chapel at the Court of Brussels. However, existing records show that Ruimonte was paid more than Ghersem, a measure of the esteem in which the Archduke held him.

As head of the musicians of the ducal court, aside from overseeing the boy singers, he had under his charge organists and composers of great stature, including the English Peter Philips and John Bull (then organist at the cathedral of Antwerp), and the Flemish Peeter Cornet and Philippe van der Meulen.

Works[link]

During his time in Belgium, he published works through the publisher Pierre Phalèse.

The first was Missae Sex IV. V. et VI. Vocum, published in 1604, and consisted of six masses which display the full range of musical forms and styles of the era. Among the works are parody masses of works of Palestrina and Guerrero.

In 1607 he published Cantiones sex vocum. The collection contains four 4-voice motets for Advent and six more 5 and 6-voice pieces for Lent, an antiphon, Salve Regina for 5 voices, a psalm, De profundis, for 7 voices, and Lamentations for six voices for Holy Week. Except for the lamentations, which are preserved in the Colegiata de Albarracín, the rest has been lost.

His most important work is the Parnaso español de Madrigales y Villancicos a cuatro, cinco y seis, published in 1614. It consists of nine madrigals in Castilian for 4, 5, and 6 voices and twelve villancicos for 5 and 6 voices.

Return to Zaragoza[link]

He returned to Zaragoza in 1614 and worked as a teacher. Among his students were Diego Pontac, and among his friends were Sebastián Aguilera de Heredia. He lived in the city until his death, living with his Catalan wife, the rich widow of Martín de Villanueva, a merchant and dyer.

Further reading[link]

• Palacios, José Ignacio (2000), Los compositores aragoneses. Zaragoza: Caja de Ahorros de la Inmaculada de Aragón. ISBN 84-95306-41-7.
• Calahorra, Pedro (1988), El maestro Pedro Ruimonte: una pica musical en Flandes (en Aragón en el Mundo). Zaragoza: Caja de Ahorros de la Inmaculada de Aragón. ISBN 84-505-7333-5.

External links[link]

• Free scores by Pedro Ruimonte in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)

Luis de Góngora y Argote
Luis de Góngora, in a portrait by Diego Velázquez.
Born	11 July 1561 Córdoba, Spain
Died	24 May 1627) Córdoba, Spain
Occupation	Poet, cleric
Literary movement	culteranismo

Luis de Góngora y Argote (11 July 1561 – 24 May 1627) was a Spanish Baroque lyric poet. Góngora and his lifelong rival, Francisco de Quevedo, are widely considered^{[citation needed]} to be the most prominent Spanish poets of their age. His style is characterized by what was called culteranismo, also known as Gongorism (Gongorismo). This style existed in stark contrast to Quevedo's Conceptismo.

Biography[link]

Góngora was born to a noble family in Córdoba, where his father, Francisco de Argote, was corregidor, or judge. In a Spanish era when purity of Christian lineage (limpieza de sangre) was needed to gain access to education or official appointments, he adopted the surname of his mother, Leonor de Góngora. She claimed descent from an ancient hidalgo (lesser nobility) family. At the age of 15 he entered the University of Salamanca, where he studied civil law and Canon law. He was already known as a poet in 1585 when Miguel de Cervantes praised him in La Galatea; in this same year he took minor orders, drawing his income from the benefices of Cañete de las Torres and Guadalmazán.^[1] His uncle, Don Franscisco, a prebendary of Córdoba Cathedral, renounced his post in favor of his nephew, who took deacon's orders in 1586.^[2]

As a canon associated with this Cathedral, he traveled on diverse commissions to Navarre, Andalusia and Castile. The cities that he visited included Madrid, Salamanca, Granada, Jaén, and Toledo. Around 1605, he was ordained priest, and afterwards lived at Valladolid and Madrid.

While his circle of admirers grew, patrons were grudging in their admiration. Ultimately, in 1617 through the influence of the Duke of Lerma, he was appointed honorary chaplain to King Philip III of Spain, but did not enjoy the honor long.

He maintained a long feud with Francisco de Quevedo, who matched him in talent and wit. Both poets composed lots of bitter, satirical pieces attacking one other, with Quevedo criticizing Góngora's penchant for flattery, his large nose, and his passion for gambling. Quevedo even accused his enemy of sodomy, which was a capital crime in 17th century Spain. In his "Contra el mismo (Góngora)", Quevedo writes of Gongora: No altar, garito sí; poco cristiano, / mucho tahúr, no clérigo, sí arpía.^[3] Góngora's nose, the subject of Quevedo's "A una nariz", begins with the lines: Érase un hombre a una nariz pegado, / érase una nariz superlativa, / érase una nariz sayón y escriba, / érase un peje espada muy barbado.^[4]

This angry feud came to a nasty end for Góngora when Quevedo bought the house he lived in for the only purpose of ejecting him from it. In 1626 a severe illness, which seriously impaired the poet's memory, forced him to return to Córdoba, where he died the next year. By then he was broke from trying to obtain positions and win lawsuits for all his relatives.

An edition of his poems was published almost immediately after his death by Juan López de Vicuña; the frequently reprinted edition by Hozes did not appear until 1633. The collection consists of numerous sonnets, odes, ballads, songs for guitar, and of some larger poems, such as the Soledades and the Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea (Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea) (1612), the two landmark works of the highly refined style called "culteranismo" or "Gongorism." Miguel de Cervantes, in his Viaje del Parnaso, catalogued the good and bad poets of his time. He considered Góngora to be one of the good ones.

Velázquez painted his portrait. Numerous documents, lawsuits and satires of his rival Quevedo paint a picture of a man jovial, sociable, and talkative, who loved card-playing and bullfights. His bishop accused him of rarely attending choir, and of praying less than fervently when he did go.^[1] Gongora's passion for card-playing ultimately contributed to his ruin.^[5] Frequent allusions and metaphors associated with card-playing in Góngora's poetry reveal that cards formed part of his daily life.^[5] He was often reproached for activities beneath the dignity of a churchman.

Style[link]

Culteranismo existed in stark contrast with conceptismo, another movement of the Baroque period which is characterized by a witty style, games with words, simple vocabulary, and conveying multiple meanings in as few words as possible. The best-known representative of Spanish conceptismo, Francisco de Quevedo, had an ongoing feud with Luis de Góngora in which each criticized the other's writing and personal life.

The word culteranismo blends culto ("cultivated") and luteranismo ("Lutheranism") and was coined by its opponents to present it as a heresy of "true" poetry. The movement aimed to use as many words as possible to convey little meaning or to conceal meaning. "Góngora's poetry is inclusive rather than exclusive", one scholar has written, "willing to create and incorporate the new, literally in the form of neologisms."^[6]

Góngora's signature.

Góngora had a penchant for highly Latinate and Greek neologisms, which his opponents mocked. Quevedo lampooned his rival by writing a sonnet, "Aguja de navegar cultos," which listed words from Gongora's lexicon: "He would like to be a culto poet in just one day, / must the following jargon learn: / Fulgores, arrogar, joven, presiente / candor, construye, métrica, armonía..."^[7] Quevedo actually mocked Gongora's style in several sonnets, including "Sulquivagante, pretensor de Estolo."^[8] This anti-gongorine sonnet mocks the unintelligibility of culteranismo and its widespread use of flowery neologisms, including sulquivagante (he who plies the seas; to travel without a clear destination); speluncas ("caves"); surculos (sprouts, scions).^[8] He was also the first to write poems imitating the speech of blacks.^[9] Góngora also had a penchant for apparent breaks in syntactical flow, as he overturned the limitations of syntax, making the hyperbaton the most prominent feature of his poetry.^[10]

He has been called a man of "unquestioned genius and almost limitless culture, an initiator who enriched his language with the vast power, beauty, and scope of a mighty pen."^[11] As far away as Peru, he received the praise of Juan de Espinosa Medrano (ca. 1629—1688), who wrote a piece defending Góngora's poetry from criticism called Apologético en favor de Don Luis de Góngora, Príncipe de los poetas lyricos de España: contra Manuel de Faria y Sousa, Cavallero portugués (1662).^[12]

As Dámaso Alonso has pointed out, Gongora's contribution to the Spanish language should not be underestimated, as he picked up what were in his time obscure or little-used words and used them in his poetry again and again, thereby reviving or popularizing them. Many of these words are quite common today, such as "adolescente," "asunto," "brillante," "construir," "eclipse," "emular," "erigir," "fragmento," "frustrar," "joven," "meta," and "porción".^[13]

Works[link]

Title page of the Chacon Manuscript.

Góngora's poems are usually grouped into two blocks, corresponding more or less to two successive poetic stages. His Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea (Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea) and his Soledades (1613) are his best-known compositions and the most studied.^[14] The Fábula is written in royal octaves (octavas reales) and his Soledades is written in a variety of metres and strophes, but principally in stanzas and silvas interspersed with choruses.^[15]

Góngora's Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea (1612) narrates a mythological episode described in Ovid's Metamorphoses: the love of Polyphemus, one of the Cyclops, for the nymph Galatea, who rejects him. In the poem's end, Acis, enamored with Galatea, is turned into a river.^[16]

Góngora's Fábula de Píramo y Tisbe (Fable of Pyramus and Thisbe) (1618) is a complex poem that mocks gossiping and avaricious women. Góngora also wrote sonnets concerning various subjects of an amatory, satirical, moral, philosophical, religious, controversial, laudatory, and funereal nature. As well as the usual topics (carpe diem etc.) the sonnets include autobiographical elements, describing, for example, the increasing decrepitude and advancing age of the author.

He also wrote plays, which include La destrucción de Troya, Las firmezas de Isabela, and the unfinished Doctor Carlino.^[17]

Although Góngora did not publish his works (he had attempted to do so in 1623), manuscript copies were circulated and compiled in cancioneros (songbooks), and anthologies published with or without his permission. In 1627, Juan Lopez Vicuña published Verse Works of the Spanish Homer, which is also considered very trustworthy and important in establishing the Gongorine corpus of work. Vicuña's work was appropriated by the Spanish Inquisition and was later surpassed by an edition by Gonzalo de Hozes in 1633.

Góngora and the Generation of '27[link]

The Generation of '27 took its name from the year in which the tricentary of Góngora's death, ignored by official academic circles, was celebrated with recitals, avant-garde happenings, and an ambitious plan to publish a new critical edition of his work, as well as books and articles on aspects of his work that had not been fully researched.^[18]

The Generation of '27 was the first to attempt to self-consciously revise baroque literature.^[10] Dámaso Alonso wrote that Góngora's complex language conveyed meaning in that it created a world of pure beauty.^[10] Alonso explored his work exhaustively, and called Góngora a "mystic of words."^[19] Alonso dispelled the notion that Góngora had two separate styles –"simple" and "difficult" poems- that were also divided chronologically between his early and later years. He argued that Góngora's more complex poems built on stylistic devices that had been created in Góngora's early career as a poet. He also argued that the apparent simplicity of some of Góngora's early poems is often deceptive.^[20]

Rafael Alberti added his own Soledad tercera (Paráfrasis incompleta).^[21] In 1961, Alberti declared: "I am a visual poet, like all of the poets from Andalusia, from Góngora to García Lorca."^[22]

Lorca presented a lecture called "La imagen poética en don Luís de Góngora" at the Ateneo in Seville in 1927.^[23] In this lecture, Lorca paid Jean Epstein the compliment of comparing the film director with Góngora as an authority on images.^[24]

References in fiction and philosophy[link]

The philosopher Baruch Spinoza proposed in his Ethics (1677) that a man can die before his body stops moving. As an example he mentioned "a Spanish poet who suffered an illness; though he recovered, he was left so oblivious to his past life that he did not believe the tales and tragedies he had written were his own".^[25] Spinoza historian Carl Gebhardt wrote that "this was probably Góngora, whose works Spinoza possessed, and who lost his memory a year before his death"^[26].

The narrator of the Captain Alatriste series, a friend of Francisco de Quevedo within the stories, illustrates Góngora’s feuding with Quevedo, both by quoting poetry from each as well as describing Quevedo’s attitude toward Góngora through the course of the story. Excerpts of poetry from one against the other are included within the story itself and poetry from each is included at the back of some of the books.

In Giannina Braschi's bilingual novel Yo-Yo Boing! contemporary Latin American poets have a heated debate about Góngora's and Quevedo's role in defining the Spanish empire through their works.

In the second of the five parts of Roberto Bolaño's novel 2666, "The Part about Amalfitano", one of the characters (the poet, whose name is never explicitly stated) quotes a verse from Góngora: Ande yo caliente y ríase la gente.

References[link]

Sources[link]

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

• Spinoza, Baruch (1677/1985). Ethics. In The Collected Works of Spinoza, volume 1. Edited and translated by Edwin Curley. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Luis de Góngora

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Góngora y Argote, Luis de.

• English translations of some of Góngora's poems
• Góngora website, Brown University Department of Hispanic Studies
• (Spanish) Poems by Góngora
• (Spanish) Luis de Góngora y Argote (1561-1627) (texts of his poems, in Spanish)
• (Spanish) Luis de Góngora y Argote (1561-1627) (texts of his poems, in Spanish)