AN EARLY 18TH-CENTURY MANUSCRIPT FOR GUITAR AND VIOLIN IN TORRE DE JUAN ABAD

The Archivo Historico Municipal of Torre de Juan Abad (Ciudad Real), a town known for its relationship with the writer Francisco de Quevedo (1580-1645), keeps a small anonymous manuscript from the early 18th century that contains tablatures for guitar and, to a lesser extent, violin. The source, preserved among the documents of Quevedo and his family, is particularly interesting, for it constitutes a testimony of domestic music making and the dissemination of the five-course guitar between the 17th and 18th centuries. This source, along with others studied in recent years, shows that the guitar and the violin shared a popular and international repertory, which included not only long-established Spanish forms, such as the jacara and the mariona, but also recently introduced foreign dances, such as the minuet. In addition, this manuscript attests to the dissemination of such repertoire in small and remote towns, not only in the main cultural centres. The transmission of this music was mostly oral, but sources such as this one, probably produced by and for amateurs, allow us to reconstruct the pieces and thus foster their performance in modern times. (A full transcription is included as an Appendix).