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Early America and Cuba

the town’s Scolopian college. He draws a picture of collaboration and mutual interdependency between institutions—close links that were fostered by the town’s small size—rather than the total dependency on the cathedral capilla de música that has often been assumed. Confraternities, too, assume a prominent position in this account of urban music, with over 40 such corporations in a town of just over 3,000 inhabitants. Indeed, the author argues for a broader reconsideration of the contribution of confraternities to European musical life in the light of his findings. As well as promoting musical activities, these corporations also provided opportunities for members to forge personal contacts with musicians, which may have influenced recruitment procedures and allowed new or prospective musicians to integrate themselves with established members of the profession. A final institution that comes under scrutiny is the town’s citadel, whose soldiers played a part in local musical life through performances in processions, and even occasionally occupied musical posts in the cathedral. The picture that Marín paints is one of musical and social consensus within the town. Future research might focus on the kinds of sources that could provide a ‘view from below’, such as notarial documents and records of court cases, in order to test this consensual model and explore music’s role as a focus for social tensions, rivalry and subversion. The ‘local’ is often a contested territory, the site of competing discourses; there may have been social fractures and contradictions that are largely silenced in the kinds of sources on which this study is based. In turning his attention to the cathedral music archive, a collection which illustrates the musical life of the town as a whole, Marín focuses on processes of continuity and change in the local repertory. Local chapelmasters recopied the works of their predecessors for decades after their composition, creating a sense of local tradition and historical awareness, yet they also brought in new music and compositional styles from elsewhere. Thus the ‘Italianization’ of Spanish music in the 18th century, when viewed through the lens of Jaca, can be seen as a gradual process of adoption and adaptation rather than the swamping of local styles by foreign imports, as it has sometimes been characterized. By examining the reception of Corelli and of Italian opera arias, Marín illuminates the local incorporation of international repertory, revealing that Jaca’s peripheral location and provincial status did not prevent local musicians from participating in the transnational circulation of music and styles. He also explores the links between the music in the cathedral archive and a number of Jaca’s churches and confraternities, illuminating the musical networks that connected these urban institutions. From the point of view of the present-day researcher, small-town archives can be particularly revealing, as the central role of the cathedral music chapel is reflected in heterogeneous archives which are quite different from those of city cathedrals, where secular repertory has often been lost. Among the many strengths of this accessible book are the frequent references to other urban settings throughout Europe, putting Marín’s findings into wider perspective. Another type of comparison that might prove fruitful in exploring the specific characteristics of urban music-making would be an examination of the non-urban, or rural, setting to which the urban is implicitly contrasted. Nevertheless, Marín’s approach will appeal to anyone interested in music in towns; his sure handling of a wide range of documentary sources allows him to paint a fascinating and convincing portrait of the rich musical life of a small town on the geographical, if not cultural, margin.