Four hundred years ago in 1585, the bishops of Mexico celebrated the third
provincial council of Mexico City. The church in Mexico was very young
then. In 1521, Cortez conquered Mexico, and by 1530 Spanish colonization
had reached such a pace that the Diocese of Mexico City was erected. The
young Mexican church grew rapidly and in 1546 the Diocese of Mexico was
detached from the Province of Seville, Spain, and erected into an
independent ecclesiastical province with suffragan sees.
These institutional developments mark off the rapid maturation of the
Church in that mission land. But one could also chart the progress of that
church by reference to the decrees on sacred music pronounced at the third
provincial council of Mexico City. These decrees suggest a state of church
music very highly developed indeed. In 1523, Frey Pedro de Gante arrived in
Mexico as the first teacher of western music. He established a school in
which to teach the Axtecs plainchant and polyphony. The progress of Mexican
music was such that the council's music decrees sixty years later marked
the commencement of a golden age of church music which astonishes even
today. Guided by this wise canonical legislation, the Church in Mexico
enjoyed a century of musical excellence. Moreover, the 1585 legislation of
Mexico City III council bears interesting comparison with that of the
Vatican II council.
Music is integral to the solemn liturgy and the Mexican legislation was
calculated to produce excellence in both. No one was to be admitted to the
ranks of the clergy unless he possessed the rudiments of plainchant, which
in Mexico meant Mozarabic, not Gregorian, chant. Clerics, furthermore, were
not to be promoted to major orders (i.e., ordained subdeacon) unless they
had become skilled in plainchant. Moreover, the Mexican Church was by law
dedicated to the cultivation of the treasury of sacred music. Sacred
polyphony was not only permitted, but it was to be fostered. For Easter,
particular law required its use. Chapelmasters who taught polyphony were
forbidden to teach at the same hour that the succentor (the sub-chanter or
precentor's assistant) was teaching plainchant. At lauds or morning prayer
the verses of the "Benedictus" were to be sung, as in Spain, alternately in
polyphony and plainchant. Thus, polyphony and plainchant were regarded not
only as distinct but as complementary musical forms suited to the temple,
and legal provisions were made for both. Moreover, to ensure that the
treasury of sacred music was cultivated, chapelmasters who excelled in
composition as well as performance were forbidden to restrict their choirs
merely to their own compositions.
This legislation sounds excellent, but was it put into effect? History
says it was. The literary evidence sings the praises of the church music of
baroque Mexico. In 1568, the inspector of the Council of the Indies, the
board that governed the colonial empire of Spain, reported that even the
merest hamlet with a resident clergyman had two choirs of fifteen members
each which in alternate weeks sang Mass and vespers daily. Churches in
larger centers had quite magnificent musical establishments. When the
Cathedral of Puebla was consecrated in 1649, there was a fortnight of
sacred music to mark the event. It was attended by some 1200 clergy from as
far away as Manila. The music rivaled, as it was intended to do, the
brilliant music composed by Orazio Benevoli for the consecration of the
Salzburg cathedral in 1628. During his forty years as chapelmaster of the
Puebla cathedral, Juan Gurierrez de Padilla saw to it that polyphony was
performed every Sunday at Mass. In 1589, the library of the Mexico City
cathedral included the musical works of Palestrina, Victoria, Morales,
Guerrero and Orlando di Lasso, indicating that the treasury of sacred music
was indeed cultivated there and not only the new music of the chapelmaster
was performed.
Looking to the bottom line, the Mexican Church fortified its legislation
with appropriations. The annual musical budget of the Puebla
cathedral was 14,000 pesos, enough to support in solid, middle-class
comfort about thirty families. The music budget of the Mexico City
cathedral was 5,000 pesos. With such robust support for music, the Church
in Mexico not surprisingly attracted first-rate musical talent. Several
observers attest that Mexican church music was on a par with that of
European cathedrals. A vast quantity of church music was composed in Mexico
and some of this has recently been rescued from manuscript archives,
published, and pronounced splendid. But the dedication to church music was
no mere urban fancy.
Even northwestern frontier mining towns in Sinaloa and Sinora had good
music. In 1715, the bishop of Durango visited the remote Jesuit mission of
San Francisco de Satebo on the feast of Saint Ignatius. He was astonished
and delight to discover that its Indian choristers could render a
polyphonic pontifical solemn high Mass with aplomb to the accompaniment of
bassoon, viola, clarinet, harp and organ. Many similar stories could be
added but enough has been said to show that the music legislation of the
third provincial council of Mexico City was in fact put into effect. It
remains but to show its similarities with the legislation of Vatican II.
Like the Mexico City Council, the Vatican Council had high praises for
sacred music. It declared in its constitution on the liturgy, "Sacrosanctum
concilium," that music is "necessary or integral" to the solemn liturgy and
added that liturgy has "a more noble form" when celebrated solemnly with
song (art. 112-113). It declared that church musicians exercise a genuine
liturgical role (art. 29). Thus, it ordered that the treasure of sacred
music be cultivated and preserved with superlative care (art. 114) and that
choirs be assiduously developed, especially in major churches like
cathedrals, basilicas, and monastic churches. Gregorian chant was to be
given pride of place and sacred polyphony was by no means to be disdained
(art. 116). The clergy, too, were to be trained in music, for seminaries
and houses of formation were ordered to give "great importance to the
teaching of church music." Looking to the bottom line, the council
elsewhere in "Gaudium et spes," (art. 67), spoke of the need to pay a just
wage to those employed so as to provide a dignified livelihood. That would
have included adequate compensation for church musicians.
One is struck by the parallels between the music legislation of Mexico
City III and Vatican II. The 1585 Mexican legislation shepherded in a
golden age in church music. It expressed in legal language the dedication
of a Church--the clergy and laity alike--to the cultivation of good sacred
music. That the Mexican decrees were so strikingly successful gives one
hope that the similar Vatican II decrees will some day bear fruit.
