Music and students in early modern Barcelona

What is it about?

According to the annals of the Dominican friary of Santa Caterina in Barcelona, an academy and confraternity in honour of St. Thomas Aquinas was founded there in 1588. It was made up of university students and Thomist professors who endorsed the Dominicans against the Jesuits. This institution, which is interchangeably referred to as academy and as confraternity, persisted to the eighteenth century. A variety of archival documents reflect the importance of music as part of ceremonies organised by this confraternity, in particular on the occasion of St. Thomas Aquinas’s feast day, when liturgical celebrations, literary competitions, academic discourses, and a procession taking the image of the saint took place. This chapter assesses, through an analysis of archival documentation such as foundation statutes, handwritten music, printed villancico lyrics and chronicles, the role that music played in the ceremonial of this confraternity and the links that were established, through music, between the friary, the students and the soundscape of Barcelona in the early modern period.

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Photo by Juhi Sewchurran on Unsplash

Photo by Juhi Sewchurran on Unsplash