Historical Aspects of the Temperament of Keyboard Instruments in Spain at the end of the Seventeenth Century: from the Toledan Projects to the Mediterranean Achievements

Abstract

This article is, primarily, a synthesis of decades of research into organ building in Spain. But it also deals with a topic rarely considered: the temperament of keyboard instruments at the end of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries in Spain. The recent discovery of a 1696 contract to build an organ at the Toledo Cathedral, signed by Liborna Echevarría, provides a new perspective on the way organs were built at the time. Moreover, this contract can be compared with the one signed by Domingo Mendoza in 1695 for the construction of an instrument in this very cathedral, which allows us to compare and study the differences between the two projects. Indeed, these differences are not only mechanical but represent the two main standard bearers of the art of Spanish organ building at its height. A new interpretation of both documents will also give us a better understanding of the two main approaches to keyboard temperament: the one tending towards equal temperament, with a “tonal” orientation, from classical harmony (characteristic of Liborna Echevarría and Domingo Aguirre), which dominated the Western part of the Peninsula; and the one tending towards a “pretonal” or “modal” temperament, whose origins are to be found in the Renaissance period and which disappeared during the eighteenth century. The latter was widely used in South-Eastern Spain, developed and revived around the city of Valencia and inspired by Juan de Andueza and his pupil Domingo Mendoza. Both approaches used friar José de Echevarría as their model.