When Isolation Fosters Creativity: The Oddities of the Las Huelgas Manuscript

Abstract

Of the substantial 13th-14th century music manuscripts available to scholars today, the Las Huelgas codex (hereafter Hu) is rarely addressed in academic conversation compared to collections such as Florence (F), the Wolfenbüttel manuscripts (W1 & W2), Bamberg (Ba) or the Montpellier Codex (Mo). Perhaps this is due to Hu’s isolated location in the Iberian Peninsula, or perhaps because certain of its musical tendencies are odd compared to those found in contemporary manuscripts. It may be these very oddities, however, which shed light on the musical situation and compositional taste of 14th century Iberian culture. This paper will explore a sampling of Hu motets, examining their differences from the mainstream repertoire, isolating their atypical musical characteristics, and presenting possible explanations for these anomalies. Finally, it will consider what these compositional choices suggest about music transmission to the Iberian Peninsula, as well as what the culture’s musical preferences of the time might have been.