HAVING PROVIDED HIS CHURCH with two collections of music for the mass, it seems logical that Esquivel should now turn his attention to music for the Office. The first five sections of the Tomus secundus, then, are given over entirely to polyphonic settings of the three liturgical items – psalms, hymns and Magnificats – which form the choral basis of the service of Vespers.

PSALM SETTINGS

Peninsular composers of the first half of the sixteenth century, men such as Francisco de Peñalosa, Juan Escribano, Juan de Anchieta, Bartolomé Escobedo and also Morales, were not drawn to the composition of psalm settings. The second half of the century, however, saw a huge increase in this activity when a number of significant figures sought to provide polyphonic material to enhance the liturgy of the Hours, Vespers in particular. Esquivel took his place in a line of distinguished musicians, who, in addition to familiar names like Guerrero and Victoria, and his teacher Juan Navarro, included among others Andrés de Torrentes (three times maestro at Toledo), Rodrigo de Ceballos, Fernando de las Infantas, Ginés de Boluda (maestro at the cathedrals of Cuenca and Toledo), Melchor Robledo and Diego Ortiz.

A description of the psalm settings was given in Chapter 3. There it was noted that the seven psalms given polyphonic treatment are those which were sung at First Vespers at different times of the year. Dixit Dominus appears twice, one setting being in psalm tone 1 and a second setting in tone 6.

The psalm tones, with their basic structure of intonation, reciting note and termination, elucidated the structure of the text, and polyphonic settings were designed to fulfil the same practical function: to get through the text quickly and efficiently, without the elaborate polyphonic treatment accorded for example to motet texts.

In his psalm settings, Esquivel follows the conventional procedures of his time: unison verses, sung to the psalm tone, alternate with polyphonic settings in which the chant is paraphrased – sometimes very freely – in either the superius or an inner voice, or occasionally in the bassus, as in verse 8 of Dixit Dominus (first setting).