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May 9, 2026
The Cantigas de Santa Maria
Power and Persuasion at the Alfonsine Court
Summary
Amongst the many achievements of the Castilian court of King Alfonso X (1221-184) is the Cantigas de Santa Maria, a collection of 429 songs preserved in four manuscripts. In The Cantigas de Santa Maria: Power and Persuasion at the Alfonsine Court (Oxford UP, 2024) Henry T. Drummon re-examines a subsection of this collection, the cantigas de miragre. These songs set miracle narratives to recursive, refrain-based musical structures. By situating the musical and poetic form of the cantigas de miragre against the backdrop of discourses about rhetoric animating 13th-century intellectual life, Drummond shows how these songs worked to communicate propagandistic messages on behalf of a crown in crisis. Available recordings of the cantigas discussed in the podcast include those from Jordi Savall and Hespèrion XXI, the Boston Camerata and the Andalusian Orchestra of Fez under the direction of Joel Cohen, and René Clemencic’s Clemencic Consort.
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