Sor Juana/música
Subtitle: how the Décima musa composed, practiced, and imagined music
By: Pamela H. Long.
Series: Ibérica -- v. 39
Publisher: Lang
Published: 2009
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 143
ISBN-13: 9781433102691
Subjects: Juana Inés de la Cruz, -- Sister, -- 1651-1695 -- Criticism and interpretation; Music theory -- History -- 17th century; Music -- Philosophy and aesthetics -- History -- 17th century; Music and literature
Description: "In her lost treatise on music which she titled El caracol, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz addressed the image of the spiral as a metaphor for musical harmony, an image which she distilled in one of her romances. Singing in the choir of the Templo de San Jerónimo, Sor Juana and the other nuns of her convent were raising the tone of their musica humana to be in accord with the music of the heavenly choirs, which the nuns were imitating in their singing. Octavio Paz theorizes a "triple interés" in music in Sor Juana's works: "práctico, teórico, filósofico". Numerous poems allude to the theoretical and philosophical problems of music, resulting in many levels of metaphor and metonym concerning music, especially in the loas and villancicos. Not only does Sor Juana's work address the metaphysical aspects of music, the musica speculative so popular in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but it broaches important questions on the practical applications of new theories of musical harmony: the musica practica. A talented poet, playwright, scientist, and mathematician, Sor Juana also explored musical instruments and theory. Sor Juana/Música investigates the musical aspects of Sor Juana's literary achievements, exploring the dense metaphorical interplay of musical and literary images, and places her works within the musicological ambience of her time. With its interdisciplinary approach, Sor Juana/Música contributes not only to the understanding of Sor Juana's literary works, but also to the degree that literature underpins the other arts as it illuminates the musicological times in which she lived."--Publisher's information.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The musicological context of Sor Juana's works; title: Musica practica; title: Musica poetica; title: Musica speculativa.