2
t s t \ F \s $ s ., 9 A \J il. s s N ,rl --l -t AI \t vll '- I til This publication consists of a preface (ix_xii) , an Introduction (1-23), thirty-six musi."it -..rif tions, with their text underlays (25_101), exten- sive sixteenth-century variant texts, logether with English translatilns G02-SZ), á""i"r"pá- rary commentaries on the music, again with English translations (15g_64), and á ample, gl.n"lllv upto-dare seiected Bibliography (f'OS_ 72). The collection is limited to solo airange- ments, as opposed to polyphoni., "n."-ñ1" compositions. As Brinkley explains in his pref_ ace, Margit Frenk,s contribution involved tex- tual aspects, while he wrote about the muri. unA "attempted to tie it all together,' (*i). F."nLl. work was carried out.,in the early 1960s,, and the edition had, presumably, lain doimant sincethai time. What we are nol told is that Frenk_an unrivaled, world-class authorily on early His_ panic poetry-was never given galley prools to see, nor was she informed about the forthóom_ ing publication. Such regrettable cir.u*.t n.", will explain some defects of the present booL. Binkley's editorial criteria remain un.t"", and suggest an uncontrolled conflation "f áiif"" ent poetic sources: ,.We have in most cases ll\lhich?l underlaid the text found in tfr" o.igi nal music, sometimes [When?] adding ";";-r; from a literary source as well" (6). Foi.".i;;; literary-and, for that matter, musicological_ work, this will not do. Binkley's treatrñenJof tunes in relation to texts is highly conjectural. He has ignored the vasrly diffeieni origi;, il, and tone of the various rumancesi I. Caballero, si_a Francia ydes;4. A las armas, Moriscote (dr;á \7);6. Passeáuase el rey moro (also 15, ZO);2.' C"i p,auor recordó el moro;g. Sospirastes, Boíáor¡nor,; I0. De Antequera sale un moro; 14. Triste estaua e,l rey Dauid (also 14ó); Ig. ln mañana ¿e Sant Joan;21. Quién huuiesse tal aentura; ZS. Coi¿) Claros con amores;26. pensóse ,t i¡tl"*; lA. Rosafresca; and 34. Los bragos noyso ,oiroio, are, essentiall¡ tradiüonal texts and continue to be sung in oral tradition even today, while 5. Enfermo estaua Antio co (r ead Antío coi, tO. iirl) estaaa y mu! penosa (or quexo.s¿); 13. Israel mira sus montes, and some others are obviously learned. True, tune and text need not be relatei. but some awareness of the text's ,olt;-;;igi" might, for example, have informed ana perffi even modified Binkley's supposition that, in'2. ror Antequera suspira, there is ,,a hint of slreet_ 782 HISPANIA 79 DECEMEER 1996 Binkley, Thomas, and Margit Fr enk, Spán_ ish Romances of the Sixteenth Ceniury. Bloomington: Indiana University press, 199-5. ISBN 0-253-20964-1. xiv *173 p;. song origin" (13). To suppose that the theme of 23. Conde Claros con amores-still sung in ample versions on the Peninsula and in Moiocco_is ,,a briefdigression from a recited text, an opportu- nity to burst into song" (10), as if this were a chante-fable like Aucassin et Nicolette. will con_ vince no one who has worked on the modern oral tradition. Equally disturbing is Binkley,s contention thal "surely no one sang compléte 'romances' to ditties,, (15). How else, then, were such extensive narratives to have survived in oral tradition if they were not sung? Binkley in- explicably classifies 1g. Guarte, guarte, Rey aon S ancho-a paradigmatic heroic ballad detached from a medieval cantar de gesfa_as a ,,disguised 'villancico"' (1S-16), while he unjustifially in_ cludes in this collection of narrative ,o.orr^ 24. ¿Dónde son estas serranas? (also 32), which is obviously a uillancico. Binkley .p""in". tt ui "allfeatures of the old spelling...noi phonologi- cally pertinent have been repliced b;their;;?- ern equivalents" (20). For textual research. such a procedure would have becn counter¡rcrluc_ tive,. but we discover, to our surprise, that Brinkley has not followed tris own'gulaá[nes and the old spellings remain. Srch inconsisten_ cies, together with a large number of typos (Resconoalles [145]; exemplistica, ti¡Sl; affeñalada [163]) and misreadingsten¿ to shat- ter the reader's confidence. All the same, this book is not without its vir- tues. Binkley is interested most of all in ,,the present day performer" (7). The book is prima- rily concerned with performance and, ;thl; r¡'elcome correlation of brief underf"Va to "*t"n_ sive early manuscript and printed "á..ion., iol gether with generally accurare English transiá- tions, it will be useful for comparative work. The large format (8 l/2 y 11 inches), ,rgg".ti"g sheet music, is convenient. This will, tfr""i, U" "i inval'rable source for anyone anxious ,u p".io.* early Spanish ballads. It will also be a t un¿u."i erence for scholars interestecl in the uihuelista corpus, but its texts should not be quoted with_ out f,rst checking some other, móre reüa¡te source. An index of first lines would have been a useful additionai feature. Samuel G. Armistead Uniuersity of California. Dauis ff auou", Dionisio. El poeta y la ciudad. Nue'J t' ua York y los escritores hispanos. Madrid: Cá_.^ tedra, 1994. ISBN 34-3761242_X.196 pp. Este trabajo podría incluirsr: t,nlrt: ltn orit.nlu dos a mostrar la irnpr;rtancia dcl espacio corrro
