Música Para Los Reconciliados: Music, Emotion, and Inquisitorial ‘Autos De Fe’ in early Modern Hispanic Cities

Abstract

The autos de fe organized by the Spanish Inquisition tribunals were urban rituals in which music was deeply integrated. Music played a primordial role in every stage of the event: the proclamation of the day for the ceremony; the procession of the emblem of the Inquisition; the processions of penitents and Inquisition familiars; the religious ceremonies celebrated before and during the auto itself; and the reconciliation of the penitents with the Catholic faith. This article presents the results of an analysis of the musical references found in written accounts of the autos and in other documents related to ceremonies held in several cities in Spain and Latin America during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The research reveals who contributed to the music performed at the autos and how members of the public who attended participated in music-making; it affords a glimpse of the musical genres represented; and it shows how music contributed to the evocation of the wide range of emotions experienced by those attending, and thereby to the exaltation of Catholic devotion.