El Componente Dramatico-musical en una pieza breve de Melchor Fernandez de Leon

Abstract

Music played an outstanding role in seventeenth-century Spanish court theatre, even to the point of being a factor when considering whether the plays were to be staged in the royal palace or staged only in the popular theatres or corrales. But it was in the royal playhouses where a number of new musical-dramatic new genres developed. In other words, different types of plays were characterized by their musical components, as in for example, El baile de las aves [The Dance of the Birds] by Melchor Fernández de León, a text that was first staged in the Royal Palace in 1684, on occasion of the birthday of Queen María Luisa, wife to King Carlos II. Music, dancing and singing contribute greatly to turn the representation of the play into a very brilliant event.