Manuel Leitão de Avilez in Andalucia

Abstract

Manuel Leitão de Avilez is representative of the influx of Portuguese musicians into Spain during the early seventeenth century. He served as maestro of the Capilla del Salvador in Úbeda before moving to Granada as maestro of the capilla real in 1603, where he remained until his death in 1630. His appointment in Granada ended a period of considerable instability in the musical leadership of the capilla real. Eight works attributable to him survive in two manuscripts of the capilla real, one of which is a set of part books from which one book is missing: editions of the two relevant works (a set of Lamentations, and a motet for St Nicholas, Non est inventus) are here presented with the missing part reconstructed. Previous confusions with Vicente Lusitano – resulting from attributions to ‘Lusitanus’ or ‘Lusitani’ in the Granada sources – are here discussed, and it is argued that all eight works in Granada may confidently be attributed to Leitão de Avilez.