The "Magna Hispalensis" and the Twin Organs of Fray Domingo de Augirre and Luis de Vilches: Eighteenth-Century Seville and Its Mirror of Wonder

The Magna Hispalensis was conceived on a grand scale and executed on the gargantuan. No other temple in all Catholic Europe apart from the very Basilica of St. Peter could rival the great pile of Seville Cathedral in terms of size or magnificence. When in 1724 Fray Domingo de Aguirre and Luis de Vil...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Music in art 2010-04, Vol.35 (1/2), p.218-232
Main Author: d'Arcy, Sing
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Archbishops
Architectural design
Architecture
Cathedrals
Cities
Design
Facades
Mayors
Pipe organs
Religious buildings
Varia
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Summary:The Magna Hispalensis was conceived on a grand scale and executed on the gargantuan. No other temple in all Catholic Europe apart from the very Basilica of St. Peter could rival the great pile of Seville Cathedral in terms of size or magnificence. When in 1724 Fray Domingo de Aguirre and Luis de Vilches presented their vision for the new organs of Seville cathedral, there can be no doubt that this project was as ambitious as it was to be influential. Never before in "la Europa Órgano" had a scheme of such symmetry and splendour been proposed. Though the tonal development of the classical Castilian organ was not to see its eventual apotheosis until the closing years of the eighteenth century, as exemplified in the works of Jordi Bosch and Julián de la Orden, the 1724 scheme for Seville cathedral marked the construction of the first ever pair of mirror organs of eight facades. Just as Seville cathedral had become the model for all new cathedralic projects both in Castile and in New Spain, so too would its multifacade mirror organs become the prototype for the cathedrals and collegiate churches of Andalusia.
ISSN:1522-7464
2169-9488