#4200. Linear Narratives in Cyclical Form: the Hunt for Reason in the Cantigas de Santa Maria

September 2026publication date
Proposal available till 27-05-2025
4 total number of authors per manuscript0 $

The title of the journal is available only for the authors who have already paid for
Journal’s subject area:
Music;
Places in the authors’ list:
place 1place 2place 3place 4
FreeFreeFreeFree
2510 $1340 $1170 $1000 $
Contract №4200.1 Contract №4200.2 Contract №4200.3 Contract №4200.4
1 place - free (for sale)
2 place - free (for sale)
3 place - free (for sale)
4 place - free (for sale)

More details about the manuscript: Arts & Humanities Citation Index or/and Social Sciences Citation Index
Abstract:
Central to the world of thirteenth-century Galician-Portuguese song are the Cantigas de Santa Maria (CSM), on whose narrative cantigas de miragre this article focuses. These songs comprise alternations between a refrain and strophes that finish by reiterating the refrains metre, rhymes and melody. The setup in the cantigas de miragre is rendered all the more curious given that few comparable instances of cyclical structure and linear narrative occur elsewhere in late-medieval vernacular repertoire. Parsing the musical, poetic and narrative structures of CSM 232, I demonstrate how the sonically tenacious refrain, recapped within the latter part of each strophe as the strophe-b, works to highlight the narrative thrust of a miracle story. The memorially marked recurrence of refrain metre, rhymes and melody in the strophe-b functions as a device to separate the narratively central from the extraneous. Through the analysis of CSM 232, this article highlights the fundamental role of sonic memory in late-medieval vernacular song.
Keywords:
Cantigas de Santa Maria; refrain; strophes; vernacular song; narrative structures

Contacts :
0