THE ACTS OF FAITH 

Or autos de fe organized by the Spanish Inquisition tribunals were

public rituals in which Inquisition prisoners had to show repentance for
their sins, were reconciled with the Catholic faith, and punished.
The auto de fe phenomenon is considered to have started in Spain in
1481 with a ceremony held in Seville. Initially these events were
restrained, since the Inquisition ‘had no intention of putting on a show
for the public’; however, as the sixteenth century advanced they
acquired greater solemnity.1 From 1515 such events were centralized
in major cities, probably as a way of rendering them ‘more impressive’,
and they were celebrated on feast days to ensure that crowds of
people witnessed these public punishments.2 While semi-
private autos (autos particulares) were held in churches and convents,
major events (autos generales) took place in the main square of the
town, where a wooden platform was built especially for the occasion.
From the second half of the seventeenth century the frequency of
these celebrations decreased, and the last autois thought to have been
celebrated in Seville in 1781.3

The auto de fe had its origin in medieval rituals for the reconciliation of

penitents, celebrated on Holy Friday, which were fixed in Hispanic
books of orders (libri ordinum), and were already described in the
seventh canon of the Fourth Council of Toledo of 633.4 The auto itself
was established during the fourteenth century by the French
Dominicans as a solemn ceremony, called ‘general sermon of the faith’
(Sermón General de la Fe), which formed the culmination of the
prosecutions.5 The painting Auto de Fe presidido por Santo Domingo
de Guzmán (1493–9) by Pedro Berruguete (c.1445/50–1503) depicts
the scene of an auto as it might have taken place at the end of the
fifteenth century (Pl. 1). Art historians have suggested that it may be a
depiction of an auto that the painter himself witnessed, such as that
held in Ávila on 16 November 1491, in which those held responsible for
the death of the Holy Child of La Guardia were sentenced. 6 This early
example conveys the ceremonial solemnity of the occasion and the
authority of Church, which is depicted in the hierarchical distribution of
the spaces, with the clergy seated on the platform, and in the detail of
two of the condemned men in the foreground, shown being led to the
stake wearing sambenitos (scapulars), among other elements.

The auto followed a standardized format—with variations caused by

the degree of solemnity of the event—structured into a series of
stages: the proclamation of the day for the ceremony; the procession of
the emblem of the Inquisition, which was a green cross, used as a
symbol of mercy and hope;7 the processions of inquisitors and
penitents; the Holy Offices and Masses celebrated before and during
the auto itself; and the reconciliation of the penitents with the Catholic
faith—the climactic moment of the ceremony. Music was a prominent
element of the autos de fe and was deeply integrated at all
stages.8 Inquisitorial documents indicate that, for the major autos, it
was necessary to provide not only a strong platform, an altar for the
cross, and a path for the penitents to come to take their oaths, but also
‘the music for the reconciled’.9 In this respect, the auto de fe fits into the
context of other public manifestations of faith and urban celebration,
such as processions, major funerals, beatification festivities, and royal
entries, in which heraldic and ceremonial music also played a
fundamental role.

Doris Moreno has pointed out that the ‘success’ of the auto was related
more to the popularity of the festive ceremonies than to the popularity
of the Inquisition.10 Its two-day format is similar to that of solemn death
rituals such as royal exequies, which were focused on the vigils on the
eve of the funeral ceremony and the Mass on the principal day, and
which also involved processions; in contrast, other festivities, such as
beatifications and canonizations, lasted throughout the whole of the
week, or Octave, starting on the eve of the main feast day. The
platforms of the autos were a type of ephemeral architecture also
comparable to the catafalque built for solemn exequies. Beyond these
similarities, however, there were also notable differences between
the autos and other urban rituals. For instance, as noted above,
the autos generales took place outdoors, in the main square of the
town, while the catafalque for solemn exequies was usually built
indoors, in the transept of either the cathedral or another principal
church, or in the main hall of a palace. 11 This public nature is a
particularly distinctive element of the auto, relating to the central
message of the ritual, which was interpreted as an allegory of the Last
Judgement by the inquisitor from Toledo, Luis de Páramo, in his De
origine et progressu officii sanctae Inquisitionis(Madrid, 1598).12 The
penitential significance of the auto also had an impact on the role of
music in the ceremony: the texts that were sung were programmed to
reinforce the OOOOOmessages of fear, penitence, and reconciliation
with the Catholic faith.
Abundant printed and manuscript accounts of the autos de fe are
preserved in the form of relaciones. The relación is a minor literary
genre considered to be a predecessor of the newspaper, in which a
special

Tomás Luis de Victoria y la cultura musical en la España de Filipe

III. Ed. by Alfonso de Vicente and Pilar Tomás.

As Alfonso de Vicente explains in his Introduction to this rich and wide-

ranging collection of essays, the book is concerned with ‘two
independent objects of study, with certain areas of intersection’
between them (p. 10). The first area of study is itself broad,
encompassing musical and other aspects of Philip III’s court, music
and ceremony in Valladolid (where the court was based for part of
Philip’s reign), and the musical life of two monastic institutions closely
connected to the court: El Escorial and the Descalzas Reales in
Madrid. The second object of study is Tomás Luis de Victoria; herein
the focus is not only—or indeed predominantly—on Victoria’s career
and output in Madrid between the accession of Philip III in 1598 and
the composer’s death in 1611. Rather, the issue pursued most widely
in the chapters concerned with the composer is the extent of the
dissemination of his music within the Iberian Peninsula and Spanish
America.

Following a chapter by Emilio Ros-Fábregas on ‘music as a

representation of power’, the book falls into two main sections, dealing
respectively with the two ‘objects of study’ outlined above. Ros-
Fábregas considers the symbolic meanings carried by L’homme
armé masses (including those associated with the Spanish Habsburgs)
and by Victoria’s Missa pro Victoria. In thus viewing Victoria’s mass in
relation to the L’homme armé tradition, it is worth mentioning (in
addition to the points that the author makes here) that Victoria
incorporated part of the L’homme armé melody in the ‘Christe’ of
his Missa pro Victoria.
Fernando Negredo del Cerro contributes a study of preaching—
including court preaching—during the seventeenth century. Although
neither Victoria nor music makes an appearance in this essay, the
material encourages consideration of parallels and differences
between the ideals, purposes, and methods of preachers and those of
musicians in royal service. Luis Robledo Estaire traces Philip’s musical
upbringing, and then considers the various aspects of his court’s
musical provision. His thorough survey of court music and musicians
draws richly on the available documentation and identifies the areas of
musical overlap between departments of the household, such as the
chapel and chamber. He points to aspects of change in the court’s
musical practices—such as the introduction of the guitar and the
cultivation of the viola da gamba—that might reflect Philip’s own
training and tastes. Cristina Diego Pacheco focuses on the brief period
(1601–6) during which Philip’s court was installed in Valladolid rather
than Madrid. She provides an admirably broad and well-documented
study of musical life in the city during these years, revealing the impact
that the court’s presence had in that sphere. Gustavo Sánchez surveys
evidence of the various types of musical activity—chant, vocal
polyphony, and the use of instruments—at the great royal monastery of
El Escorial during Philip’s reign. He brings to light some new material
regarding the duties of the ‘corrector del canto’ within the performance
of the liturgy, and considers the development of the monastery’s capilla
polifónica and of its repertory, thus touching upon the lively debates
concerning the degree to which polyphonic practice at the monastery
under Philip’s father reflected constraints imposed by the king.
Victoria features little in the foregoing chapters, since he was not in the
service of Philip III (although he dedicated his printed collection of 1600
to the king) and did not travel with the court to Valladolid. Rather, after
his return from Rome in the mid-1580s he served as chaplain to
Empress María of Austria in Madrid. María inhabited royal apartments
attached to the convent of the Descalzas Reales, and it is thus within
Alfonso de Vicente’s chapter about this convent that Victoria reappears
prominently in the book and is once again considered with regard to
the linkage between music and political power and image: indeed,
Vicente characterizes Victoria as ‘el compositor de los Austrias’ (p.
222) and his Officium defunctorum of 1605 as ‘a veritable “monument
to the dynasty”’ (p. 224). More broadly, the chapter provides the
clearest view to date of the evolving polyphonic repertory of the
Descalzas’s capilla as revealed by a number of inventories, and of the
performing forces available, which included the empress’s chaplains.
Roberto Quirós Rosado’s chapter concerns the upward mobility of
Victoria’s family, focusing first on the establishment of the family
fortune by Victoria’s grandfather Hernán Luis, and then on the
international mercantile enterprises of two of Victoria’s brothers, Juan
Luis de Victoria and Antonio Suárez de Victoria. Noel O’Regan, who
has contributed substantially to our knowledge of Victoria’s Roman
period, here considers aspects of Victoria’s composing career in Rome
and Madrid, surveys possible influences on his early Roman output
(such as the laude of Giovanni Animuccia), and proposes Victoria as a
conduit for the transmission of innovatory Roman styles (for example,
in terms of polychoral writing) to Spain, a hypothesis that invites further
scrutiny of Victoria’s possible compositional influence in the Iberian
world, alongside assessment of the extent of his music’s
dissemination, which the subsequent chapters attempt.
Introduction to music therapy practice
Drs. Annie Heiderscheit and Nancy Jackson initially
conceptualized Introduction to Music Therapy Practice with non-music
therapy majors in mind, but recognized that music therapy majors, too,
would benefit from such a resource. While accomplished clinicians,
researchers, and educators in their own right, the authors collaborated
with a diverse and experienced group of contributors from around the
world—including active clinicians, researchers, and educators—to tell
the music therapy “stories” that are often captivating to students
enrolled in introductory courses. These contributors’ clinical cases offer
highly engaging and illustrative examples of music therapy in action.
The authors precede and/or follow each case with additional
information that provides a broader context for understanding the case,
such as background information about the client population, the
therapist’s clinical approach, procedural steps for implementing the
method, and/or song lists or musical notation. Additionally, the authors
highlight relevant research supporting positive outcomes associated
with each method. Embedded in each chapter are key vocabulary
words or terms, highlighted in bold text, that are defined in the back of
the chapter. Taken together, the cases, supplementary information and
research summaries, and highlighted key terms with provided
definitions offer the reader a comprehensive introduction to the various
ways that music therapists engage with their clients in and through
music.

Unlike other introductory or foundational music therapy books that

delineate chapters according to population or setting served,
Heiderscheit and Jackson organized their book into distinct sections
representing the four foundational music therapy methods—including
re-creating, composing, improvising, and receptive experiences. In
each section, contributors’ case studies—12 in each section, 48 in total
—offer relatively short and concise, yet richly detailed, descriptions of
the therapist’s approach to therapy and musical engagement with their
clients. In each section, the case studies are divided among three
chapters; the first two chapters each include two case studies
highlighting prominent approaches to the method, while the third
chapter offers case examples of other method variations.

As a result of the book’s structure, the sections individually and

collectively illustrate the diversity and versatility of each method,
highlighting various ways each may be applied, approached, or
adapted to address clients’ clinical needs across a spectrum of
diagnoses, settings, clinical goals, populations, and clinicians’
theoretical/philosophical orientations. Moreover, this organizational
approach affords a course instructor significant flexibility in how to
utilize the book by assigning specific cases, chapters, or sections as
relevant to course goals and learning outcomes. As such, this book
would be an informative text not only for introductory courses, but for
more advanced techniques or methods courses that students take later
in their training.
The method sections are preceded by an introductory chapter in which
the authors set an important tone for the rest of the book by clarifying
topics and terminology foundational to understanding what music
therapy is and why it can be effective. The authors define the core
concepts of health and music, then compare the two in order to explain
how music therapy works and why it is effective. They dispel common
myths about music as a “universal language” and offer a description of
Gaston’s Eight Considerations of Man and Music (1968) in order to
describe the importance of music in all facets of human relationships,
interactions, and celebrations. This information is not only crucial to the
continuum of the book, but to the ongoing development and education
of students who are in the early stages of their journey within the world
of music therapy.
Section A, Re-Creative Music Therapy, starts with a brief definition of
the aforementioned method and provides examples of what re-creative
music therapy would look like in a clinical setting, such as client-led
singing or small ensembles. At the beginning of each chapter, the
authors provide a case study to guide the reader through a third-
person view of what a practical implementation of re-creative music
therapy may look like for the given population. In the Singing chapter,
the authors introduce two case studies; one taking place in the
Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and the other occurring in a
support group for clients with Parkinson’s disease. While explaining in
concise detail not only the familial implications of such experiences, the
authors also describe the re-creative method of singing and its
effectiveness within each clientele group. The author closes the
chapter by explicitly stating the difference between a clinical music
therapy session and any other musical experience, which is a crucial
distinction for anyone new or unfamiliar with the field of music therapy.

Music Therapy Practice Status and Trends Worldwide: An

International Survey Study
Across nations and generations, music has played an important role in
human culture. A part of everyday life, music has contributed to the
well-being of individuals, families, and communities throughout human
history (Levitin, 2007). Emphasis on scientific methods influenced the
growth of music therapy, with publications from the eighteenth and
nineteenth century describing the use of music-based treatments in
medical, mental health, and educational settings. Cornerstone events
for the development of music therapy as a discipline in the United
States include the release of the journal Music and Health in 1913, the
first music therapy course taught at Columbia University in New York in
1919, and the establishment of the National Foundation for Music
Therapy in 1941 (Davis & Gfeller, 2008).

Historical records reveal that, despite promising developments in the

United States (the first country to have music therapy as an organized
profession), music therapy was not widely accepted as a discipline until
a paradigm shift in treatment of mental health conditions and prominent
work with World War II veterans occurred. Moreover, music therapy
pioneers recognized the need for formal training to establish the
profession. Consequently, Michigan State University launched the first
academic music therapy program in 1944, followed shortly thereafter
by other universities within the United States (Davis & Gfeller, 2008).
Music therapists worked mainly with psychiatric patients and expanded
their service to an increasingly diverse population in the following
decades. Yet, Davis and Gfeller (2008) state: “Before the formation of
the National Association for Music Therapy [NAMT] in 1950, most
‘music therapists’ were unpaid, part-time staff members who worked
under the supervision of hospital personnel and who lacked
professional status” (p. 33). In conjunction with the National
Association for Schools of Music (NASM), NAMT established the
credential Registered Music Therapist (RMT), which assured
educational and clinical standards to employers. Later, other countries
experienced similar developments of the field, as more recent
publications describe.

Country Reports and Workforce Analyses

Early print documents are not readily available to international
scholars. Yet, the growing body of literature in the English language,
international conferences, and social media postings do contribute to a
better understanding of the development of the music therapy
profession worldwide. In 2000, Music Therapy World, one of the first
online platforms for information sharing in music therapy, hosted the
World Federation of Music Therapy (WFMT) and the European
Confederation of Music Therapy (ECMT) as well as the online
journal Music Therapy Today, now offered by WFMT. About the same
time, Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy was introduced during
the European Congress of Music Therapy in Naples in 2001. Both
online journals continue publishing country-specific information in
reports (e.g., Kennedy, 2015a), proceedings (e.g., Fachner, Kern, &
Tucek, 2014), and specific series (e.g., Voices, n.d.). Additionally, the
WFMT’s eight Regional Liaisons offer historical information (e.g., Kern
et al., 2010) and up-to-date “Fact Pages” and “School & Internship
Sites” as well as firsthand knowledge, experiences, and perspectives
on the current development of music therapy in their regions in video
messages and monthly blog posts (WFMT, 2017a). Their counterpart,
the WFMT Assembly of Student Delegates, also hosts a blog called
“Window to the World,” which features students’ study and cultural
insights via text, picture, sound, and video (WFMT, 2017b).
Other music therapy–based publications such as the online
magazine imagine target a specific population (i.e., young children and
their families) and describe demographics, backgrounds, common
approaches, and prominent literature from 35 countries under the Color
of Us series (imagine, 2017). Another notable initiative related to music
therapy and music projects is the Music as a Global Resource
Compendium released by the United Nations, which describes over a
hundred projects from nearly 50 countries. Topics include music for
sustainable community development, music for mental and physical
health, music for working with trauma survivors, music for lifelong
learning, and music for peacebuilding (Hesser & Heinemann, 2015).
Information exists about international music therapy education and
training addressing specific program designs, multicultural identity, and
ongoing and emerging needs (Goodman, 2015). Moreover, a
comprehensive report about the entry-level requirements and
curriculum from 100 training programs in 37 countries (besides the
United States) is available from a master’s thesis completed by one of
WFMT’s Regional Liaisons (Kavaliova-Moussi, 2015).