El fondo de música de la catedral de Santiago: Redescubriendo un antiguo corpus musical a partir de su re-catalogación

Abstract

The present article presents some reflections arisen from cataloging the music collection of Santiago Cathedral and researching on its musical life. First, it analyzes the prejudices about cataloging in a significant part of contemporary musicology. Then, it presents the similarities and differences between Samuel Claro Valdés’ catalogue published in 1974 and the current one. It goes on raising new perspectives about that collection, particularly about instrumental music and the problem of the preservation vs. the loss of the repertory. Finally, it exemplifies how the research about the music and its  context may directly affect its cataloging, so that the later should be understood not merely as a description, but as an interpretation process.