ABSTRACT
The use of instruments in the sacred polphony of the Middle Ages and Renaissance has long been a matter of active and sometimes bitter debate. Three questions, in approximately chronological order, will add structure to this investigation. When and where and what did instruments play in Spanish churches before 1500 or so? When and how did they manage, beginning in the 1520s, to become a regular part of the musical staff in many cathedrals? And what did they do when they got there? Unambiguous evidence of instrumentalists in Spanish churches before 1500 is relatively rare—partly because fewer and sketchier cathedral records survive from the 15th century than from the 16th, but also, one senses, because such performances were themselves relatively rare. At the end of the 15th century, then, the appearance of instrumentalists in Spanish churches was perhaps conspicuous, but still very intermittent. By the end of the 16th, minstrels would be playing in most of the larger churches.
