Divine Eloquence in Penitential Songs from Franciscan Missions to Andalusian Holy Week

Cesar Favila
Musicology
UC Los Angeles

The Spanish Catholic penitential song known as saeta is a vocal resonance of ritualized dwelling in difficulty, sorrow, and suffering. It enjoins examination of consciences, causes weeping, and promotes constant penitence, the benefits of which come to fruition in the afterlife. This book project is the first examination of this song form, from its missionary origins across the Spanish empire to its contemporary vocalization in Southern Spain. It is a transhistorical project that overlooks historical time, location, belief, and vocation, and brings to focus the common denominator shared by various saeta singers and listeners: the knowledge between “sufrir” (suffering caused by an external source) and “padecer” (suffering provoked from within). Divine Eloquence shows how suffering on one’s own terms has manifested through saetas from the early modern period to the present, and, more widely, calls for a re-examination of music’s relationship to devotional practices, questioning whether popular piety can resound louder than institutional religion.