Frontera de Valldemosa’s Equinotación and the Nineteenth-Century Textbook Controversies It Sparked

Resumen

Abstract. Francisco Frontera de Valldemosa (1807-1891) published the first edition of his treatise, generally known as Equinotación, in 1837. The book purported to simplify musical notation by reducing the complex system of clefs to only three. From the moment it became public his clef method became controversial. First, it sparked a long controversy in the Revue et gazette musicale de Paris regarding the system’s originality, usefulness, and possible plagiarism. Subsequent editions decades later also sparked debates and even a couple of lawsuits, as reflected in several articles in the Gaceta musical barcelonesa. At the bottom of these polemics and under the guise of music-theoretical arguments there were the commercial interests of the textbooks’ authors.
Keywords. Equinotación, Francisco Frontera de Valldemosa, Jose Gil y Navarro, musical notation, textbooks, music theory and solfège methods, Revue et gazette musicale de Paris, Gaceta musical barcelonesa.