Topics and Hispanic Music (18th–21st Centuries): Topoi, Rhetoric and Narrativity

Across three intense days of lectures, panels and discussion, a shared concern emerged: how can topic theory continue to serve as a critical lens for interpreting musical meaning, especially when applied to lesser-known repertoires and historically nuanced cases?While the long eighteenth century formed the analytical spine of many papers, the dialogue extended well into the nineteenth, twentieth and even twenty-first centuries, maintaining conceptual cohesion through attention to narrativity, rhetoric, semiotics and hermeneutics.The following report prioritizes papers engaging with the long eighteenth century, while briefly acknowledging the broader spectrum of contributions presented throughout the event.This year's edition gathered scholars from across Europe and the Americas, representing diverse methodological lineages and disciplinary intersections.The shared emphasis on music as a vehicle of expression demonstrated the continued vitality of topic theory not only as an analytical framework, but also as a means of exploring musical identity.The conference began with gueda Pedrero-Encabo (Universidad de Valladolid), who advocated a narratological approach to topic theory.Analysing Manuel Blasco de Nebra's sonatas, she proposed a typology of laments and outlined two narrative paths for the pastoral lament.The first session (' Around the Sonata') then highlighted repertoire from the long eighteenth century and the early romantic period, highlighting the interpretative possibilities of topical analysis when applied to questions of formal nuance and stylistic hybridity.Miguel Arnaiz Molina (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) began with a study of dance topics as concluding markers in Domenico Scarlatti's keyboard sonatas.He showed how specific dance topoi are not in fact limited to closing gestures, and that their placement is linked to specific rhetorical strategies.Arnaiz drew attention to what he termed a 'modal contraposition' at key formal junctures, which serves to introduce a dance-like character that is semantically marked.His distinction between ratio facilis and ratio difficilis offered a model for how topical meaning may be contingent on structural placement.Franois Vijay Ratiney (Universit Bordeaux Montaigne) analysed Sebastin de Albero's keyboard works, showing how sacred and secular idioms -organ styles, guitar techniques and dance gestures -coexist and thus reflect a dual musical identity.Cristina Gonzlez Rojo (Columbia University) concluded the session by moving forward chronologically with a topical reading of the first movement from Brahms's Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 25.Drawing on Allanbrook's idea of the 'expressive surface' , Gonzlez Rojo interpreted the first-theme group as marked by ombra characteristics.These are juxtaposed with a second group structured as a progressive pastoral arc, moving from serenade to a folk-like duet.Particularly striking was her analysis of the codetta as a hybrid zone -what she termed 'pastoral ombra' -and her observation that the recapitulation reverses the earlier trajectory.Her conclusion, resonating with a comment from Mrta Grabcz (Universit