The ensalada (Spanish for salad) is a genre of
polyphonic secular music mixing languages and dialects and nonsensical
quodlibets.
The term is known mainly through a publication, Las Ensaladas de FlechaPrague (1581), by
Mateo Flecha the Younger, that contains six long four-part vocal compositions by his uncle
Mateo Flecha (1481–1553).[1][2][3] Each of these ensaladas is divided into several sections, ranging from seven to twelve. The music is for four voices.[4][5][6][7]
Apart from the ensaladas by Mateo Flecha, there are also two examples by Mateo Flecha the younger, two by
Pere Alberch Vila, several by
Bartolomé Cárceres, one by the unknown F. Chacón and several anonymous sources. There is also an instrumental ensalada for organ by
Sebastián Aguilera de Heredia.
Historia de la Música en España e Hispanoamérica 2. De los Reyes Católicos a Felipe II, Maricarmen Gómez (ed.). Madrid-México D.F., Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2012 (chapters II-III).
ISBN978-84-375-0677-7
^Las Ensaladas (Praga,1581) con un Suplemento de obras del género, Maricarmen Gómez Muntané (ed.). Valencia, Generalitat (IVM), 2008. 3 vols.
ISBN978-84-482-4890-1
^also known as Madrid, Biblioteca Privada de Bartolomé March Servera, R. 6829 (861); olim Biblioteca de la Casa del Duque de Medinaceli, MS 13230.