(Sp.).
A form of short Spanish scenic entertainment, usually comic, which flourished in the 17th century and was performed between the acts of a larger, more serious theatrical work (see Intermezzo (ii)). It was popular in character, and commonly called for instrumentally accompanied songs and dances, but the genre also attracted literary figures as eminent as Tirso de Molina and Quevedo. The traditional place for the entremés in its strict sense was after the first act, though at other points similar forms were introduced – a jácaras (picaresque interlude) or baile (dance scene with poetry and music) after the second act and a mojiganga (burlesque) at the end. The term may have originated in the court of Aragon in the 14th century as a song or dance interlude between courses of a meal (‘entremet’); it was also current in Catalonia in the 15th century to denote a popular entertainment, with solo songs, unaccompanied choruses or instrumental music, which enlivened religious or solemn festivities.
E. Cotarelo y Mori: Colección de entremeses, loas, bailes, jácaras y mojigangas desde fines del siglo XVI a mediados del XVIII (Madrid, 1911)
E. Cotarelo y Mori: Origenes y establicimiento de la ópera en España hasta 1800 (Madrid, 1917)
M.N. Hamilton: Music in 18th-Century Spain (Urbana, IL, 1937/R)
A. Livermore: A Short History of Spanish Music (London, 1972), 95–6
LIONEL SALTER