Spanish Christmas carols, called villancicos, pre-date printed music, first showing up in print during the 16th century, making Ríu ríu chíu and those of Francisco Guerrero and Antonio de Cabezón some of the earliest. The word villancico is a diminutive of the word villano, meaning peasant, and the original villancicos had rustic associations. In the late 16th century the form came to be used more and more for religious themes, and by the 18th century it came to mean Christmas carol. In its structure specific verses alternate with a repeating refrain.

While the days of Advent are a time of fasting and repentance in the Christian calendar, the Spanish-speaking world anticipates the revelry and celebration of Christmas long before December 25th. Virgin Mary is the patron saint of Spain, and the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8th begins the observance of the Christmas season, even though that Holy Day recognizes the conception of Mary untainted by original sin and not the birth of her son. The season of revelry continues for almost a month, ending on January 6th, known as Three Kings Day or the Feast of the Epiphany in the Christian Church calendar, the day which commemorates the visit of the magi at the stable to adore the Christ child.

Even the Feast of the Innocents, December 28th in the Christian calendar, is a cause for merriment in the Spanish-speaking countries of the world. The day commemorates the slaughter of all children two years or younger by Herod, King of Jerusalem, in his attempt to eliminate the “King of the Jews,” whose location the three kings had asked for on their journey to the stable. One of the oldest English carols, the “Coventry Carol,” tells the story of this massacre, and Michael Mendoza, a Latino-American, uses its text in a somber setting in a minor tonality* akin to the original English setting from the late 16th century. I particularly like his accompaniment to the 2nd stanza, where the lower two voices sing “raging” as a repeating one-measure phrase a major third and a half beat apart; the syncopation really encapsulates the simmering rage that Herod feels. While it may be hard to imagine this feast day as an opportunity for jollity, in Spain the Feast of the Innocents is observed by playing practical jokes. When caught out in a joke, the trickster cries: “inocente!” (innocent!).

The works you hear tonight paint in music the non-musical means by which the Spanish-speaking world keeps Christmas: lighting oil lamps; dancing; platters of fresh and dried fruit; aguinaldo (children caroling in their neighborhood in exchange for sweets or coins); and pessebres (nativity plays telling the story of Jesus’ birth and subsequent visits by the shepherds and kings). Mexico’s main Christmas ritual, La Posada, descended from its Spanish ancestor’s reenactment of Joseph’s and Mary’s search for shelter, is performed to this day. “Ríu ríu chíu,” the earliest printed villancico, has been widely performed in such diverse showcases as the Christmas Eve service of Lessons and Carols by King’s College Cambridge and an episode of the ’60s sitcom “The Monkees” about a band wholly created for the sake of the series. The irregular rhythms of Guerrero’s villancicos capture both the excitement of the simple shepherds as they approach the baby in the manger and the revelry occasioned by the birth of Jesus and the arrival of the magi.

While the secular tradition of song focuses on the festive atmosphere of the season, the sacred tradition, as illustrated by the motets on tonight’s program, contemplates the mystery of God’s descent to earth as a vulnerable baby. “Ave Maria,” the angel Gabriel’s salutation to Mary informing her that, although a virgin, she will bear God’s son, appears in Luke’s Gospel. At the greeting’s end, the early Christian Church added a supplication to Mary to intercede for sinners, and the resultant prayer has become the most common prayer of the Roman Catholic Church. However, Victoria uses a text that replaces the abjectly humble final line of the prayer—“pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death”—with one of hope: “pray for us sinners and let us, in the company of the elect, see you.” By setting the text for two equal choirs of mixed voices, Victoria creates an antiphonal effect in which they may call and respond. He anticipates the hopeful final phrase by setting pray for us sinners in a triple rhythm, a musical indication of joy.

Cristóbal Morales’ “Magnificat tertii toni” sets Mary’s reaction to the angel’s greeting. This poem of social justice originated in the Old Testament as spoken by Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron; the Gospel of Luke paraphrases it. As heard in du Caurroy’s “Requiem des morts” which we performed in October, Morales alternates his polyphonic* settings of verse with the chant on the third of eight tones setting the Magnificat that appear in the Liber usualis.* In most of his movements Morales takes the first half of the tone and has one of the parts intone it in longer note values as part of his setting, something often done in Renaissance motets based on plainchant.

Morales’ “O magnum mysterium” is undeservedly overshadowed by the setting of that text by his countryman, Tomas Luis de Victoria, a contemporary of William Byrd in England and Palestrina in Italy, and perhaps Spain’s best known Renaissance composer. Both Victoria and Morales were trained in Rome, where the style of Renaissance polyphony,* originating almost two hundred years earlier in the Netherlands with the composers Ockeghem and Obrecht, had reached its most polished form. In Morales’ “Pastores dicite” you can hear the elegant effect of this style, with its independent imitative lines weaving in and out like the strands of a braid, but the emotional impact upon the listener stems more from a cerebral appreciation of the craft than from the success of the music in conveying the emotion inherent to the text. Even the final refrain of Noé (Noel) sounds, in comparison to the raucously rhythmic villancicos, detached from any joy. However, the stately iteration of the word the infant by all the voices in homophony,* answering the question What did you see, shepherds? needs no musical directive by the composer; the slow tempo and the unison declamation demand a hushed and reverent tone to convey the shepherds’ sense of awe at the import of what they saw. Morales uses this same homophony* in a slow tempo, which we again interpret to imply a piano dynamic, to begin “O magnum mysterium;” in it we hear his awe at the enormous significance of the omnipotent Christian God coming to earth as a helpless baby born in the humblest of circumstances.

In our main selection of the evening, “Carols and Lullabies; Christmas in the Southwest,” the American Conrad Susa gathers and presents ten traditional carols from throughout the Spanish-speaking world in a seamless stream of music. Interspersed among carols originating in the Spanish regions of Biscay (number 1), Catalonia (2 and 8), Andalusia (6 and 9), and Castile (number 7) are carols from Puerto Rico (number 3), and Mexico (number 10), as well as carols sung throughout Spain (4 and 5). Some of these carols may be familiar to you. His scoring of marimba, guitar, and harp as accompaniment to them makes them his own.

Joaquin Zamacois composed both melody and text for his villancico that you hear tonight. Born in Santiago, Chile, Zamacois became a teacher at the Conservatory in Barcelona and is known mainly for his writings on music theory and his orchestral compositions. It is a shame that he did not compose more works for chorus; this piece captures the sonorities of Spain as well as the emotions inherent to their respective texts.

We hope that tonight’s concert, like the luminaria traditionally lit at Christmas in New Mexico, will provide you with warmth and light in this cold and dark season. The early Catholic Church, in its decision to celebrate Jesus’ birth at the Winter Solstice, allowed its faithful to incorporate such pre-existing pagan customs in their honoring of Jesus’ birth. May we all find joy in the traditions and rituals of this time, especially the sharing of song. ▣

© 2025 Mary Beekman. All rights reserved. No portion of this document may be quoted or reproduced without the author’s permission.