Music in the “New World”: from New Spain to New England Objectives

Music in the “New World”: From New Spain to New England

objectives

I. the villancico in Peru (what’s new about it) II. Spanish opera in Peru III. music in the British colonies [focus on the terms and the two works on your listening list]

The “Age of Discovery” (for Europeans)

• 1492: Christopher Columbus (Spain) • 1494: Treaty of Tordesillas • 1500: “discovery” of Brazil by Portuguese

1 Pre‐Columbian Civilizations

• Mayans (Guatemala, 4th‐8th c.)

• Aztecs (Mexico, late 12th c.‐1521)

• Incas (Peru, 13th c.‐1533)

music of Pre‐Columbian Civilizations

• NO music survives

• Music Sources: – 1. surviving instruments – 2. iconography – 3. writings about music by missionaries

• music was inseparable from religious ritual

1. Surviving Instruments

Aztec Flutes

Incan stone panpipe

2 2. Iconography

“New World” 17th‐18th c.

Sacred Music in Hispanic America • Catholic liturgical music – tool for evangelism • Masses, Motets, etc. (in Latin) – Prima prattica works influenced by “Golden Age of Spanish Polyphony” • Cristóbal Morales • Tomás Luis de Victoria

3 Sacred Music in New Spain (Mexico)

• Villancico – strophic song in Spanish with refrain

Estribillo (refrain) Copla (strophe) A b b a or A

Juan del Encina: Oy comamos y bebamos, villancico (late 15th cent.) • Estrebillo: • Refrain: Oy comamos y bebamos Today let’s eat and drink y cantemos y holguemos, and sing and have a good time que mañana ayunaremos. for tomorrow we will fast. • Copla 1 • Stanza 1 [mudanza] •[mudanza] Por onrra de sant Antruejo To honor Saint Carnival parémonos oy bien anchos, today let’s end up very fat, enbutamos estos panchos, let’s stuff our bellies, rrecalquemos el pellejo, let’s stretch our skin, [vuelta] [vuelta] que constumb’es de conçejo for it’s a custom of the council que todos oy nos hartemos, that today we gorge ourselves, que mañana ayunaremos, for tomorrow we will fast

Villancico: “Tarara, tarara” by Antonio de Salazar (1713)

A Tarara, tarara qui yo soy Anton Tada, tada, I’m Anthony, Ninglito di nascimiento Black by birth, Qui lo canto lo mas y mijo. And I sing loud and clear. b Yo soy Anton molinela I am Anthony the Moor Y ese niño qui nacio And the newborn child, Hijo es li unos la lablalola Son of working folk, Li tula mi estimación. Has all my esteem. b Pul eso mi sonajiya And so with my rattle, Cascabela y atambo My bells and my tambourine, Voy a bayla yo a Belena I’ll go to Bethlehem to dance pultilica y camalon. the Puerto Rico and the Cameroun A Tarara, tarara . . . Tada, tada . . .

4 Juan de Araujo Los coflades de la estleya (late 17th cent) NAWM 88 • polychoral villancico – similar to sacred concerto • Contrasting textures – quasi‐sacred text in Spanish – Spanish rhythms – A (ensemble) b b (soloists) A (ensemble) • Instruments all imported from Europe

minstrelsy in America

La púrpura de la rosa (1701) NAWM 87 Tomás Torrejón y Velasco (1644–1728)

• first extant opera written and performed in the New World • almost all‐female cast (singing actresses) • myth of Venus and Adonis • short strophic airs or tonadas (very little recitative) • choruses—homorhythmic with syncopation

5 New World Contributions to European Music • chaconne (related to Passacaglia) – 1598 (Peru) • sarabande – 1539: First reference to zarabanda found in Panama (Poem by Fernando Guzmán Mexía)

Music in New England and other English Colonies

• 1607: Jamestown, Virginia • 1620: Pilgrims at Plymouth • 1630: Puritans est. Massachusetts Bay colonies • Various religious beliefs; strong opinions about music

Bay Psalm Book

• 1640: 1st book printed in English‐speaking colonies • 9th ed. (1698) contained 13 melodies and was the 1st music printed in the English colonies

6 William Billings (1746‐1800) • Boston tanner, singing school master, self‐ taught composer • The New‐England Psalm‐Singer, 1770 • BROOKFIELD – 4‐part, homophonic – Tune in tenor • Fuging tune: CREATION – Slow homophonic + upbeat imitative sections

Billings, Creation

When I with pleasing wonder stand, And all my frame survey, Lord, 'tis thy work; I own thy hand Thus built my humble clay. Our life contains a thousand springs, And dies if one be gone. Strange that a harp of thousand strings Should keep in tune so long.

Frontispiece to The New‐England Psalm‐Singer engraved by Paul Revere