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Sacred Celebration: Song, Sequence, Dance, and Pageantry

Craig H. Russell

in From Serra to Sancho: Music and Pageantry in the California Missions

This chapter delves into sacred songs in the vernacular, such as the family of gozos (songs of praise), one of which had harmonies that were similar to the folía. The villancico is examined, as are ... More

This chapter delves into sacred songs in the vernacular, such as the family of gozos (songs of praise), one of which had harmonies that were similar to the folía. The villancico is examined, as are vernacular-texted hymns and their processional pageantry that were associated with Corpus Christi. For this feast day, the Latin hymn Pange lingua and sequence Lauda Sion Salvatorem were sung quite differently in California than they were in medieval Europe. The procession for Corpus Christi utilized a semistandardized repertoire of Classical-sounding melodies (¡O qué suave!, ¡O Rey de corazones!, ¡O pan de vida!, and ¡O sacratissimo cuerpo de Jesús!) that accompanied an elaborate parade to four altars set up outside the mission walls. The founding of Monterey in 1770 by Father Serra serves as a representative example of this magnificent spectacle. Additional repertoire and feasts are examined, such as the Dies irae and Pentecost's Veni Sancte Spiritus. Less

Mimesis

Anne Storch

in Secret Manipulations: Language and Context in Africa

Here, spirit languages are presented that contribute to perfect imitations and mimetic interpretations of foreigners, dominant groups, etc., by their speakers. Mimesis is also an interesting strategy ... More

Here, spirit languages are presented that contribute to perfect imitations and mimetic interpretations of foreigners, dominant groups, etc., by their speakers. Mimesis is also an interesting strategy in invented secret language in nineteenth-century colonial Africa and in Baroque sources on African narrative art and music. Here, the mimetic interpretation of the Other enables the speaker to overcome social boundaries and achieve agency, albeit in a different manner than by using secrecy as a means of gaining power. This may also include strong exclusionist tendencies, where the Other, by mimetic interpretation, for example, is characterized as having a socially marginalized, underdog position.Less

Music Suitable for Four Flutes

Kate Clark and Amanda Markwick

in The Renaissance Flute: A Contemporary Guide

Chapter 10 presents our own editions (in score format) of music for four flutes. (Individual parts can be downloaded from the accompanying website.) Purely instrumental pieces, such as dances, as ... More

Chapter 10 presents our own editions (in score format) of music for four flutes. (Individual parts can be downloaded from the accompanying website.) Purely instrumental pieces, such as dances, as well as vocal pieces, such as chansons and Tenorlieder, are included. An introduction to each piece presents the mode and useful tips for flutist approaching these works for the first time. Each piece also includes a hexachordal analysis and text (when applicable).Less

Introduction to María de San José Salazar (1548–1603)

in Book for the Hour of Recreation

This chapter focuses on the life of María de San José Salazar, her origins, writing, and her Book for the Hour of Recreation, which voices the concerns of a woman who was content to work within the ... More

This chapter focuses on the life of María de San José Salazar, her origins, writing, and her Book for the Hour of Recreation, which voices the concerns of a woman who was content to work within the parameters of what she understood to be the non-negotiable limitations on women's roles during the Catholic Reformation. Her poetry demonstrates that she had mastered a wide variety of metrical forms, from the Italianate sonnet to the folkloric Castilian villancico. The absence of genealogical records for her family suggests that María was an illegitimate child of a highly placed member of Doña Luisa's household. In 1562, Doña Luisa asked the Carmelite provincial of Castile to allow Teresa de Jesús, a nun from Avila with a growing renown for saintliness, to stay with her in Toledo. María relates that she and her companions were fascinated by the nun and more than once spied on her through cracks in the door as she prayed in ecstasy.Less

Good Shepherd, Bumpkin Shepherd: Distinction in Villano Gambetas and Zapatetas

K. Meira Goldberg

in Sonidos Negros: On the Blackness of Flamenco

In Christmas pageants staged throughout the Spanish Empire, the pastor bobo (foolish shepherd) asked rude and impertinent questions, making Christian doctrine comprehensible to the humblest ... More

In Christmas pageants staged throughout the Spanish Empire, the pastor bobo (foolish shepherd) asked rude and impertinent questions, making Christian doctrine comprehensible to the humblest audiences. The bobo’s comic confusion—Will he or won’t he see the light of Christ?—was danced with obscene gambols and cacophonous footwork, manifesting the perilous invisible stain of impure blood. Yet these sharp-tongued dramatizations of redemption simultaneously undermined the determinative dogma of blood purity which governed Spanish society. Aristocrats thus asserted their status, enacting the post-epiphany bobo by refining transgressive gambols into virtuosic caprioles. Ironically, eighteenth-century Spaniards adopted the imaginary Gitano—an outlaw Other which inherits the bobo’s dramatic narrative of redemption—as a national symbol. Spain’s identification with this figure, often described euphemistically as a proto-romantic “orientalization,” is in fact a racialized downgrade. With the advent of the fandango, Spain, reduced to performing itself for tourists, came to dance Blackness for Europe.Less

The Cathedral of Santiago

Alejandro Vera

in The Sweet Penance of Music: Musical Life in Colonial Santiago de Chile

This chapter deals with musical life in Santiago cathedral during the 16th to 18th centuries. It considers, among other topics, its organization, structure, financing, and the agency of specific ... More

This chapter deals with musical life in Santiago cathedral during the 16th to 18th centuries. It considers, among other topics, its organization, structure, financing, and the agency of specific people, such as bishops, prebendaries, chapelmasters, and other musicians. It subsequently explains how this information casts light on more musical issues, such as performing practice, particularly during José de Campderrós’s time. The chapter also studies the repertoire, including plainsong and intonations, Latin polyphony, and Spanish pieces (especially villancicos), showing that the relative scarcity of music sources can be related not only to the restricted budget of the institution (especially until 1700) but also to specific features proper to is musical life. Then, it relates the different kinds of music mentioned before to the liturgical context, explaining both some of its similarities and differences with other cathedrals from the New World. As in the rest of the book, this chapter combines the study of historical documents and music sources.Less