Christmas in New Spain (2014)

Christmas in New Spain is a live recording of the December 2013 Folger Consort performance. The recording contains early baroque dances and exuberant music by Latin American and Spanish composers for the Christmas season.

Artists

Folger Consort

• Robert Eisenstein, viol, violin

Guest Artists

• Risa Browder, violin
• Paula Fagerberg, Spanish double harp
• Anna Marsh, bassoon
• Mary Springfels, viol
• Charles Weaver, guitar
• Tom Zajac, flutes, bagpipes, percussion, trombone
• Voices of Cathedra, Washington National Cathedral’s Chamber Vocal Ensemble
  • Michael McCarthy, Director
  • Brooke Evers, soprano
  • Nicholas Fichter, tenor
  • Jerry Kavinski, tenor
  • Michael McCarthy, bass
  • Emily Noël, soprano
  • Roger Isaacs, countertenor

Recording Notes

This live recording, drawn from concerts performed at the Folger Shakespeare Library in December of 2013, consists of music heard in the New World from the late 16th to the 18th centuries. The composers represented, most of whom were originally from Spain and Portugal but then worked in Guatemala, Peru, and Mexico, drew on many sources for their various musical styles, including the lively rhythms of Iberian folk music, the newest European styles, indigenous American practices, and even African influences.

By 1600 there were European-style cities in Mexico and Peru, the most important parts of Spain’s colonial empire. Elaborate musical establishments were formed at the major cathedrals of Mexico City, Puebla, Lima, and Cuzco. Puebla Cathedral, as ornate as many in Europe, is a good example of the larger musical organizations of New Spain. Accounts document how readily Native Americans took to Spanish church music.

Many of them became proficient singers of Gregorian chant and polyphony, of Gregorian chant and polyphony, and they were skilled in the construction and playing of European instruments. The Cathedral Cappella by 1650 consisted of 13 adult singers and as many boys. All but two of the men were also paid to double on various instruments. Apparently, Mexican bishops had no qualms about the use of harps, viols, shawms, trombones, and other instruments in church. We open and close this recording with sacred pieces composed for these cathedrals. In between we have instrumental music, often based on the work of two Spanish guitarists with links to the New World. Many New World churches did not have organs, so the fundamental harmonies of 17th-century music were often provided by harps and other instruments. Harp, guitar, and violins were prominent, and we appropriately add flutes, viols, dulcian, and lots of percussion. There are also Christmas villançicos–much less formal pieces that often use Native American and black/Spanish dialects. They are quite different from anything being composed back in Spain.

The rest of our music comes from a source known as the Trujillo del Peru Codex, compiled by a late 18th-century bishop of Trujillo, Peru. This manuscript contains over 1400 beautifully primitive watercolors depicting the lives of local people and also 20 remarkable pieces of music, in a decidedly non-European style. (View the manuscript online at [1].) These pieces demonstrate that very early in the colonial period European traditions and American and African influences were joined and forming a truly American a truly American musical style. – Robert Eisenstein

Text and Translations

Exultate justi in Domino

Exultate justi in Domino: rectos decet collaudatio. Confitemini Domino in cithara; in psalterio decem chordarum psallite illi. Cantate ei canticum novum. Bene psallite ei in vociferacione quia rectum est verbum Domini et omnia opera eius in fide Diliget misericordiam et iudicium; misericordia Domini plena est terra Verbo Domini caeli firmati sunt et spiritu oris eius omnis virtus eorum.

Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous ones: it is fitting for the upright ones to give praise.

Acknowledge the Lord with the harp; sing to him with a psaltery of ten strings. Sing to him a new song; sing praises to him well with a loud voice. For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his works are in faith. He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. By the word of the Lord, the heavens were established, and all their power, by the Spirit of his mouth.

from Psalm 32  

Tañe gil tu tamborino

Tañe gil tu tamborino y anden la flauta e sonajas hágase la gayta rajas y elrabel no pierdo el tino Que el cielo divino a fiestas combida por la nueva vida q'a la tierra vino.

Skillfully sound your tambourine As the flute and the bells ring out Make the bagpipe pierce the air and the rebec will not fall behind; So Holy Heaven joins together to rejoice For the new life that came down to earth.

translation by Katie Hoyer

Eso rigor e repente

Estribillo: Eso rigor e repente Juro aqui se niyo siquito que aunque nace poco branquito Turu somo noso parente no tenemo branco grande. Tenle primo, tenle calje, husie husia paracia Toca negriyo toca negriyo tamboritiyo Canta parente!

Sarabanda tenge que tenge Sumbacasu cucumbe esa noche branco seremo O Jesu que risa tenemo! O que risa Santo Tomé!

Coplas: Vamo negro de Guinea a lo pesebrito sola No vamo negro de Angola que sa turu negla fea! Queremo que niño vea negro pulizo y galano, que como sa noso hermano tenemo ya fantasia.

Toca viyano y follia bailaremo alegremente! gargantiya le granate yegamo a lo sequitiyo. Mantey ya rebosico comfite curubacate Y le cura a te faxue la guante camisa capisayta de frisa canutiyo de tabaco.

Toca preso pero beyaco guitarra Alegremente canta parente!

Sarabanda tenge que tenge…

Estribillo: This sudden hardship I promise this little child that although born a little white, All of us are his family. We are not afraid of the white man.

Come on then cousin, put your shoes on and get dressed! Play, play your little drum! Everybody sing!

Let’s dance the sarabanda! Sumbacasu cucumbe [African phrase, translation unknown] this holy night Oh Jesus, how much we laugh!

Coplas: Oh, how much we laugh, Saint Thomas! Let’s go, blacks from Guinea, to the manger alone Not with the blacks from Angola — they’re all ugly! We want the child to see us refined and gallant, As our brothers envisioned us.

Play and we will dance with joy! We bring the little one a necklace. We bestow sweets and gifts upon him And for the priest we bring gloves, a shirt, strawberries, and a little cane pipe for tobacco.

Play quickly yet beautifully Everybody sing! Let’s dance the Sarabanda…

Ay galagueños

Estribillo: Ay galagueños, ay que lo veyo Mas ay que lo miro ay que lo veyo En un pesebriño.

Ay o filo de Deus Ay que a la terra vino Ay que lo veyo en un portaliño.

Coplas: Ay soen cantiñas E dai mil boltiñas Ay tocai las flautiñas Tamtem los pandeiros Ay que face pucheros Por mis amoriños.

Ay fagamosle festas Que entre duas bestas Ay que muito le cuesta Nacer sendo nobre Ay na terra tan pobre Por os pecadiños.

Estribillo: Ay galgueños, I see him there; I look at him and I see him In a manger.

Ah, the son of God who came down to earth Ah, I see him there in a manger.

Coplas: Ah, let songs be sung and dances danced Ah, play the little flutes And sound the tambourines And make funny faces For my little loves.

Ah, let’s celebrate him There between the beasts Ah, how hard it is for him, Being noble Ah, to be born on earth For our sins.  

Gloria

Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis. Laudamus te. Benedicimus te. Adoramus te. Glorificamus te. Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam. Domine Deus, rex caelestis Deus Pater omnipotens. Domine fili unigenite, JesuChriste. Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis, qui tollis peccata mundi suscipe deprecationem nostram, qui sedes ad dexteram Patris, miserere nobis. Quoniam tu solus sanctus, tu solusDominus, tu solus altissimus. Jesu Christe cum Sancto Spiritu in gloria Dei Patris. Amen.

Glory to God in the highest and peace to men of good will. We praise thee. We bless thee. We adore thee. We glorify thee. We give thanks to thee for thy great glory. O Lord God, heavenly king God the father almighty. O Lord, the only begotten son, Jesus Christ. Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, Who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. Who takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer. Who sits at the right hand of the Father, have mercy upon us. You alone are holy, you alone areLord, You alone are most high. Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

Por celebrar del Infante

Estribillo: Por celebrar del Infante el temporal nacimiento, los cuatro elementos vienen: agua, tierra, aire, fuego. Y todos concords se van a mi Dueño.

Que humanado le sirven le sirven los cuatros elementos:el agua a sus ojos, el aire a su aliento, la tierra a sus plantas, el fuego a su pecho.

Que de todos el Niño hoy hace un compuesto: el agua a sus ojos, el aire a su aliento, la tierra s sus plantas, el fuego a su pecho.

Coplas: Pues está tiritando Amor en el hielo, y la sescarcha y la nieve me la tienen preso. Quién le acude? El agua. La tierra, el aire? No, sino el fuego.

Pues al Niño fatigan sus penas y males y a sus ansias, no dudo, que alientos le falten. Quién le acude? El fuego, la tierra, el agua? No, sino el aire.

Pues al Niño amoroso tan tierno se abrasa, que respira en volcanes, diluvios de llamas. Quién le acude? El aire, el fuego, la tierra? No, sino el agua.

Si por la Tierra el Niño los Cielos hoy déjà y no halla en que descanse su cabeza en ella. Quién le acude? El agua, el fuego, el aire? No, mas la tierra.

Estribillo: In celebration of the Christ child, at the time of his birth, the four elements: water, earth, air and fire all agree that he will be their master.

That humanity is served by the four elements: the water in his eyes, the air in his breath, the earth his feet and the fire in his chest.

Today the Child is created from all this: the water is his eyes, the air his breath, the earth his feet and the fire in his chest.

Since Love is shivering in the ice, and frost and snow have arrested him, who will come to his aid? Water, earth, air? No, only fire can.

Since the Child is assailed by sorrows and evils and their cravings, until his breath is taken away, who will come to his aid? Fire, earth, water? No, but air will.

Since the loving Infant is so burning hot that he breaths a volcanic flood of flame, who will come to his aid? Air, fire, earth? No, only water.

Since today the Child leaves heaven for earth and finds nowhere to rest his weary head, who will come to his aid? Water, fire, air? None but earth. based on text by Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz

Xicochi conetzintle

Xicochi conetzintle. Caomiz huihui joco in angelos me, Aleloya.

Gently sleep, little Child. Cry no more, for the angels are here. Alleluia.

Las coflades de la estleya

Estribillo: Las coflades de la estleya Vamo turus a beleya Y velemo azio la beya Conciolo en lo potal.

Vamo vamo currendo aya Oy lemo un viyansico Que lo compondia flasico Ziendo gayta su fosico Y luego lo cantala Blasico Pellico Zuanico y Toma y lo estliviyo dila Gulumbe Gulumbe Gulumba.

Coplas: Guache mole niyo de sa fala Bamo abel que traen angola Azi o lo y azi o la Baltasale con Melchiola Y mi plimo Gasipar. Vamo siguiendo la estleya (eya!) Lo negliyo coltezano (vamo!) Pul lo Rey e cun tesuro (turo) De calmino los tlesban (aya!) Blasico Pelico Zuanico Y toma y a vmo turu aya.

Vamo turuz los neglios (plimos!) Pues nos yeba nostia estleya (beya!) Que sin tantus neglos folmen (noche!) Mucha lus en lo polta (abla!) Blasico pelico zuanico Y toma plimos beya noche abla.

Estribillo: We are the brethren of the star And we are going to Bethlehem To see the pretty child In the manger. Come on, let’s hurry there!

Today we’ll do a villançico That Flasico will make up On his whistle-pipe And then Blasico, Pellico, Zuanico and Thomas will sing it Gulumbe Gulumbe Gulumba.

Coplas: Get up, gentle child, from your bed Let’s go see what is being brought From here to there By Balthazar, Melchoir, And my cousin Caspar. Let’s follow the star (now!) Of the black courtier (come on!) For the King and his treasure Show us the way (All hurry!) Blasico, Pelico, Zuanico And Thomas are all hurrying there.

Let’s go all you blacks (cousins!) For our star is guiding us (pretty!) If there aren’t enough blacks (night!) There will be too much light in the manger (tell them!) Blasico, Pelico, Zuanico And Thomas tell our cousins of the beautiful night. 

Dennos lecencia señores

Dennos lecencia señores, supuesto ques noche buena, para cantar y baylar al uso de nuestra tierra. qui lla lla, qui lla lla, qui lla lla.

Give us permission sirs, since it is Christmas eve, to sing and dance, in the custom of our land. qui lla lla, qui lla lla, qui lla lla.

Niño il mijor que y logrado

Niño il mijor que y logrado, alma mia mi songuito, por lo mucho qui te quiero, mis amores te y trajido. Ay Jisos qui lindo mi niño lo esta. Ay Jisos mi Padre mi Dios, achalay.

This child, is the best that can be obtained. My soul, my humble heart, to show you how much I care for you, I have brought to you all my love. Ah, Jesus so lovely, my child, you are the one! Ah, Jesus, my father, My God, you are the greatest!

translations by Tom Zajac and Evelina Guzauskyte