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VI

Villancico

The villancico (Spanish, ) or vilancete (Portuguese, ) was a common poetic and musical form of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America popular from the late 15th to 18th centuries. Important

Portuguese type#

This type of poem has a mote—the beginning of the poem, which functions, when in music, as a refrain—followed by one or more intervening stanzas—the volta, copla or glosa—each one with 7 lines. The difference between the vilancete and the cantiga depends on the number of lines in the mote: if there are 2 or 3 it is a vilancete, if there are 4 or more it is a cantiga. Each line of a vilancete is usually divided in five or seven metric syllables (“old measure”). When the last line of the mote is repeated at the end of each stanza, the vilancete is “perfect”. Here is an example of a Portuguese vilancete, written by Luís de Camões: Original (Mote:) Enforquei minha Esperança; Mas Amor foi tão madraço, Que lhe cortou o baraço. (Volta:) Foi a Esperança julgada Por setença da Ventura Que, pois me teve à pendura, Que fosse dependurada: Vem Cupido com a espada, Corta-lhe cerce o baraço. Cupido, foste madraço. English Translation (Mote:) I hanged my Hope; But Love was so knavish He cut off the noose. (Volta:) Hope was condemned By verdict of Fate To be hanged for having me Hanging out with her Then comes Cupid with the sword And cuts the noose short. O Cupid, you were knavish. This poem has a common rhyme scheme, ABB CDDC CBB. The theme of this type of villancico was usually about the saudade, about the countryside and the shepherds, about ’the perfect woman’ and about unrequited love and consequent suffering. Iberian poets were strongly influenced by Francesco Petrarca, an Italian poet.

References#

  • Álvaro Torrente, “The Villancico in Early Modern Spain: Issues of Form, Genre and Function”. Journal of the Institute of Romance Studies, 8 (2000), 57-77
  • Álvaro Torrente, “The early history of villancico libretti”, en Musicology today: problems and perspectives, Kyiv: Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music, 2009, pp. 326-336.
  • Paul W. Borg, “The Polyphonic Music in the Guatemalan Music Manuscripts of the Lilly Library,” 4 vols., Bloomington: Indiana University, Ph.D. dissertation, 1985.
  • Knighton, Tess and Álvaro Torrente, eds. Devotional Music in the Iberian World, 1450-1900: The Villancico and Related Genres. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2007.
  • Álvaro Torrente, “Pliegos de villancicos en la Hispanic Society of America”. Pliegos de Bibliofilia, 19 (2002), 3-19
  • Laird, Paul R. “Literary Evidence and Ceremonial Use of the Villancico at San Lorenzo del Escorial Through the Late Seventeenth Century.” Inter-American Music Review. 17, no. 1-2: 151-156, 2007.
  • Lehnhoff, Dieter, “The Villancicos of the Guatemalan Composer Raphael Antonio Castellanos (d. 1791): A Selective Edition and Critical Commentary,” Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America, Ph.D. dissertation, 1990.
  • Long, Pamela H. “Music and Theater in Colonial Mexico.” Ars Lyrica 9: 67-78, 1998.
  • Stevenson, Robert. Christmas Music from Baroque Mexico. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974.
  • Stevenson, Robert. “Ethnological Impulses in the Baroque Villancico.” Inter-American Music Review 14, no. 1: 67-106, 1994.
  • Stevenson, Robert. Renaissance and Baroque Musical Sources in the Americas, Washington, D.C.: Organization of American States, General Secretariat, 1970.
  • Pope, Isabel and Paul R. Laird. , (accessed October 14, 2009).
  • Underberg, Natalie. “Sor Juana’s ‘Villancicos’: Context, Gender, and Genre.” Western Folklore 60, no. 4: 297-316, 2001.
  • Gómez, Maricarmen (ed.). Historia de la Música en España e Hispanoamérica 2. De los Reyes Católicos a Felipe II. Madrid-México D.F.: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2012, chap. 1-2.

*Foundation for Iberian Music at The City University of New York

Genre family
Choral music genres, Portuguese styles of music, Renaissance music, Spanish styles of music