(Sp.-American: praise).
A hymn of praise for the Eucharist, the Blessed Virgin Mary or other saints. It was brought to the New World at least as early as 1716 by the Franciscans, who continued the Spanish custom of chanting the alabado, or alabanza, as it is called in Spain, in their missions to Texas and California, as they had done in their monasteries. One of the earliest alabados taught to Indian converts is shown in ex.1; this was probably the melody used at all the missionary establishments. The form still survives in some parts of Argentina, Mexico and New Mexico, notably in the rites of the Penitential Brotherhood.
L.T. Shaver: Spanish Mission Music, Music Teachers National Association: Proceedings, xiii (1918), 2048
A.B. McGill: Old Mission Music, MQ, xxiv (1938), 18693
J.B. Rael: The New Mexican Alabado (Stanford, CA, 1951)
