(Sp.: ‘small salad’).
A type of Latin American villancico popular in the 16th to 18th centuries, consisting of a Quodlibet of pre-existing villancicos tied together with bridges in recitative style. Whereas maestros de capilla were expected to compose anew all the villancicos for important church festivities each year (especially those for Christmas Eve Matins), they were allowed to use popular villancico tunes by other composers in the ensaladilla. The 17th-century Mexican poet Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz wrote many ensaladilla texts. Important examples survive by the Mexican composer of the same century Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla, maestro de capilla of Puebla Cathedral.
E. THOMAS STANFORD