(Sp., diminutive of villano: ‘peasant’).
A term first applied in the late 15th century to a Spanish vernacular musical and poetic form consisting of several stanzas (coplas) framed by a refrain (estribillo) at the beginning and end, giving an overall ABA structure. The number of stanzas varied, as did the number of times the estribillo was repeated between stanzas in performance. Originally derived from a medieval dance lyric of the virelai or ballata type and associated with rustic or popular themes, the villancico was extensively cultivated in secular polyphonic music of the late 15th century and the 16th. In the second half of the 16th century devotional and religious themes gained in importance and the form became used increasingly for sacred compositions in the vernacular which were introduced into the liturgy on feast days. In the 17th century it became more important than the Latin motet, and although its artistic quality rapidly declined in the 18th and 19th centuries it remained popular in both Spain and Latin America. Since then ‘villancico’ has come to mean simply ‘Christmas carol’.
ISABEL POPE (1), PAUL R. LAIRD (2–3)
The term ‘villancico’ was first applied by Renaissance writers to a refrain taken from or modelled on a rustic or popular song, and then to a number of ‘closed’ poetic and musical forms based on such a refrain. The earliest evidence of the use of the term in connection with the poetic form is in the Chansonnier Espagnol d’Herberay des Essarts (c1463; ed. C. Aubrun, Bordeaux, 1951), where a little poem entitled ‘Villancillo’ has the form aabbba etc. (see Table 1(a)). At about the same time another poem with an analogous genre designation, a ‘Villançete’ ascribed to Carvajales, appeared in the Cancionero de Estúñiga (ed. N. Salvador Miguel, Madrid, 1977), but it is less closely related to the textual history of the villancico than the poem in the Chansonnier Espagnol is. The earliest known song (complete with music) designated ‘villancico’ is Andad, pasiones, andad by Pedro de Lagarto in the 15th-century Cancionero Musical de la Biblioteca Colombina (ed. in MME, xxxiii, 1971); the poem is a refined exercise in courtly love but the three-part music has the simplicity of a popular tune. Lagarto’s song also appears in the Cancionero Musical de Palacio (see below), in which most of the villancicos show a similar simplicity. The form is that of a typical villancico with introductory refrain of three lines and one stanza (Table 1(b)). The first description of the villancico is in Juan del Encina’s ‘Arte de poesia castellana’ from his Cancionero of 1496. His comments suggest that the villancico had no specific poetic form and was not necessarily based on traditional verse, though he might have taken for granted the use of a traditional melody:
If the refrain has two lines we may call it a mote [motto] or a villancico or a letra usually of the poet’s invention. … If it has three complete lines and one half-line, it will likewise be called a villancico or letra of the poet’s invention. … And if it has four lines, it may be called a canción and sometimes a copla [stanza].
The texts of the villancicos in his cancionero have up to 12 stanzas of six or seven lines each.
Such flexibility was indeed characteristic of the villancico (as of popular song in general), even as late as 1592 when Díaz Rengifo, in his Arte poética, attempted a precise definition, emphasizing that it was a song, not just a poem, that it was comparable to the Italian ballata, and that it had a ‘head’ (refrain) joined in a variety of ways to the ‘feet’ (the mudanzas with their vuelta forming the strophe). The tendency from the 15th century to the 17th was for the term ‘villancico’ to be applied to a refrain song of up to four lines that was popular in flavour, as well as to the refrain itself, while ‘canción’ was more apt to be used for a courtly song of more than four lines; but as the terms were used inconsistently during the period it is impossible to draw rigid distinctions.
From Encina’s definition and the examples of the villancico in the musical and literary cancioneros of his day two basic types emerge, shown in Table 1; the schemes shown in Table 2 are less common. The following characteristics should be noted: a lack of symmetry, though not invariable (see Table 2), occurs between the metrical and melodic repetitions of the estribillo in the vuelta; the rhyme of the first verse of the vuelta links it with the mudanzas, but its music ‘returns’ directly to that of the estribillo; the last or last two verses of the vuelta often repeat wholly or in part those of the estribillo; frequently the mudanza melody incorporates by repetition or variation a phrase of the estribillo melody.
This form, in its various patterns, already existed in medieval monophonic songs such as the French virelai, Provençal dansa, Italian lauda, ballata and Hispanic cantiga. All display with some consistency the curious ‘asymmetry’ between verse and music of the vuelta. The villancico’s direct prototypes appear in the great collection of semi-popular devotional songs, the Cantigas de Santa María, compiled by Alfonso el Sabio in the late 13th century. A usual though not invariable repetition of the estribillo between the coplas recalls responsorial dance forms from which all these ‘closed’ forms probably derived. A notably large proportion of the Cantigas present the apparently basic pattern shown in Table 1(a). Consequently the striking formal and metrical similarity of the 12th-century Andalusian–Arabic zajal (aa, bbba), although no music survives, raises problems of relationship still to be elucidated. The zajal often ended with a refrain in street language (a jarcha), another apparent link with the villancico, which early in its history was related to popular refrains. Spanish poetry of the 14th and 15th centuries exhibits numerous examples of the cantiga–zajal type, always in a popular context. However, the earliest polyphonic songs from the second half of the 15th century are settings, strongly influenced by the Franco-Flemish chanson, of the canción, an aristocratic lyric form with a four- or five-verse estribillo and symmetrical vuelta. Reacting against its musical and metrical complexities, Encina’s generation revived the simpler patterns of popular tradition in the villancico. Stylistically the villancico of this latter period is almost identical to the frottola, and its form very similar to the barzelletta, a type of frottola. Frottolas are found in the Cancionero Musical de Palacio, and villancicos by Encina appear in the second and fourth books of frottolas printed by Andrea Antico (RISM 15162, 15172). Considering the close relations between Spanish and Italian courts of the period, this association is not surprising.
More than 300 villancicos appear in the famous Cancionero Musical de Palacio (c1490–c1520; ed. in MME, v, 1947; x, 1951; xiv, 1965). Two collections from the decades around 1500, Cancionero Musical de la Colombina (c1490; ed. in MME, xxxiii, 1971) and Cancionero Musical de Segovia [ed. V. Lama de la Cruz, 1994), contain numerous villancicos, although the older canción still predominates. However, of the 65 three-part courtly love songs in the Portuguese Cancionero Musical de Elvas (c1500; also known as the Cancionero Musical de la Hortênsia, ed. M. Morais, PM, ser. A. xxxi, 1977) the majority are villancicos; important composers represented are Juan del Encina, Juan de Anchieta, Millán, Pedro de Escobar, Juan Ponce and Francisco de Peñalosa. The villancicos of this period, in three or four parts, are usually texted only in the superius, which carries the melody, and are predominantly homophonic in texture. The generally syllabic melody, of narrow range and set in simple contrapuntal style and often conjunct motion, matches the rhythm of the verse and frequently cadences at its close with brief ornamentation. Duple mensuration prevails, but triple metre is also common, often with jaunty use of hemiola. The normal octosyllabic verses are sometimes combined with a half-verse; shorter lines tend to occur in popular, lively pieces. These villancicos were composed for an aristocratic environment. Courtly love songs mix with pieces, often setting satirical texts, that reflect the lives of peasants. The freshness of the music complements the rustic poems, and brings genuine expression to the more artificial courtly love songs. Feasting songs and satirical and bawdy pieces were skilfully set for witty, realistic or dramatic effect. Devotional and particularly Christmas villancicos form a characteristic group, though most pieces in the Cancionero Musical de Palacio and in Encina’s Cancionero of 1496 are secular rather than sacred.
In the 16th century a new generation of composers developed a new polyphonic style; all voices now share equally in the text and melody. The polyphony develops primarily through imitation, but homophonic style is not uncommon. The text, frequently reduced to an estribillo and one copla, often with a symmetrical vuelta, is treated expressively through repetitions distributed among the voices. Triple metre becomes more common, and irregular metres and simple tunes, though artfully treated, betray the continuity of a popular tradition; yet many imitative villancicos from the mid-16th century are in fact sophisticated compositions. Two collections illustrate this period: the manuscript Cancionero Musical de Barcelona with some 20 villancicos (c1520–c1534; ed. E. Ros-Fabregas, 1992); and the print Villancicos de diversos autores (RISM 155630), now known as the Cancionero de Upsala (ed. R. Mitjana and L. Querol Rosso, Madrid, 1980) or Cancionero del Duque de Calabria, which represents the period 1530–50 and contains 55 villancicos, most anonymous, but one is attributed to Gombert and others have been attributed through concordances to Cristóbal de Morales, Matheo Flecha (i), P.J. Aldomar and Bartolomé Cárceres. The first 36 and the last three texts are concerned with secular love, while the remainder are dedicated to the Virgin. The collection includes 12 Christmas villancicos, among them Ríu, ríu, chíu, perhaps the most famous Renaissance villancico.
The villancico reached a notable plateau in the Villancicos y canciones (1551; ed. E.A. Russell, 1970) and Recopilación de sonetos y villancicos (Seville, 1560; ed. in MME, iv, 1946) of Juan Vasquez. Vasquez relaxed the form by expanding the estribillo, often leading from it without pause into the copla, now through-composed, and ‘returned’ to the estribillo music with variations. None of the 48 villancicos in his Recopilación sets a religious text. Far from the simple part-writing with plentiful homophony characteristic of most of the villancicos in the Cancionero Musical de Palacio and Cancionero de Upsala, Vasquez’s inhabit a more sophisticated contrapuntal world, with supple imitations and different rhythmic flow in individual voices, and show a strong preference for the sonorities of the major modes on C and F and the minor modes (one-flat signature) on D and G. Exceptional examples of more a passionate and despairing mood are Cavallero queraysme dexar, a lover’s complaint that inhabits mode 4 and uses abundant low bass Es, and Qué razón podeis tener, which uses A minor sonorities with repeated cries in the top voice.
Arrangements of polyphonic villancicos appear in numerous collections of vihuela and keyboard music throughout the century, and settings for voice and vihuela provide early examples of accompanied solo song. These and settings for solo vihuela kept alive the traditional villancico repertory to the end of the century. Luys Milán published 12 original villancicos in his El maestro (Valencia, 1536). He printed ten of these works in two verions: one basically homorhythmic with the singer encouraged to ornament, and the second with a more elaborate vihuela part and the singer instructed not to ornament. Later vihuelists (Narváez, Mudarra, Valderrábano) also published their own settings of traditional tunes. Fuenllana often made instrumental transcriptions of polyphonic villancicos, notably those by Vasquez, including his famous ¿Con qué la lavaré?, intabulated by Fuenllana almost identically to the way it appears in Vasquez’s Recopilación. Monophonic villancicos are found in poetic cancioneros of the period, including, for example, the Cancionero sevillano (c1575; ed. M. Frenk, J.J. Labrador Herraiz and R.A. Di Franco, Seville, 1996).
In the later 16th century ‘villancico’ referred increasingly to a devotional or religious composition that reflected the widespread popular devotion inspired by the Counter-Reformation. Sometimes devotional villancicos were borrowed secular pieces with the text appropriately modified. Villancicos were introduced into the liturgy of festival days, and the traditional Christmas villancicos were especially cultivated in addition to those celebrating Corpus Christi or written in honour of the Virgin and other saints. Francisco Guerrero published a distinguished series in his Canciones y villanescas espirituales (Venice, 1589; ed. in MME, xvi, xix, 1949–57). The 31 villancicos offer novel effects in contrasting sonorities, with a four- or five-part estribillo against a copla for solo, duo or trio. They are rhythmically lively, usually in triple metre, with frequent syncopation, hemiolas and changes of metre, and syllabic declamation that follows the accents of the text. The dance-like rhythms and accessibility of some of Guerrero’s melodies in these villancicos would seem to indicate popular influences. Guerrero made much use of word-painting and of expressive effects such as chromatic inflections and sudden contrasts of bold homophony with freely imitative passages, and of solo and duo textures with tutti passages. The part-writing is always sophisticated, even in the light-hearted Christmas and Epiphany villancicos (nos.13–24 and 25–8 for five voices, and nos.52–3 for four). Unlike these villancicos (the villanescas of the title), the canciones have no opening refrain and are in duple time; they also reveal Guerrero’s flair for the general pause.
No villancicos are known by Victoria, but Philip II's court composers Philippe Rogier and Géry Ghersem wrote many. Rogier was among the first to write a lively negro (Hu, hu, hu, a duo, cantaremo la Nacimento, for five voices), and Ghersem’s output includes several Christmas villancicos with antiphonal exchanges between a solo voice and instruments.
In 1596 Philip II ordered performances of the villancico in the vernacular to be banned from the Capilla Real, a prohibition that was clearly not very effective: chapel records show receipts from copyists for 24 villancicos in 1596, 15 in 1597 and 16 (by Mateo Romero, copied by Claudio de la Sablonara) in 1615 (R.M. Stevenson: ‘Pedro Cerone (1566–1625): Impostor or Defender of the Faith’, Inter-American Music Review, xvi/1, 1997, pp.1–27, esp. 16, note 31). Cerone (El melopeo, 1613, pp.196–7) wrote that villancicos were used in all churches in Spain, but they were a distraction from devotion, especially the light-hearted ones setting dialect texts. Vernacular villancicos were reinstated early in the 17th century by Philip IV.
For further information about sources see Cancionero.
The villancico after 1600 was essentially a religious genre sung in cathedrals, monasteries and other religious institutions as a substitute for Latin responsories in Matins at Christmas and Epiphany, in services for the Immaculate Conception and other Marian feasts, in Corpus Christi processions and on saints’ days. In addition to being one of the most pervasive musical genres in the Western world during the 17th and 18th centuries, the villancico was a significant social phenomenon. While projecting the appropriate religious devotion for their purpose, villancicos were nonetheless often populated with characters of the popular theatre, from cowardly peasants and foolish mayors to stereotypical representations of minority groups, creating a complex tapestry that says much about contemporary culture. Lines spoken by these characters, often written by anonymous poets of modest ability, include references to theatrical themes and are found in every metre and poetic form of the day. The musical style of the villancico, especially in the 17th century, was also infused with popular culture. The dominant traits – triple metre with extensive hemiola and syncopation, syllabic declamation, homorhythmic textures and conjunct melodies – were found in most settings of Spanish and Portuguese texts of the day, including theatre music and popular songs. Meanwhile, secular song in Spain during the 17th century saw a blurring of formal lines between the villancico and the Romance, and secular pieces in villancico form, such as those in the Cancionero de la Sablonara (ed. J. Etzion, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1995), were called tonos humanos, a genre associated with theatre music later in the century.
The villancico’s major sources today include music manuscripts found in archives throughout the Iberian peninsula and Latin America and pliegos sueltos of text, printed primarily for villancicos performed on feast days. Both types of source were routinely exchanged by composers at religious institutions who were expected to write dozens of villancicos each year.
During the 17th century and the first half of the 18th, Spanish and Portuguese composers produced sets of villancicos (often eight, sometimes followed by a setting of the Te Deum) in great profusion. The enormous popularity of the genre is reflected in the Catálogo de villancicos y oratorios of the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid (1990): among the 1361 printed villancico books catalogued, 305 were published in Seville between 1701 and 1821, 200 in Madrid between 1701 and 1844, 112 in Zaragoza and 108 in Barcelona. The many villancicos by Miguel de Irízar in the library of Segovia Cathedral include 184 for Christmas (1657–83), 202 for the Sacrament (1656–78) and 87 for the Blessed Virgin (see López-Calo, 1963, 1965, 1989).
Important villancicos from the early 17th century include the 12 in Pedro Rimonte’s El Parnaso espanõl de madrigales y villancicos (Antwerp, 1614; ed. P. Calahorra, Zaragoza, 1980) and the more than 80 works by J.B. Comes extant in manuscript (mostly in E-VAc; 56 ed. J. Climent Barber, Valencia, 1977–8). Rimonte’s pieces are for five or six voices, while those by Comes range from solo pieces to polychoral ones for 16 voice parts. Comes’s villancicos generally begin with a tonada for soloist or small vocal ensemble, followed by a parody of the same musical setting of that text, labelled ‘responsión’, for large choir (six to 12 voices), then the coplas (strophes) for soloists or small vocal ensembles. A similar structure is seen in the 20 surviving examples by Urbán de Vargas. Rimonte and Comes, like Guerrero, usually wrote in triple metre and made extensive use of syncopation and hemiola. Textures varied from homophony to overlapping points of imitation, the latter less frequent. Basso seguente parts, usually identified as ‘acompañamiento’, appear in Comes’s works and were common later in the century, played on the organ or harp.
Thousands of villancicos from the second half of the century are extant in Iberian archives, but only a small percentage exist in modern editions. Most works are composed for voices with basso continuo; other instruments seldom appear. Typical performing groups are four voices (SSAT), eight voices in two choirs (SSAT SATB) and 12 voices in three choirs (SSAT SATB SATB). Polychoral pieces often included continuo parts for each choir. After Rimonte and Comes the form of the villancico changed: some works start with an introducción, often a strophic setting for a few voices; then follows the often lengthy and through-composed estribillo for full forces, sometimes subdivided by changes in texture and metre; and the coplas are usually for reduced forces and are often strophic. There may be as many as 18 coplas, usually sung by soloists from the first choir. Instead of constant alternation between estribillo and coplas, the estribillo may be repeated after a group of coplas or each copla may end with a respuesta based on the estribillo. Musically the most interesting section is the estribillo. Each line of text is set to a different phrase that is repeated when the line of text returns. Textures tend towards the homophonic, but imitation is a frequent addition, and alternation occurs between smaller and larger groups, qualities that, along with many other stylistic features, are shared with settings of Spanish texts for other venues such as the theatre.
In the second half of the 17th century villancicos were composed in large numbers by the maestro de capilla at most important religious institutions in Spain, Portugal and Latin America; at León Cathedral in 1663, for example, the maestro was expected to compose about 75 villancicos. Custom dictated that villancicos be performed once, but many were re-used. In constant need of new texts, maestros exchanged prints of texts sung in a particular Matins service; manuscripts of music were also exchanged. These are important sources for understanding the genre. Dissemination patterns of texts and manuscripts in Spain demonstrate that the most influential composers were those at the royal institutions in Madrid and in the major cathedrals, including, for example, Mateo Romero, Juan Hidalgo, Cristóbal Galán, Pedro Ardanaz, Sebastián Durón, A.T. Ortells and Benito Bello de Torices.
17th-century villancico texts were written in most popular verse types of the period, including romances, seguidillas, quintillas and others. Most texts are anonymous, but important authors included Manuel de León Marchante. In Christmas texts the traditional characters often appear alongside contemporary Spanish characters, including members of various professions portrayed as fools and stereotypical figures from the Spanish stage (such as negros, gitanos, gallegos and jácaros), many speaking distinctive dialects. Texts for Corpus Christi, Immaculate Conception and saints’ days were more serious in tone. Dances by choirboys (seises) were an important part of these villancicos, especially those performed on Corpus Christi.
Italianate recitatives and arias were common in Spanish dramatic music from the 1690s, especially in the works of Durón. An indication for ‘recitado’ is found as early as 1678 in a villancico text from Toledo Cathedral. In the decades around 1700 villancicos also tended to include elaborate and demanding solo arias and duos (sometimes in da capo form), a small orchestra of violins, wind instruments and continuo, and forms and textures that resemble those of the Italian concerto. In fast movements, the violins and wind (often oboes) played extremely active passages in support of the singers. Villancicos with recitatives and arias were called cantadas, and in these the traditional villancico sections were broken into subsections (see also Cantata, §V). The third villancico sung at the Capilla Real, Madrid, for Christmas 1703, for example, opens with an introducción followed by an estribillo divided into arieta italiana, coro, recitativo italiano and other sections. Villancicos with traditional sections still appeared, but as the century passed, the older forms began to disappear.
There are even more extant villancicos from the 18th century, but again few have been studied or published. J.F. de Iribarren was particularly prolific: more than 500 of his villancicos survive at Málaga Cathedral. Influential composers include Antonio Rodríguez de Hita, Antonio Ripa and Antonio Soler. Soler’s 125 extant villancicos (ed. P. Capdepón Verdú, Madrid, 1992–) demonstrate his melodic gift, original manipulation of formal conventions, somewhat daring harmonic sense, and effective use of varied textures, including polychoral forces.
Accompaniments limited to wind, harp and organ in the 17th century gave way in the 18th to ensembles including strings, oboes and brass. These delighted the public, but incurred the wrath of theorists such as Pablo Nassarre, J.F. de Sayas (Música canónica, motética, y sacrada, Pamplona, [1761]) and Benito Jerónimo Feijóo y Montenegro, who criticized the italianate theatricality of contemporary church music (Theatro critico universal, i, 1726, no.14, ‘Música de los templos’). Pope Benedict XIV’s encyclical Annus qui of 1751 led to an episcopal edict against the use of villancicos in the diocese of Pamplona, but they were not actually banned there until 1777. In 1765 an attempt was made to ban works with vernacular texts from Spanish churches (eventually the oratorio remained the only sacred genre to use vernacular texts). The demise of the villancico as a religious genre gained further impetus towards the end of the 18th century: García Fajer, the maestro de capilla at the cathedral of La Seo, Zaragoza, from 1756 to 1809, offered to use his Latin responsories in place of villancicos in Matins, and in 1798 the chapter of Málaga Cathedral voted to expel villancicos from all church services. This reform was then adopted at the cathedrals of Santiago de Compostela, Granada, Pamplona, Santander, Cádiz and Jaén. Villancicos did remain in use in some places into the 19th century, however, being sung at Avila, Córdoba, Toledo, Valladolid and Valencia until about 1820, for example; and villancico texts were printed in Madrid and Palma de Mallorca in the 1840s, but these are devotional Christmas poetry rather than texts for use in specific services. These texts, called gozos (goigs in Catalan), are still popular in Spain, but the term ‘villancico’ now means simply ‘Christmas carol’, the genre’s decline the result not just of the banning of all vernacular music from Spanish churches in the 19th century, but also of the concurrent fall in church revenues and the consequent loss of opportunities for good composers and performers of sacred music.
From the earliest mention of the villancico in Latin America in 1539 until about 1800, the genre was used for the same feasts as it was in Spain. Religious institutions in Latin America went to great expense for the performance of villancicos, the cathedrals at Mexico City, Puebla, Lima, La Plata and Bogotá being particularly important centres. A manuscript now at Oaxaca Cathedral includes more than 250 villancicos (and other pieces with vernacular texts) by Gaspar Fernandes, who wrote them between 1609 and 1620. Many of these include popular regional or dance elements. Perhaps the most celebrated of the hundreds of extant villancicos are eight cycles of Christmas villancicos by Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla, composed for use at Puebla Cathedral in the 1650s and including jácaras, gallegos and negrillas (survival of complete cycles is unusual in both Spanish and Latin-American archives). The villancico texts of the late 17th-century Mexican poet Sor Juana Inés de la cruz, written for use at the cathedrals of Mexico City and Puebla, are especially fine examples. Like many authors of villancico texts, Sor Juana borrowed from earlier poems, and several texts in her villancico cycles appeared in earlier Iberian sources from Madrid and elsewhere. Her texts were set by Mexican composers including Antonio de Salazar, M.M. de Dallo y Lana and Joseph de Loaysa y Agurto.
One of the characteristics of the Latin American villancico, the use of texts and music associated with the many ethnic groups that occupied Spanish-speaking areas in the Americas, is seen in Sor Juana’s work, which includes texts sung to popular dances, and texts based on negros, Aztec tocotines (some in a mixture of Náhuatl and Spanish) and other dances including the canario, folías, cuatro, gaita, puerto rico and pandero. Other Latin American villancicos from the 17th century, like those from Spain, incorporated the Gallego, irlandés, portugués and Jácaras (the latter a type of theatrical piece sung by lower-class characters). A number of these villancico types make greater use of syncopation and hemiola than do those in the Iberian vernacular style. The only native dance permitted in Mexican churches was the Tocotín, danced in two facing rows, the accompaniment perhaps provided by Aztec instruments such as the huehuetl and teponaztli. Although 17th-century villancicos usually have continuo parts for harp or organ alone, other instruments may well have been included in performances: one of Sor Juana’s texts, for example, lists trumpet, sackbut, cornett, bassoon, organ, shawm, violin, tromba marina, double bass, zither, vihuela, small rebec, bandore and harp. Like its Iberian counterpart, in the 18th century the villancico in Latin America was accompanied by a small orchestra.
Except for additional syncopation in Latin American negros and other ethnic types, the history of the Latin American villancico is not materially different from that of the Iberian villancico. Connections between Spain and Latin America were constant: many colonial maestros de capilla came from Spain, and there was continuous flow of villancico manuscripts and texts between the Iberian peninsula and the Americas. The broad range of styles of the Latin American villancico is illustrated by the works of two composers in particular: the lively jácaras among the 142 that survive by Juan de Araujo, maestro at La Plata (now Sucre) Cathedral in Bolivia from 1680 to 1712, and those by Manuel de Zumaya, maestro de capilla at the cathedrals of Mexico City (1715–39) and Oaxaca (1745–56), that are cantatas in all but name, combining the traditional estribillo and coplas structure with italianate arias and unsurpassed orchestral writing. In many Latin American villancicos after 1700, as in Iberian works, the estribillo was divided into recitatives, arias and choruses. Important composers of villancicos in this italianate or theatrical style include Ignacio Jerusalem, José de Orejón y Aparicio and Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco.
The genre survived in Latin America until the end of the 18th century, and in some places into the 19th. The folk traditions found in the villancico of the colonial period may be seen today in devotional genres such as the adoración, alabanza (see Alabado), Aguinaldo and esquinazo.
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Catálogo de villancicos y oratorios en la Biblioteca Nacional: siglos XVIII–XIX (Madrid, 1990)
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International Inventory of Villancico Texts website (P.R. Laird and A. Torrente) 〈http://www.sun.rhbnc.ac.uk/Music/ILM/IIVT〉
StevensonSCM
StevensonSM
J. Díaz Rengifo: Arte poética española (Salamanca, 1592)
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