Saturday, December 9, 2023, First Unitarian Church, Worcester and Online
Sunday, December 10, 2023, Church of the Covenant, Boston

Canción a dos tiples                       Anon., possibly by Antonio Martín y Coll (d. after 1733)
Paces se han hecho                     Manuel de Sumaya (c. 1678 – 1755)

Canción 7                         Antonio Rodríguez de Hita (1722 – 1787)
Ya la naturaleza redimida                     Manuel de Sumaya

Por aquel horizonte                     Juan Francés Iribarren (1699 – 1767)

Passacalles III                         Juan Cabanilles (1644 – 1712)
Unos pastores                         Esteban Salas y Castro (1725 – 1803)

Trio Sonata in D Minor                     Juan and José Pla (fl. 1747–1773 • 1728-1762)
    Allegro • Andante • Allegro                

Tarará, qui yo soy Antón                      Antonio de Salazar (1650 – 1715)
Vaya de xácara, amigos                     Rafael Antonio Castellanos (d. 1791)

Pastorela                         Anonymous Puebla Cathedral ms.
Noble, megestuosa                       Joaquín García de Antonio (c. 1710 – 1779)

Gitanillas vienen                         Rafael Antonio Castellanos

Adriana Ruiz, soprano
Christina English, mezzo-soprano
Suzanne Stumpf, traverso; María Diez-Canedo, traverso and recorder
Sarah Darling and Jesse Irons, violins
Daniel Ryan, cello; Eloy Cruz, Baroque guitar; Benjamin Katz, harpsichord

Program Notes

This program explores the lively, colorful, and expressive music composed for the Christmas season in some of the major cultural centers of Spain and New Spain, including Mexico, Guatemala, and Cuba. While some of the New Spain composers represented on this program were immigrants and others native-born, their styles generally reflect the musical trends of their Spanish contemporaries, with the occasional added spice of regional influences.
    Although there is evidence that instrumental ensemble music was cultivated in Spain and its colonies during the Baroque period, the paucity of extant sources is puzzling. This may be accounted for, in part, by a strong improvisation tradition, particularly in the 17th century. Exceptions to this are the plentiful extant sources of keyboard music. The opening work on this program is an arrangement of a piece from a large, five-volume collection of organ music entitled Flores de Música compiled and partially composed by the theorist, organist, and friar Antonio Martín y Coll. Another major source of Spanish keyboard music is a body of work by the Valencian organist and priest Juan Cabanilles. His Passacalles III is in a trio texture that works well as a trio sonata for two violins and continuo and features variations on a recurring chord progression.
    A rare source of Spanish instrumental ensemble music is the collection of eight Canciónes by Antonio Rodríguez de Hita. Active in Valencia and Madrid, Hita was primarily a composer of sacred vocal music, but later in life wrote music for the theater. His eight Canciónes are miniature trio sonatas originally scored for two oboes and bassoon.
    The Catalan brothers Juan and José Pla were oboe and flute virtuosi who spent most of their career outside the Iberian peninsula as itinerant musicians appearing in London, Paris, and Stuttgart. Their Trio Sonata in D Minor is one of many they performed and published in London. Of all their surviving trio sonatas, this work has the strongest, most undiluted Spanish flair.
    The unusual anonymous instrumental Pastorela included on this concert is found in an incomplete manuscript from the Puebla Cathedral in Mexico. The surviving parts for flutes and violins provided enough melodic and harmonic information to inspire our reconstruction of the work. Although the original instrumentation may have included brass instruments, the tender nature of the work seems well suited to our musical forces.
    In the celebrations of Christmas and other major feasts in the liturgical calendar, the countries of the Iberian peninsula and their colonies developed the unique musical tradition of the villancico. This extra-liturgical musical form enjoyed great popularity in the 17th and 18th centuries. It used local vernacular language in a rhythmically lively, strophic format, and its association with the rustic made it especially favored for use at Christmas.
    The villancicos of Salazar and  Sumaya included in this program are typical of the style begun in the 17th century. These vocal duets with continuo accompaniment employ triple meter with frequent use of hemiola (a “jazzy” shift of metrical accent). 
    Manuel de Sumaya was a highly-respected composer, native born to Mexico and of mixed race. A student of Antonio de Salazar, he became maestro at Mexico City and Oaxaca. Sumaya composed in both the earlier villancico and later Italianate cantata styles. The text of his villancico Paces se han hecho is about peace, offering the genre’s rhythmic shifts in a gentle character. Our performances are likely a modern-day world premiere. In contrast, his brilliant cantata Ya la naturaleza redimida is in the character of an opera aria, with rapid coloratura passages in the vocal part. 
    Antonio Salazar was maestro de capilla in Puebla and Mexico City. His Tarará, qui yo soy Antón is in the earthy, dance-like vein of a negro, stemming from music of African slaves.
    By the 18th century, the villancico form began to expand and change. An example of this later type is Vaya de xácara, amigos by Rafael Antonio Castellanos. He was a Guatemalan composer who served as  maestro de capilla at Guatemala City Cathedral, and brought its musical activities to a high level. The xácara—a peasant dance—is rowdy and rambunctious, and the propulsive energy of this villancico engages the listener in the story of the fall of Adam and mankind’s redemption. His villancico that closes our program, Gitanillas vienen describes the dance of young gypsy girls who come to adore the Christ child.
    In the early to mid-18th century, a modernization of Spanish music was also underway due to the newly-introduced, fashionable Italian cantata style. Three of our featured composers showcase this trend. Juan Francés de Iribarren served as maestro at Salamanca and Málaga cathedrals, and his works were widely distributed in New Spain. A prolific composer of vocal works, he made imaginative use of obbligato instruments. His joyous cantata Por acquel horizonte exemplifies this by including flutes to effectively represent the gentle zephyrs that accompany the happy scene at Bethlehem. The Valencian composer Joaquín García de Antonio also composed cantatas using obbligato instruments. We perform his delightful Noble,  megestuosa on obbligato flutes, viola, and cello (originally penned for pairs of oboes and bassoons). Their lively dialogue punctuates the vocal line. Cuban composer Esteban Salas y Castro, born in the Canary Islands, became maestro at the Santiago de Cuba cathedral. His cantata Unos Pastores, composed in 1793, is a touching Pastorela and the latest vocal work on this program. 
         —Daniel Ryan and Suzanne Stumpf