Cantate Domino omnis terra, annuntiate ex die in diem salutare ejus, narrate in gentibus gloriam ejus: in cunctis populis mirabilia ejus.
Sing ye to the Lord, all the earth: shew forth from day to day his salvation. Declare his glory among the Gentiles: his wonders among all people.
- First Book of Chronicles 16:23-24
The Voice of the Church
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We begin with musical compositions, primarily those performed a-capella (Italian for "in the manner of the church") or pieces performed only with the human voice unaccompanied by instrumentalists. St. Augustine, consecrated Bishop of Hippo (modern day Algeria) in 395 AD, is often quoted as saying, “He who sings well, prays twice”. The Catholic Church’s principal act of worship to God are her liturgical rites, which are the formal public prayers of the Church offered by the ordained Priesthood, in the role of Christ (in persona Christi), on behalf of the universal Church. The most solemn and foremost liturgical rite upon which the Church derives her very sustenance and rests her entire spiritual edifice upon is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The Mass is a propitiatory sacrificial act, offered by Christ through the ministry of His ordained priests, bestowing to us the graces of His one and eternal Sacrifice of the Cross on Calvary through His own physical flesh and blood which is offered sacramentally under the appearances of bread and wine.
Once again underscoring the Church’s exhortation on what is externally sensible being used to convey internal spiritual realities, the traditional liturgy of the Church is a wondrous and ornate spectacle of solemn and decorous ceremony. The Church has historically sung all of her liturgical rites which comprise the final progression and fulfillment of the Jewish temple rituals as practiced in the Old Testament which immediately preceded them. The Spanish conquistadores celebrated the first Mass (and what can truly be called the first “Thanksgiving”) in St. Augustine, Florida alongside the Timucua tribe on September 8th, 1565. The Mass is structurally comprised of prayers either chanted aloud or recited privately by the Priest and prayers chanted by a designated liturgical choir known as a “schola”. Far from being mere choral performances, the chants of the Mass are true liturgical prayers set to monophonic song and are an integral part of the liturgical rite. These structured monophonic plainchants are known as “Gregorian Chants” named after Pope St. Gregory the Great who is said to have codified the normative liturgy of the Latin Rite of the Church during his pontificate from 590-604 AD. The chants are sung in Latin, the official language of the Catholic Church, so as to convey the universality of the Church and the unity of her members in doctrinal and liturgical orthodoxy.
The first chant of the principal Sunday celebration of Mass is what is known as the “Asperges Me” or more simply the “Asperges”. The Asperges chant and ritual, intoned by the Priest and completed by the schola, immediately precedes the celebration of Mass . The congregation is sprinkled with holy water preparing the faithful for the profundity and sacrality of what is about to occur and to evoke penitential and reverential sentiments. The Asperges is significant as it is likely to have been the very first chant heard by the native American peoples and would have been the first formal introduction of the sacred choral tradition and the liturgical rites of the Church that guided and formed western Europe for centuries upon centuries, and continues to do so in Catholic churches devoted to the traditional Latin Mass. The attached picture above (photocopied by the author) shows the sheet music for this particular chant taken from the Liber Usualis (a tome of all chants used throughout the liturgical year). Below is an audio track of the entirety of the chant along with the Latin text and an English translation.
Once again underscoring the Church’s exhortation on what is externally sensible being used to convey internal spiritual realities, the traditional liturgy of the Church is a wondrous and ornate spectacle of solemn and decorous ceremony. The Church has historically sung all of her liturgical rites which comprise the final progression and fulfillment of the Jewish temple rituals as practiced in the Old Testament which immediately preceded them. The Spanish conquistadores celebrated the first Mass (and what can truly be called the first “Thanksgiving”) in St. Augustine, Florida alongside the Timucua tribe on September 8th, 1565. The Mass is structurally comprised of prayers either chanted aloud or recited privately by the Priest and prayers chanted by a designated liturgical choir known as a “schola”. Far from being mere choral performances, the chants of the Mass are true liturgical prayers set to monophonic song and are an integral part of the liturgical rite. These structured monophonic plainchants are known as “Gregorian Chants” named after Pope St. Gregory the Great who is said to have codified the normative liturgy of the Latin Rite of the Church during his pontificate from 590-604 AD. The chants are sung in Latin, the official language of the Catholic Church, so as to convey the universality of the Church and the unity of her members in doctrinal and liturgical orthodoxy.
The first chant of the principal Sunday celebration of Mass is what is known as the “Asperges Me” or more simply the “Asperges”. The Asperges chant and ritual, intoned by the Priest and completed by the schola, immediately precedes the celebration of Mass . The congregation is sprinkled with holy water preparing the faithful for the profundity and sacrality of what is about to occur and to evoke penitential and reverential sentiments. The Asperges is significant as it is likely to have been the very first chant heard by the native American peoples and would have been the first formal introduction of the sacred choral tradition and the liturgical rites of the Church that guided and formed western Europe for centuries upon centuries, and continues to do so in Catholic churches devoted to the traditional Latin Mass. The attached picture above (photocopied by the author) shows the sheet music for this particular chant taken from the Liber Usualis (a tome of all chants used throughout the liturgical year). Below is an audio track of the entirety of the chant along with the Latin text and an English translation.
Asperges me, Domine, hyssopo et mundabor,
Lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor. Miserere mei, Deus, secundum magnam misericordiam tuam. Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen. |
Thou wilt sprinkle me, O Lord, with hyssop and I shall be cleansed
Thou wilt wash me, and I shall be washed whiter than snow. Pity me, O God, according to Thy great mercy. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. |
Gilded Harmonies
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A second form of sacred choral music within the Catholic mass would have been polyphonic compositions. As opposed to monophony (music sung with one voice with a single melody unaccompanied by harmony) polyphony employs two or more simultaneous, harmonious lines of independent melody. Polyphony would arise initially in the 9th century in which Gregorian Chant was augmented with parallel voices conforming to the chant’s melody. However, by the 16th and 17th centuries, both the Renaissance and Baroque period composers produced sumptuous polyphonic pieces comprised of numerous voices with considerable musical complexities and undulating, independent melodies. Many of them would even incorporate instrumental or orchestral accompaniment. Among the first of Spanish polyphonic settings of the texts of the Mass to reach the Spanish colonies were those composed by Cristóbal de Morales (1500-1553). To the right is a portrait of Morales by James Caldwall (1739-1822) after an engraving by Angelo Rossi. Morales was the leading Spanish composer of Spain’s Golden Age and much of his work reached international acclaim and would find itself being sung in the Spanish colonies. Attached here is a selection from his polyphonic setting of the Requiem Mass (or funeral Mass) titled “Missa Pro Defunctis” arranged for five voices. The track below is that of the “Introit” which is the title given to the introductory prayer commencing the celebration of the Mass. Below the track is the Latin text and an English translation.
Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat eis. Te decet hymnus Deus, in Sion, et tibi reddetur votum in Ierusalem. Exaudi orationem meam; ad te omnis caro veniet. Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. |
Grant them eternal rest, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them. A hymn becomes you, O God, in Zion, and to you shall a vow be repaid in Jerusalem. Hear my prayer; to you shall all flesh come. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. |
Song of the Andes
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With the groundwork being having been laid for introducing the indigenous peoples of the Americas to the most solemn act of worship of the Catholic Church, we begin to see the rise of musical compositions incorporating both distinctly native elements and even the introduction of music in the indigenous languages themselves. In 1533, Francisco Pizarro González (depicted to the left in a painted portrait from 1540 by an unknown artist) sacked Cuzco, the Incan capitol, marking the completion of the conquest of Peru. Emerging from Catholic Peru nearly a century later, is the striking Peruvian polyphonic piece named “Hanacpachap Cussicuinin” which is Quechua for “Joy of Heaven”. Quechua was the language spoken primarily by the peoples of the Andes Mountains in South America (such as the Incas, Huancas, and the Amantaní) and collectively was the most widely spoken language of the native peoples of the Americas. This piece is particularly extraordinary as it incorporates native percussion elements, but it is also the very first piece of polyphonic music known to have been composed in the Americas. While its authorship is anonymous, it was used for Christmastide processions in the Franciscan mission town of San Pedro de Antahualla and was included in a manual of instruction for missionaries, the “Ritual Formulario e Institución de Curas”, which was compiled in 1631 by the Franciscan priest Juan Pérez Bocanegra. The attached track is the piece sung in its entirety. A selection of the piece with the original Quechua lyrics (left column), an English translation (middle column) and a Spanish translation (right column) is included below.
Hanaq pachap kusikuynin Waranqakta much'asqayki
Yupay ruru puquq mallki Runakunap suyakuynin Kallpannaqpa q'imikuynin Waqyasqayta. Uyariway much'asqayta Diospa rampan Diospa maman Yuraq tuqtu hamanq'ayman Yupasqalla, qullpasqayta Wawaykiman suyusqayta Rikuchillay. |
Joy of Heaven!
a thousand times shall we praise you. O tree bearing thrice-blessed fruit, O hope of humankind, helper of the weak. hear our prayer! Attend to our pleas, O column of ivory, Mother of God! Beautiful iris, yellow and white, receive this song we offer you; come to our assistance, show us the Fruit of your womb! |
Alegría del cielo
Te adoro mil veces Fruta preciosa de árbol fructífero, Esperanza que anima Ye da soporte a los hombres, Oye mi oración. Atiende nuestras súplicas Oh, columna de marfil, madre de Dios De iris hermoso, amarillo y blanco, Recibe esta canción que te ofrecemos, Ven a nuestra ayuda, Muéstranos el fruto de tu útero. |
Our Lady of the Americas
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We continue with the collaborative theme among Spanish colonists and native populations, but in this instance, we now move to the Nahuatl-speaking regions of Mexico. Nahuatl was the language spoken by the indigenous tribes of central Mexico, primarily the Aztec empire. Seen to the right is Jose Vivar y Valderrama's depiction of the first Mass celebrated in Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capitol city. The following piece was composed by the Spanish composer Hernando Franco. Franco was born in Extramdura, Spain in 1532. He would embark for the Viceroyalty of Nueva España in the 1550s where he would eventually be elevated to maestro de capilla of the cathedral of Santiago de Guatemala in 1571 and of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City in 1575, in whose main chapel he is buried in to this day. This particular piece is a polyphonic motet composed in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary with Nahuatl lyrics incorporating five voices and is a wonderful example of a rather seamless integration of conventional polyphonic constructs of the time with a language entirely detached from the composer’s own linguistic and cultural heritage. The Nahuatl lyrics are presented below:
Sancta Maria e
yn il huicac cihuapille
tina tzin dios
yn titotenpantlato cantzin.
Ma hueltehuatzin to pan ximotlatolti
yn titlaconhuanimen.
yn il huicac cihuapille
tina tzin dios
yn titotenpantlato cantzin.
Ma hueltehuatzin to pan ximotlatolti
yn titlaconhuanimen.
Of Romans and Iberians
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Lastly, we depart from the ecclesiastical realm
of colonial music, and come to more secular environs. Major cities of the Spanish colonies possessed
as much of an insatiable desire for cultural venues and entertainment as their
mainland Iberian counterparts. Among the more beloved of theatrical spectacles
was the opera. Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco Sánchez was a Spanish composer born
in Villarobledo in 1644. He would enter the service of Pedro Fernández de
Castro y Andrade, the Viceroy of Peru.
He would travel to the New World as part of the Viceroy’s retinue in 1667
and would go on to become maestro de capilla at the Cathedral of Lima in 1676.
It is during this time in which he would pen the first operatic production
composed in the Americas. The one act opera named “La Purpura de la Rosa”
(loosely translated as “The Blood of the Rose”) was based on a Spanish libretto
by Spanish Golden Age writer, Pedro Calderón de la Barca. It was first
performed in Lima in 1701 in homage to King Philip V of Spain and in
celebration of his 18th birthday and the first anniversary of his succession to
the Spanish throne. The plot of the piece depicts the mythological Roman
tragedy of Adonis and Venus, written by the 1st century BC Roman
poet Ovid, (depicted in the attached image of Venus and Adonis by Paolo Veronese in 1580) in which their love arouses the jealousy of Mars and his
unquenchable desire for revenge. Of notable peculiarity, is the attached audio
track of the “Loa” of the opera, which would have immediately preceded the
performance of the opera itself. The Loa is the Spanish designation for the
Greek allegorical “paen” which was a triumphant ode, originally sung by the
ancient Greeks in gratitude to Apollo. Here it is sung in commemoration of King
Philip V and of the splendor and power of the Spanish Empire of which he now
sits as its head. The Muses Calliope,
Terpsichore and Urania, the personifications of Time (Tiempo) and Spain
(España), and a chorus of the remaining six Muses sing to the majesty and
grandeur of Spain and its new king concluding with the following stanza:
¡Viva Filipo, viva!
¡Viva el sucesor del imperio
que, puesto a sus plantas,
seguro afianza
su eterno blasón!
The picture contained in the header is a scanned image of Tomas Luis de Victoria's Missa Alma Redemptoris sheet music (Click)
¡Viva el sucesor del imperio
que, puesto a sus plantas,
seguro afianza
su eterno blasón!
The picture contained in the header is a scanned image of Tomas Luis de Victoria's Missa Alma Redemptoris sheet music (Click)