Villancico facts for kids

The villancico (from Spanish) or vilancete (from Portuguese) was a popular type of song and poem. It was common in Spain, Portugal, and Latin America from the late 1400s to the 1700s.

Many important composers wrote villancicos. These include Juan del Encina, Pedro de Escobar, Francisco Guerrero, Manuel de Zumaya, Juana Inés de la Cruz, Gaspar Fernandes, and Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla.

Villancicos in Spain and the New World

In the 1400s, the Spanish villancico was a popular song that came from older dance forms. People sang them in their everyday language. These songs often told stories about country life.

A villancico poem usually had a main part, like a refrain (called an estribillo), and several verses (called coplas). The main part would often repeat, giving the song a bouncy, three-beat rhythm.

At first, villancicos were mostly non-religious songs with many voices singing together. But by the mid-1500s, religious villancicos became very popular in Spain and its colonies in Latin America.

These religious songs were sung during morning church services for special Catholic holidays. They became extremely popular in the 1600s. Some of their words were meant to teach new converts about the Christian faith.

Many villancicos were written for important holidays like Christmas, Easter, and other special days in the Catholic calendar. They were also written for important saints' days, such as St. Cecilia.

In colonial Mexico, villancicos were sometimes performed before church services on feast days. These performances were like fun, comical shows. They drew large crowds and included fancy costumes, stage effects, music, and spoken parts. People loved how these songs mixed serious religious themes with funny, everyday parts.

Villancicos in Spain and Latin America grew in similar ways. However, the Latin American villancico often included different languages and rhythms from its many ethnic groups. Most of the words were in Spanish. But some songs used words that sounded like African languages, or Native American (like Náhuatl), or even mixed-up Italian, French, or Portuguese.

These humorous songs were often named after the ethnic group they featured. They were sometimes played with instruments like rattles, tambourines, and gourds, not just orchestra instruments. The words often copied how these groups spoke.

For example, villancicos called "negro" or "negrillo" copied African speech patterns. They used sounds like "gulungú, gulungú" to create a certain image. However, some "negrillo" songs also shared friendly messages. For instance, a song by the famous poet Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz said, "wherever Peter enters, no one remains a slave." Other types of "ethnic" villancicos included the jácara, gallego, and tocotín.

Villancico composers often worked as music directors (called maestro de capilla) at major cathedrals. They wrote music in many different styles from the Renaissance and Baroque periods.

Some of the most famous villancico composers in the New World were José de Loaiza y Agurto, Manuel de Sumaya, and Ignacio Jerúsalem in New Spain (Mexico). Others include Manuel José de Quirós and Rafael Antonio Castellanos in Guatemala, José Cascante in Colombia, and Juan de Araujo and Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco in Peru.

Portuguese Vilancete

The Portuguese vilancete is a type of poem with a main part called a mote. This mote acts like a chorus in a song. After the mote, there are one or more verses, called volta, copla, or glosa. Each verse usually has seven lines.

The difference between a vilancete and a cantiga depends on how many lines are in the mote. If the mote has two or three lines, it's a vilancete. If it has four or more, it's a cantiga. Each line in a vilancete usually has five or seven syllables. If the last line of the mote is repeated at the end of each verse, the vilancete is considered "perfect."

These poems often followed a specific rhyme scheme, like ABB CDDC CBB. The themes of the vilancete were often about saudade (a feeling of longing or nostalgia), country life, shepherds, the idea of a 'perfect woman', and unrequited love (love that isn't returned) and the sadness that comes with it. Poets in Spain and Portugal were greatly influenced by Francesco Petrarca, a famous Italian poet.

See also

In Spanish: Villancico para niños