It all started when…

Composer Notes by David García Saldaña

A la medianoche

The Puerto Rican aguinaldo originated as a poetic form in 19th and 20th centuries. "A la media noche" is one setting of well-known verses in hexasyllabic form that centers around tellings of the Catholic nativity narrative. The Journal of American Folklore published collections of these aguinaldos in their 1918 publication, where several versions of these verses can be found. Musically, "A le media noche's" same melody can be found in another very popular secular aguinaldo, "Si me dan pasteles," usually sung by children as they knock door to door asking for loose change to fund their holiday celebrations. Sung recordings of this tune by Aurora Calderón can be found as far back as the 1939 in the Library of Congress's digital archives. Both of these tunes have origins in the Aguinaldo Jibaro song style, which the opening lines of each stanza refer to in the melody, and which cuatro puertorriqueño players (a stringed instrument similar to a guitar or ukelele) still learn to play.

El Angel Gabriel

This version of the Annunciation offers a view of Venezuelan Christmas imagery and traditions.

Here, the local shephards offer Venezuelan foods and treats to the child, Mary and Joseph camp underneath the Araguaney tree, and local bioluminescent insects provide the holy glow for the scene. The songwriter, Francisco Carreño, contributed to the development of the Servicio de Investigaciones Folklóricas Nacionales and founded the Escuela del Folklore Venezolano (School for Venezuelan Folklore). Carreño's populist sentiments and research led to political persecution throughout the 1960s, until his death. "El ángel Gabriel" is an aguinaldo venezolano, and utilizes a common cuatro (a stringed instrument similar to the guitar) rhythm, which the opening bars of the choral arrangement have been inspired by. This driving percussive rhythm supercedes the attention to prosody in Carreño's original, but in this version, is used as a counter melodic rhythm in syncopations.

La Buena Nueva

"La buena nueva" (translates to "The Good News") comes to international attention because of a famous 1965 recording of villancicos, "Ronda de Navidad," sung by a Peruvian Catholic school's children’s choir, the Coral Infantil Golegio "Manuel Pardo de Chiclayo." This tune is often misattributed in textbooks and hymnals as a traditional Peruvian villancico, but is most likely written by contemporary Criollo singer-songwriter Mario Gavagnaro Llerena (1926-1998), unpublished, and often mistitled "Rueda, rueda por la montaña" or "Huayno navideño." Some early recordings also title this tune "Navidad en el Perú."

!Cantamos, cantamos!

This arrangement of the Villancico Mexicano is a re-envisioning of the antiquated Christmas

song in both verse and music, based on Ramón Noble’s arrangement of the 16th century

original. The original song strikes the ear with the flamboyance familiar to many Mexican folk

songs, but was deeply imbued with the paternalistic, patriarchal sentiments of both God

towards humanity and of the Spanish colonizers to the Native peoples.

This new setting transforms this language into one of celebration, ideally as a carol to be sung

to ring in the Christmas season! The message is clear: the time has come to sing the season's

familiar stories back to life!

Del cielo da bajado

"Del cielo ha bajado" (LOURDES HYMN) speaks to the power that religious colonization has over Hispanoamérica. The Pew Research Center's 2014 survey claims 69% Catholic identity of the participants across Latin America. Catholic practices have proliferated across different national Christmastime celebrations, notably in different novenas for this period. Some cultures celebrate leading up to the 25th, while others celebrate after. Nicaragua has an especially unique novena November 28-December 8, referred to as "La Purísima" and culminating in "La Gritería," national celebrations and adorations of the Virgin Mary. In the same way Hispanoamérica reclaimed the Spanish colonizer-religion through re-imagining the ceremonies and traditions, this arrangement of "Del cielo ha bajado" intentionally takes a piece of European Catholicism that still holds power over Hispanoamérica and transforms it into something authentically inauthentic through the creative power of musical re-imagination.

El Rorro

This villancico has a well-documented performance history with mixed choir as a centuries old lullaby to the newborn Jesus, but this arrangement adds macaronic text in English and Spanish (native languages to the composer) as well as a marimba part that allows different forces to function as musical pads, adding to the stasis in the refrains. This contrasts with the verses, where the joy of those present bursts in sudden exclamations of joy! This, to the arranger's ear, adds a familiar flambouyancy of their experience with Mexican folk songs. In several ways, "El rorro" parallels "Stille Nacht (Silent Night)." Both sing of the newborn baby of Jesus at the end of the nativity story, peaceful and resting... although only one of the two mentions mosquitos and elephants!

Lindo niño

Los Pibes Trujillo recorded their "Villancicos Navideños" album in 1970, bringing popular Ecuadorian villancicos to international acclaim. "Lindo niño," among Salvador Bustamante Celi's (1876-1935) popular villancicos, had a bright waltz feel on the album, contrasting the tragic story of child abuse underpinning the recording process. Similarly, Celi, in 1910, had to escape Lima due to war with Perú at the border, and traveled to Guayaquil. These stories of suffering paint this setting of "Lindo niño." Upon listening to Pamela Cortés's recorded version, the joyous hope from anticipating the arrival of the beautiful child feels poignant against the melancholic musical background. In this arrangement, the primary melody often falls out of alignment with the instrumentation, forming hemiolas as the rhythmic motive moving towards the moments of relief where it returns to alignment.

Vamos, pastores, vamos

"Vamos, pastores, vamos" has an elusive origin story, with the popular Flor y Canto hymnal crediting Evaristo Ciria Sanz, a Spanish Catholic priest and musician, while more sources claim authorship by Jeremías Quintero Gutiérrez, a prolific Colombian songwriter claimed to have written over 3,000 villancicos. Quintero is credited with other popular villancicos thematically centered around pastores including "Venid Pastorcillos" and "Pastorcillos de Naplusa". This tune, though, has permeated throughout the American continents, becoming ubiquitous villancico. The text retells the announcement to the Shephards of Jesus's birth, and captures the excitement and journey that the shephards took to go to Bethlehem. This arrangement composes a new musical section that sonifies the jingle jangle of the rush to Bethleham, using polyphony to capture that various voices of anticipation and joy (gusto) of the journey to see the newborn baby. The text is a recombination of the original verses in order to present a more secular telling of the story.