| VILLANCICOS | 
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| VILLANCICOS |
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After years of maintaining a rigidly inflexible liturgy that did much to separate clergy and congregation, the Church has recently restored or inaugurated certain forms conceived to vitalize the service. Today priests face their congregations in celebrating the Mass, and Latin has been replaced by the language currently used in each country.
These "popular" innovations are not unrelated in effect to the Black spirituals that for years have been part of Protestant church services in the United States; or even to the very recent attempts in Europe to animate the Mass with modern music, and in México with the traditionally popular songs of mariachis. Furthermore, all of these present-day modifications of the Church liturgy indicate pointedly the origin and development of Castillian villancicos, rudimental pastoral poetry, not necessarily religious. Although today the term translates roughly into Christmas carols, the Spanish Royal Academy in its venerable dictionary defines villancico as: "A popular poetical composition, with refrain, that treats principally religious subjects, and is sung at Christmas and during other religious holidays."
From these rudimentary compositions both plays, the idyll and the religious, developed. But the principal use of villancicos remained at first symbolically closer to their pastoral origin: lyrics that the shepherds of Bethlehem could sing at midnight mass each Christmas Eve. As time passed, the habit of bringing secular music into the church spread to other religious holidays, anniversaries and dedications. By the 16th century, villancicos were composed for every religious fiesta observed by the cathedrals at Madrid, Toledo, Sevilla, México City and Puebla. Derived mostly from folk songs, the lyrics teemed with popular subjects but styled themselves after sacred themes.
At the same historical time that conquistadores were bringing popular Spanish poetry to México (Cortés is in Tacuba . . .), Franciscans arrived with a religion whose ceremonies included a copious amount of villancicos. Once the Indians had mastered the new language and the European style of music, they soon began to compose these popular songs themselves, both for organ-accompanied hymns and for certain Masses. Taking the form to heart, they composed villancicos even in Nahuatl. And some Indians were reported to have surpassed in art and inventiveness the members of México City's official Spanish chorus, which was first organized in 1543.
During the next two centuries villancicos appeared plentifully throughout the history of the Church in México. Those alone attributed to the great poetess Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz occupy a complete volume (628 pages); the strongest remnant today of the popular influence once collected works. However, 18th century rationalism, with Charles III's prohibition of allegorical plays and the concurrent suppression of vernacular songs in the churches, reduced the influence of villancicos to a few canticles sung at Christmas. This attack against the folk element in choral singing, which originated in Spain, gained lasting victory.
The church's recent turn toward a more vigorous interchange between
the clergy and people predicts a rebirth of folk poetry, which may become
the seed for a new era of villancicos.
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