MUSIC

IN

MEXICO

Historical Survey

A HISTORICAL SURVEY

ROBERT STEVENSON

York

THOMAS

Y.

CROWELL COMPANY

195*

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NO. S1-IOJ79

UBRARY OF CONCftBSS CATALOG CARD

Apollo Edition, 197*

PREFACE

This book is the first in English devoted to the history of music in Mexico* Several excellent manuals in English dealing with the history
of the various other fine arts in Mexico
painting, architecture,

and

sculp-

tureare now
Mexico
is

available.

The

absence of a historical survey of music in

is

remembered how important music has always been

therefore a conspicuous example of neglect, especially when it in the total culture

of our southern neighbor. The basic research which was a necessary preliminary to the writing of the present book was made possible by a grant from the Mexican Govern-

ment during 1950 under terms of the Buenos Aires Convention

Promotion of Inter-American Cultural Relations.

for the

My

cordial thanks are

due the many

Mexico who made the traversing of the road over Mexico's musical past a richly rewarding experience. Without atDr. Silvio tempting an exhaustive list, I should like to remember here
officials in

ZwaJa, Director of the Chapultepec Museum, Maestro Carlos Ch&vez, Director of the Institute National de Bellas Artes, Luis Sandi, Chief of the Music Section in the Institute, Jesfo Bal y Gay of the Music Section,
Bias Galindo, Director of the Conservators Nacional, Dr. Jesfis Romero, Professor of Music History in the Conservators, Dr. Gabriel Soldfvar,

eminent music

historian, Juli&n Carrillo, veteran composer and former head of the conservatory, Jes6s Estrada, organist of the Mexico City Cathedral, Juliin Zufiiga, organist of the Guadalupe Basilica, Ger6nimo

Btqueiro F&ter, music

Joe F, Visquex, composer, Miguel Bernal Jimenez, director of the Escuela Superior de Miiaica Sagrada at Morelia, Mr. George T. Smisor, formerly of the Biblioteca Benjamin Franklm
critic,

in

Mexico

City,

Mr. Dorsey Gaesaway Fisher of

the American Embassy,

vi

PREFACE

and Miss Dorothy Jester of the American Embassy. A mere listing of names is, of course, but a token. In the text and footnotes I have indicated

more

precisely the extent of

my

indebtednesses, which are everywhere

extensive.

Among those in this country whose aid has proved invaluable have been
Dr. Ethelyn Dr. Steven Barwick, Davis, sociologist antiquities, author of an authoritative Harvard dissertation on colonial music m
history,

Dr. Lota

Spell, pioneer researcher in

Mexican music

and expert

in

Mexican

Mexico, Miss Alice Ray, researcher

in

Puebla music history, Eduardo

son,

Guerra, formerly of Mexico City Union Seminary, Mrs. Hallett JohnEl Paso, Texas, concert manager with extensive Mexican connections,

Mr. Charles Seeger, Music Division Chief of the Pan American Union, Dr. Carleton Sprague Smith, Music Division Chief at the New York Public Library, Dr. Edmund King of Princeton University, Mr. Arthur
of the Philadelphia Free Public Library, and Dr. Thomas E. Cotner of the United States Office of Education at Washington.

Cohn

My

thanks are also due

in the

staff

members

of several libraries both in

United States specializing in Mexican imprints: notathe Biblioteca Nacional and Conservatorio National bly Library at Mexico City j and The Huntington and Bancroft Libraries at San Marino and
Berkeley respectively in California.

Mexico and

CONTENTS

1;

EARLY ABORIGINAL MUSIC

"Ancient" Mexican Music
at the

IN

MEXICO
Art.

Museum of Modern

Chang-

ing Attitudes Towards Renaissance." Methods Used by Contemporary Scholars in the Used in Study of Pre-Conquest Music. The Musical Instruments

Ancient Aboriginal Music.

The "Aztec

Ancient Mexico. Testimony of Early Spanish Historians on the Character of Aboriginal Music. Contribution of the Missionaries to

Our

Understanding of Indian Culture. Conclusions Concerning Pre-Conquest Music Derived from Early Spanish Testimony. Toribio de Motolinia. Bernardino de Sahagiin, Francisco Lopez

de Gomara. Alonso de Molina. Diego de Landa. Diego Duran, Geronimo de Mendieta. Summaries of Sixteenth Century Opinion.

Absence of Musical Quotations in the Sixteenth Century Chronicles of Pre-Conquest Life. The Melodic System of the Early Aborigines.

Concluding Summary.

2.

THE TRANSPLANTING OF EUROPEAN MUSICAL

CULTURE
sion.
ists.

5*

Aid in the Process of ConverAptitude of the Indians* Music as an The Resulting Superfluity of Indian Singers and InstrumentalMusical Achievement of Early Colonial Indian Choirs. Music Printing During the Sixteenth Century. Description of SixMexican Imprints Containing Music. Present-Day teenth

The

Century

Significance of Sixteenth

Century Music Imprints, Sixteenth Cenvii

viii

CONTENTS
tury Background in Spain. Synopsis of Neo-Hispank Polyphonic
sic

Development. Neo-Hispanic Polyphony as "Gebrauchsmusik." Muin Commemorative Acts. Sixteenth Century Developments in
Instrumental Music. Secular Music.

3.

THE CULMINATION AND DECLINE OF

HISPANIC MUSIC
Sources.

NEQ-"
100

The

Printing of Part-Music.

The

Extent of the Repertory.

Hernando Franco. The Magnificat*. Nahuatl Hymns. The Puebla School of Composers. Music in Mkhoacan. Music in Other Provincial Centers. The Villancico in New Spain. Music at Mexico City Cathedral (Salazar to Aldana). Reasons for the Decline of NeoHispanic Music. Secular Music During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Neo-Hispanic Folk-Music*

4-

THE OPERATIC NINETEENTH CENTURY

Musk in Mexico (1810) Compared
Colonies. Mexican
alty.

172

Music

at

with Music in Other Hispanic Music During the Last Years of the Viceroythe School of Mines in Mexico City. Instruments and

Instrument Tuning. Dance Types Popular at the End of the VicePioneer During the Revoluregal Period. Jose Mariano EHzaga:

Works. Elfeaga's Successor*. The Manuel Garcia Episode. Foreign Opinion on Musk in the Young Republic. Mexican Opera Composers of the Mid-Century, Melesio Morales's One "Mexican" Opera. Angela Peraha: 'The Mexican Nightingale." Other Mexican Opera Composers of the Nineteenth Century. Assessment of Nineteenth Century Mexican Opera. Salon
tionary Epoch. Elizaga's Printed

Ricardo Castro: the

Music. Piano Virtuosi During the Latter Half of the Century. Most "Europeizante" Nineteenth Century
in

tional

Composer. Religious Musk and Regional Dances.

The

Nineteenth Century Mexico. NaNineteenth Century in Resume*.

5.

FULFILLMENT DURING THE TWENTIETH CBN*

TURY
The
Last Porfirian Decade.

2*4

dictment of the Masses. Juliin Carrfllo. Manuel

Le Llgmd* d* RwM. Carnpa's InM. Ponce. Curios

CONTENTS
Chavez. Chavez's Musical
Style. Silvcstre Revueltas. Candelario Huizar. Bias Galindo. El Grupo de los Cuatro. Luis Sandi. Miguel Bernal Jimenez. Schola Cantorumi Nuestr* Musica; Mexico en

ix

Other Composers. Popular Music in Mexico Today. ForContributors to Mexican Musical Life. Outlook for the Future. eign
el Arte.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
283

MEXICAN CHRONOLOGY

Mexican

history divides itself into three principal epochs: (i) the Pre-

Spanish, ending at 1521, (2) the Colonial, extending from 1521 until 1810, (3) the Independence, lasting from 1810 until the present time. Many present-day Mexican historians add a fourth division to the above
three, the

Reform epoch which began

is

in

1910 with the revolt against

Porfirio Diaz.

table of dates

longer one found

Imp. de la

supplied below j this table is an abridgment of a Alfonso Teja Zabre's Historia de Mfxico (Mferico: Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores, 1935)* All dates are in the
in

Christian era,

200-400 500-600
IOOO-X200
1325 1418-72 1440-69 1482
1487

Rise of Southern

Maya culture in Guatemala and Honculture reaches

its

duras

Southern
as

Maya

zenith in such

cities

Copan, Tikal, and Palenque Northern Maya culture flourishes

in

Yucatan, a princi-

pal center being Chichen-Itza

Tenochtitlan, principal city of the Aztecs, founded Nezthutlcoyotl, poet-king of Texcuco

Montezuma
t

I ruler in Tenochtitlan

Work begins on

the construction of a great

new

temple

TenochtMin At consecration ceremonies

20,000 captives are
sacrificed

for

new

great temple

1503-20
1

Montezuma
pire"

I! succeeds as ruler of the Aztec "em-

5 1 9, April 2 1

Cortes arrives tt San Juan de Uloa

xi

MEXICAN CHRONOLOGY
1519* August 16

He

leaves the coast

and marches toward Tenochtidan

1519, November 7

with a force of 400 infantry, 16 horses, 6 cannon, and 1500 Indian allies He arrives at Tenochtitlan ; a week later he seizes the
in the great person of Montezmna, overthrows idols temple, and sets up a cross in it

1520, June 29
1520, June 30

Montezmna,
is

after vainly trying to quiet his people,

slain
flees

Cortes

the city in disastrous defeat:

"Noche

triste"

1521, August 13

Tenochtidan surrenders; Cuauhtemoc,

Aztecs,
is

last ruler of the

taken prisoner

1523, August 30
1525, February

First Franciscan friars land at

Veracruz
to

Cuauhtemoc executed during CorteVs expedition Honduras because of his part in a conspiracy

1535
1536, January 7

Don

Antonio de Mendoza,

first

viceroy, arrives

College of Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco for Indians opens with 60 students who are taught reading, writing, Latin

grammar,
1553 January 25 *573

rhetoric, philosophy,

and music

Luis de Velasco (I), 2nd viceroy, opens University of

Mexico

Work

begins

on Cathedral

of

Mexico (present

struc-

1608

ture) Luis de Velasco (II) inaugurates a large system of drainage works in order to reclaim Mexico City from

marshland

1642
1692, June 8

Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, Bishop of Puebla, named

1

8th viceroy

Riot on account of corn shortage in the capital

1693
1711

Mercuric VolanU> first newspaper in New Spain, founded by Don Carlos de Siguenza y Gongora Fernando de Alencastre, Duque de Linares, 34th viceroy

1742
1

3,900,000 inhabitants

in

Mexico

767, June 27 1789 1792 1793 1793-94

Expulsion of the Jesuits

2nd Conde de Revfllagigedo, 5ist viceroy Opening of School of Mines at Mexico City 4,500,000 inhabitants in Mexico Mexico City has an approximate population of 135,000
I

1805, October

1808
1

de Mexico) a daily newspaper 6,500,000 inhabitants (Humboldt's estimate)

First issue of Diario

809, September 9

Abortive conspiracy at Valladolid

(now Morelia)

MEXICAN CHRONOLOGY
1810, September 15 and 16
1810, November 26 1811, March 21 1811, July 30 1815, December 22

Cry

for independence at the village of Dolores

is

where

Miguel Hidalgo

parish priest: "Grito de Dolores"

Hidalgo enters Guadalajara Hidalgo captured

Hidalgo executed at Chihuahua
Morelos, the other principal insurrectionary leader, executed

1821, July 30 1822, May 1 8

1822, December 2

Juan O'Donoju, 62nd and last

viceroy, arrives

Agustfn Iturbide proclaimed emperor Santa Anna starts a revolt against Iturbide
Iturbide abdicates

1823, March 19 1824, October 4 1833, October 21

Constitution of the Republic of Mexico proclaimed Univerity of Mexico suppressed

1834
1835, November 7 1836, April 21
1846, March 25

7,734,292 population

Texas Convention moves

separation

from Mexico

Santa Anna, captured by the Texans at San Jacinto, promises Texas independence General Zachary Taylor advances on Matamoros

1846,

May

13

1847, September 14 1848, February 2

United States Congress declares war on Mexico American troops occupy Mexico City Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ceding territory
United States
First electric telegraph operated in

to the

1853, November 5 1853, December 16 1855, August 9 1856, June 24 1860, December 28 1863,
1

Mexico
title

Santa
of

Anna

"Most

proclaims himself a dictator with the Serene Highness"

He is

forced to leave Mexico

Secularization of church property decreed Laws of reform closing monasteries, convents, secularizing church property, establishing civil marriage President Benito Juarez forced to leave Mexico City

May

31

863, June 7

1864,

May

28

1866, December 18 1867, June I 9 1867, July 21

1869, September 16

French army enters Mexico City Maximilian and Carlotta arrive at Veracruz French troops begin to leave Mexico Maximilian, Miramon, and Mejia, shot at Queretaro
Benito Juarez reestablishes
City
his

government

at

Mexico

Opening

of railroad

from Mexico City

to Puebla

1869
1871, November 8
1 872, July 1 8 1876, November 26

8,743,614 population Revolt led by Porfirio Diaz

Juarez
dies

Diaz

president of

Mexico

XIV

MEXICAN CHRONOLOGY
Revolt at Chihuahua and Puebla
1,
1

1910, November 20
191
191

May 25
7

July

Francisco

1913, February 22

Diaz leaves Mexico City I. Madero enters Mexico City Madero killed
killed

in

triumph

1917,
1920,

May i May 2 1
I

Venustiano Carranza president

Carranza

1921
1924, December

1934, November 30 1938, March 18

1940, December 1942, May 28 1946, December
I

14,234,780 population General Plutarco Calles president General Lazaro Cardenas president
Expropriation of American and British
oil

properties

General

A via Camacho president

against

War declared
I

Germany,

Italy,

and Japan

Miguel Aleman president

25*706,458 population Adolfo Ruiz Cortines president

1950
1952, December
I

A GUIDE TO PRONUNCIATION

Spanish words

a:
c:

asin"f*ther"
as a

k before a Ain"
(C

a> o,

u; as an s before

e, i

ch:
e:

asin
as in

vem"
an A before

g:

hard

as in "gas" before *, 0, u; as

h:
i:

always silent
as in as in like like
like

"machine"

"Nava/o"
in

(like

a strong A)

11:

"you"
"canyon"

n:

ny

in

qu:
u:

Indian words are all transliterations and are therefore to be pronounced

words. according to the rules for the pronunciation of Spanish

MUSIC

IN

MEXICO

A Historical Survey

EARLY ABORIGINAL MUSIC

IN

MEXICO

"ANCIENT" MEXICAN MUSIC AT THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART

The

first attempt to present an organized historical survey of Mexican music to the American public occurred as recently as 1940. During May

of that year the

series of

Museum

of

Modern Art

in

New York city sponsored a

programs containing representative works from each of the principal epochs in Mexican history. During the same month the Columbia Corporation recorded an album of selected orchestral pieces from the

The concerts for those who heard them, and later the recordings for the wider public, were important not only because they proved Mexican achievements in music could match Mexican achievements in the
series.

other arts. They were significant also because they showed that Mexican music, like painting and sculpture in that country, had spoken most powerfully when inspired by the aboriginal, rather than the Hispanic^ forces in

Mexican

cultural tradition.

The selections presented in the museum concerts which were felt most aptly to express Mexico's own indigenous spirit were Luis Sandi's Yagvi
MusiCy Carlos Chivez's D&tza a Genteotl from the Aztec ballet Los CuatraSoles, and Chavez's Aztec evocation, Xochipll^Macuilxachid. In this
last piece

Chavez, by using instruments constructed in facsimile of those

faipwn to have been used by the pre-Conquest Mexicans, sought to recapture the sonorities that characterized pre-Spanish music Howard

Taubman in describing XocMpttlfrMpcutUspcMd for the New York T*meb

wrote:

MUSIC IN MEXICO
Mr. Chavez
scored the

work

for copies of archaeological instruments:

huehuetls, rasps, rattles, whistles, and trombone. The last instrument was used to suggest the sound made by blowing into a conch shell. The result is a work of delightful primitive flavor, employing its
flutes, teponaztlis,

strange instrumental resources with rare effect.

The
shell)

music editor of
shrilled

and pipes

Time magazine spoke in similar terms: "Flutes and wailed, a trombone (substituting for the snail
.

of drums, gourds, rattles.

neighed an angular melody, to the spine-tingling thrump-and-throb . . Xochifilli-Macuilxochitl sounded almost

as primitive as Stravinsky."

Much music of a more conventionalized type was, of course, presented during the Museum of Modern Art Mexican series. In order to show the
kind of music popular in Mexico during the nineteenth century two medleys were pkyed, and in addition a Mass for four voices with orches-

by the colonial composer, Don Jos6 Aldana, was sung. But this Aldana Mass, because it was thought -to sound altogether too much like some such joyous Haydn Mass as the Mariazellermesse^ was passed over with
tra

only a perfunctory gesture in the press reviews and was not released in the Columbia album of recordings.
study of the press comments along with a survey of the numbers actually recorded proves conclusively that none of the colonial or nineteenth century music was most favored. Rather the music chosen by critics and public with considerable unanimity was that which was thought to show the least traces of European influence. Xochiplli-Macuilxochitl with its teponaztlis and huehuetls, the Danza a Centeotl with its
orchestrally-

accompanied chorus chanting Mazahua melodies in Nahuatl (the language of the Aztecs), and Yaqtu Music from the Sonora tribe which longer than any other resisted mission influences, were the
compositions
that created the most lasting impressions.

Museum

Simultaneously with the historic programs of Mexican music the <r displayed an exhibit of the other arts in Mexico. What
really
collec-

sculpture by long-forgotten Maya, Toltec, and Olmec craftsmen representing the first 1,500 of Mexico's 2,000 years of art," reported Time magazine. And the art critic, Edward Jewell, wrote in the New York Times: "In both the pre-Spanish and the modern periods Mexican art reached a cultural apogee." As with the visual arts, so with music. The Museum concerts

held the Manhattan gallery-goers spellbound was the enormous tion of gaunt, contorted monumental stone

proved

EARLY ABORIGINAL MUSIC

that

IN

MEXICO
lines

Mexican music constructed along

its

most "ancient"

was that

which most strongly appealed to moderns.

CHANGING ATTITUDES TOWARDS ANCIENT ABORIGINAL MUSIC

If our

new

interest in

"Aztec" music after these 1940 concerts seems

a somewhat belated tribute to the culture of the aboriginal races who lived in Mexico, the reason for our tardiness is easily enough explained.

In the United States we have necessarily awaited the lead of Mexican scholars, most of whom have themselves until comparatively recent
times shown no marked interest in the music of the Aztecs, Mayas, or other ancient tribes who inhabited Mexico during the pre-Conquest era.
historians can only be said to have begun the sympathetic study of ancient indigenous music during the I92o's. Before 1920 most Mexican writers on music were either content to repeat the strictures

Mexican music

as Bernal Diaz against Aztec music uttered by early conquistadores such del Castillo, or were willing to follow the authority, of later historians

such as the eighteenth century Jesuit, Francisco Clavijero, Aztec music the poorest art of the pre-Conquest natives.

who

called

Bernal Diaz, because his astonishingly vivid accounts of the music played and sung by the Aztecs during their ritual sacrifices of Spanish
a favorite authority. Quite natuprisoners-of-war were picturesque, was

dismal and horrible. rally Aztec music could have seemed to Diaz only associated it always with the memory of his comrades-in-arms sacri-

He

ficed

on the

battle music, exciting

altar-stone of their war-god, Huitzilopochtli. Even their though he admitted it to have been, could not have

tributes of praise from Bernal Diaz, the "true historian" of all that befell the conquerors. Locked in a life-and-death struggle with the Aztecs the conquistadores could not easily have discerned the higher elements in the opposing culture, even had they wished to be fair.

won any

historian comfortably remote from the scene can describe Aztec civilization in terms of their "well-planned cities with towering

modern

and brilliantly colored pyramids and impressive temples," of their "vast of their "huge market and terraces," palaces with extensive apartments
squares and continually

moving caravans of

traders," of their

"monetary

of their "highly developed system using gold and copper for currency," of picture writing," and of their "elaborate patronage of the system 1 but what Diaz, who was closer to the scene, could see of their arts";
-

MUSIC IN MEXICO
and the references
was a less cause for rejoicing. in his Historia verdadera occur oftenest in the

him patronage of the arts afforded

soldier j

He

midst of his battle descriptions. His musical references include mention of the large Aztec war-drum (tlapanhuehuetl), of their instruments made
of animal and human bone (tzicahuastli and omitzicahuastli), of their conch shell trumpets (tepuzquiquiztli), of their flutes (tlapitzalli), and of certain other instruments that are now less easily identifiable.

The
show

following extracts, which are given in Maudsla/s translation, the kind of contact Bernal Diaz had with Aztec music:
heard the sound of the trumpets from the height dominates the whole city [the great Cue

As we were
was

retreating
its

we

great Cue, which from

rises the

the principal sacrificial temple, and stood on the exact spot where now heard also a drum, a most dismal Cathedral of Mexico City] .

We

sound indeed it was leagues off, and with

...
it

as

it

resounded so that one could hear

it

two-

and

whistles.

At

many small tambourines and shell trumpets, horns that moment . . . they were offering the hearts of ten
much
blood to the idols that I have mentioned.
.
.

of our comrades and

Again there was sounded the dismal drum of Huichflobos [Huitzilopochtli] There sounded also many other shells and horns and things like trumpets and the sound of them all was terrifying. We all looked towards the lofty Cue where they were being sounded, and saw our comrades whom they had captured when they defeated Cortes being carried by force up the steps, and they were taking them to be sacrificed. When they got them up to a small square where their accursed idols were kept, we saw . and they forced them place plumes on the heads of many of them
.

After they had danced they immediately placed them on their backs on some narrow stones, and with stone knives they sawed open their chests and drew out their palpitating hearts and offered them to the

them

to dance.

idols.

offered great sacrifice and celebrated festivals every and sounded their cursed drum, trumpets, kettle drums and shells, night 2 and uttered yells and howls. Then they sacrificed our comrades. . .
.

... The Mexicans

It is too much to expect that the conquerors who fought with Cortes should have been able dispassionately to have evaluated Aztec music. The memory of their own battles must surely have been too immediate and

overwhelming.

On the other feand

certain sixteenth-century missionaries

-^he

learned Franciscan, Bernardino de Sahagtin, for instance, or the laborious Dominican, Diego Duran heard Aztec music with different

EARLY ABORIGINAL MUSIC

ears,

IN

MEXICO

and were therefore able to render a more favorable account of it. But

the unfavorable comments of Bernal Diaz, rather than these favorable accounts, created the climate of opinion in which the older generation of
historians lived up until about 1920. 1917 a member of the National Conservatory of Music Herrera y Ogazon, published under the official auspices of faculty, Alba the Direcci6n General de las Bellas Artes a treatise on Mexican music en-

Mexican music

As

late as

titled

El Arte Musical en Mexico

in

which she vigorously condemned

Aztec music. In her way of thinking, Aztec music, since it exactly expressed the soul of a cruel and barbarous people, was a degenerate expression,

The

and therefore unsuited to the refined tastes of civilized Europeans. following two sentences carried the main drift of her argument

against Aztec music:

the remaining exemplars of Aztec instruments preserved in the Museum of Mexico, we may infer that the music of the people during the pre-Conquest era was as barbarous and harsh as were the cere. monies at which their music was heard. .

From

National

the Mixtecan tun, the teponazdi, the chicahuazdi, the the Zapotec chirimia, and the Yaqui tambor, are not instruments sonaja, with each other, a capable of producing either alone, or in conjunction induce a spiritual grateful harmony: nor can the sound of any of them

The conch-shell,

response that 8 havior. . . .

is

in

harmony with

presently accepted standards of be-

The only indigenous music she could praise, on the other hand, was a Tarascan melody which fortuitously resembled a theme from the third movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7. Her mentor, Gustavo E.
disCampa, a former head of the National Conservatory, had already covered the note-for-note resemblance of the Tarascan melody in quesadmired by cultivated tion, and since it exactly duplicated a theme already

musicians she too selected

it

for conspicuous praise.

admire

nothing in indigenous art unless

But this tendency to some chance resemblance to a

discovered prevented her, as recognized European masterpiece could be in Mexico, from seeing the idiomatic virtues of it prevented others
aboriginal art.

After 1920, however, a change occurred. At a time when Stravinsky's

"primitive"

Le

Sacre

du Printemfs and

ProkofieflPs "barbaric" Suite

in Europe, the Scythe were revolutionizing art concepts

much more

MUSIC IN MEXICO

win

authentic primitivism and barbarism of native art in Mexico began to praise instead of censure. Within a decade after the publication of

Herrera y Ogazon's

text,

El Arte Musical en Mexico,

so complete a

reversal of opinion on the merits of indigenous expression had taken place that Aztec music rather than being decried was being held up for the first time as the worthiest music for Mexican composers to imitate.

Qualities in indigenous music which only a few years before had been looked upon as basic defects suddenly began to be spoken of as merits. Carlos Chavez spoke for the newer generation when he said Mexicans

must now learn

4

to Reconstruct musically the atmosphere of primitive

purity."

THE "AZTEC RENAISSANCE"

In a lecture delivered under the auspices of the National University of Mexico in October, 1928, Ch&vez summarized the newer ideas on
aboriginal music which were soon to
titled

La Musica

become regnant. In this lecture, enAzteca, he advocated a return to pre-Conquest musical

ideals because pre-Spanish music "expressed what is profoundest and in the Mexican soul." As he saw it "the musical life of the deepest

aborigines constitutes [not a regrettable but rather] the most important stage in the history of Mexican music." Concerning the melodic system

of the Aztecs he said:

The Aztecs showed

minor
rare.
.

a preelection for those intervals which

fifth;

we call

the

third
. .

and the perfect

their

use of other intervals

was

This type of interval preference, which must undoubtedly be taken to indicate a deep-seated and intuitive yearning for the minor, found appropriate expression in

[The

pentatonic series

modal melodies which entirely lacked the semitone. which lacks the semitone was the type of five-note

by most aboriginal American tribes.] Aztec melodies might begin or end on any degree of the five-note series. In discussing their music one might therefore appropriately speak of five different melodic modes,
each of them founded on a different tonic in the pentatonic series. Since the fourth and seventh degrees of the major diatonic scale (as we know it) were completely absent from this music, all the harmonic implications of our all-important leading tone were banished from Aztec melody. If it should seem that their particular pentatonic system excluded any

scale used

EARLY ABORIGINAL MUSIC IN MEXICO

possibility
sity

of "modulating" which some feel to be a psychological neceseven in monody we reply that these aborigines avoided modulation (in our sense of the word) primarily because modulation was alien to the
.

by long familiarity with the European diatonic system, the "polymodality" of indigenous music in music we inevitably sounds as if it were "polytonality."
(Polytonality

simple and straightforward spirit of the Indian. . For those whose ears have become conditioned

might say

is

analogous to the absence of perspective which

we

encounter

in aboriginal painting.

show us absence of perspective means.) It seems evident that either the aborigines possessed an aural predisposition, or that an ingrained habit of listening was developed them,

The

paintings of the pre-Conquest codices

what

this

among

thus enabled to integrate into wholes the disparate planes of sound that (in the European meaningful 5 way of thinking) clashed in their music.

which

we

today do not possess.

They were

These excerpts are of value because they summarize the findings of enlightened musical ethnology, but more especially because they show how completely Mexican musical opinion had reversed itself during the 1920*8. Characteristics that previously had been looked upon as basic faults in the indigenous music of Mexico its "minor quality," its "monotony," its "simultaneous sounding of different pentatonic melodies" which are out of tune with each other in our way of thinking, its fondness

"two or more rhythms the beats of which never coincide" all these qualities previously thought of as crude distortions came now in the
for

1920*8 to be regarded not as defects but as virtues. Thus it happened that at the very hour Diego Rivera was praising what the pre-Conquest natives had done in the visual arts and calling it

an achievement actually superior to that of their conquerors, 6 Chavez was finding similar virtues in the music of the pre-Cortesian aborigines.
If

when he
so.
list

first

began summoning Mexican musicians

to

heed the Aztec

past his

may have been

remain
that to

He

a voice crying in the wilderness, it did not long was so soon joined by others in his own generation, in fiact,

their

names would be to list nearly every well-known Mexican

composer in our epoch. Such contemporaries as Daniel Ayala, Francisco

Dominguez, Bias Galindo, Raul Guerrero, Eduardo Hernandez Moncada, Candelario Huizar, Vicente Mendoza, Pablo Moncayo, and Luis
Sandi, have all followed Chavez's lead in extolling the virtues of indigenous music, and in copying indigenous models wherever possible. 7

MUSIC IN MEXICO
METHODS USED BY CONTEMPORARY SCHOLARS
OF PRE-CONQUEST MUSIC
three lines of investigation which have been most fruitfully pursued by Mexican scholars who during recent years have studied prei the systematic study of the musical instruConquest music have been ( ) as the Aztecs, Mayas, and Tarascans are known ments which such peoples to have used ( 2 ) the assembling of opinions on Aztec music from sixteenthto Indian culture rather than opposed century authors who were friendly Indian to it (3) the collection of melodies from certain out-of-the-way IN

THE STUDY

The

after the lapse of centuries may still preserve groups which even today in their music some of the basic elements found in the pre-Cortesian sys-

tem.

THE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS USED

ments has been a favorite method
'

IN ANCIENT MEXICO
scrutiny of archaeological instru-

For more than a century the minute

tures.

in the study of

music from buried

cul-

Among the pioneers in musical archaeology was the famous F. J. Fetis, who based his nineteenth-century encyclopedist and historian, conclusions concerning ancient Egyptian music on the results he obtained
Using Fetis's methods, such investigaand Kathleen Schlesinger have in our own time conGalpin ducted exhaustive studies in the music of the ancient Sumerians and Greeks. The use such MexiBabylonians, and in the music of the ancient can investigators as Daniel Castaneda and Vicente T. Mendoza have

from the study

of Egyptian flutes.

tors as F.

W.

made

of archaeological instruments

is

therefore no

new

idea.

After prolonged investigation of pre-Conquest instruments Castaneda and Mendoza gathered sufficient evidence to establish the following conclusions concerning the organography of the aborigines in Mexico
:

I. An essential sameness ^prevailed everywhere in the types of instruments used. Obviously enough, the s^me instrument was given different

names in the different languages spoken in pre-Conquest Mexico. But the Aztec teponaztli was the same instrument as the Maya tunkul and as the Zapotec tun. The Aztec tlapitzalli was the same instrument as the
Tarascan cuiraxezaqua, and the Aztec huehuetl was the same instrument

EARLY ABORIGINAL MUSIC

as the

IN

MEXICO

Maya zacatan. This sameness everywhere in the types of instruments used seems the more remarkable when we stop to consider the
differences such ethnically distinct groups as the Aztecs, the Mayas, the Mixtecs, the Otomies, and the Zapotecs, showed in their handicrafts and
plastic
arts.

Any

archaeologist can readily discern the differences between

Zapotec and Otomi pottery 5 but not between Aztec and Tarascan or Aztec and Maya musical instruments. II. The organografhy of fre~Conquest music was static. On the walls of an eighth-century temple at Bonampak (located in what is now one of the most inaccessible jungles in the Chiapas) was found in 1947 a series of remarkably preserved Maya paintings from the Old Empire period. Interestingly enough, it was found that the same instruments were pictured on the walls of eighth century Bonampak that were still in use when
8 Cortes arrived in the sixteenth century. Examples of instruments that were pictured on the temple walls at Bonampak and that were still in use

when

listed not

the Spaniards arrived may be cited here (these instruments are with their Maya names but with their Aztec names) the ayotl
:

the shell of a turtle ; the player scraped the serrated (a rasp with a two-pronged stag's antler) ; the huehuetl (an upright drum shell
fashioned out of a hollowed tree trunk; stretched across the top of the drum was a jaguar skin which could be tightened or loosened to raise or

made from

lower the pitch; the player used

his fingers rather

than mallets); the

ayacachtU (a rattle made from a gourd to which a handle was attached; the ayacachtli resembled the maracas used in modern Cuban bands).
III. All p-e-Conquest Instruments

were

either idiofhones, aerophones,

or

membranof hones. Stringed instruments were entirely unknown in fre-

Cortesian Mexico.
characteristic:

Among

idiophonic instruments the following were

The

tefonaztK

Best described perhaps as a two-keyed xylophone, this instrument in apboth ends. It was often pearance resembled a wooden barrel enclosed at

covered with elaborate carvings representing

heads.

birds, beasts, or grotesque

human

this incision

shaped incision. The two tongues created by top of it was cut an each sounded different pitches sometimes a major second apart, third apart, or sometimes a perfect fourth or fifth sometimes a minor or

On

HZ

major

apart.

The

hollow interior of the teponazdi acted

as

a resonator, and beneath

io
the

MUSIC IN MEXICO
HI
the bottom side a rectangular opening. shaped incision was cut on like the opening of a piano lid, increased the volume.

This opening,

As pictured for us in such codices as the Codex Florentinus, the teponazdi was usually placed on some kind of support so that the player could stand
were
upright. The pkyer called olmaxtl.

used a pair of mallets tipped with rubber. These mallets

The Codex

Florentinus and Duran's Atlas

the conventional

two

keys, but also with as

many

show teponazdis not only with 9 as four or five keys. Oviedo

S1"^ a picture of a threeSuch an instrument may

in his Historia general de las India* (Seville, 1533) keyed teponazdi of Central American provenience.
also

10 have been known in Mexico even though no exemplar survives. Certain evidence concerning the use of multi-keyed teponazdis can also be
1 Mextcanof a

derived from the Cantares en Idioma

collection of

Nahuad

This evidence is, of course, songs written down and not strictly archaeological. Almost one hundred of the Nahuad literary
shortly after the Conquest.

songs in this collection prescribed teponazdi accompaniment The directions for accompaniment were written in the form of headings for each of the songs.
called for

Invariably in the songs prescribing teponazdi accompaniment, the directions more than two keys in the accompaniment. Sometimes three, some-

times four, and sometimes even five different keys are called for in the direc-

accompaniment which precede each song. Either several two-keyed teponazdis were used conjoindy in the accompaniment of each song, or multi-keyed teponazdis similar to those shown in the
tions for teponazdi

Codex

Florentinus and in the Atlas of

Durn

were

available for

song-accom-

paniment

The omitzitahuastlt
rasp made out of notched human or animal bone, the omitzicahuasdi was the instrument most frequendy used at commemorative ceremonies for the
,
.

dead.

The

the pitch
just as

its music to be "extremely doleful." Evidendy and lowered by scratching the notches faster or slower, a small boy nowadays scratching the teeth of his comb with a coin can

Spaniards considered
raised

was

make a species of music with varying

pitches.

The ayacachtk
The
head of
of
this rattle

was made

either of

a gourd

filled

with dry seeds, or

the players of the

was made

day and filled with pebbles. In the codices ayacachdi are shown usually with a ratde in each hand.

EARLY ABORIGINAL MUSIC

The tlapitzall*

IN

MEXICO

Among aerophones the following types were notable:

four-hole flute

made

of either clay, reed, or bone, this instrument

was

capable of producing five different sounds. If recourse was had to overblowing or half-stopping, then the number of pitches that this recorder-type instrument

was capable of producing exceeded

Cresson
12

five.

Some

investigators, such as
flutists

H. T.

for instance, have

assumed that Aztec

over-blew and half-

stopped as a matter of course. If they did, it necessarily follows that they were able to play on their flutes a more elaborate type of melody than the mere
pentatonic type.

An

examination of ancient

flutes

now

preserved in the National

Museum

of

Mexico has produced several interesting results. The four holes were by no means so cut always that a pentatonic scale approximating our conventional d * g a b series was produced. For purposes of comparison the five-note
emitted by Flutes 129, 130, 131, 132, are shown. Since the Aztecs had no inkling of our equal temperament system the pitches given here represent at best approximations. In the case of Flutes 130 and 131 it should be
series
18

noted that only four different pitch-names were sounded.

ideals

Since the intervals emitted by stopping the successive holes depart from the we have arrived at for the minor third and major third in Western
it

music,

intervals

has been conjectured that the Aztecs were familiar with "in-between" that is to say, intervals larger than a minor third but smaller than
is

a major third. Such in-between intervals occur, as

in the slendro scale used in Javanese music,

now

generally

known,

and

also in other exotic scale-

systems.

The t&puzquiqtaztli

A conch shell
fifth, sixth,

trumpet,

this

and eighth tones in the harmonic

instrument uttered with ease the third, fourth, series. Daniel Castaneda examined

12

MUSIC IN MEXICO
shell

a conch

emitted were

trumpet in the National Museum and found that the tones 14 a, d', f #', a', and d".

easily

The

Aztecs used in addition to their conch

shell

trumpets another type of

trumpet. This second type of trumpet, made of clay or wood, was tubular in shape; trumpets of this second type often exceeded two feet in length. The

Bonampak
that

paintings show warriors in the were over a man's arm in length. 15

thick of battle

blowing on trumpets

To

the

membranophone

class

belonged the different varieties of:

The huehuetl
This instrument, a congener of the kettledrum, came in several sizes, each of which was designated by an appropriate prefix, such as ^<*huehued, or */<#<whuehued. Since the huehuetk sounded a definite pitch, which like that
of the
tightness of the drumskin,

modern ketdedrum could be raised or lowered at will by adjusting the it would be incorrect to think of the huehueds as

simply a family of noisemakers.

The

fact that the ancient

Mexicans lacked stringed instruments need

instru-

cause us no surprise if inal peoples of either

we constantly bear in mind that none of the aborigNorth or South America possessed stringed

time of Columbus's discovery. Some investigators who have considerable attention to Aztec and Maya achievements in mathegiven matics, astronomy, picture-writing, and the various plastic arts, have
at the

ments

thought it strange that the Aztecs and Mayas never stumbled upon so simple an idea as the use of the hunter's bow for a musical instrument.

But for one reason or another, or for no reason as the Nahuatl language may surprise a

at all, they did not. Just beginning student because it completely lacked such consonants as b, d, f, g, r, and v, so Nahuatl music may surprise a beginning student because it completely lacked string tone. IV. The Aztecs frequently inscribed their instruments with

carvings

which tell (symbolically) what purposes their instruments were intended to serve. The significance of the hieratic carvings which Aztec instrumentmakers inscribed on such instruments as the teponaztli and huehuetl can

EARLY ABORIGINAL MUSIC

now be understood
Eduard

IN

MEXICO

13

only by scholars who can decipher the hieroglyphs used by the Aztecs in their system of picture-writing.
Seler has undoubtedly contributed more to our present-day understanding of the hieratic carvings inscribed on Aztec instruments

than has any other scholar of our time. In an article of his entitled "The Wooden Drum of Malinalco" 16 he explained the various carvings in-

on a tlapanhuehuetl which he examined in the museum at Toluca. According to Seler, the carvings on this particular tlapanhuehuetl show
scribed

a group of captured warriors

who

music, just prior to being sacrificed.

are being forced to dance to their own These carvings on the Malinalco

tlapanhuehuetl show the same type of scene which

we

find pictured in

19*, Cap. 54). Seler called attention to the drawing in Duran's Atlas because it can be readily understood (Duran's picture uses no glyphs). The Duran

Duran's Atlas (Trat. 1, Lam.

drawing shows several captured warriors who are being forced to dance to their own music before being dragged off to the sacrificial stone. Two the teponaztli captive warriors shake the ayacachtli while two others play and fordng them to dance and and huehuetl. Standing over the captives
play are two of the victorious captors
knives.

who carry clubs edged with obsidian

After calling attention to the Duran drawing Seler went on in his article to show how the symbols and glyphs carved on the Malinalco
tlapanhuehuetl
tell exactly

the same story of warriors awaiting

sacrifice:

The
half of

it.

around the upper carvings on the Malinalco drum run completely The upper half is divided from the lower half by a carved band

lower half is so running completely around the middle of the drum. The cut that the drum stands on three legs, each of which is separately carved. The upper half of the drum is on one side inscribed with a carved eagle

and jaguar, representing warriors. The eagle and the jaguar carry sacrificial banners and face the sun. The upper half of the drum is on the other
side inscribed

with a figure representing Xochipflli-Macuilxochitl, god of

music and dancing.

of the coxcoxtK bird. He Xochipilli-Macuixochitl wears the feathers and in his right hand a feather fan. Below holds in his left hand a flower
his feet appears the

in the shape of an ascending glyph for music [ducatl]

vapor. In

close association with the glyph for music appears another glyph

signifying "green jewel, costliness."

He

wears on

his sandals the insignia

of the god of dancing.

14.

MUSIC IN MEXICO
The
raised

band running around the middle of the drum shows the

hieroglyph for war, oil tlachinolti. This raised band shows five separate stretches of rope. These five stretches signify the rope that binds the captive warriors to the sacrificial stone. Five shields appear also on the raised band

around the middle of the drum.

The three legs of the drum show two jaguars and an eagle. The jaguars and eagle, like the jaguar and eagle on the upper half of the drum, are shown carrying sacrificial banners. Again, as on the upper half, these
signify warriors

who

are about to be sacrificed.

SelePs explanation, which

we have

presented in abridged form, gives

some idea of the complicated symbols Aztec instrument-makers inscribed on their huehuetls. Their teponaztlis were often inscribed with hieratic
17 carvings of equal complexity.

Another archaeologist whose contribution to our understanding of the symbology inscribed on Aztec musical instruments deserves mention is the renowned American ethnologist and archaeologist, Marshall H. Saville. In his monograph, The Wood-Carver's Art in Ancient Mexico,
Saville cites at least a
class scattered in various

dozen instruments of the huehuetl or teponaztli museums which can today be profitably studied

by those interested in the kinds of symbols ancient Mexican instrumentmakers inscribed on their instruments. Over and over again in this par-

monograph he repeats the statement from the pre-Cortesian codices. pages

ticular

that the carvings are like

Depicting such things as "gods, houses, ceremonial objects, and 18 dates," any given set of carvings may reveal such important details

was

of information as the following: the exact time and place the instrument to have been used 5 the exact part it was to have played in the cereat

monial functions

which

it

been sounded 5 the exact persons

was heard j the length of time it was to have who were designated to play upon it.

TESTIMONY OF EARLY SPANISH HISTORIANS ON THE CHARACTER OF ABORIGINAL MUSIC

Earlier in our discussion of research techniques we listed three lines of investigation that have proved fruitful: the scrutiny of archaeological instruments, the re-evaluation of early Spanish opinion on indigenous

music, and the gathering of melodic fragments from remote tribes. The more important conclusions reached by researchists working with museum

EARLY ABORIGINAL MUSIC

instruments have
principal

IN

MEXICO

15

now been

listed,

and we pass therefore

to the second

method of

research,

which involves a re-study of early Spanish

opinion on aboriginal music.

The

lengthiest excerpt dealing with Aztec music which has thus far

been translated into English is an excerpt from Fray Juan de Torquemada's Veinte i un libros rituales i Monarquia Indiana, the original edition of

which was published

at Seville in 1615.

The

excerpt that has

been chosen for translation is Chapter 1 1 of Book XIV, which bears the title, "Of the manner in which these Natives had Dances, and of the great
dexterity

and conformity they

all

The English

translation of this excerpt, which

had, in the Dance and in the Song." is well worth reading, can

be found in Renascent Mexico, 19 a book published in 1935 under the Relations with Latin America 5 the auspices of the Committee on Cultural

same excerpt can also be found in Mexican Music, a brochure edited by Herbert Weinstock and published in 1940 by the Museum of Modern Art at the time of the Chavez concerts. In the opinion of Chavez Torquemada's description is of paramount value to the student of Aztec music. Of Torquemada's description Chavez
said: "It will

since nothing be helpful to transcribe the description will be likely to give with better authority a clear general idea of the
. . .

20 [music and dancing] in Mexican antiquity." a very And later Chavez said: "This narrative of Torquemada's is of pre-Cortesian important document, illustrating our understanding music." 21 (1565?-! 624), who is not to be confused with his name-

development of these

arts

Torquemada

a cardinal, wrote his narrative eighty years after the his description, because of its lateness, would have little or no conquest; value were it not for the fact that Torquemada, who was a Franciscan
sake

who became

of Indian life missionary, relied heavily upon unpublished descriptions written by two predecessor Franciscan historians Fray Toribio Motowho was among the first missionaries in Mexico, linfa

(i49O?-i569), and Fray Ger6nimo de Mendieta

Torquemada

who if not a missionary ( 1525?-! 604), nevertheless wrote a uniquely valuable account of of the first generation Indian life which he spent some twenty-five years in preparing. Since these two, Motolinia and Mendieta, it therefore relied
upon
seems advisable to study not only the second-hand account in Monarquia which he drew when Indiana, but also the unpublished accounts upon
compiling his book.

16

MUSIC IN MEXICO

CONTRIBUTION OF THE MISSIONARIES TO OUR UNDERSTANDING OF INDIAN CULTURE

Despite the fact that "nothing will be more likely to give a clear gendevelopment of music and dancing in Mexican
antiquity"
left us

eral idea of the

by such missionaries as Motolima, Mendieta, and Torquemada, the missionaries as a group are often accused of having attacked everything Indian. Such missionary bishops as Zumarraga and Landa, first bishops of Mexico and Yucatan respectively, are often
than the accounts

charged with having "wantonly destroyed every available record of Indian culture," and of having deliberately set out to "sow with Carthaginian salt" the prostrate Indian mind. This charge cannot be
fully
substantiated, however.

Our understanding of the Indian codices that do remain is, after all, founded entirely on the glosses the missionaries themselves wrote as
marginal explanations of the pictographs. The marginal annotations of the missionaries really provide the "Rosetta stones" without which we
could not even begin to read the codices. It
collected in the eighteenth century
is

known

that

many

codices

by Boturini Benaduci perished simply through neglect, and the small number that now remain would be doubled or tripled if those that are known to have existed 250 years after the conquest were still extant. Where the missionaries themselves failed
to provide marginal notations (as in the case of the
still

Maya

codices)

we

22 today cannot read the picture-symbols. If a great many priceless records were burned

it

should be also at the

same time remembered that missionaries such as Jos6 de Acosta (who was in Mexico in 1586) argued for the preservation of the Indian records. Acosta in his Historia natural y moral de las Ind%as after y complaining of the loss of Maya records, went on to say:

The same has happened in other cases where our people,

is

thinking that

all

and hidden things which might have been used to no small advantage. This follows from a stupid izeal when without knowing or without wishing to know the things
superstition,
lost

have

many memories

of ancient

of the Indies, they say as in the sealed package, that everything is sorcery and that the peoples there are only a drunken lot and what can they know and understand. The ones who have wished earnestly to be informed of 28 these have found many things worthy of consideration.

The group

of missionary pioneers

who

did "earnestly wish to be

in*

formed concerning the things of the Indies," and who did find "many

EARLY ABORIGINAL MUSIC

dieta, but also

IN

MEXICO

17

things worthy of consideration," included not only Motolinia and

Men-

Alonso de Molina, Bernardino de Sahagun, Diego Duran, Alonso Ponce, Jose de Acosta, and others too numerous for us to name
here. Since the missionary evidence is in reality all that we have, if we wish to claim for Aztec music any cultural importance, it is well for us
to give the missionaries their due. Certainly when such an account as Torquemada's is brought forward to support claims for Aztec musical

achievement,

it is

only

fair to

give tribute where tribute

is

due by

telling

his identity, and also the identity of the missionaries piled his account of Indian cultural achievements.

from

whom he com-

the Indians.
of Indian
ity.

The missionaries came with the express idea of living and working with They made it their business first to learn the Indian tongues.

Insofar as they could possibly do so, they strove to understand the patterns life, and to accommodate their teachings to the Indian mental-

If not all as outspoken as Las Casas in denouncing the abuses of the encomienda system, nevertheless they all befriended the Indian in his struggle with the encomendero, and sought to alleviate the lot of the oppressed. The conclusions which can be reached

on the

basis of missionary evi-

dence concerning indigenous music are, because of their friendliness, generally of a favorable kind. Clarity will perhaps best be achieved if we
list first

the general conclusions their evidence enables us to reach, and then quote the passages upon which the conclusions rest. The passages documenting the general conclusions will each be prefaced by a short with biographical account of the author who wrote the particular passage;
certain of the lengthier passages a short precis will be affixed defining its contents. Because our present study of music in Mexico is the first attempt

chosen wherever possible to quote in the reader entirety the passages upon which rest our conclusions, leaving from the basic data freedom to draw any other conclusions he chooses
at

any account

in English,

we have

here supplied.

CONCLUSIONS CONCERNING PRE-CONQUEST MUSIC DERIVED FROM EARLY SPANISH TESTIMONY

those following conclusions (some of which necessarily duplicate arrived at through the study of archaeological instruments) can already

The

be drawn from Spanish accounts of Aztec life: I. Music had no independent life of its own apart from religious and

i8

MUSIC IN MEXICO
music as an art (in our sense of the word art) was a

cult observances^

concept alien to their mentality. II. All musical life was in the
to the Levitical guild in ancient

hands of a professionalized

caste similar

Hebrew times.

III. Training of an extremely rigid kind

in music; since

to ritual,

trained singers

was prerequisite to a career was always thought of as a necessary adjunct as only the most highly absolutely perfect performances such and players could give were constantly demanded.
music
itself

IV. Imperfectly executed rituals were thought to offend rather than to appease the gods, and therefore errors in the performance of the ritual music such as missed drum beats carried the death penalty.

V. Singers and players, because of the important part music played

enjoyed considerable social prestige. VI. Despite this prestige, however, the names of musicians were not recorded, just as the names of poets unless the poet were a royal perin

Aztec

life,

were not preserved. sonage such as King Nezahualcoyotl of Texcuco as essentially a means of communal rather VIL Music was regarded
than of individual expression, and therefore concerted rather than solo music was the norm.
VIII. Instrumental performance was always conjoined to singing, insofar as we can judge from the descriptions of Aztec musical performance bequeathed us by the Spanish chroniclers.

IX. Certain instruments were thought to be of divine

origin,

and

the teponaztli and huehuetl, for instance, were even held to be gods temporarily forced to endure earthly exile; the teponaztli and the huehuetl were therefore often treated as idols as well as musical instru-

ments.

X. Not only were certain instruments thought to have "mana" in them that is to say, mysterious supernatural powers but also certain
instruments were held to represent symbolically such emotional states as joy, delight, or sensual pleasure.

XI. Aztec music communicated

appreciate; whereas

iards, habituated in alien patterns of musical expression,

much now embraced by the United States meant nothing to European territory ears, Aztec music seems to have communicated in many instances the same emotions to Indian and European listener alike. Thus a sad song, as they conceived it, was sad not only in the opinion of the Indians who heard it

even the Spancould grasp and of the Indian music of tribes who lived in the
states of feeling that

EARLY ABORIGINAL MUSIC

IN

MEXICO

19

and understood the words, but also in the opinion of the Spaniards who heard it and did not know the words.

XII. Every piece of music was composed for a certain time, a certain and a certain occasion 5 and therefore the musician needed a wide place, repertory if he were to satisfy the demands of the different days in the

The religious cycle lasted 260 days, and just as the consulted the omens for each of the 260 days, so the players had priests to have appropriate songs ready for each of the different days.
religious calendar.

XIII. The Aztecs possessed no system of music notation or if they did, none that the Europeans knew anything about 5 therefore the Aztec musicians needed prodigious memories.
songs, but composed new was prized, especially in the households of those powerful caciques who were able to employ singers to compose ballads
ones. Creative ability
telling of their military successes. XV. Though their music lacked string tone

XIV. Musicians not only learned the old

percussive, they

had acute

pitch sense

and was predominantly and tuned their instruments (us-

ing their

own

system, of course) with considerable care.

FRAY TORIBIO DE MOTOLINjA (l49O?-l569)

Fray Toribio, a Franciscan who came with the pioneer missionary group of twelve, arrived in 1524. The Indians, seeing his miserable habit and noting that he walked barefoot, called him motolinfo, meaning poor.
first one that he learned and he henceforth adopted own. Like Las Casas who lived to be ninety-two, Pedro de Gante who lived to be ninety, and Sahagun who also lived to be ninety, Motolinia lived to a great age. His two principal works still extant were written in middle life. The Historia de los Indies (finished in 1541) and the
it

This word was the

as his

(less easily dated, but presumably in Motolinfa's life) both remained unpublished until 1858 and epoch 1903 respectively 5 both, however, circulated widely in manuscript Nearly
dieverything Torquemada said on aboriginal music was copied either Mendieta (who copied Motolinia's derectly from Motolinfa, or from arrival assures auscription of pre-Conquest music) j Motolinia's early

Memoriales

written about the same

.thenticity.

Motolinja hated the Spaniard overlords almost as much as did the of petitioncrusading Las Casasj at one time Motolinfa was even accused

20

MUSIC IN MEXICO

ing for the recall of all Spaniards from Mexico (except the clergy) because the bad example and conduct of the laity impeded the work of conversion. undoubtedly favored the same exclusion of traders and

He

encomenderos that the Jesuits later favored (and successfully enforced) in the famous Paraguay reductions.
ters

In the following extract, which combines passages selected from Chap26 and 27 in Part II of the Memoriales> Motolinfa offers his demusic j he
tells

scription of pre-Conquest

how music

functioned in Aztec

life, what kinds of instruments they used, how the Aztecs rehearsed their songs and dance music j how it was rendered in actual performance, how musicians were evalued in Aztec society, and why composers enjoyed

special prestige.

One of the commonest occurrences in this country were the festivals of song and dance, which were organized not only for the delight of the inhabitants themselves, but more especially to honor their gods, whom
they thought well pleased by such service. Because they took their festivals with extreme seriousness and set great store by them, it was the custom
in each

town

for the nobility to maintain in their

own

houses singing-

[not only sang the traditional songs, but] also composed new songs and dances. Composers skilled in fashioning songs and ballads were held in high repute and were everywhere in great demand. Among singers those who possessed deep bass voices were the ones most sought after because it was

masters some of

whom

customary to pitch the songs

all

extremely low at the frequent private

ritual observances held inside the houses of the principal nobility.

Singing and dancing were nearly always prominent features in the public fiestas which occurred every twenty days. , . . The big fiestas were held outdoors in the plazas, but the less important ones either in the
private patios of the nobility or indoors in the houses of the nobles.

When
nobility

was

a battle victory was celebrated, or when a new member of the created, or when a chieftain married, or when some other

striking event occurred, the singing-masters composed new songs especially for the occasion. These singing-masters also of course, the old

sang, songs appropriate for the various observances in honor of their gods, or in celebration of historical exploits, or in praise of their deceased chieftains.

The angers always decided what they were going to sing several days beforehand and practised diligently on their songs. In the large towns (where there was always an abundance of good angers) those who were to participate in a particular fiesta got together for rehearsal well in ad-

EARLY ABORIGINAL MUSIC

IN

MEXICO

21

vance, especially if there were a new song or dance to be performed, so that on the day of the fiesta all might go off with smoothness and propriety.

The day of the fiesta a large mat was spread in the

and on
this

middle of the plaza,

.

drums [teponazdis and huehueds] The musicians all gathered at the house of the chieftain and there dressed themselves for the fiesta. They came out of the lord's house singing and dancing. Sometimes they started their dances in the early morning and other times

mat they placed

their

at the hour
tain's

we celebrate high mass. At nightfall they re-entered the chiefhouse and there ended their singing either soon after dark, or occasionally at a much later hour, sometimes even at midnight [depending
.

on the importance of the fiesta they were celebrating] The two types of drum were: one, a tall round drum, bigger around than a man's body, and between three and four feet high. It was made of excellent wood, and carefully hollowed out inside. The exterior of the drum was painted; over the top of it was stretched a cured deerskin [or
other animal skin]. By tightening or loosening a particular skin, the pitch could be raised or lowered within the limits of a fifth. The players changed its pitch with the changing pitch of the singers. The other drum cannot

hand to show its adequately be described in words without a picture at This other drum served as a deep counterbass; appearance [teponazdi].
both had a fine sound which carried a great distance. While the dancers were getting in position the players got ready to strike their drums. Two of the best singers acted as song leaders and gave
the singers their pitch when they were ready to start. The large drum with the animal drumskin was played with the bare hands; but the other
(like the

drums in Spain) was played with

sticks.

The sticks had,

however,

a different shape from those used in Spain.

When they were

shrill

sounded some ready to begin the dance three or four

music on their whistles, which was the signal to begin. Then the volume. drumming began in a low, mufHed tone, gradually increasing in
of the dance, the dancers ** the drums, and then]

Hearing the sound of the drums at the beginning of [took the pitch of their song from the sound started singing. The first songs were pitched low, had been transposed down. Moreover the tempo

sounding as

if

everything
first

was slow. The

song

leaders (as we alhad to do with the particular occasion of the fiesta. the singing, and the entire chorus following their ready said) always began lead then joined in singing and dancing. The whole crowd often united in a dance routine that would challenge the skill of the very best dancers in

Two

22
Spain.
tire

MUSIC IN MEXICO
More remarkable yet was the feet that not only their feet, but the enbody, head, arms, and hands, moved together in their dances. . . . Following their leaders in the singing and drumming, everyone changed

same instant, and with such precision that the best Spanish dancers marvelled upon seeing them in action, and greatly admired the . The dancers in the outside ring adopted dances of these people. . a beat twice as fast as those who danced in the inside ring; this was done
position at the
.

so that both outside

and

inside circles

might

stay together.

Those

in

coordinating their movements, shifted their feet and bodies more slowly than those in the outside circle, but it was marvellous to see with what graceful dignity they moved their arms.

the inner

circle, perfectly

Each

verse or couplet

was repeated

three or four times.

in tune,

The whole

en-

semble of singing and playing not only was kept

rigorously followed the beat of the music.
. .

but the dancing

Upon

finishing

one song,

immediately the drum pitch was changed, and everyone stopped singing while several measures of rest intervened in the singing (although the

dancing kept going). During

place.

this interval of

time the

drum

tuning took

and

the leaders began another song somewhat higher in pitch in a faster tempo, thus ascending the musical scale as if a bass were

Then

to change by degrees into a soprano,

and a dance

into

a scramble.

times they played their trumpets and also their flageolets; their flageolets often seemed not to be well tuned [according to our ideas].
. ,
.

At

From

became extremely

the hour of vespers until nightfall their songs and dances lively, and the pitch of the songs ascended into a bright

register so that the sound became extremely attractive, somewhat like that of our tuneful carols in fast tempo. . . . The crowds were [usually] 25 immense, and the sound of the singing carried a tremendous distance.

FRAY BERNARDINO DE SARACEN (l500?-I590)

Fray Bernardino, also a Franciscan, pursued his studies at Salamanca University, where he early distinguished himself as a student of lan-

He arrived in New Spain during 1529, five years after Motolima, and immediately began studying Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs. Although he lacked the advantages of boyhood association with the Indians which Fray Alonso de Molina possessed (Molina compiled the best Nahuatl dictionary of the century), nevertheless he made up for a late start with overwhelming industry. In time he became the most
guages.

EARLY ABORIGINAL MUSIC

calculable debt.

IN

MEXICO
^d

^^

learned Aztedst of the century, and ethnology today owes him an inHis Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva Espana, which he originally wrote in Nahuatl about the year 1547, which

he thirty years

later translated into Spanish, provides

an inestimable

gold-mine of information concerning pre-Conquest life. In order to compile this history he gathered together a group of sachems who still remembered pre-Conquest customs. With painstaking
care

he wrote down a compendious description of Indian

set forth

life

which so

minutely

permission for it Indians whom they were trying to wean away from idolatry would capture from it a vision of vanished glory, and become restive for the o!4 ways. Because the Historia General de las Cosas was hidden away, it was finally forgotten, and not until 1 829 was it brought to light and published.
first generation missionaries, Sahagun was intensely and even taught it to the Indians who attended the missionary college at Tlatelolco. His comments on Indian music therefore represent a more informed opinion than that of a mere dilettante. He

pre-Conquest customs that Sahagun's superiors refused to circulate; they feared the younger generation of

Like most of the

interested in music,

appreciated Indian music sufficiently to prepare a collection of Christian hymns entitled Psalmodia Christiana (published at Mexico City in 1583), whose words in Nahuatl were fitted to already existing Indian tunes.

The first two excerpts presented here have to do with human sacrifices, and the part music played in the sacrificial system. One excerpt, which
because of the interesting story it tells is frequently repeated in popularized accounts of Aztec life, concerns a handsome youth. After a year of
perfect bliss he is taken to the sacrificial altar, and as he mounts the steps he breaks his flutes 5 each flute he breaks symbolizes some joy or happiness that has been his during the previous year of continuous festivity. The second excerpt offers a description of the sacrifice of a young maiden 5 the
archaetecomopiloa, a musical instrument which must have been rare since have unearthed no exemplars of it, is described in this second exologists
cerpt.

At

the festival of the sixth

month they
.

sacrificed a
.

handsome youth

whose body was perfectly proportioned.

They

selected for this pur-

pose the best looking among their captives . . . and took great pains to choose the most intelligent . . . and one without the least physical defect. The youth chosen was carefully trained to play the flute well, and taught
.

how

to

walk about as do the nobles and people of the

court*

24

MUSIC IN MEXICO
The one chosen who met him.
.

for the sacrifice

. .

was

greatly venerated by all those

He who was thus chosen to die at the next great feast

. .

. On went through the streets playing the flute and carrying flowers. he wore golden bells which rang at every step he took. his legs they married him to four beautiful Twenty days before the feast .
. . . . .

maidens.

man
last]

as

one of

their gods.

Five days before the sacrifice they worshipped the young . . [After four days of preparation, they at
.

took him to a small and poorly decorated temple which stood near the highway outside the city. . . . Upon reaching the foot [of the temple] the young man mounted the steps by himself. As he mounted
the

first step he broke one of the flutes he had played during the past year of his prosperity; on the second step, another, and so on successively until he had broken them all, and had reached the summit. There he was

awaited by the priests who were to kill him, and these now grabbed him and threw him on the stone-block. After seeing him pinned down on his back with feet, hands, and head securely held, the priest who had the
stone knife buried
it

out, the priest thrust

deep in the victim's breast. Then drawing the knife one hand into the- opening and tore out the heart,
.

. Thus ended the life of this unwhich he at once offered to the sun. . fortunate youth who had for an entire year been petted and honored by

everyone.

They

said this sacrifice signified that those

who

possessed riches

and pleasures in their lifetime would thus end 26 (Book II, Chapter XXIV)

in poverty

and sorrow.

[At the

festival

woman [who was about to be sacrificed] was

of Veytecuflhuid] the dancing and singing of the accompanied by the playing

of an [unusual type of] teponazdi. [Unlike the ordinary teponazdi this one] had only one key on top [rather than the customary two keys. This

on top was] matched by a similar key below it on the bottom the bottom [key] was attached a cup such as might be used for drinking; for with this resonator cup the teponazdi produces a much
single key
side.

To

stronger sound than if two keys [each sounding different pitches] are cut out on top, with none underneath. [This particular type of] teponazdi

was

called tecomofttoa, and it was so constructed that it could be fitted under the armpit of the musician carrying it (Book II, Chapter

XXVII)

2T

From the next short excerpt we learn that the young nobles in training for the priesthood at the Calmecac were required to learn vast numbers of hymns honoring the gods in the Aztec pantheon. The Calmecac
was "a house of penance and
28 priests of the idols."

tears,

where nobles were reared to become

EARLY ABORIGINAL MUSIC

IN

MEXICO

15

The fourteenth rule [of instruction] was to teach the boys afl the verses of the songs to sing, which they called divine songs; these verses were written in their books by signs. (Book III,
Chapter VIII)
fiestas in

In the next passage Sahagun offers a corroborating description of the honor of the godsj since Sahagun's description differs in only a few details from Motolinia's the passage given below has been abridged. One interesting detail noted by Sahagfin, but not by Motolinia, has to do

with the capital punishment of musicians who made mistakes in performance. The meticulous preparation of the music cannot be wondered at if
it

was always true that a musician who erred was immediately withdrawn from the ensemble and executed.

One
first

dances which were

thing that the chiefs took great pains with were the areitos, the festivals for the entire people. The leader of the singing gave his instructions to the singers in his charge, and told them how

to pitch their voices

and how
sticks

to

tune them; the leader also told them what

kind of ule [rubber]

.
.

they were to use in playing the teponazdi. He also gave orders for the steps and postures that were to be used in danc.

ing.

Then they proceeded to the

in singing, or part, or
if

dance. If one of the singers

made a mistake

one of the teponazdi players erred in the execution of his one of the leaders who indicated the dance routine made a misif

take, immediately the chieftain ordered him siezed, him summarily executed. (Book VHE, Chapter

and the next day had

*9

XXVI)

The last excerpt we offer from Sahagtin's Historia General de las Cosas has often been quoted elsewhere j in it Sahagun tells some of the qualifications the Aztecs desired in

an ideal anger.

The worthy singer has a clear mind and a strong memory. He composes songs himself and learns those of others, and is always ready to impart [what he knows] to the fellows of his craft. He sings with a well-trained
voice, and is careful to practice in private before he appears in public. The What unworthy singer, on the other hand, is ignorant and indolent. he learns he will not communicate to others. His voice is hoarse and un80 trained, and he is at once envious and boastful. (Book X, Chapter VIII)
.

FRANCISCO L6PEZ DE 06MARA (1511-1566?)

Gomara

in writing his

has suffered from the reputation of having lied. Bernal Diaz "True History" constantly berated him. Only in recent

*6
years has
it

MUSIC IN MEXICO
been shown that Diaz himself was writing more of a Relation

de

Servictos than a precisely accurate account. As Diaz's own inflated reputation for strict veracity has declined, G6mara's has ascended.

Since Gomara was Cort6s's own personal chaplain after about 1540, it has been thought his information concerning the conquest came largely from the conqueror himself. In describing the festival dances, Motolinia's
description of which has already been given,

Gomara said:

These two drums [teponaztli and huehued] playing in unison with the voices stood out quite strikingly, and sounded not at all badly. The perpraise of past kings, recounting

formers sang merry, joyful, and amusing tunes, or else some ballad in wars and such things. This was all in
couplets
it

rhymed

When

was

and sounded well and was pleasing, at last time to begin, eight or ten men
then beaten very
in rich white, red, green,

would blow

their

whistles lustily.

The drums were

many

lightly.

The

dancers

were not long in appearing

interwoven with very
of

and yellow garments

different colors. In their hands they carried bouquets of roses, or fans of feathers or of feathers and gold, while many

them appeared with garlands of

exquisitely scented flowers.

Many wore

fitted

made

feather-work hoods covering the head and shoulders, or else masks to represent eagle, tiger, alligator, and wild animal heads. Many

times a thousand dancers would assemble for this dance and at the least four hundred. They were afl leading men, nobles and even lords. The

higher the man's quality the closer was

his position

with respect to the

drums.

At first they sang

excited, they

ballads

and move[d]

slowly.

danced quietly and everything seemed

serious,

but

They played, sang, and when they became more

more animated and

pace.
.

sang carols and jolly tunes. The dance became more and the dancers would dance harder and quicken their

who have seen this dance say it is a most interesting thing to and superior to the zambra of the Moors, which is the best dance of which we have any knowledge in Spain. 81
All those
see

FRAY ALONSO DE MOLINA

Molina was brought to New Spain as a small boy just shortly after the Aztec capital fell. His mother, who was soon left a widow, let him pky with Indian children, and Molina therefore grew up speaking Nahuatl as a second tongue. His was the first dictionary of the Nahuatl

EARLY ABORIGINAL MUSIC

tongue
(first edition,

IN

MEXICO

27

1555)5

this dictionary,

a Spanish-Nahuatl and

Nahuatl-Spanish dictionary, gives us several useful ideas (i) The Aztecs had no word simply meaning music, as we use that termj for music in
the limited sense of singing they had a word, but none for music as a generic term. (2) Neither did they have a verb meaning play, in our sense of flaying on an instrument. (3) On the other hand, their language was immensely rich in specific nouns such as, for instance:

song sung by a soprano tlaptzaualiztU

song sung to compliment someone tecuiqueualiztli song sung to insult someone tecuicuiqueualiztli
song sung to someone else tecuicatiliztU and although they had no generic nouns meaning- "musician," or "player,"

was extremely rich in specific nouns meaning "player on the huehuetl," "player on the teponaztli," "flute-player," "fife-player," "trumpet-player," and so on. (4) Their language was similarly rich in
their language

verbs with such varied specific meanings as "to sing in praise of someone," "to sing derisive songs," "to sing tenderly," or "to sing in a high voice." 82

From

tongue, we

Molina's dictionary, and from kter dictionaries of the Nahuatl can gather ample evidence to show that the ancient Mexicans

wholly lacked our abstract idea of music as an art an abstract idea, moreover, which in Western civilization originated as long ago as Pythagoras and Aristoxenus. If the aboriginal Mexicans lacked any abstract idea of
music, it is of course a well known fact that their power of abstraction in other fields was limited also. Ethnologists, however, while pointing out

the small

make, have

number of abstractions the Mexican aborigines were able to at the same time always called attention to the profuse num-

ber of concrete ideas they were able to verbalize. Music, then, according to the ethnologists, was only one of many life-experiences which they
valued, but could not verbalize in any generic sense.

DIEGO DELANDA (1524-1579)

Landa's Relacidn de

las

Cosas de Yucatan

is

the most complete account

has been described by the great Maya we possess of ancient Maya life. scholar, A. M. Tozzer, as a pioneer social anthropologist. No other Spanish writer of the sixteenth century, with the exception of Sahagun, so

He

minutely described the

The

customs of the pre-Conquest aborigines. 83 Spanish penetration of Yucatan began in 1526, five years after
social

28

MUSIC IN MEXICO

Cortes's conquest of Mexico 5 but because the lure of gold was not so domination of the peninsula was dekyed potent in Yucatan the complete

twenty years later. Landa's Relation was written about 1566. Because of the burning of Maya writings, Lancia has been known as the Attila of Maya culture, but he was in reality interested enough in it to provide the
until

only key we possess to the Maya hieroglyphs. Landa's enumeration of Maya musical instruments included:

Drums which they play with the hand, and another drum made of hollow wood with a heavy and sad sound. They beat it with rather a long stick with a certain gum from a tree at the end of it, and they have
long thin trumpets of hollow wood with long twisted gourds at the ends. And they have another instrument made of a whole tortoise with its
shells,

and having taken out the flesh, they strike it with the palm of the The sound is doleful and sad. They have whistles made of leg bones of deer; great conch shells and flutes made of reeds, and with these
hand. 84

instruments they

make music

85 for the dancers.

Landa's description of the Maya dances follows his description of their instruments. What he says about their dances tallies rather closely with

He says that men and women danced together only rarely.

in pre-Conquest music are extremely difficult to find.

Motolinfa's and Gomara's descriptions of the dancing in Tenochtitlan, Erotic themes

FRAY DIEGO DURAN (1537-1588)

Duran, a Dominican missionary who immersed himself in Indian lore, was formerly thought to have been born in Mexico, but is now known from an Inquisition document (dated June 14, 1587) to have been born in Seville. His magnificent Historia de las Indias de Nueva Esfana, like
lication.

Landa's invaluable Relation, awaited the nineteenth century for Duran exactly dated his manuscript j the part of his

its

pub-

quote was finished in 1579. The history is actually a collection of pictures showing pre-Conquest customs j although the pictures post-date the Conquest they are considered authentic
records.
extracts below Durin compares Indian and Spanish musical the second excerpt contains the earliest mention of the sarapraxisj bande.

we

history which Atlas appearing at the end of the

In the

EARLY ABORIGINAL MUSIC

The
old nobility
all

IN
.

MEXICO
who composed
.

29

maintained professional singers

songs celebrating the important deeds of their ancestors

also singers

There were

sacred songs in honor of their idols; these likewise received regular stipends. . . . Those who crititemple singers cize Indian customs might well reflect that this custom of maintaining
professional singers in

who composed

no wise differs from the present-day practice of maintaining paid singers in the royal chapel, or a band of musicians in the chapel of the Archbishop of Toledo or of any other noble person. In New
Spain there are yet today in certain towns members of the native nobility still follow their ancient custom of maintaining singers. I myself do
this old

who

not think

custom undesirable, but think rather that

it

conduces to

good ends; for the are not unworthy.

traditions of these descendants of kings and chieftains . . . Some of their songs that I Jiave heard and some

of their dances I have seen induced in

me

feelings of infinite sadness

and

se melancholy [as I reflected on their vanished greatness] . Since the young men were intensely eager to learn how to dance and

sing well, and always wished to be leaders in the dancing and singing, they spent much time and effort mastering the particular types of body

movement required.

It

the same time. Their dance

was the custom of the dancers to dance and sing at movements were regulated not only by the beat
.
. .

of the music, but also by the pitch of their singing.

Their poets

gave each song and dance a different tune, just as we employ a different tune when we are singing different types of poetry such as the sonnet or the octava nma or the terceto. Typical of the pronounced differences encountered in their dance music was the contrast between the solemn and
love majestic songs and dances performed by the nobility, and the lighter danced by the youths. And still more different in type was another songs dance they performed which might have been derived from that lascivious

sarabande which our

own people dance with such indecent contortions of 87 the body and such lewd grimaces.

FRAY GER6NIMO DE MENDIETA (1525-1604)

Mexico as a youth of nineteen, and immediately to speak with signal "elebegan the study of Nahuatl, which he learned 7 his order to prepare a history of the gance.' He was commissioned by Indians and started the Historic Eclesidstica Indiana in 1 57 1 ; the pressure Mendieta came
to

of missionary duties, the involvement in unforeseen administrative rethe interruption caused by a prolonged journey back sponsibilities, and
to Spain, delayed
its

Mendieta

tells

us

completion, however, until 1596. (b the extract offered below) that the Aztecs as-

30

MUSIC IN MEXICO

cribed a divine origin to their two most important instruments, the account concerning the origin teponaztli and the huehuetl. The legendary

of these instruments runs like this: Teponaztli and Huehuetl were origiof the Sun. priestly messenger nally divine beings dwelling at the court

from earth invaded the heavenly

story of man's grief.

precincts

and poured forth

in

song the

The Sun, however,

forbade his servitors to listen

to the earthly messenger. Teponaztli and and for their disobedience were expelled

Huehuetl disobeyed the Sun, from the heavens. They fell to earth and assumed the form of musical instruments. Ever since their expulsion from the skies they have assuaged man's grief with the sound
of their music.

it

This legendary account is interesting if for no other reason than because helps explain why the ancient Mexicans thought a magic power (having

nothing to do with music) inhered in their instruments. Since they thought the teponaztli and huehuetl were actually divine beings temporarily con-

demned to earthly exile, they

treated these instruments as idols.

Even

to-

day the Indians in certain out-of-the-way places still hoard their teponaztlis, and venerate them as if they were sacred objects. The Church has,
of course, tried to extirpate such vestiges of idolatry, but

temporary Indians,
to their teponaztlis

like their pre-Conquest forbears, still ascribe

many conmana

and huehuetlsj and the Church's campaign against

idolatry has therefore not achieved full success.

Rodney Gallop (whose article on "The Music of Indian Mexico" appeared in the April, 1939, Musical Quarterly) reported several cases, all of which he had seen at first hand, involving the superstitious venera"There is a suspicion of idolatry drums of San Juan Acingo, Tepoztlan, and Xico, which comes out even more strongly in other parts of the Sierras of Puebla and Hidalgo." Gallop continued by citing the case of an Aztec village, named Xolotla, where the chief sorcerer guarded a teponaztli
tion of teponaztlis. According to Gallop,
in the reverence paid to the

which he kept wrapped in a garment,

as if

it

were something human

sorcerer, furthermore, called his teponaztli by needing protection. a human name. "When the priest's back is turned this drum is sometimes

The

smuggled

into the village church

and hidden behind the

altar." 88

account Mendieta gives also helps us understand how the Aztec priests acquired so terrible a stranglehold on the Aztec mind. In this story of the bringing of musical instruments as in other stories of

The legendary

other boons, the priests always pictured themselves as the

bringers of every

EARLY ABORIGINAL MUSIC

IN

MEXICO

31

good gift man possesses. With music as with maize, the gift of the gods was only secured through the intercession of a priest in sorrowing man's
behalf.

For the

details of the

legend which follows, Mendieta cited the au-

Olmos. thority of a pioneer Nahuatl grammarian, Fray Andres de

with Seeing that they were utterly unable to prevail in their struggle the newly-created Sun, the old gods of Teotihuacan in desperation decided to sacrifice themselves. Xolotl, the appointed sacrificer, opened each of
their breasts with a large knife

himself.

and drew out the heart; he then killed anger was appeased. By Each god bequeathed his sacred clothing to a priest who had worshipped
their deaths, the Sun's

him. Realizing the great weight of their responsibility for such sacred relics, the priests guarded the vestments most zealously. Their grief, however, on account of the deaths of their gods was not assuaged even though they

now had

in their possession the sacred vestments.

Their grief instead of

abating, in time

grew insupportable, and they therefore decided to undertake a pilgrimage, hoping that somewhere they might find solace for their
anguish.

After wandering about together for a time, they separated and one the seacoast. When he arrived at the ocean he met priest traveled toward
there Tezcatlipoca, lord of being, who instructed him to proceed onward to the Court of the Sun, and there to beg the Sun for musical instruments. With songs and musical instruments man would be able fittingly to praise
his

new

gods.

to assist him in this long journey to the Court of the Sun, animals in the sea, among them the tortoise, the whale, and the various sea-cow, formed themselves into a bridge so that the griefstricken priest over them. When the priest arrived at the Court of the Sun

In order

might pass he explained the motive of

diminish his

own

Sun, however, not wishing to retinue of followers, forbade any of his servitors to listen
his visit.

The

to the priest's entreaties. But so eloquently and earnestly did the earthly messenger make his the one named Huehuetl and the other plea that two servants of the Sun, in disobeying disobeyed and listened. For their presumption Teponazdi,
his presence in disgrace. They then return to earth. accompanied the priest in his But the sound of the huehued and teponazdi must forever remain

him, the Sun cast them forth from

felt when sorrowful; because forever they remember the sorrow they it in heaven. first they heard the story of man's extremity, as the priest told has now If man's anguish because the gods of Teotihuacan are dead

32
abated and

MUSIC IN MEXICO
if instead he has learned how to dance and make merry in and dance, the sounds of the huehued and teponaztli still continue song to remind him of the sighs Huehuetl and Teponaztli long ago breathed

in heaven
8*

when

first

of the earthly messenthey heard the sad entreaties

ger.

SUMMARIES OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY OPINION

The best known

writer

on Mexican

antiquities

said in his century, Juan de Torquemada, little that had not already been said by his sixteenth century predecessors. It will therefore not be necessary to quote long passages from him or

during the seventeenth Monarquia Indiana (1615)

from such other later historians

as Boturini

Benadud and

Clavijero, both

of whom like Torquemada summarized, rather than adding fresh information. did, however, add a few glosses which must here be

Torquemada

repeated: (i)
tised in Spain

He affirmed positively that part-singing

was unknown
in

of the kind prac-

Mexico before the Conquest. 40 (2)

He

said that during their dances the Indians always sang in unison with the 41 stated that the teponaztli and huehuetl players (3) teponaztli tune.

He

the cult dances but one were placed where the dancers could during see them, and thus better follow their beat the one exception being the listed the instrudance honoring the war-god, Huitzilopochtli. (4)
all

He

ments Montezuma particularly delighted in hearing at meal-time, clayflutes, reed-flutes, conch shells, bones, and huehuetls, but said none of
Cortes's

men much
all

variably at

cared for the emperor's favorite music, heard the emperor's meals.
is

in-

Among

the scattered observations on Aztec music in Boturini Bena-

duci's 1 746

Idea de una nueva Historia General the following

of the songs

typical :

Not all

sung

in

honor of the gods were accumulated from

past tradition ; the festival of Xochitl, for instance was solemnized with new songs in which it was forbidden to mix anything from older

songs.

42
.

In

this short passage, as in others,

reading of Nahuatl codices a fact that

cisco Clavigero,

he merely confirmed from his own Durin had previously noted. Fran-

mada, seemed

to say

who wrote as lengthily on pre-Conquest music as Torquesomething new when discussing the different sizes

EARLY ABORIGINAL MUSIC

48

IN

MEXICO

33

but as in the case of Torquemada's glosses, Clavijero's of teponaztlis, observation was founded on inference rather than fresh observation.

ABSENCE OF MUSICAL QUOTATIONS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY CHRONICLES OF PRE-CONQUEST LIFE

It is highly probable that the missionaries

and

their Indian pupils

wrote down various samples of indigenous melody. Shortly after the advent of the missionaries Christian texts began to be sung in such native languages as Nahuatl with indigenous tunes. Sahagun's Psalmodia Christianaf* already alluded to, comprises just such a collection of
texts in Nahuatl, intended to be

hymn-

sung with indigenous tunes. This hymnbook, published in 1583, was (as he said in its preface) a collection of hymn-texts which he had composed several decades before actual publication 5 furthermore, according to Sahagun, many other missionaries had
tried the

same expedient of composing Christian texts

in native languages,

in order to give the Indians acceptable words to sing to their old tunes. Acosta writing on this same subject said one of the popes had encouraged

the missionaries to retain everything Indian that did not conflict with
Christianity:

Our men

that have conversed

among them have

labored to reduce

matters of our holy faith to their tunes> the which hath profited well: for must that they employ whole days to rehearse and sing them. . . .

We

therefore conclude, following the counsel of Pope Gregory, that it was had usually of very convenient to leave to the Indians that which they 45 custom, so as they be not mingled nor corrupt with their ancient errors.
like some of the original Regrettably, however, these indigenous tunes, 6 music composed by the Indians after the Spanish arrival,* seem to have been lost irretrievably. The only music with Nahuatl texts which still

seems to survive from the sixteenth century

posed by Hernando Franco, chapelmaster

is

at the

polyphonic music comMexico City Cathedral

between 1575 and 1585. Quite evidently Franco was not an Indian, and therefore we cannot adduce his polyphonic Nahuatl hymns as examples either of original music by a Mexican, or even necessarily as examples
of adaptation from indigenous sources. If no transcriptions of Aztec melodies noted

down during the sixteenth

34

MUSIC IN MEXICO
it

century have come to light,

need not however be concluded that none

When it is remembered that such prose accounts as Sahagun's, Motolinia's, Duran's, and Mendieta's were not published until three centuries after they were written, that the texts of
so transcribed will ever be found.

the Nahuatl songs, Cantares en Idioma MexicanOy were not published until 1899, that even yet no adequate attempt has been made to bring
these pre-Conquest songs into any modern language, that publication of other important Nahuatl texts has been delayed, and that numerous manuin Indian script sources

tongues now resting in Spanish and Mexican archives have scarcely been looked at by competent scholars, then it need hardly be wondered at that no exemplars of Indian musk a much more
fragile kind of cultural remains than writing

have thus far been brought

forward.

In this connection it is pertinent to note that Francisco de Salinas (15131590) published in 1577 a theoretical treatise, De musica libri seftem, in which was transcribed "the first Arab tune to be noted in western
musical notation." Salinas also included Portuguese, 'Spanish, and Italian folk-songs in his De musica. In Mexico there were certainly musicians as

adequate as was Salinas for the task of noting

down folk-songs. What may

easily have happened is simply neglect j there may now be in Spain or in Mexico certain unexploited transcriptions of indigenous melody await-

ing study and publication. Only recently has it been discovered that a pioneer missionary in California, Fray Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta, busied himself not only with compiling a dictionary of the Mutsun tongue but also with the noting down of texts and music of certain songs sung by the Indians whom he

was trying to convert. It is extremely probable such adept musicians as Fray Pedro de Gante and Fray Bernardino de Sahagun similarly occupied themselves in sixteenth century Mexico. At the moment of this writing, Arroyo de k Cuesta's jottings of California Indian melody reat the University of California of this source of Indian melody in a state neglect where every scrap of historical information has been carefully collected and studied, has possibly occurred because scholars dealing with local

main unexploited in The Bancroft Library

in

MS.

35054. The

history

do not have time for peripheral matters j competent musicians, on

the other hand, do not usually have time or inclination to go foraging in archives devoted to regional history simply on the bare chance that after

EARLY ABORIGINAL MUSIC

We

IN

MEXICO

35

looking through a hundred manuscripts in obsolete handwriting an exceptional one with music will be found
say then again that the chances of discovering even at this kte date a manuscript in an ecclesiastical archive in Spain, or in some such Mexican collection as the interminable Inquisition file, containing some
scraps of Indian melody noted down during the sixteenth century have by no means been exhausted. Still other possibilities of arriving at an authentic indigenous melody exist The writing of so-called parody masses using secular tunes was a common practice during the sixteenth century. Cristobal de Morales, whose works were well known in sixteenth century

Mexico, wrote several.

47

Colonial composers in Mexico, such as Juan de Padilla, also wrote parody masses j these are just beginning to be transcribed into modern notation. Perhaps a complete corpus of Mexican masses and motets from
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries will enable us to identify melodic

elements of non-Spanish origin upon which further deductions concerning the indigenous musical system can be based. Already it is being shown that
Padilla, for instance, used certain melodic progressions which are hardly

compatible with the European a cappella style j and when publication of his music has been achieved these non-typical traits will receive the attention due them. If Miss Alice Ray, to whom is due the discovery of
Padilla's parodyings, does not isolate any Indian motifs in his music, it is entirely possible some other colonial composer's music will reveal an

Indian

Uhomme

arme theme. All the written evidence shows the

mis-

sionaries favored preserving the Indian tunes wherever possible. Surviving written evidence proves, moreover, that the Indians who studied under

such teachers as Fray Pedro de Gante soon learned the craft of music well

composing polyphonic music that excited the admiration of their own Spanish mentors. If there were among the Indians individuals who could compose, certainly there

enough

to

compose themselves,

in certain cases

must have been others with

Christiana.

sufficient technical skill to write

down

the

tunes used for the singing of such

hymns

as those included in

Psalmodia

Another

as yet untried

method

in the study of the Aztec melodic

system which

may

conceivably yield fruitful results

should here be briefly

explained. Certain early Nahuatl scholars, such as the Jesuit, Antonio del Rincon, stressed the fact that Nahuatl was recited with a pronounced

36

MUSIC IN MEXICO
inflection in

up and down

the pitch of successive syllables. Appropriate

accent marks, according to

Rincon in Book V of his Arte Mexican* (pub48 lished in I595), showed the rise and fall of pitch in successive syllables. If such rules of pitch as Rinc6n gives were applied to a collection of Nahuatl songs, C&ntares en Idioma Mexicano, for instance, a graph of the rise and fall in melodic line could be traced. The headings of the
hundred-odd Cantares from this collection with teponaztli accompaniment tell us what the pitch pattern for the teponaztli accompaniment was; the and fall of the voice with a graph of mating of a graph showing the rise the rise and fall of the teponaztli accompaniment would afford us invaluable evidence upon which to base our conclusions concerning the The prevailing shape of Aztec melody might be Aztec musical
system.

deduced from such a study. 49

THE MELOWC SYSTEM OF THE EARLY ABORIGINES

If
it

should seem that such methods as the

last

two we have named are

is

unduly roundabout, we can only say

in justification that at present the

Achilles heel in all discussions of the Aztec melodic system lack of melodies transcribed in the Conquest period. Because

the actual

no melodies

of clearly provable antiquity have yet come to light, scholars have been forced to rely for their specific deductions concerning the Aztec musical

system upon melodies noted down as recently as the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth by ethnologists working with

phonograph in remote sections of Mexico where it has been hoped European influences had never effectively penetrated. A good example of such an ethnologist working with the aid of phonograph recordings is furnished us by Carl Lumholtz, whose Unknown Mexico appeared in two volumes at the beginning of this century (1902). Lumholtz's transcriptions of Huichol and Tarahumara Indian melodies were all made from phonograph recordings made in the field, and are therefore transcriptions that will withstand the most rigorous assay. Lumholtz journeyed southward from Bisbee, Arizona. He first visited Sonora Indians, and then passed into Chihuahua where he investigated

He proceeded thence down the western Cordilleras through Durango and Zacatecas into Jalisco where he spent considerable time with the Huicholes. Obviously none of the tribes he visited were descendants of the Aztecs. Even had they been, it
the habits of the isolated Tarahumaras.

EARLY ABORIGINAL MUSIC

IN

MEXICO

37

is too much to suppose that from 1519 until 1902 the musical culture of any people, however primitive, would have remained completely static. But since such transcriptions as Lumholtx provides have been frequently

we

quoted in illustration of the aboriginal musical habits of the Mexicans, shall here quote several musical examples from him, always bearing

in mind, however, the date of his transcriptions, the source of his melodies, and the unlikelihood that these melodies recapture in any significant way

the essential flavor of pre-Conquest music in Tenochtitlan, the proud heart of ancient Mexico.

The
in

first

three short melodies given below were taken by

his stay

Lumholtz
first

Chihuahua during song, he says:

with the Tarahumarasj prefacing the

Although the Tarahumare,

ful singing voice,
still

as a rule, has a harsh

there are

some noteworthy

exceptions,

and not very powerand the airs

all their

of the mtuburi songs are quite pleasing to the ear. These, as 50 dancing-songs, are of great antiquity.

Then he gives

the following two rutuburi dances:

TWO KUTULBUKI
J|J
j>

ij.

u - ru) ~

-Sat

m-

*
Li'

*m
tfti-Ka

wu-K*.

H
I
j

j.

38

MUSIC IN MEXICO
Another type of dance popular with the Tarahumaras
at the

time

Lumholtz visited them was the yumari. According to Lumholtz,

yumari songs tell that the Cricket wants to dance; the Frog and jump; and the Blue Heron wants to fish; the Goatsucker is dancing, so is the Turtle, and the Grey Fox is whistling. But it is

The

wants

to dance

characteristic of the
unintelligible

yumari songs that they generally consist only of an jargon, or, rather, of a mere succession of vocables, which the
spite of its
is

dancers murmur.

Unlike the rutuburi, the yumari soon becomes tiresome, in

greater animation. 51 oldest dance.
.
.

According to

tradition

it

[the yumari]

the

Before setting down a yumari dance with two variants, Lumholtz exin each of the following snatches meant plained that the accent sign

>

a grunt rather than musical tone. It is a commonplace, of course, that no primitive music can adequately be transcribed in conventional Western
notation.

The manner

of execution, which

is

all-important, cannot be

reduced to paper with our conventional signs.

YUAIAfi/

J>AMf
P

MJHr

^^^

The

next two musical quotations from Lumholtz were taken by him

during a short stay with the Tepehuane Indians (who lived in the extreme
southwest corner of the state of Chihuahua).

TfffffUA N TRIBAL 5 QN$

EARLY ABORIGINAL MUSIC

IN

MEXICO

39

FEAST SON$ SUNS AT AT?EARANC OF MOXNIH$

u-

The

next several examples which

we

take

from Lumholtz were

col-

lected during his excursion into the extreme northwesterly portion of Jalisco inhabited by the Huichol Indians. If we judge on the basis of

Lumholtz's printed examples, this tribe seems strongly to have favored 52 rhythmically free melodies founded on simple triad arpeggios. Nearly all Huichol melodies have religious texts. As might be expected, both rain-songs given below invoke the aid of gods the deer-god in the first
58 song, and the mother-eagle goddess in the second.

HUICHOL KAIN

SOJI/fS

0- 1*

Ta-ri mt-*a-no-ti

a-xo-ti

T*-la-

Jiu-U-f*

S
i

fa-

ti-fr u-i.**-ti

Xatd

PPP

ul PPP
F
Pf;

r
(fa-)

P'

r/
-

***&'*& faa (fa - rae) mt-md-na fad

ta -

hat

nti -

IJ
(aw;

**.*

Va-ta- kat- *a - Me

40

MUSIC IN MEXICO
hosts

Lumholtz tells of having mightily pleased his Huichol

by learning
to

several such rain-songs as the two just given. Certain further excerpts of Huichol melody illustrate

what seems

be a rather elaborate scheme of shifting rhythms. One of these was sung 54 from which a highly at the hikuli dance in honor of the mescal button
intoxicating liquor

and

ecstasies).

The

was fermented (and the eating of which induces visions other was sung at the religious rites preparatory to a

deer-hunt j during the deer-hunting season the hunters ate only sparingly, but had constant recourse to hikuli. Since the hikuli songs and dances
obviously bordered on frenzy, Lumholtz again insists that he had made no attempt to transcribe them from actual ceremonial performances where he would have had only a flickering fire for light j these songs and dances he assures us were all recorded at the moment of actual performance and

then later transcribed.

Even

so,

our conventional notation can give no

idea of the methods used in performance.

HIKULI

1>ANC

mr

r r f

t/

last two songs, as with the other songs transcribed he reminds us that a principal feature of actual by Lumholtz, performance was the repetition over and over again of the same fragments of melody. From a Europeanized point of view this repetition became infinitely

In the case of these

EARLY ABORIGINAL MUSIC

poses, their efficacy

IN

MEXICO

41

tedious at times, but since the songs were primarily sung for ritual pur-

was thereby enhanced instruments mentioned include the three-legged hollow cylindrical drum with a covering of deer-skin upon which the player rapped with his fingers $ the four-hole flute 5 and the notched bone rasp.

The Huichol

Wherever a Huichol song was sung with accompaniment the supporting

instruments were usually percussive with a predominantly rhythmic function to perform. Since the typical Huichol instruments obviously resemble

many observers have chosen to draw between existing Huichol and non-existent Aztec melodies; parallels this inference is drawn easily enough: since the instruments are demonstrably similar, why should not the melodies sung in conjunction with the instruments have been similar? w
the typical Aztec instruments,
Since a sampling of melody from every tribe visited by Lumholtz would overcrowd us here, we now pause briefly in order to offer the general principles of indigenous melody which can be deduced from the Tarahumara and Huichol melodies: (i) melodies are pre-eminently pentatonicj (2) they are non-expressive in the Western sense j (3) they usually end on a note which we recognize as a satisfactory tonic j (4) their range is an octave or a tenthj (5) there is no sense of melodic climaxj (6) a

strong rhythmic propulsive force informs all their songs j (7) nearly all are cult or ritual songs j (8) dance and song are twins in the native culture
areas.

Lumholtz, a Norwegian, was soon followed by K. T. Preuss, whose Mexican travels culminated in a book entitled Die Nayarit-expedition, published at Leipzig in 1912. Preuss worked among the Cora Indians* Frances Densmore, the well-known American student of Indian music, contributed two valuable articles, one on Papago music and another on 56 Yaqui music in 1929 and 1932, respectively. The literature on indigenous music has been significantly enriched in recent years by such Mexican authorities as G. Baqueiro F6ster, Jesus Romero, and Vicente T. Mendoza.

The Mexicans

all agree that whatever may be ascertained regarding the melodic system of the pre-Conquest peoples must be inferred from ex-

amples recently collected. One more sample of indigenous melody may aptly be quoted here before we take final leave of these "modern" melodies on which theories

The final regarding ancient indigenous melody have trellised themselves. below is presented in three versions, the first Baqueiro example given F6ster's version, the second Saldivart version, and the last Mendoza's

42
version.

MUSIC IN MEXICO

The melody in question was first noted down by Baqueiro F6ster, who remembered hearing it as a child in Meridaj he assumed it was a native Maya melody, as it may well have been. The title has been transRibbon Dance," although the Maya words themselves mean, lated, <Come on, come on, children, the sun is setting." The rhythmic dis<f
c

indicate individual inparities in the following transcriptions probably rather than mere inadvertences in copying.

terpretations

XtoleS

JjT
..

$*4/*l<566^"

i*

HjjM
jl

'in in

fl

)J

/n

iff]

j"]Sg

EARLY ABORIGINAL MUSIC

IN

MEXICO

43

If it were to the point vre could continue our quotation of indigenous melodies, as they have been picked up by zealous investigators in recent years, ending this chapter with a thesaurus of aboriginal melodies. An

appendix for good measure could then be added to the chapter in which would be contained all the variants encountered in such cases as that of

melody just quoted, Xtoles. Such a thesaurus would include samples Otomi melody picked up by Rodney Gallop,60 of Mixtec melody recorded by Mateo Hernandez, 61 of Maya melody transcribed by Luis Sandi and Francisco Dominguez after their 1934 visit to the Chiapas; 62
the
of

and of Yaqui, Sen, Tarahumara, and other tribal melodies picked up and recorded by folklorists in more recent years for such institutions as the Library of Congress at Washington. Such a thesaurus would, however, unduly extend the chapter $ the ten examples already given will perhaps suffice. They give us enough evidence so that we can form at least a tentative opinion concerning the reiterate melodies still precariously

surviving in isolated and remote areas of Mexico.

CONCLUDING SUMMARY

What

can be

made

of these melodies?

We

scholars have used

them

in order to reconstruct the melodic system

this use

have already said that and

even the rhythmic system of the ancient indigenes. Lest

inferential,

seem un-

hasten to point out the use made of such fragments duly of ancient Greek melody as the Delphic Hymns to Apollo (written about 130 B.C.) and of the so-called Seikilos Song (written still later) 5 such

we

Greek fragments are nowadays used by

writers

who

are attempting to

reconstruct the musical system in vogue among the Greeks of the Periclean age. As long as modern scholars permit themselves the liberty of

using music of the late Alexandrinian epoch in their discussions of music during the age of Aeschylus or Sophocles, they should undoubtedly admit
the equal propriety of using such indigneous fragments as Lumholtz collected, in discussions of the melodic system in vogue among the Mexi-

can aborigines of an earlier epoch. If we ask the same question, what can be
time, however, asking
it

made

of these melodies? this

cians, we can speak much such as Mexico, which even today contains a larger group of Indians than of persons with pure European blood, the indigenous expressions

not as musical antiquarians, but as practical musimore enthusiastically in their behalf. In a country

44
in art

MUSIC IN MEXICO

and music assume almost the value of national palladiums. As in a nation so largely made up symbols of Indian cultural achievement
even yet of pure-blooded Indians, any fragment or shard of Indian music
that far transcends its objective gathers to itself a spiritual significance value in the eyes of foreign musicians. Only those who have troubled to acquaint themselves with the divided character of the Mexican national sold can realize how important it is to the formerly oppressed Indian now

to assert himself spiritually and artistically, even if in so doing he seems to stress the musical value of aboriginal specimens that, objectively con-

sidered, lack transcendent worth. In the United States where a competent musician such as Edward MacDowell in his 1890 Second Orchestral Suite or Charles T. Griffes in
his

Two Sketches for String

Quartet has used Indian themes, the musical

result has had to stand on its own merits and not on its appeal to lineal descendants of Powhatan and Squanto. In Mexico, however, even an Indian name, such as Candelario Hufzar affixed to his symphony entitled Oxpaniztlt whether Indian themes are actually used or not guarantees

a certain type of success that

Cardenas's Mexico have no

we who

are unfamiliar with the spirit of

of properly anticipating. If a return to the speaking of Nahuatl as a national language has not yet been suggested in Mexico, it is certain that in the minds of many leading artists and musi-

way

cians the effacement of all other cultural intrusions that

since

have occurred meant the utter annihilation of every monument of Mexican colonial art. It is not to be wondered
1519 would be heartily desired, even
if it

at in such

a climate of opinion that aboriginal music stimulates enthusiasm.

composition

The most widely known and the most universally admired

founded on aboriginal melody is undoubtedly Chavez's eleven-minute Sinfonta India. Yet in this unique achievement it seems hardly possible to claim any greater distinction for the melodies which Chavez used than can be claimed for the fragments of melody Lumholtz collected. It may
this

be interesting to compare the Huichol melody heard at the opening of one-movement symphony 68 with other Huichol melodies:

Uf

ILTTLJUr

Jlcjqj'jlff

EARLY ABORIGINAL MUSIC

IN

MEXICO

45

Objectively considered, this particular Huichol melody seems as limited in expressive content as either of Lumholtz's rain-songs 5 its musical sub-

even thinner than that of the hikuli songs already presented. Not itself, but rather Chavez's treatment of it, impresses the international music public.
stance
is

the melody
If

no particularly intriguing charms of the kind found everywhere in European folk-music are presently discernible in the Indian themes used by Chavez or other modern Mexican composers, still Indian themes are to be revered and valued simply because they constitute symbols of the
heroic Indian past. Authentic Mexican aboriginal music of the kind recorded under Henrietta Yurchenco's supervision for the Library of Con-

album 64 entitled "Folk Music of Mexico" may not seem very promising raw material for a symphony, but since Chavez and others less well known have shown it can be done, this music deserves to be highly
gress

regarded

if

not for

its intrinsic

qualities, at least as

a convenient totem.

A sympathetic hearer will not count the hundred-odd times a simple triad
arpeggio may be sung at a Huichol Fiesta del Peyote, but will rather make a serious effort at transporting himself into the culture area in which
the music originated. Only by so doing will he begin to realize why the indigenous music of Mexico is so much more highly regarded by Mexico's
serious composers than are the innumerable jarabes, huapangos, sandungas,.and bambas, that pass in this country as the only authentic Mexi-

can folk-music.

The connecting

of Mexico's present-day Indian music with the Indian

music of the pre-Conquest past, as has already been admitted, may involve us in an egregious historical fallacy. But other historical errors have

proved

fruitful of

good

result in music history.

The

birth of opera, for

instance, can be directly attributed to a mistaken notion of Greek drama and music in which certain Florentine gentlemen who gathered at the palace of Count Giovanni Bardi during the late sixteenth century fondly

indulged themselves. They were certainly as mistaken in their notions of the Greek past as Columbus was in 1492 when he thought he had landed on the coasts of Asia. However wrong the modern Mexican musician

may be in thinking he has arrived at a true understanding of the Aztec

by contemplating the features of contemporary indigenous music, a desirable result may have been achieved by making such a conideal,

past
still

nection.

Contemporary Mexican composers have been stimulated by an

46
as
it

MUSIC IN MEXICO

music 5 and in their mouths has were, of a Homeric age in Mexican been placed a rallying cry. As far as practical results are concerned it ideas on Aztec music as Chavez has propahardly matters whether such or not; as long as they are accepted and believed gated are really accurate

whether they are strictly provable they deserve considerate attention, or not. Because they have been believed, Mexican musicians for the first time in the long history of music in Mexico have ceased pining for Euro-

have taken a certain indispensable pride simply pean glamor, and instead Mexican musicians. The Aztec past has ceased to be any longer in

being a disgraceful and regrettable incident in national history. Instead it is now national grandeur; scenes from the Aztec past regarded as a moment of are the culminating glory of Mexico's history, as Diego Rivera has painted them in his highly idealized versions of pre-Conquest life now on view at the National Palace. now abroad, Mexican musicians are ready to go back With this
spirit

to the earliest aboriginal music,

and play a

fortissimo

da cafo.

NOTES
1.

Laurence E. Schmeckebier,

Modern Mexican Art

(Minneapolis:

The

University

of Minnesota Press, 1939), p. 42. Bernal Diaz del Castillo. The True History of the Conquest of

New Spun

(Lon-

don:
3.

1912), IV, 142, I49~5O> J 54Alba Herrera y Ogaz6n, El Arte Musical en Mexico (Mexico: Direcci6n General de las Bellas Artes, 1917), p- 9 Continuing in the same strain, she commented: <c During the rites when hapless victims by the hundreds were cruelly offered to
Society,

The Hakluyt

human
tacle.

their gods, the eerie light of the sacrificial fires, the vivid color of freshly spilt blood, the ghastly shrieks of the captives, and the insane frenzy of the

combined to produce a truly terrifying speclugubrious accompanying music for these ceremonies must undoubtedly -have been wild, incoherent, and macabre; since in it was expressed the ferocious passions of the untamed savage."
diabolical priests must together have

The

4.

The Musical
5.
torial Stylo,

Otto Mayer-Serra, "Silvestre Revueltas and Musical Nationalism in Mexico," Quarterly , April, 1941, p. 127. Jesus C. Romero, Musica Precortesiana (Mexico: Talleres Graficos de la Edi1947), pp. 252-3. Hubert Herring and Herbert Weinstocfc
(editors), Renascent

6.

Mexico (New York:

Covici-Friede, 1935), p. 234. Rivera wrote for this book a chapter entitled "Plastic Art in Pre-Conquest Mexico," in which he gave it as his opinion that most of the

Spaniards

who

invaded Mexico were "very close to living on the Neolithic level."

c<

The

Spaniards were too barbarous" to appreciate the advanced "mental development" of the race they destroyed, according to Rivera,

EARLY ABORIGINAL MUSIC

7.

IN

MEXICO

47

8.

Romero, of. tit., pp. 256-7. For a discussion of the Bonampak paintings as revelators of Mayan musical prac" Mexico en el tices, see Vicente T. Mendoza, "Musica Indigena de M6xico ? Arte, 1950, IX, 58. On pp. 59 and 62 appear color reproductions of the Maya instruments in the Bonampak paintings. Because of the inaccessibility of the Lacanya Valley (State of Chiapas) where the Bonampak temples are located, the Mexican
government commissioned Agustin Villagra
to execute full-scale color duplicates for the Institute Nacional de Antropologia at Mexico City. For the story of the spectacular Bonampak discovery see Charles M. Wilson, "Open Sesame to the

9.

Maya," Bulletin of the Pan American Union, July, 1948, pp. 376-84. . D. G. Brinton in The Gueg&ence (Philadelphia, 1883), pp. xxx-xxxii,
. .

advanced the theory that multi-keyed teponaztlis were used in Mexico; he reproduced in evidence a picture from Duran's Atlas (Mexico, 1880), Trat. 2., Lam.* a 6. , Cap. 8., showing a teponaztli player crouched before a five-keyed instrument.
It
is

of course well

known

that both the

Codex Florentinus

(issued in

1905

under the

editorial supervision of Francisco del Paso y Troncoso at Madrid) and Dura*n's Atlas contain post-Conquest paintings that cannot be accepted as definitive

in minor details; the paintings in both clearly show Spanish influence. 10. See Daniel Castaneda and Vicente T. Mendoza, "Los Teponaztlis

. ." and . "Los Percutores Precortesianos," Anales del Museo Nacional de Arqueologfa, Historia, y Etnograjia, 4*. epoca, Tomo 8 (Mexico, 1933), especially pp. 281-2. 1 1. Antonio Penafiel (editor), Cantares en Idioma Mexicano (Mexico: Secrctaria de Fomento, 1899). An English version containing 27 of these cantares (but in an unreliable translation) was published in Daniel G. Brinton's Ancient NahuaU

12.

Poetry (Philadelphia, 1890). H. T. Cresson, "Aztec Music," Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Part I, 1883, pp. 86-94.

13.

Miguel Galindo, Nociones de Historia de

la

Musica Mejicana (Colima, "El

Dragon," 1933), pp. lOO-i. 14. Herbert Weinstock, Mexican Music

1

(New

York:

Museum

of

Modern

Art,

940),

p. 8.

15.

The Bonampak "trumpets" were actually made of wood rather than of clay, and included what appears to be a separate mouthpiece. Since fingerholes were not shown, only natural harmonics could have been produced. The paintings show the lips of the players tightly pursed, with the bell of the "trumpet" held at an the Bonampak instrumentalists angle above the heads of the players. Undoubtedly in concert with each other, rather than as soloists, if the paintings are to played be trusted. Since the ''trumpets" were made of wood, a more nearly equivalent obsolete cornett (zink) . For European instrument would no doubt be the now further discussion see Mendoza, of. cit. 9 p. 58. 16. Eduard Seler, Collected Works (Englished tinder the editorial supervision of Vo! HI, J. E. S. Thompson for the Peabody Museum, Cambridge, Mass., I939>>
-

Part 2, Section 2, pp. 28-33.

17. Marshall

H.

Saville,

The Wood-Carver's Art

in Ancient

Mexico (New York:

Museum
1 8.

of the American Indian, 1925), pp. 64-74.

/**., p. 67-

48
19. Renascent

MUSIC IN MEXICO
Mexico, pp. 203-8.

20. Ibid., p. 203. 21. /#., p. 208.

22. Sylvanus

G. Morley, TA* Ancient Maya (Stanford University

Press,

1946),

pp. 261-2. 23. On the "burning of books," see Alfred

de Yucattn (Cambridge: Acosta's statement appears on p. 78.

las Cosas

M. Tozzer (ed.), Landaus Relation d* The Peabody Museum, 1941), pp. 77-8.

24. This phrase was inserted, along with several other explanatory phrases, into Mendieta's transcription of Motolinia's account. See Ger6nimo de Mendieta,
Historic Eclcsi&stica Indiana (Mexico: Antigua Libreria, 1870), pp. 140-3. 25. Toribio de Motolinia, Memoriales (Mexico: Garcia Pimentel, 1903), pp.

339-4326. Bernardino de Sahagun, Historic General de las Cosas de Imp. del Alejandre Vald&, Bustamente ed., 1829), Tomo 27. Ibid., 28. Ibid.,
I, I,

Nueva Esfana (Mexico:

I,

pp. 101-4.

137.

276.

29. Ibid., II, 314-5.

30. Ibid., Ill (1830), 21. 31. Francisco Lopez de Gomara, Historic de Mexico, con el descubrimiento del*

NuevaEsfana (Antwerp, 1554), pp. 106-7. 32. Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua Castellana y

Mexicana (Mexico,

I570> P-H33. Tozzer, of. cit., p. vii. 34. From this statement we should infer that the tortoise shell was

more of

gong

than a rasp. 35. Tozzer, of. cit^ p. 93. 36. Diego Durln, Historic de las India*,

II,

233.

37. Ibid., II, 230. 38. Among the instruments Gallop encountered which he classified as idols was a teponaztli "that is kept mysteriously hidden all year long at Tepoztlan and played on only three occasions during the year." The figure carved on this teponaztli

was Xochipilli. He encountered a sorcerer at Xico in the Sierra de Puebla who guarded a drum to which a hymn in Aztec was sung as to the god, Xochipilli. See Musical Quarterly, April, 1939, p. 218. 39. Mendieta, of. tit., pp. 79-80, See also Gabriel Saldivar, Historia de la Musica

en Mexico (Mexico, 1934), pp. 4-5. 40. Juan de Torquemada, Veinte i un libros rituales edition (Madrid: Nicolas Rodriguez Franco, 1723),
41.

i
I,

Monarquia Indiana, 2nd

229.

7^^11,265.

42. Lorenzo Boturini Benaduci, Idea de una Nueva Historia General de la America
Septentrional (Madrid, 1746), p. 90. 43. Francisco ClvnjtTO, Storia antica del Messico (Cesena, 1780), 44. The only work of Sahagun published during his lifetime, it
rare.

II,
is

178.

copy

is

in

The Huntington

Library.

When

excessively Icazbalceta compiled his 1 6th

now

EARLY ABORIGINAL MUSIC

IN

MEXICO

49

century bibliography, he was under the impression that he possessed the only surviving copy. See J. Garcia Icazbalceta, Obras (Mexico: V. Agueros, 1896), III, 175. The hymns in Psalmodia Christiana were all written at a considerably earlier
they were published. Only adequate study of the metrics of these hymns will give us any inkling of the kind of music to which they were set; the tunes have all been lost. The loss of the
tunes,
stage in Sahagun's life than the publication date of 1583 known that he began writing them twenty-five years before

would

suggest;

it

is

which were not printed, can hardly be

surprising

when

copies of the printed

book have so precariously survived. It must not be thought that the words are paraphrases of the Davidic psalms; in actuality the words (as one can easily infer from the numerous wood-blocks
4.5.

that illustrate the text) are hymns of devotion to Christ and to the saints, Jose' de Acosta, Historia Natural y Moral de las Indias (Seville, 1590), p. 447. See also The Naturall and Morall Historic . . . (London, 1604), p. 492.

46. Concerning the original music written by the Indian converts during the earliest Conquest period see Garcia Icazbalceta, Coleccion de. Documentos para la Historia

de Mexico (Mexico, Libreria de

47. Morales wrote two
tunes,

J.

M. Andrade,

1858),

I,

2 10.

Vhomme

arme parody

masses,

Mille regretz, Cafa, and Tristezas

me

and others on the secular matan. His pupil, Guerrero, also

wrote parody masses. 48. Antonio del Rincon, Arte Mexicans (Mexico, 1595; new ed. by Antonio Penafiel, 1885), Libro V, capitulo primero. (In Penafiel's edition, pp. 61 6.) 49. Vicente T. Mendoza, "Musica Precolombina de America," Boletin Latino-

Americano de Musica (Bogota, 1938), [V, 244 ff. Mendoza thinks he found a clue to the prevailing direction of pre-Conquest melody; but his results have been
imperfectly corroborated.
50. Carl Lumholtz,

Unknown Mexico (New York:

Charles ScribnePs Sons, 1902),

1,338.
I, 33940. Both rntuburi and yumari dances have been linked to the same peyote cult Lumholtz later found a prominent feature of ceremonial life among the Huichol Indians (see his references to the hikuli dance). 52. The Huichol melodies recorded in the "Folk Music of Mexico" album (issued by the Library of Congress) show the same marked preference for reiterate melodies

51. Ibid. y

founded on simple

triad arpeggios.

53. Lumholtz, of. <**., II, 10 and 18. 54. species of narcotic cactus plant.

55. Auguste

<c Gnin, in his Notes on the Dances, Music, and Songs of the Ancient and Modern Mexicans," Annual Report of The Smithsonian Institution, 1920, and customs pp. 657-8, strongly opposed the tendency to identify present usages with those of the remote past, and also the tendency to identify the usages of

one contemporary tribe with the usages of another contemporary tribe especially where the two tribes live far removed from each other. On the other hand, E. Seler In 'The Huichol Indians of the State of Jalisco" (Coll. Wks. y Eng. tr., Vol. Ill,
Pt. 3, Sec. 2, pp. 2 and especially 7) strongly endorsed the use of parallels between the Huicholes and the ancient Mexicans in our endeavor to understand die

50

MUSIC IN MEXICO
is

culture of ancient Mexico. Particularly interesting

Seler*s

endorsement of the

Huichol and Aztec instruments parallels, he points out, which parallels between extend beyond mere externalities, and have to do with much more intimate matceremonies. See also in this ters, such as the proper use of instruments in religious connection Seler's article in Globus> lllwtrierte Zeitschrijt jur Lander und VSlkerkunde, August 19, 1899, pp. 109-12, treating of the likenesses between
56. Frances Densmore, Pafago

Mexican and Maya instruments. Music (Washington, U.S. Govt. Printing Yumanand Yaqui Music (Washington, 1932). 1929);
cit. y

Office,

57. Baqueiro F6ster, Revista Musical Mexicana, January, 1942, p. 16* 58. Saldivar, of.
59.
p. 72.

Mendoza, "Musica Indigena de Mexico," p. 63. 60. Rodney Gallop, "Otomi Indian Music from Mexico," The Musical Quarterly > January, 1940, pp. 87-100. Gallop strongly felt that what indigenous melody
still

existed possessed little artistic worth.

in his chapter,

Compare

his attitude

with that of Chlvez,

who

"The Music

of Mexico," written for

Henry CowelPs sym-

posium, American Corn-posers on American Music (Stanford University Press, 1 933)> *poke glowingly of "the knowledge of music possessed by the contemporary Indians who still, in many regions of the country, preserve the manner of execution

and the forms of the most ancient

traditions." (p.

170)

61. Mendoza, "Musica Indigena de Mexico," p. 60. 62. lbU. y p. 62.

short introduction actually precedes this quotation of Huichol melody. No 63. source is given in the program notes supplied by Chavez for either the Huichol,

Yaqui, or Seri melodies which he quotes in the course of Sinjonia India. 64. See Henrietta Yurchenco, "Grabaci6n de Musica Indigena," Nuestr* Musica, May, 1946, pp. 65-78. In contrast with Rodney Gallop, who complained of the paucity of indigenous examples, she stated (p. 78): "My collection of in-

digenous music represents only a small sampling of the vast treasury of aboriginal still be heard in out-of-the-way places in Mexico and Guatemala. Centuries after the Conquest and after the initial contact between Spaniard

melody which can

culture.

and Indian, numerous Indian groups still preserve intact their ancient musical ... I hope the album which the Library of Congress will soon issue

will (though it contains only a small fraction of the recordings I have taken) be of use not only to comparative musicologists, but also to practical composers, and also to anthropologists and linguists."

THE TRANSPLANTING OF EUROPEAN MUSICAL CULTURE

APTITUDE OF THE INDIANS

The amazing

speed with which European music was taken up and mas-

tered by the Indians immediately after the arrival of the Conquerors affords us convincing proof of the innate musicality of the aborigines. Such chroniclers as we quoted in the previous chapter unite in extolling the

and talent of their Indian charges in mastering the European musical system. The Indians could hardly have so soon mastered Gregorian chant and so readily embraced polyphonic singing had they not already among themselves built up a strong musical tradition. Because the
readiness

Indians showed such inordinate fondness for the music the missionaries brought with them, the first bishop of Mexico instructed the missionaries

within his diocese to teach music wherever they went as "an indispensable aid in the process of conversion."

A number of Cort6s's own men, as will later be shown, were competent

singers arid instrumentalists. Wherever Cortes traveled he carried professional Spanish minstrels along with his army in order to entertain himself

and

his soldiers.

The

Indians were everywhere fascinated with the music

and began to imitate them who were gifted among after their warring days had ended, and a number musically began to teach of amusing stories have descended to us from the chroniclers of the Conquest period telling how speedily the Indians wheedled out of their masters all their best professional secrets. But none of the Indians could have progressed so rapidly in music as the chroniclers testify had they
of these sixteenth<entury as soon as possible. Certain ones
entertainers

USO

Cortes's followers

Si

MUSIC IN MEXICO

not already been rather generously endowed with what, for lack of a
better word, is usually referred to as "talent.*

MUSIC AS AN AID IN THE PROCESS OF CONVERSION

Even

at the

moment

of their

initial contact

iards emphasized the primacy of music in worship.

with the Indians the SpanOne can hardly imagine

today a group of three hundred would-be conquistadores stopping their in order to build an altar negotiations with emissaries of Montezuma
say, but sing Mass. Bernal Diaz, however, the very first Sunday after they set foot on the spot later re-christened Veracruz two Indian governors arrived on an embassage from Montezumaj before any business could be transacted Cortes or-

where their chaplain could not

tells us that

dered an altar built, after the hasty erection of which Fray Bartolome de Olmedo, "who was a fine singer, chanted Mass." 1 Symbolically this chanting of Mass was an excellent prelude to the later efforts of the missionaries who everywhere they went sang their services. What the Indians failed to grasp in words was at least partially conveyed in music
because of their duties with his troops were unable to give more than incidental attention to the Indians 5 missionaries specifically assigned to Indian work soon arrived, however. In the summer
Cortes's

own chaplains

of 1523, two years after the fall of Tenochtitlan, the

first

three mission-

aries specially picked for the task of converting the Indians arrived. One had spent fourteen years as professor of theology at the University of

Fleming who had been employed in state business V, before his conversion and joining of the Franby ciscan order j the third claimed Scottish antecedents. All three had spent several years in a Franciscan house at Ghent before applying to Charles
Parisj another was a
his relative, Charles

V for permission to go as pioneers to Mexico. The second of the trio, Pedro de Gante ( 1480?-! 572),* was himself originally a native of Ghent, where he had grown to maturity. He therefore had lived in the atmosphere which produced masters such as Des Pris, de la Rue, Mouton, and Gombert Fray Juan de Tecto, the Frenchman in the trio, was at the
time the three asked permission to go himself serving as Charles's personal chaplain. The journey from Ghent to Seville before embarking was taken in Charles V*s company. Charles wherever he traveled
private chapel choir, several of the most illustrious musicians of the age. carried about with

him

his

own

always which included

When

Pedro

later

TRANSPLANTING OF EUROPEAN CULTURE

had already gamed
sufficient skill to rival

55

wrote his near-relative, Charles V, claiming the Indians under his charge
the chapel singers in Charles's

own

private chapel, he was therefore pitting them against a choir which he already knew to be superlative.

The first two or three years after their arrival in Mexico they busied themselves with the learning of Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs. Fray
Pedro soon founded a school
at

Texcuco which has been called the

first

school for the teaching of European subjects in America.

He also instigated

the founding of the first church for the Indians, the Church of San Jose de Belem, which stood not far from the present location of the famous Ameri-

can restaurant in Mexico City, Sanborn's (busy Gante street nearby still reminds one of Pedro de Gante) . The Indian chapel itself was later chosen
the scene of the most impressive pageantry in sixteenth century Mexico. Because it was the finest and largest church in the city (larger than the
primitive cathedral) it was chosen for such great ceremonial occasions as the commemorative services after Charles Vs death in which participated

the entire civil and ecclesiastical hierarchy. Adjacent to the chapel was a school for Indians founded by Fray Pedro soon after his removal from

Texcuco to Mexico

City.

Although music was only one of several arts which were taught in the San Francisco school founded by Fray Pedro, his surviving portraits all carry a notice to the effect that his music teaching was the subject in
which he gained his most phenomenal results. 4 His own early background in Flanders prepared him for his role as music mentor. He came to Mexico
forty-odd years, with a long background of exceptional musical which church advantages. His own epoch was, moreover, one during musicians everywhere throughout Europe looked for inspiration to the

man of

tion
as a

celebrated Flemish masters. Fray Pedro was assisted in his music instrucby others who were not Flemings, Fray Arnaldo de Bassado, listed

Frenchman, and the venerable Spanish priest, Fray Juan Caro, for 5 instance. But they were all united in their belief that music provided an
music they approved for instrucindispensable adjunct to worship. The included the finest European art-music of their period. tional purposes The remarkable success which Fray Pedro de Gante achieved with the

mere goodwill: he the school he then proceeded to found first learned the Nahuatl language 5 was modeled on those maintained alongside the San Francisco monastery Life in Flanders; he taught by the celebrated Brethren of the Common
Indians

may be ascribed

to certain other factors than

54

MUSIC IN MEXICO

the Indians and not the children of the Spanish invaders thus eliminating the possibility of racial friction. His importance as an educator has been 6 stressed by recent historians of education in Mexico. The best tribute he has been paid, however, has been the widespread adoption given his educational plan by other missionaries.

memorable letter written in October of 1532, just nine years after the advent of the band of three in Mexico, tells in Pedro's own words what he felt had been accomplished in music since his arrival:
I can tell Your Majesty [Charles V] without exaggeration that there are already Indians here who are fully capable of preaching, teaching, and I can affirm writing [in behalf of the faith] . And with the utmost sincerity that there are now trained singers among them who if they were to sing in Your Majesty's Chapel at this moment would do so well that perhaps 7 you would have to see them actually singing in order to believe it possible. If

Pedro had been alone

in his enthusiasm for music his labors

would

soon have ended abortively. But others perceiving his results wholeheartedly seized upon his educational plan. Numerous other missionaries

wrote

letters describing their successes in music education. Fray Martin de Valencia, leader of the band of twelve that came out the year after Fray Pedro's arrival in Mexico, wrote a letter to the Emperor in No-

vember of 1532, endorsing music as a prime aid in the task of conversion. A short excerpt from this particular letter will show why he valued music instruction. The training given the natives in music helped to wean therp from their former beliefs $ music was the sweetening added to make their new instruction more palatable.
Likewise

we

to get these nobles to send us their children),

take all the children of the caciques (insofar as we are able and also children from other

of the more influential Indian families.

that

We

take these children in order

we may

We cating them them not only how to read and write, but also how to sing both plainchant and polyphonic music. We teach them how to sing the canonical hours and how to assist at Mass; and we strive to inculcate the highest standards of Kving and conduct. 8

separate them from heathen influences by rearing and eduin our monasteries. devote much time to them, teaching

Motolinia, one of the original band of twelve that came over in 1524 with Fray Martin de Valencia as leader, gave in his Htstoria de los Indios

TRANSPLANTING OF EUROPEAN CULTURE

several remarkable instances showing music of the friars.

55

how avidly the

Indians took to the

the Indians began to learn the Ave Maria and the order to make the learning easier and more pleasurable gave them these and other prayers, along with the Command-

At

the time

when

Pater Noster the

friars in

ments, in their

own

tongue and

set to

a pleasing plainchant melody.

so

They

were
piled

so eager to learn,

and there were

many

of them, that they fairly

up in the courtyards of the churches and shrines and in their own town, singing and learning prayers for three or four hours on end; and their haste was so great that wherever they went, by day or by night, one could hear them on all sides singing and reciting the whole catechism. The Spaniards were amazed.*
sections of the

In another excerpt from his Hisforia de los Indios he commented at length on the astounding facility with which the Indians mastered even the most complicated elements in the European music system.
Their understanding is keen, modest, and
in other nations.
. . .

quiet,

not proud or showy as

They learned to read quickly, both in Spanish and in Latin, in print and in manuscript. They learned to write in a short time. The third year we started to teach them singing and some people laughed and made fun of it, both because the Indians seemed to be singing
.

off pitch, and because they seemed to have weak voices. It is undoubtedly true that they do not have voices as strong or as sweet as the Spaniards. Probably this comes about because they go barefooted, with unprotected chests, and eat food that is poor fare. But since there are so many of them
to choose from, the Indian choirs are all reasonably good. It was quite a sight to see the first man who began to teach them 10 [part-] singing. happened to be an old friar who knew scarcely any-

He

thing of the Indian language, only Castilian, and he talked with the boys as correctly and sensibly as if he were talking with intelligent Spaniards.

Those of us who heard him were

marvellous that, although at
old
first

watched the boys standing openmouthed to

beside ourselves with laughter as we see what he meant. It was

man had no

interpreter, in

they did not understand a thing and the a short time they understood him and

of them so skilful that they and have an excellent memory, most of what they sing they know by heart, so that if the pages get mixed up or the book falls while they are singing this does not prevent them from singing on without Ac slightest error. Also, if they lay the book on a table,

learned to sing so that

direct choirs.

now

there are

many

As they

are quick-witted

56

MUSIC IN MEXICO
the ones

who see it upside down or from the side

it.

sing just as well as those

of these Indian singers, an inhabitant of this who are in front of of Tlaxcala, has composed unaided a whole Mass which has been apcity Castilian singers who have seen it.

One

many play; divide themselves up among the Indian towns where they might receive a burden on one community. pay for their lessons, instead of becoming

proved by good Instead of organs they use flutes playing in harmony, and the sound resembles that of a pipe organ because of the large number of flutes playing who came from Spain taught them how to together. Instrumentalists instrumentalists arrived together that we asked them to so

The

Indians have learned to

it

make

chirimias [double-reed instruments]

though cannot be said that as yet they a satisfactorily tuned scale. . . .

know how

to

produce from them

Notably to be valued in these Indian students is their exceptionally good little effort, for they are so deportment. The teacher has to expend very Indian instruceager to learn that they are soon ready to teach themselves. tors are used along with the friars in such schools as San Francisco de

M&a'co and Santiago de Tktelolco. 11

Motolinfa finished his history in February, 1541. For a considerable his missionary period of time anterior to its completion he had centralized 12 the capital of the province where Cort6s had activities in Tlaxcala,

found

his staunchest

Indian

allies. It

was but natural that the people of

this province,

who had always remained loyal to the Spanish, should more

a Neo-Hispanic speedily than their neighboring tribes have acquired cultural outlook. Motolinfa selected the 1538 festival of Corpus Christi
at Tlaxcala in order to illustrate the rather considerable success the people of this province had shown in weaving into the fabric of their own

indigenous culture certain Spanish strands.

On the holy day of Corpus Christi in the year 1538, the Tlaxcaltecas held a very solemn festival which deserves to be recorded, because I believe that if the Pope and Emperor had been there with their courts they would
This was the first day that the Tlaxcaltecas have been delighted. . . used the coat of arms which the Emperor granted them when the town was made a city. This favor has not yet been granted to any other Indian
.

town but

this

one, which well deserves

Don Hernando
there marched

it, for its people greatly assisted Cortes, acting for His Majesty. ... In the procession a large choir trained to sing polyphonic music of consider-

able complexity; their singing was accompanied by music of flutes which duplicated the [treble] parts, and also by trumpets and drums, sounding

together with

bells,

large

and

small. Since all these instruments

sounded

TRANSPLANTING OF EUROPEAN CULTURE

together at the moment of their entering and at the moment of their leaving the church, it seemed just then that the very heavens were falling.
.

57

On

the following
. . .

written in prose.

Monday they presented four one-act plays . One scene ended with the singing of Btne&ctus
. .

Dotnanu* Deus

Israel.

Motolinfa then proceeded in this section of his history to set down a narrative of the Easter celebration in Tiaxcala the next year (1539).

aptly imitates the sound of the organ. Besides these they also have skilful

These Tlaxcaltecas have greatly enlivened the divine service with polyphonic music written for voices and for groups of instruments. They have two choirs which alternate with each other in singing the divine office. Each choir has more than twenty singers j they have also two groups of flutists who accompany these choirs, and they also use in their performances the rebec and a certain type of flute (copied from the Moors) which

drummers who when they sound their drums conjointly with the bright, jingling bells they carry, create a delightful effect. . . . The Wednesday of the Easter octave . . they had a pky ready to be performed. It represented the fall of our first parents. . . .

When

the angels brought two garments, very clever imitations of the skins of animals, and dressed Adam and Eve, the most striking thing was to see them go out into exfle weeping, Adam escorted by three angels and Eve by another three. As they went out they sang together a polyphonic setting

of the psalm Circumdedertmt me?* This was so well performed that no one who saw it could keep from weeping bitterly. . . . Consoling the disconsolate pair, the angels went off singing, in parts, by way of farewell,

villancico

14

whose words were:

Oh, why
that

did she eat

first

married

woman

Oh, why did she eat

The

forbidden fruit?

That first married woman

she and her husband

Have brought Our Lord down

To

a humble abode
forbidden
fruit.

Because they both ate

The

This play was performed by the Indians

in their

own tongue. 1*

58

MUSIC IN MEXICO

Among the other plays mentioned by Motolinia some two or three seem to have shown considerable imagination and skill in construction j incidental in all music, as he described them, was considered a necessary these plays. Most of them were of the auto sacramental type, whose enormous popularity spread from Spain to New Spam during the sixteenth the various arts scenic, literary, dramatic, and century. The blending of
musical into a unified whole seems to have been well contrived, despite the inexperience of the Indians who presented them. Motolinia was underthe Indian cultural advance. standably proud of the friars' contribution to the period between 1519 and 1538 saw the decline of many
artistic

Although

customs which must have been ideal expressions of the aboriginal

of Spanish customs compensated at least partly for spirit, the assimilation loss of certain older modes of cultural expression. the
in bishop of Mexico, Fray Juan de Zumarraga (appointed concerned with the problems 1528), though by no means as exclusively of Indian welfare as was Motolinfa, nevertheless applied himself earfirst

The

nestly to the problems involved in converting them. Because he learned soon after his arrival in the New World that no inducement had proved
so alluring to the Indians as the music of the friars, endorsed the program of music instruction that Fray
set

he wholeheartedly Pedro had already

up

in the school attached to the

San Francisco monastery, and also

encouraged the founding of several other schools where reading, writing, and especially music, could be taught the Indians. He was not so successful as he would have desired in instituting a full musical program in the
primitive cathedral j but he appointed Canon Juan Xuarez (who arrived 16 in 1530) chapel master, and for a quarter of a century Xuarez labored

with the Indian youths preparing and rehearsing them for musical service
in the cathedral.

Zumarraga, despite

his

own

Franciscan

vow

of poverty, perfectly

understood the necessity of paying a trained resident choir and hiring instrumentalists, if the cathedral were properly to be served. In order to adorn his cathedral, which was at first a dependency of Seville in Spain,

he spent the whole revenue of his bishopric during four years. 17 His ideal for a physical plant was a cathedral which in every detail of appearance and appointment would equal that of the parent church at Seville. 18 In
musical matters he was equally ambitious. letter which he wrote April 17, 1540, to Charles V, illustrates at one and the same time his understanding of the unusual value of music as a tool for plowing and furrow-

TRANSPLANTING OF EUROPEAN CULTURE

choirs.

59

ing the Indian mind, and also his understanding of the necessity for paid

out to the

He began his plea for paid choirs with no little astuteness. He pointed Emperor (Charles V was more than usually devout and ended

monastery at Yuste) that the Masses appointed for the the royal house and more particularly for Charles himself were celebrated with insufficient solemnity. Zumarraga's line of reasoning ran thus: "I believe the deed of erection for these Masses

his days in a

members of

obliges us to sing them, not merely recite them. The Cabildo, however, disagrees with me. But it seems to me that it is preferable to err on the
side of more rather than less in such important matters. However, since there are insufficient funds to pay the singers, and since the Indians who are now singing under Canon Xuarez's direction can only devote a small

part of their time (for they must do outside work), I appeal to you for stipends for the singers." Zum&rraga also pointed out to Charles in this letter other values which would accrue from a costlier music pro-

gram.

At
style]

present

we

and everyone is of the opinion that

are simply singing together simple music [in familiar this is the most satisfactory thing

to <Jo since we have such gaps in our choir. Numbers of the clergy are absent on business elsewhere during the week, and some that remain do

not

know how

to sing plainchant properly.

Experience has taught us how greatly edified the Indians are by sacred music; indeed the fathers who work directly with them and who hear their confessions tell us that more than by preaching the Indians are

They come from great distances in order to hear and they ardently desire not only to learn the fundamentals but also to become really proficient in h. We are not able to pay them. It would be well, however, for those who sing in the choir to be freed from other
converted by the music.
it,

business so that the Masses

may

be celebrated with befitting solemnity. 10

Zumarraga did not simply content himself with pleas to the Emperor, howeverj he himself while detained in Spain on a lengthy visit engaged professional church musicians and purchased manuscript choirbooks for
use at Mexico City.

Music having proved its value as a

indigenes in the Valley of Mexico,
it

tool in missionary work among the was but natural that elsewhere in

60

MUSIC IN MEXICO

New Spain the same emphasis upon music should have manifested itself.
In 1569 Fray Alonso de Paraleja wrote from Guadalajara:
master in every religious house the duties of support an Indian whom consist in teaching reading, writing, arithmetic, and music. Music because most Indians have is taught all those who wish to learn it, and are become skilful angers and players. a natural flair for it,

We

many

We

to pay them for their services in church. unfortunately, however, unable these singers who compose the choirs of our If Your Majesty would order

churches and monasteries to be paid,

in the sight of

it would be accounted a deed glorious God, and would enhance our work with those who still remain heathen. A suggested stipend would be, let us say, ten pesos an-

nually.
-

We are
tke Office
is

sung accompanied by chirimias and

extremely careful to sec that in our churches and monasteries is sung daily, and also on saints' days to see that the Office . . with suitable solemnity. On festival days polyphonic music is sung,
.

flutes,

and the Indians find

all this

ex-

tremely attractive.

We are also careful

own

to see. that the Indians

houses at night [after

work

is

know how to sing in then20 over] suitable Christian hymns.

One final account may suitably be reproduced here. The Council of the
Indies, the supreme governing body in Spain, sent over to Mexico in 1568 an inspector whose duties included the gathering of reports from the

various religious orders on the progress of their missionary labors. The and sang in longest account we have of the Indian musicians who played

the mission churches probably occurs in the report prepared by the Franciscans for this visiting inspector, Licendado Juan de Ovando. The section reproduced below carries the heading, "Singers and Instrumentalists."

The Indian singers and instrumentalists who play in church gather together every day in order to rehearse their singing and playing, using recommend the continuation of our schools for a place to practice.

We

custom: for one thing, because without daily practice they do not progress in their singing, and for another, because they soon forget what
this

they have learned already if they stop practicing. elsewhere than at our schools.

They can

hardly practice

TRANSPLANTING OF EUROPEAN CULTURE

It is customary in the towns large enough to warrant the stationing of clergy for the singers to divide themselves into two choirs, and the players

61

to

form two bands;

choirs

and bands

alike alternate

groups

who

are married and have families

may

see

weekly so those in the them regularly. Also

they need every other week free so they earn enough to pay their taxes. It would be cruel for us to allow them to serve continuously in church, doing nothing but singing. They are all so long-suffering that we feel conscience-stricken not to give them any financial aid. In each of the two

sounding well unless there are at least that many. . . . Finally, it is their custom to sing Mass and the Divine Office in all the churches attached to monasteries.
sing plainchant and polyphony with agreeable skill. In some of more favored towns where time and circumstance propitiously unite,

might

choirs there are ordinarily fifteen or sixteen Indians. While a lesser suffice, still the thinness of their voices prevents them from

number

They

the

they

perform the Offices of the church with as great solemnity and with as impressive music as can be encountered in many of the Cathedral churches
of Spain
itself.

Polyphonic music is the vogue everywhere, and accompaniment of flutes and chirimias is common. In a number of places lutes \duLzeanai\ and
reeds [orlos] along with viols [vihuelas de arco] and other types of instruments are used. Organs are also found in a number of places. The Indians themselves play all these instruments, and their harmonious

sounding together

is truly a wonderful allurement towards Christianity as far as the generality of the natives is concerned. The music is most neces-

lifts

adornment of the church itself and all the beauty of the sary. their spirits to God and centers their minds on spiritual things.

The

music

They

are naturally inclined to be careless and forgetful unless they are reminded of the unseen by the seen and the unheard by the heard. Because of their

very tendency to forget and to neglect, their own governors during the times of their infidelity made a point of occupying them incessantly in the building of huge and sumptuous temples, and also in the adornment of

them with numberless beautiful flowers; requiring them, moreover, to offer gifts of gold and silver, and to participate in endless sacrifices and ceremonies, more severe and arduous than those imposed by the law of
Moses. 31

Most of the passages thus far quoted have had to do with the missionary labors of the Franciscans. Theirs was, of course, the first order commissioned to undertake the conversion of the Indians.

The Dominicans, how-

ever, arrived in force during 1526, and the Augustinians followed in 1532. Juan de Grijalva's Cronica de la Orden de N. P. S. Agustin en las

1>rovmcias

de

la

Nueva

Es-pana

desde el ano de 1533 Aasta el de

62

MUSIC IN MEXICO

7592 contains a passage in which music is endorsed with the same emphasis
as the best allurement to Christianity. After the three orders already named, a fourth, the Society of Jesus, entered Mexico in 1572. Father

P6rez de Rivas (1576-1655), a prominent

Jesuit, testified a century

after the Conquest that in his experience music instruction and performance were still one of the best means of attracting and holding the Indians.

The Jesuit
It
is

Indian work was done in northwestern Mexico j they together

with the Franciscans worked also in California and

New Mexico.

musical ability declined among the quite probable the level of missionaries sent out during the later colonial period Only a few of the
later missionaries in

what

is

now
field

States can

have come into the

the southwestern part of the United with such an extensive background of

But where one did appear in California, training as Pedro de Gante. Father Arroyo de la Cuesta for example, musical emphasis was still found an invaluable aid in the conversion process. Elsewhere in the New World
during the later colonial period music training when given by competent
instructors still

22

proved invaluable. Anthony Sepp (who had received

his

musical training at Augsburg) found that "one secret of [his] popularity among the Indians was his decided talent and love for music." ** Sepp's <cbrilliant success in the musical training of the Indians"

own thorough

won him

a large "harvest" of converts, and "being the

clari [o Jnets,

troduced harps, cornet [t]s,

first to have inand organs into these parts, [he]

has earned for him [self] undying praise." 24 Many other notable examples of missionary success traceable, on the human level at least, to emotional conditioning through music can be
culled

from

Nacton at Buenos Aires. The honors that priority in applying a successful

missionary technique brings rightfully belong to Pedro de Gante in Mexico, however, for it was he who first showed the way.

Jesuit missionary

documents

in the

Archivo General de la

THE RESULTING SUPERFLUITY OF INDIAN

AND INSTRUMENTALISTS

SINGERS

gathering of further statements attesting the Mexican Indian's extraordinary fondness for music would be an easy task, simply because so many of the friars who wrote concerning the conversion of the tribes
ifl

The

Mexico mentioned the role music played in winning them to inauChristianity. But if we understand why the early friars so
central

gladly

TRANSPLANTING OF EUROPEAN CULTURE

63

gurated music instruction, we still perhaps cannot quite understand why such large numbers of Indians gladly undertook careers as professional church musicians, especially when the friars were not usually able to pay

them living wages. The problem of oversupply in the number who presented themselves for service as church musicians was studied by the
Ramirez de president of the famous second audiencia, Bishop Sebastian Fuenleal. Fuenleal ascribed the plethora of church musicians / to the
prestige they enjoyed

by virtue of their profrom taxation which they fession, exemption often enjoyed. Both these advantages descended to them from their

among

their fellow-Indians

and

2 to the privilege of

pre-Conquest antecessors. As Fuenleal remarked: "Among the Indians [before the Conquest] instrumentalists and singers were highly esteemed,
because by means of songs their musicians preserved the memory of the not only was respect given those who devoted themselves to pastj and

music but also the privilege of exemption from taxation."

25

The

first official

mentalists was Alonso de Montufar. The printed provisions of this council, which were of the council, explain what published in 1556, the year after the meeting

singers and instrucouncil called by Archbishop taken at the initial church

notice of the excessive

number of

had taken

place.

flutes, viols,

The great excess in our archdiocese of musical instruments, of chirimfas, trumpets, and the great number of Indians who spend their

time in playing and singing obliges us to apply a remedy and to place a limit therefore require and order that from on all this superabundance.

We

henceforth trumpets shall not be played in churches during divine service, and require that no more be bought; those which are already in possession
of the churches shall be used only in outdoor processions, and not as acwe require companiment for the liturgy. As for the chirimfas and flutes,
that they be stored in the principal towns and only distributed for use in the their patron saints; and as for viols and other villages on festival days of

instruments,

we request that these too be no longer used; we urge all the to install organs everywhere so that indecorous and improper inclergy struments may be banished from the church. The organ is the correct
instrument for use in the church, and
in Mexico.

we

wish

its

use to

become

universal

We charge all clergy in our archdiocese and all other clergy in Mexico
but under our spiritual jurisdiction, careresiding outside our archdiocese to limit the number of singers throughout our jurisdiction so that fully

64

MUSIC IN MEXICO
no more than arc necessary shall continue to spend their time simply in be able to sing plainsinging. Those who are permitted to continue must
chant intelligently.

They

shall sing polyphonic

music only

when
2*

their

singing conforms to standards which

we

consider acceptable.

where

Because of the vast number of churches which have sprung up everyin our archdiocese, proper regulation has proved difficult. . . .

We therefore decree that only those which in the judgment of the ordinary
really necessary shall be permitted to continue; the others shall be taken down. Those that remain shall be decently equipped with all the proper furnishings and ornaments. No more Indians than are absolutely

seem

necessary shall be permitted to become choristers and custodians. They should be few in number, and should live lives that are without blemish or spot. They moreover should know the doctrines of our holy faith and
the traditional customs of the church.
bachelors,

They
are

should be married and not

to give 27 . . ignorant.
priests

and they should be persons who know how

sound in.

struction in doctrine to those

catechists

who

still

Indian
able

who work

in villages

where there are no

must be

to sing the various prayers, so they can teach the people. 28 . . . The Indian singers shall be examined by the clergy who know the native lan-

guages, and shall not be permitted to sing songs that remind the people of their old idolatrous customs; they shall sing nothing that savours of heathenism or that offends against sound doctrine. 29

The
of

festivity,

Indians of this nation continue to delight on the kind of dancing, and of mirth-making which they delighted in during the days

that

of their heathenism; but in order to avoid contamination from customs may contain seeds of evil, we ask (as said the Apostle Paul) that the
evil

appearance of

be avoided. 80

dancing before the hour of High Mass; they

the afternoon and in the evening.

Furthermore they shall not begin may dance, however, during

No more convincing proof need be given than these extracts

from the

printed proceedings of the council to show with what extravagance the Indians had token to the music of the friars. One chronicler caustically

remarked the Indians liked Mass best when it was an instrumental concert as well. But churches in Mexico during this period were by no means
unique in allowing a wide assortment of wind and string instruments. They were a commonplace even in the chapel mu$ic at Charles Vs court

TRANSPLANTING OF EUROPEAN CULTURE

His chapel payroll included
salaries for eight

65

drummers

81

trumpeters and four

strings.

in addition to salaries for

woodwinds and

The

de-

cision of the First

to exclude all these was, however, in line with the eventual dictates of Philip II, who in 1572 finally abolished

Mexican Council

instruments from his chapel. 82 What deserves particular notice in the decisions of the First Mexican Council is not, then, simply the fact that instrumental music was a comall

monplace in the newly founded churches, but rather that Indian instruand singers had multiplied beyond reason. Philip II was not slow in adding the force of his secular authority to the decisions of the bishops. In February of 1561 he issued to the president and oidores of
mentalists

the royal audiencia a cedula which read in part:

Because of the cost of maintaining the present excessive number, of in-

who consume their time playing trumpets, clarions, chirimfas, sackbuts, flutes, cornetts, dulzainas, fifes, viols, rebecs, and other kinds of instruments, an inordinate variety of which are now in use in the monasteries, . . . and because the number of musicians and singers
strumentalists

reported to be increasing constantly in both large and small towns, . and because very many of those reared simply to sing and play on instruments soon become lazy scoundrels whose morals are reported
is
.
.

to be extremely bad,
tribute

and

resist

of Indians

who

places they do not pay a reduction in the number require shall be permitted to occupy themselves as musicians. 88
.

and because

in

many

lawful authority,

we

Even Philip's

strongly

worded cedula, enforcing as

it

did the decisions

of the First Mexican Council, failed however to procure the desired resultsj the Second Mexican Provincial Council meetings in 1565, a decade

was again forced to occupy itself with the same In addressing itself to Philip, the Second Council petitioned; problem.
after the First Council,

Item, that Your Highness order a further abatement in the excessive the small payment they now receive number of Indian singers; 84 almost always is insufficient for them even to eat, much, less pay tribute.
. .

In general it would be correct to say that the opinion of the prelates and of the secular clergy favored throughout the sixteenth century a drastic
.

curtailment in the numbers of Indians

the

friars,

were willing to

place, in

whom the regulars, that is to say such semi-official church positions as

66

MUSIC IN MEXICO

church decorators, music instrument makers, janitors, building custodians, and pkyers and singers in church services. With the division of opinion
that existed
it

was but natural that the

friars

wherever they were in com-

heed to the musical injuncplete control should not have paid overmuch tions issued by Montufar. Since Montufar was himself a Dominican, the

members of his own order perhaps took his injunctions seriously, but the Franciscans and even the Augustinians seem at times blandly to have disregarded him. Admirable men often disagreed on. vital points of missionary procedure during the sixteenth century as the violent disagreement of such leaders as Las Casas and Motolinia on the correct method of baptizing Indians illustrates. Because of this possibility of disagreement, then, one finds that Indian musical life did continue to flourish, at least in
Franciscan environments, long after church councils had ordered an abatement and after Philip II had himself intervened in order to halt the
excess.

The reasons high secular and ecclesiastical authorities tried to limit the spawning of Indian choirs were exactly the same reasons that induced so
many Indians to offer themselves as church musicians. The Indian singers
to be reminded continuously, even as late as the end of the century, that they could no longer expect the tax exemptions which their preConquest forbears had enjoyed And they had similarly to be reminded

had

that,

whatever kindnesses had been done them by the

friars, in

the minds

of bishops their place in God's economy was as hewers of drawers of water rather than as children of the covenant 85
Saldfvar, the foremost living authority on

wood and

Mexican

colonial music,

found an interesting petition presented by a group of Indian singers who prayed Viceroy Martin Enriquez in 1576 for relief from the tribute,

Enrfquez roughly reminded them that they must pay it like every other Indian, no matter how poor they were or how little they received for their
services as church musicians. Saldfvar also unearthed evidence to

show

that the cash salaries paid a sampling of 1,376 Indian singers averaged during Enriquez's administration only a little more than two pesos annually.

Even

this munificent cash salary was,

however, begrudged by

Spanish self-styled grandees. It is of course well-known that many prelates came to regard the Mexican church simply as a choice haven for

impecunious immigrants. In the 123 towns whose records Saldfvar studied the average number of Indian church musicians was 1 1.2, a figure which
represented in

some

cases instrumentalists as well as singers. Since the

TRANSPLANTING OF EUROPEAN CULTURE

towns which he included in
lets

67

this count

were

in

many

instances

mere ham-

or villages numbering their total population in the hundreds rather than thousands, a figure of eleven musicians for each is sufficient
quite

proof that Mendieta and Torquemada knew their arithmetic when they boasted of the tremendous interest the Indians took in music. But the

average cash salary paid the 1,376 Indian singers whose records Saldivar studied reached only about one percent of the average cash salary paid Spanish and Creole singers who functioned at the same time in the important metropolitan churches of

New Spain. 86

THE MUSICAL ACHIEVEMENT OF EARLY COLONIAL INDIAN CHOIRS

Indian choirs

As Torquemada summed up the achievement of sixteenth-century when he came to write his Monarquia Indiana (published
I.

in 1615) their record seems notable.

Without receiving any direct gifts of choirbooks, the Indians neverwere able to create splendid libraries of church music by painstakingly copying books brought over by Zumarraga and his deputies.
theless

After they had learned to write, they then learned how to draw lines on paper and write music notes; they then made excellent copies both of plainsong and of polyphonic music in large letters suitable for use in choirs. Their copies were used by the friars as well as by themselves, and were
beautifully

done with illuminated

letters

throughout.

II. By sharing among themselves teaching which certain privileged ones were able to get from Spanish masters, musical culture of the

European type became

sufficiently diffused for

them

to develop respect-

able choirs even in their smaller villages.

Nowadays every town

singers

of one hundred population or

more

contains

who have learned how

to sing the Offices, the Mass, Vespers,

and

are proficient in polyphonic music; competent instrumentalists are also found everywhere. The small towns all have their supply of instruments,

and even the

smallest hamlets,

no matter how
87 Jalisco.

insignificant,

have three or
is this

four Indians at least

in the provinces of

who

sing every day in church. Especially

true

Michoacan and

III. Because the Indians in addition to

making

their

own

instruments

soon developed

among themselves

the art of fabricating clever imitations

6*

MUSIC IN MEXICO

of European instruments brought over by the invaders, they were able to develop instrumental accompanying ensembles with unique and unforeseen tone color
possibilities.

The
oboes,

first

instruments of music manufactured here were

flutes,

then

and afterwards viols and bassoons and cornetts. After a while there no single instrument used in churches which Indians in the larger was towns had not learned to make and play. It became unnecessary to import
tradiction; in afl

any of these from Spain. One thing can be asserted without fear of conChristendom there is nowhere a greater abundance of

flutes, sackbuts, trumpets, and drums, than here in New Spain. Organs have also been installed here in nearly all the churches which are administered by the orders. However, with these, not the Indians but rather

not have

Spanish builders have taken charge of construction, since the Indians do capital for such larger enterprises. The Indians make the organs

vents.

under supervision, and they play the organs in our monasteries and conThe other instruments which serve for solace or delight on secular
all

occasions are

made

here by the Indians,

who

also (day

them: rebecs,

guitars, trebles, viols,

88 harps, monochords.

IV. The Indian musical accomplishment was by no means limited simply to clever imitation of European performance, but included also a certain amount of original creative activity in the European idiom.

With this I conclude (and this is an important observation) : only a few years after the Indians began to learn the chant, they also began to compose. Their vfllancicos, their polyphonic music in four parts, certain masses
and other
liturgical

works*

afl

composed with

adroitness,

have been ad-

by

judged superior works of art when shown Spanish masters of composition. Indeed the Spanish masters often thought they could not have been written Indians. 39

MUSIC KUNTINa DURING THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

An aggregate of approximately 220 books are known to have been published in Mexico during the sixteenth century. these sixteenth century Mexican books were

very large proportion of printed in Indian tongues.

nine different Indian languages

were published in at least including Nahuatl, Otomf, Tarasco, Maya, Zapotec, Huastec, Mixtec, Utlatec, and Chuchon. Those who con-

Grammars,

dictionaries,

and

religious tracts

TRANSPLANTING OF EUROPEAN CULTURE

trolled the press obviously had no intention of neglecting the Indian.

69

The

books published in Spanish included

herbs,

treatises

on surgery, instruction leaflets arithmetic, records of notable current events such as earthquakes, tary
stories of
texts.

on navigation, on medicinal on how to teach reading, on elemen-

voyages and explorations, and a large number of devotional

these 220-odd Mexican imprints, twelve are known to have been music. The first book containing music apliturgical books containing

Of

peared in 1556,

thirty-five years after Cortes crushed the

Aztec nation.

The remaining

eleven of these dozen Mexican liturgical books containmusic were published between 1560 and 1589. Several circumstances ing a dozen music books in Mexico during conspire to make the printing of

the sixteenth century a notable achievement. During the half-century between 1550 and 1600 only fourteen liturgical books with music were
'

published in Spain, the home country. During the entire century, twenty40 nine liturgical books with music were published in Spain.
If
that

we look more closely at the publication record in Spain we discover from only one publishing center Toledo were as many liturgical

books with music issued during the entire century as were published in Mexico City during the brief span of thirty-three years between 1556 and
1589. Six such books were published in Salamanca (where Francisco de
Salinas occupied the chair of music during the latter years of the in Seville (the seat of the archdiocese century). One each was published

Mexico depended until 1546), and in Madrid Even Toledo would not have matched (the newly the publication record of Mexico City during the century had not the great Cardinal Xim6nez de Cisneros, a prelate of vast learning and Biblical

on which the

diocese of

established capital).

zeal, dedicated himself to the restoration

and propagation of a

rite-^the

Mozarabic which differed from the more usual Roman rite. The number of books with music published in Mexico is significant not
of such books published in Spain only in comparison with the number but also because Mexico was the only Hispanic during the same epoch, in which any books of liturgicolony throughout the entire colonial period Lima in Peru where another viceroyalty cal music were printed. Even at whose importance equaled that of Mexico had its seat, no music books were printed. Printing of books started in Lima just forty-five years after Mexico. In most other respects, except the printing of printing began in music books, both Lima and Mexico presses followed a similar course of

70

MUSIC IN MEXICO

development. In both capitals the first book was a manual of Christian doctrine in an Indian tongue. The 1539 Breve y mas comfendiosa doctrma
published at Mexico City in the language of the Aztecs was the counterpart of the 1584 Doctrine Christiana published at Lima in the language of

The first printers in both capitals were Italians j printing from the beginning in both capitals was rigidly circumscribed by government regulations. From presses in both capitals flowed a stream of titles
the Incas.

having

to

do with

similar cultural interests.

The

literary life in both capitals

followed a parallel course j a long heroic poem such as Pedro de Ona's Arauco domado (1596), published in Lima, was soon followed by another similarly ambitious poem on a New World theme, Bernardo de Balbuena's Grandeza Mexican* (1604), published in Mexico. These comparisons between the cultural life of Mexico and of the other Hispanic
colony nearest
it

in political importance, Peru, are offered simply in order

to reinforce the capital importance of the music books which we are now about to discuss more specifically. If it is not realized that in no other

Hispanic colony of the colonial period were such publication ventures involving music attempted; and if it is not realized that during the particular period when these books were printed Spain herself

matched her colony,

New Spain, one cannot properly appreciate the

music

scarcely

true
in-

significance of these twelve

boob which

are

now

submitted for

dividual examination.

DESCRIPTION OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY MEXICAN IMPRINTS

CONTAINING MUSIC

Four of the dozen music books printed in Mexico before 1600 contain the plainchant portions of the Mass sung by the choir j these portions include not only the Ordinary of the Mass, that is to say, the invariable
por-

and so forth j but also the Proper, portions change from day to day. These four books bear the collective title, Graduate Dominical*.

tions such as the Kyrie eleison, Gloria, that is to say, the which

The word

"Donainicale" in the tide does not

mean "Dominican"

as

some im-

perfectly informed Latinists

have supposed.

The Dominican

order did most

its

certainly import choirbooks during this particular epoch to fulfill

own

in-

dividual needs in Mexico.

shipment of forty boxes of boob to Mexico in 1584 contained, for instance, twelve Dominican liturgical books, 41 seven of

TRANSPLANTING OF EUROPEAN CULTURE

71

which were specifically listed as books published in Venice. The Dominicans used an order of the Mass which was their own, and differed then as now
their

from the standard Roman arrangement of the elements in the Mass. But own individual liturgical needs could be met by importing books into

Mexico, rather than by undergoing the expense of printing them in the colony. "Dominicale" in the title, Graduate DomtmcaUy simply means that the choir-

book in question contains the plainchant sung

Masses.

in all

Sunday and feast-day

The

second largest group

Mexico comprised three

the dozen with music printed in antiphonaries. These antiphonaries contained

among

the plainchant sung during the canonical hours.

The

singing of the canonical hours, a practise as old as St. Benedict, occupies the singer's entire day. The canonical hours include matins (sung before ; kuds (sung at dawn) 5 prime (sung shortly after daybreak) ; terce dawn)

(sung in mid-morning)

sext (sung at

noon)

none (sung in mid-afternoon) ;

vespers (sung at nightfall); and compline (sung just before retiring). During the canonical hours psalms and antiphons are sung. These psalms and antiphons

change from day to day and often from hour

to hour.

Moreover, the music

(for the antiphons especially) is often extremely florid. Nowadays the hours are $ung only in monasteries and conventual churches, but in sixteenth century
six

Mexico they were sung everywhere. In village churches where there were only or seven singers, an abbreviated and easy Office of Nuestra Senora-^ Our 42 elsewhere the Office in unabbreviated form was attempted. Lady, was sung;

The

directories, for the

other seven liturgical books with music include two manuals, or proper administration of the sacraments; a missal

(which contains the music sung by the celebrant at Mass, rather than the music sung .by the choir) j a passion-book (containing in this particular case the music sung during the last three days of Holy Week) ; and a directory

who were being prepared for the priesthood (containing brief of music for the priest to sing at Mass: giving only a tabloid excerpts version, however, of all he was supposed to sing).
for novices
of these twelve books published in Mexico was the simplest as was concerned* Its printer was not named, but the date of publication, 1556, appeared on the tidepage. From the Latin tide of this first book containing music one learns that it was designed to serve as a directory
I.
first

The

far as music

7i

MUSIC IN MEXICO

of worship for members of the Augustinian order; moreover, that this directory of worship had been purified of errors which had crept into other directories of a similar character; that though the ceremonies were purified the chants in its titlepage was printed the following: their old form were retained.

On

/ sand* Augustim fpisco/fi 6? nunc denub / corrcctu, nque f no secudum / more reguLam obser/uate, chores altos, f/ Mexid. anno / dm. an/ttquu / cc/remome fiant, scd se/cudu
/ sacn ordtms herernxtaru

ORDINAR1UM

7556 / idibus / Ittlij. The total number of pages in this book, or booklet, amounts to only eighty. But a large number of essential matters in the conduct of public worship are included; the tides of the first several chapters will afford some idea of the contents: (i) How and when to ring bells, (2) When to face the altar, (3) When to stand and when to sit, (4) The times for singing, (5) Proper tones
for benedictions

and

absolutions, (6)

When to kneel while in choir,

Versicles, invitatories.

to genuflect, (8) tered through the

When

bow, (9) Ordinarium does not supply a complete version of

to

The

(7) When music scatall

that

the entire year. It simply gives the inpriest should sing at Mass throughout tonations which the priest should sing at various classes of church feasts

throughout the year. These feasts are classified under such conventional head"minora semiduplicia," "maiora ings as "minora simplkia,'* "maiora simplicia,"
semiduplitia."

Ordmarium was intended to serve as an manual for young Augustinian seminarians whose destined field of service was Indian work in Mexico. From it the seminarian could learn the basic rules of church etiquette. After studying it he would know not only the intonations for the Kyries, Glorias, Sanctuses, and Agnuses, which he should form processing at various classes of feasts^ but he would know also how to what colors of ecclesiastical vestments he should wear throughout the sions,

As

inspection clearly reveals, this

instruction

how to swing incense, proper melodic formulas for the intoning of gospels, how to be a subdeacon or a deacon at Mass, how to give the fax, what to do. when the bishop visited his church. As an instruction manual its
church year,
virtues are manifest \ rules are clearly set

down
all

in simple language, the easiest

difficult rules,

rules are given first with

an orderly progression towards more

only the bare, essentials are stressed with

superfluous verbiage stripped

away.
All the melodies in the book were, as the titlepage of the book
several centuries old at the time the book
itself

suggested,

was compiled. From datings supplied by the Solesmes scholars it is apparent that none of the chants printed in this 1556 book can have originated later than the twelfth century. This Ordmanum, moreover, contains no Creed-melodies. But though Creed-melodies are omitted,
the

1556 book does supply melodies

for the

lu

nussa est sung by the priest at

TRANSPLANTING OF EUROPEAN CULTURE

73

the end of Mass. In consonance with the instructional purpose of the book, most of the melodies include^ are of an easy syllabic rather than a melisnaatic
type.

In order to show
in such

how

an

easily accessible

nearly the 1556 melodies approximate those printed book as the 1934 edition of the Liber USIM&, we

present below for comparison the opening phrases of four different Kyries, the first Kyrie in each pair being the 1556 version and the second being the Solesmes version. The Solesmes monks, of course, made no claims to infalli-

but they did attempt to determine the exact shape of a given melody at it was originally divulged. If a melody as printed in 1556 closely adhered to the version arrived at by the Solesmes scholars after painstaking colbility,

the time

lation,
all

one may safely say that the 1556 version was "uncorrupted." Nearly recent liturgiologists have made a great point of the supposed corruption of plainchant during the Renaissance. It would be interesting then to see from

a study of the melodies as they appear in sixteenth century Mexican imprints whether this corruption was as universal as has been supposed.

OrtUnmrtttmJ*//*

7r*ttc.

t T

ii

ii

~ riijrn EtejE
. .
.

X/-r/-e

/*,-*.

74

MUSIC IN MEXICO

- rl - e

.<

...

Uf-6<m.

Liber lUu.a.tis , bib.

U~i-

sen.

The building on Isabel la Catolica Street in Mexico City now used to house the Biblioteca National was originally a part of the building used as headquarters for the Augustinian order in New Spain. As one thinks of the sixtynine Mexican incunabula already shelved as rare books at the Biblioteca Nadonal, it would seem particularly appropriate that a copy of the 1556

Ordmarium should be among them, and more especially as one thinks of the order under whose auspices this first music book appeared. As yet, however, the Biblioteca Nacional does not possess a copy. Perhaps in the future a copy wfll
come
to light

somewhere which can become the property of the

Biblioteca

Nacional; the only copy in the United States is one which was formerly owned by a resident of Titusville, Pennsylvania, and which is now in the possession
of the

New York Public

Library.

II. The second book with music published in the New World was the Manual* Sacramentorum secundum usum ecclesie Mexican? printed in 1560 by Juan Pablos. This manual was by no means the manual for beginners that the 1556 Ordmarium was; it contained 354 pages, and its use was made
.
.

mandatory throughout the archbishopric of Mexico by Montufar. This particuManuaU did not present a liturgical usage drawn from any one continental usage. Montufar and the other bishops who sat at the First Mexican Council (1555) had no way of knowing what kind of liturgical usage would finally
lar

be prescribed by the Council of Trent, then in adjourned session. The bishops under Montufar's presidency committed themselves in 1560, then, to a liturgical use drawn not from any one source, but rather to an eclectic use derived from the usages of Rome, Tokdo, Salamanca, Seville, Granada, "y otros."

The
it

music of

too

this 1560 manual has not yet been studied in was drawn from a diversity of sources, and in order
it,

detail;

presumably
books in use

to locate the exact

provenience of the plainchant melodies contained in

at the various

liturgical

named

Spanish centers would need to be consulted.

certain

independence, a Neo-Hispanic "Gallicanism," if one will call it that, seems manifest not only in this sacramentary "according to the use of the Mexican Church," but in several later liturgical books which were issued

unexpected

liturgical

TRANSPLANTING OF EUROPEAN CULTURE

before Pius V's bull

75

exuberances then

Quod a nobts "swept away all the numerous variations and common in the Roman Rite, and established one uniform
48

Mass, and one uniform method of saying Mass."

HI. In 1561 was

sixteenth century.

published a

Missale

Romanum

Ordinarium which has

been called the handsomest book issued from the Mexican press during the

The most splendid product

of the Mexican press, a volume whose pre-

eminence has been challenged only two or three times during the centuries which have elapsed since its publication, is the Missale Romanum Ordt-

nariumy printed in the city of Mexico in 1561. It is a magnificent folio volume of 330 leaves, printed in red and black, with historiated initials and 4 occasional woodcut borders.* Music printing appears on 52 pages in this 1561 JMissale. The notes themselves are printed in black; the five-line staff in red.

The

music, like that of the

1556 Ordmanum^ has been chosen from the repertory of simpler chants; both books were printed for the use of priests rather than choirs, and therefore florid chants were quite naturally excluded. The majority of the melodies in the
1561 Missdc are syllabic. Neumes of two notes appear frequently enough (podatus and clivis), but three-note neumes are rare (torculus and climacus).

No such niceties as liquescent neumes or the quflisma appear anywhere throughin plainsong.
so, the music could never have been sung by a mere tyro kind of background in plainsong that clergy in New Spain were expected to have may be gauged not only from the character of the melodies in this book, but also from certain rules already promulgated by Arch-

out the book. Even

The

bishop Montufar five years before the printing of this Missal*. In the 1556 ConsUtudones del arfobisfado Montufar required that candidates for minor orders must "know the fundamentals of plainchant, and at the very least must be able to sight-sing creditably." Candidates for the diaconate were expected

show that they had mastered all the rules for singing set down in the breviary. Those ordained to the priesthood were required to demonstrate a still higher were at all impledegree of accomplishment as plainchanters. If these rules
to

mented, then Montufar had a right to expect that the music notes printed the 1561 Missile would serve more than a mere decorative purpose.

in

Garcfa Icazbalceta, the great Mexican bibliographer, compared the 1561 Missal with standard missels in use in his own day. Since he was not interested
45 He found that in musical problems he confined his study to textual variants. the 1561 Missalt had selected their text from no single European the editors of material from a large number of different but had

source,

pieced together

sources.
tors

Having chosen a preface or a postcommunion or other matter, the edihowever adhered faithfully to the source from which they were at the

76

MUSIC IN MEXICO
copying. Insofar as the music in the 1561 Missale can be compared in contemporary European missals the same thing holds true. exhaustive search has not been made, but at present it seems certain the

moment

with the music

An

music editor no more committed himself to copying the music in toto from any single European source than did the editors of the Mtssale text. What is perhaps significant, however, is the fact that though eclectic in choosing his source-books, once having committed himself to a particular melody he copied it with utter
fidelity.

as

Although then he assembled his music from a wide variety of do modern hymn-book editors, at least it seems that once having
a particular antiphon,
introit,

sources,
selected
it

his source for

or other melody, he then copied

without tinkering. Some such antiphon as the one given below will show was copied, once it had been selected.

how

faithfully

a model

prl-m*

smi-J* -tit

n -nil tf*~ri-a. My -<&

-

-<t -

-sl

a, vi-d*

rt

5*

-fat

crumf at

- Lu -

ia

(Venice,

/'

rn

f"i

j
tl

* -tern

A*-

et

at-k-ra

The underlined notes in the 1497 Missal differ from those in the 1561 Missal otherwise these two examples are identical
-y

TRANSPLANTING OF EUROPEAN CULTURE

IV.

77

The

fourth Mexican book with music

was

published seven years after

Espinosa's much-praised Missale. In 1568 a French printer named Pedro de Ocharte published a Manuals secundum usum Almae EccUsiae Mexicanae.

This was the

first

music book published under a ceiling price regulation. Diego

de Sansores, the gentleman at whose cost the book was printed, was enjoined not to sell it in a paper-back covering for more than four pesos de oro comun.

The publication of another book traversing almost the identical territory covered
by the 1560 Manuale proved necessary in 1568 because during the intervening eight years a pontifical commission had recommended certain revisions of the
sacramentary.

V.

The exact dating of the next imprint, a

Gradual* Donumcaley has proved

because in the one extant copy both title page and colophon are miss46 Formerly this particular mutilated copy, now shelved at the Biblioteca ing. National in Mexico City, was thought (for reasons that will appear later) to
difficult

have been printed in 1576; now, however,

copy was printed
before 1572.

it is

recognized that this mutilated

VI.

The

next two books were printed by Pedro de Ocharte.

A Frenchman

from Rouen, he had fallen heir to the business started by Juan Paolos, the first Pablos's daughter). Probably because he was printer in Mexico (by marrying envied and disliked by certain Spaniards he was denounced to the Inquisition at the very moment he was in process of completing an order for one hundred

Juan Diego de Rincon, bishop of and Tarasco linguist. Because Rincon's order was pressing, Ocharte Michoacan, while still in prison implored the printer who was his rival, Antonio de Espinosa,
ordered by passion-books, Passionaries,
to finish printing these books. In a letter to his wife, Ocharte described the and contents, which included music for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday,

Holy Saturday. The documents

collected

by the Inquisition

authorities during their investi-

which bear on Ocharte's passion-books. In all he printed gation include several sum twenty pesos. 41 310 of them, and for each one he asked a handsome
This was
reveals,
five times the price placed

on

his

1568 Manual*. The

Inquisition file

moreover,

who

read proof,

who

took charge of delivering the books

while Ocharte was in prison, and even the name of the person who pulled sheets know when Ocharte was apprehended, and while he was awaiting trial. we know therefore that the printing of the Passionario was completed shortly

We

before

March

j,

extant today.
disappear?

Where The story

is 1572. Yet despite all this specific information not one copy did 310 books selling for such an extraordinary price

of the Inquisition

trial

and the documents appertaining

78
to
it

MUSIC IN MEXICO
became known shortly before the first World War when the Archivo la Nacion published the pertinent materials. But no one had ever

General de

seen a copy of the Passionario itself. Finally in the late 1930*8 several battered sheets of a Passion According to St. John in plainsong setting were found in a tiny Indian village near Tlaxcala.

Here

at last

was a

possible

the eight pages of passion music

caU which was

later

fragment from Ocharte's PasAonario. Along with was found a fragment of a Graduate Domtn*identified as one of the issues of 1576. Interest rose in

the passion fragment collecter named Conway and another named Federico Gomez de Orozco shared possession of the battered sheets which had been

Mexican bibliographers was secured and the sheets were finally pronounced authentic fragments of a eight questioned sixteenth century passion-book which could be none other than Ocharte's, since
found.
assistance of expert
is known to have been printed in Mexico during that century. Specimens of type from the known Ocharte books proved it had been printed at his press. His own letter saying he had printed only the portions of the pas-

48

The

none other

on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday clinched the matter; the only Passion narrative that would be sung during any one of and that was those three days would be the Passion According to St. John
sion used

the gospel portion found in the Indian village. The finding of these several sheets demonstrated once
that have beset

more

the hazards

Mexican sixteenth-century imprints. It is no wonder that only one copy of the 1556 book, one copy of the 1560 book, two copies of the 1561 book, and one or two copies of certain other books here mentioned have come

into the possession of libraries in the United States, despite the high prices paid for them. The British Museum and the Biblioteca Nadonal in Madrid have

acquired occasional copies offered for sale by private Mexican collectors, but even the National Library in Mexico still lacks some of the most important music
imprints. In view of the scattered places in which the books now exist at the Biblioteca Nacional in Mexico City, others at the University of
in the

some Texas

Garcia Icazbalceta

collection, others at the

New York

Public Library,

and other individual items at the Newberry Library in Chicago, at the Huntington Library in San Marino, and at the Library of Congress in Washington
is not surprising that so little is actually known concerning these Mexican music imprints. Henry R. Wagner, whose studies in Mexican bibliography are definitive, has more than once called attention to the inadequate canvassing of Mexican music imprints, simply because of the wide dispersal of the books and

the difficulty of

making comparisons.

VTL The
however, of

its

next book with music has disappeared altogether. know, existence through the same set of Inquisition documents which

We

TRANSPLANTING OF EUROPEAN CULTURE

79

revealed the existence of an Ocharte Passionario. Along with a passion-book, he spoke of an Antiphonario Dominical which he said Espinosa was in process of printing for him while he was imprisoned. Although we cannot now x an
exact terminal date for
later
its completion, it must have been finished not much than the summer of 1572. In March Ocharte ordered his friend and factotum, Diego de Sansores, to give Espinosa all the paper "de marca mayor"

of superior quality which he had still at his shop in order that Espinosa 49 finish the Antxphonario without The next mention of this pardelay. ticular antiphonary occurs in the record of the Cabildo Eclesiastico which met on

might

February 12, 1577. On that date the Cabildo ordered that Pedro de Ocharte (whose imprisonment had ended in 1574) be paid 40 pesos de tepuzque for an antiphonary that had already been delivered to the cathedral authorities at an
earlier unspecified date. 50
51

VTII, IX, X.

In 1576

at least three
issued.

(and

possibly four)

editions of a

new Gradual* Dominicale were

was printed "at the charges of Ocharte"; Ocharte himself published the other by Espinosa two editions of the same book. The issue of three different editions of an
editions

One of these 1576

immense book comprising more than four hundred large folio pages all in one year needs explanation. Such a book printed throughout in two impressions, black over red, with music of the more elaborate plainsong variety printed on
nearly every page, must have been hugely expensive to produce. The pressure of a real emergency is needed if we are satisfactorily to account for the simul-

taneous issue of three editions. No decision independently made by the Mexican hierarchy was responsible for the sudden and urgent need for new choir books. Rather it was Pope Pius V's decree issued in 1 57 1 concerning the reform
of the missal and with
acquisition of
it

of the gradual that

made

necessary the immediate

new

missals

mented
ing
it

liturgical decisions

and graduals everywhere. Pius V*s decree implealready made by the Council of Trent, and in issu-

all liturgical books should be printed under the direct supervision of the Roman See. Although the purpose of this ruling was to halt all liturgical printing undertaken elsewhere, Philip II soon overrode

he stipulated that henceforth

the stipulation that all books should be printed at

for

Rome. But

die requirement

new
in

and

and graduals exactly conforming to papal requirements stood, Mexico as elsewhere new books had immediately to be procured.
missals

The
of time

capacity of

any one press

to

produce

new

was severely

limited during the sixteenth century.

books within a given length When a sudden need

tween two

arose for quantity production of any one book> the work had to be divided bewas printers. In England, for instance, when a new prayerbook

adopted by Parliament in 1 548, and its use throughout the whole realm became mandatory on or before Whitsunday in 1549, a sufficient number of books

80

MUSIC IN MEXICO

could only be produced by dividing the work between two printers, Whitchurch and Grafton. In Mexico the commission for new graduals was divided between Ocharte and Espinosa. Ocharte alone may have produced three editions, but in any event he undertook two. The evidence for the production of two rests on
the differing typography of printer, and each bearing the

How

does this

two Graduates, each bearing Ocharte's name as 5 76 imprint date. extraneous information concerning printers and publication
1

dates add significantly to our knowledge concerning music in sixteenth century Mexico? In this fashion: from the different bits of information now assembled
fairly accurate estimate of the number of choirs in Mexico which in 1576 were capable of doing in elaborate plainsong version the entire liturgy of the church. Mendieta and Torquemada boasted of an incredible

one can arrive at a

development of Indian

choirs.

The

evidence pieced together here proves that

they were entirely correct in their boast.

In 1572,

310

seen, Ocharte stated that he had just finished printing of which one hundred had been ordered by the bishop of Passionaries,
as

we have

Michoacan. If in 1572 with no pressure upon him to produce more than one hundred books he was able to print an extra 210, then certainly he was able to turn out no less than twice 310 when he produced two editions of the Graduate.
Espinosa's contribution of a third batch of graduals in

1576 means we should

multiply 310, our test figure, by three. The result, 930, can be accepted as a minimal figure; probably the actual number was in excess of 1,000. Because
all

these

1576 Graduals were

"libros

de

facistol" only

one copy for each choir

required. That a thousand choirs with singers all trained to sing the full service in the elaborate plainsong version of the 1576 Graduate Donwmcale should have existed in Spain at that time seems indeed astounding. In all

was

New

were only 14,711 Spaniards. 52 If every Spaniard in the realm had been singing plainchant there would have been scarcely enough of them to fill the choirs for whose specific use the 1576 Graduates were printed. But the records of the Metropolitan church at Mexico City, as they
in

New Spain

1580

there

have been collected by Dr. Lota

M.

Spell, clearly

show

that Spanish singers

were notoriously difficult to come by; only a few of the cathedrals, such as those at Mexico City, at Puebk, and at Guadalajara, can have used any Spanish
Perhaps never at any time in any colony has so quickly and thoroughly been applied a bright polish of European musical culture as in sixteenth century Mexico.
singers at all. Nearly all of the 10,000 or more choir singers the service out of the 1576 Graduates were Indians.

who began singing

The music of the 1 576 Graduate is substantially the same music as that which
printed in current editions of the Graduate. Copies of the 1576 Gradual may now be seen in Mexico at the Biblioteca Nacional (collocation number
is

)>

^d ft the United .States at the Newberry Library in

Chicago and

TRANSPLANTING OF EUROPEAN CULTURE

81

at the Library of Congress. The congressional copy, which lacks tide-page and colophon, differs in small details from the Newberry copy (especially in the use of wood-cuts) ; the congressional copy also differs in certain small details from

the Biblioteca Nacional copy; each of the three copies is individually different from the other two. But all three 1576 Graduate conform exactly to the Tridentine decrees; the 1571 Biblioteca Nacional Gradual does not

XI, XII. Two more Mexican imprints with music were published before 1600: the Psdtenum Amfhonarium [sic] Sanctorale, cum Psalmis et Hymms . . . , printed by Ocharte in 1584, and finally an Antifhonarium,
printed also by Ocharte (1589). Both these last two books contain music for the revised breviary; although the revised breviary had been announced by Pius two years before the announcement of the revised missal, the less immediate

demand

for music for the Office delayed the final issue

of antiphonaries. In

a copy of the 1589 Anttfhonanum

preserved at the University of Texas notations are given for an organ accompaniment The cutting of the marginal margins in order to prepare this particular copy for binding has pared away
essential writing, but

now

some

enough remains

to provide clues as to

performance

practice.

PRESENT-DAY SIGNIFICANCE OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY

MUSIC IMPRINTS

The present-day significance of these music imprints can be summarized

under
six headings: (i)

printed in the

New World.

These were the first books containing music (2) They were the only liturgical books with

( 3) They provide superb of the printer's art in sixteenth century America. (4) The plainexamples chant printed in them is less "corrupted" than had previously been thought

music published in any of the Spanish colonies.

universal in sixteenth century liturgical books. (5) From them can be ascertained the general level of musical culture in churches of New Spain

during the epoch. (6)

From

circumstances connected with their publica-

tion can be adduced corroborating evidence concerning the

number, the

geographic spread, and the performance

ability of Indian choirs.

SIXTEENTH CENTURY BACKGROUND IN SPAIN

If the evidence of these printed books shovra that

Mexico fully

partici-

pated in the musical culture of the home country as far as monody was concerned, the evidence of the choirbooks preserved in such cathedrals

82
as those at

MUSIC IN MEXICO
Mexico City and Puebk proves the colony fully
participated

in the polyphonic activity of the

line of Spanish

home

country.

A brief preliminary out-

polyphony will clarify the later discussion of Mexican Formerly it was thought no school of polyphonic composers polyphony.
flourished in Spain before the sixteenth century. The publication of several codices such as the Calixtinus and the Huelgas has proved, however, that

Spanish polyphony developed without aid from exterior influences at a much earlier date than the older music historians thought possible.

The immediate
nists

as Gombert who spent time in Spain during residences in the peninsula, but also such Spanish composers as those included in Barbieri's Cancionero de palacio. The advent of such

were and the Flemings such

Charles

antecessors of the sixteenth century Spanish polyphonot only the Flemings in Philip the Fair's chapel establishment,

Vs

an exceptionally meritorious composer as Cristobal de Morales (1500?53) was prepared by the many earlier Spanish polyphonists such as Anchieta, Penalosa, de k Torre, and Escobar, who were not content
simply to copy the Flemings but insisted rather upon establishing a peculiarly Spanish polyphonic tradition. The most distinguished follower of Morales in the so-called Seville group of polyphonists was Francisco

Guerrero (1527-99). In terms of influence, Morales and Guerrero must be accounted the two most important Spanish polyphonists as far as Mexico
is

concerned.

The works

of these two were brought to

Mexico

in

manu-

script copies during the mid-century, and were widely dispersed. The cathedral archives at both Mexico City and Puebk show an overwhelming

preponderancy of these two over

epoch.

all

other Spanish polyphonists of their

The reason Tomas Luis de Victoria, even better known today than Morales, is poorly represented in Mexican church archives stems from the fact he was not connected at any time during his career with either the Puebk
parent cathedral of Mexico City Seville, or the parent cathedral of Toledo. Morales and Guerrero, on the other hand, were both

natives of Seville, upon the musical archives of whose cathedral City depended for manuscript copies. Morales, moreover, was

Mexico
chapel-

master at Toledo after his return from

Rome in

1545.

Some

other background facts concerning Spanish music during the

sixteenth century may be usefully summarized: music theory expounded in a remarkabfy progressive way by Ramos de

had been

Pareja, a Span-

iard who taught at Bologna during the ktter years of the fifteenth century. Several Spanish theorists of the sixteenth century produced distinguished

TRANSPLANTING OF EUROPEAN CULTURE

83

works on musical theory j numbered among them were Juan Bermudo, Diego Ortiz, Tomas de Santa Maria, and Francisco de Salinas (whose
pioneer labors as a collector of folk-songs have been noted in the previous chapter). The virtuoso vihuelists of the century included Luis Milan

whose El Maestro (1535) was an epoch-making publication, Narvaez, Fuenllana, Pisador, and Daza. Together with such keyboard artists as Cabezon and Venegas de Henestrosa these virtuosi succeeded in producing
a Spanish instrumental literature that has not been surpassed in any sub-

sequent century.
is seen as reaching its most vital epoch during the seventy-five year period between 1525 and 1600. This period of musical vitality therefore exactly coincided with the age of Spanish

Historically Spanish music

empire-building.

The

colony of

New

numerous composers whose early

life

Spain was the happy recipient of had been spent in the orbit of

such masters as Morales, Guerrero, Salinas, and others of like notability. No other Spanish colony not even Peru enjoyed the same overflow of
musical vitality that streamed from Spain during her best epoch. Among the controlling forces that Hilari6n Eslava listed

when he

sought reasons for the flowering of Spanish musical culture were several

which had their

effect in

New Spain as well.

[When we
religious

music during the sixteenth century]

think of the reasons for the flourishing estate of Spanish we will do well to bear in

that clergy who were appointed as singers in chapel and cathedral establishments were invariably expected to compose as well as sing. . . . Moreover we should remember . . . that many of the chapel establish-

mind

ments in Spain were [at that time] heavily endowed with funds for the maintenance of musicians; these [lucrative] posts were awarded in open therefore made on the basis of true competition, and appointment was
merit. All these various factors should be borne in
to understand

mind

if

we

wish clearly

why

Spain

was not a laggard but

rather in the vanguard,

musically speaking, during the sixteenth century.

58

SYNOPSIS OF NEO-HISPANIC POLYPHONIC DEVELOPMENT

The landmarks in the development of Neo-Hispanic polyphony during the sixteenth century may profitably be listed here in chronological order:
1527 Fray Juan Caro begins to teach the Indians in the mission school at Texcuco how to sing in parts. school 7550 A small Indian choir trained in Pedro de Gante's Indian

84

MUSIC IN MEXICO
sings every

Sunday and feast-day

at the

newly established Mexico City

more ambitious part-singing is supported by an organ over from Seville. just brought 7537 Bishop Zumarraga praises the skill of Indian singers who have
Cathedral. Their

been trained in part-song. 1552 Zumarraga commends the rapid progress his Indian choir has made

and praises the Indian copyists who deftly from European sources. 1533 Canon Xuarez of the cathedral staff is assigned to teach young
in the singing of part-music,

transcribe music

Indian choristers polyphonic singing. 1534 Zumarraga returns from a trip to Spain bringing back with him several part-books of Masses and motets for the use of the growing
cathedral choir.

1536
of

Two cathedral canons are dispatched to Spain, one of whom secures

whom
locates a printer with

several important choirbooks

from the Seville Cathedral, and the other music type who is willing to come to

America. 54

1538 Youths of Spanish blood are for the first time mentioned as members of the Mexico City Cathedral choir.
1538
held at Tlaxcala provides Indian singers an opportunity to demonstrate their superior ability in performing polybrilliant festival

phonic psalms, motets, and villancicos. 7539 "Canon Juan Xurez is appointed chapel master at a salary of 20 pesos de minas, beginning the ist of February of this year." Antonio
appointed cathedral organist, November ij. 7540 Polyphonic music in preference to the prescribed plainchant 56 frequently sung in the Mexico City Cathedral.
is

Ramos

55

is

1543 Diego Perez Gordillo Negron, sixteen years resident in Michoacan, is singled out for praise in an official letter to Charles V because of skill in both plainchant and polyphonic music, which he teaches the Indians.

1544 Morales's 1544 Masses (Liber I), now preserved in a handwritten copy at Puebla Cathedral, is the oldest surviving polyphonic music anywhere to be encountered in an existing Mexican archive today. 1554 Instrumentalists (los tanedores) form an important part of Mexico City's cathedral ensemble 5 the salaries of the instrumentalists other
than the organist are not, however, specified. 7554 An alumnus of Salamanca University, Lazaro del Alamo,
is

ap-

TRANSPLANTING OF EUROPEAN CULTURE

57 pesos de oro.

85

pointed cantor in the Mexico City Cathedral at an annual salary of 60

1555 Alamo
7559 The

is promoted to the chapelmastership. cathedral choir sings several important works of Morales at a commemoration service for Charles V. They also sing several original

polyphonic compositions by Alamo.

7559 The number of paid choristers at the Mexico City Cathedral is set 58 These participate in all daily services. at twelve. 1560? Archbishop Montufar promulgates an Orden qve debe obseruarse en el coro containing 42 rules for the organization and conduct of the
cathedral choir at Mexico City. 59 This rule-book is modeled after the 59 Constitutions of the Pontifical Choir given in 1 545 by Pope Paul III.

7564 Alamo

is

mentioned as rendering important and valuable service

to the archbishop by composing original motets, villancicos, zonetas for use at Christmas, Easter, and Corpus Christi.

and chan-

1564
is

A Psalterium secundum sacro sancte Romane ecclesie consuetudinem

folio,

published at Seville (in gustinians in Mexico.

in the chapelmastership.

520 pages)
Spain,
is

for specific use of the

Au-

*57? Juan de Victoria from Burgos,

named Alamo's
at Venice
is

successor

7570 Guerrero's Motteta published by Gardano

in original printed

the oldest

form still extant in any Mexican archive. polyphony A play interspersed with choral and solo singing is performed by 7574 the Mexico City choirboys in honor of the new archbishop, Moya y
Contreras. This musical play
is

but typical of

many of

its

type; the

choirboys sing at
this epoch.

most important public functions

in the capital during

for whose 7575 Hernando Franco, the first Neo-Hispanic composer music claims to lasting importance have been made, is appointed chapelmaster at an annual salary of 600 pesos de oro comun.

7575

Contreras writes Ovando, president of the Council of the in securing cathedral Indies, explaining the difficulties he encounters because of the poor pay offered. The archbishop complains he singers cannot hold open competition for the posts as is held in Spain, nor can he submit a list of candidates to the viceroy, because none offer them-

Moya y

selves.

60 61
is

7575 The cathedral orchestra

significantly enlarged.
costs of the

of the mounting 1582 Salaries of singers are reduced because

86

MUSIC IN MEXICO
new cathedral building which
ever,

has been started.

The singers strike, howthem

their former

and the archbishop

is

forced to restore

wages.
63 75^5 Mexican bishops in conclave enact important church music rules. 75^7 Fray Alonso Ponce, Franciscan Father Commissary visiting from Spain, is deeply impressed by the music he hears in New Spain j he hears the indigenes singing both plainchant and polyphony. 1589 A catalogue of the cathedral choral library at Mexico City made this year reveals that works of Morales, Guerrero, Orlando di Lasso, and Palestrina, are in the repertory. 68 Three Masses by Morales are

sung.

7592 Puebla, already an important center for sacred music instruction, <( limits the personnel of the cathedral choir to youths born of Spanish
64

parents."

7599

A commemoration service for Philip

II duplicating the

pomp and
City.

circumstance of the 1559 service for Charles

V is held at Mexico

A tabulation of this sort emphasizes the musical life of the capital. This
emphasis
first
is,

however, almost inevitable during the

first

century. In the

place, Mexico City even before the Conquest was the cultural center of the territory dominated by the Aztecs. All the principal lords of Mexico maintained town houses in Tenochtitlin where they resided during at

a portion of the year. 65 Even though partially destroyed by Cort6s, Tenochtitlan now Mexico City still remained the capital. In New Spain, as in every other political entity, the administrative center attracted
least

to itself the leading artists, musicians, and literary men of the day. comparison of the musical time-table in sixteenth century Mexico

with the European time-table reveals that the full apparatus of European music culture was transferred to New Spain within only one generation
after the Conquest. The intimate liaison between colony and mother never at any later time during the colonial epoch redounded so country

favorably to the musical advantage of the colony as during the

first

hun-

dred yearsj the obvious reason is that Spain herself was cultural peak during those hundred years,
NEO-HISPANIC POLYPHONY AS "OEBRAUCHSMUSIKW

at

her all-time

In the

fullest sense of the

term

as

Hindemith's school has used

it,

all

early Neo-Hispanic polyphony was GebraucAsmusiJ^-music for use. Since

TRANSPLANTING OF EUROPEAN CULTURE

87

the forum in which this "music for use" was heard seems always to have been some church occasion, we may predispose ourselves to a more favorable view of the remnants which survive if we first make an effort to understand the kinds of use to which polyphonic music was put in Neo-

Hispanic church life. The formal public worship of the church provided most of the opportunities available for the performance of part-music.
non-liturgical occasions sponsored by the church such as processions, public acts of mourning, welcome ceremonies for new viceroys, or congratulatory acts staged for important

However there were also numerous

public officials, when polyphonic music was required. The non-liturgical occasions which appealed most to the humbler classes were without doubt

the processions where popularized part-music, such as hymns to the Virgin,

or villancicos in honor of the saints, or chanzonetas of thanksgiving were sung. On the other hand, the non-liturgical occasions during which more
pretentious types of part-music were attempted were the welcome ceremonies for new viceroys or the acts of mourning for deceased emperors such as Charles V (died 1558) and Philip II (died 1598).

MUSIC IN COMMEMORATIVE ACTS

A detailed account of the commemorative pageant honoring the memory of Charles

City in

1560 de Salazar, though not a musician but rather a professor of rhetoric in the newly founded (1553) University of Mexico, was nevertheless well qualified to discuss the musical aspects of the pageant. Born in Toledo and a professor in the University of Osuna before emigrating to Mexico, he had while in Osuna enjoyed the friendship of so eminent an authority as Juan Bermudo, the famous music theoretician, who not only held him
high personal esteem but also asked him to write the introduction to 1550 music manual, El Arte TripAaria. Correspondence between the two evidently continued after Cervantes came to the New World, for it
in
his

entitled

occurs in the 52-page pamphlet published at Mexico Tumulo Imperial. Its author, Francisco Cervantes

was at the latter^s suggestion that Bermudo added a section of his original organ pieces in the second (1555) edition of his well-known treatise, the T Declaration de mstrumentos* In this second edition Bermudo (folio I I3 )
for the addition of his gratefully acknowledged the request which he had received from the New World. compositions
in

own

original

Cervantes de SalazaHs description of the commemorative ceremony Mexico City shows it to have been an occasion when the colonials set

88

MUSIC IN MEXICO
and
in the peninsula. Because Charles sanctity^ church authorities in Mexico

out to surpass if possible the pomp and drcumstance of the commemorative

acts already staged at Brussels

had died

at

Yuste in the odor of

as elsewhere were eager to

do his memory every possible homage. Tumulo

Imperial, because of its contemporaneity, because of the vividness with which it describes individual details, because of its specific mention of

performance methods, and more especially because of its references to the music of Cristobal de Morales and Lazaro de Alamo, deserves close
scrutiny by every student who would understand sixteenth century music in Spain. The extracts below by no means exhaust the passages which

New

might

interest a

music student

Having

discussed the matter with the audiencia

and with the arch-

bishop, the viceroy [Luis de Velasco] decided to stage the ceremonies in the Church of San Jos6 [the first church erected for the use of

and

in the adjoining patio

between

it

and the monastery

to

which

Indians] it be-

longs [San Francisco monastery]. The Church of San Jose was chosen rather than the cathedral because the cathedral is entirely too small to accommodate any great throng; and

moreover because its ceiling is too low to permit the erection of a suitably imposing funeral monument. Also the viceregal palace is so close to the cathedral that a procession could hardly have started moving before it

would have reached the cathedral door.

The Order

of the Procession

on the Afternoon of

St.

Andrews Day
four sections;

(November 30)

The procession from the viceregal palace was divided into

in the first

they neared the monastery broke into audible sobs (as if they had been personally indebted to their sovereign). Before the Indian procession was carried aloft a cross covered with black cloth. Flanked on both sides with, candles, this
processional cross

were the Indians, many of

whom when

was borne

aloft before the governor of Tlaxcala;

he was
.
. .

selected for this

honor because of the

faithfulness of the Tlaxcalans.

The Indian governors of Tacuba, Texcuco, and Tlaxcala,

along with the

Indian governor of Mexico, all wore formal mourning attire. Each governor carried the standard of his province showing on it a coat of arms;
the personal tokens of appreciation sent by His Majesty to each of the Indian governors were woven into these standards with intricate designs of gflt and silver thread running over a black background. . . . More than two hundred caciques marched in solemn procession with their gover-

TRANSPLANTING OF EUROPEAN CULTURE

nors, all observing ceremonious sflence. Approximately two thousand were in the Indian line of march, including all the principal personages from the Indian tributary villages. The Indians who awaited

89

onlooking the procession in the patio and in the streets adjacent to the monastery numbered at least forty thousand. This tremendous Indian procession [and the motley crowd gathered to see it] was kept under control by in-

who knew their languages and by peace officers from the local constabulary. Upon arriving at the monastery patio the four Indian governors ^those of Mexico, Tacuba, Texcuco, and Tlaxcak laid their
terpreters

banners at the four corners of the memorial monument.

procession of the clergy included the archbishop, the bishop of Michoacan, the bishop of Nueva Galicia, and provincials of the Orders of St. Francis, St. Dominic, and St. Augustine; along with these inarched

The

a host of inferior clergy.

The dignitaries having finally entered the Church of San Jose* and having seated themselves (the procession itself lasted two full hours) the vigil proper began. Outside and inside the church stood a huge crowd of
onlookers.

The

cathedral choirmaster [Lazaro del

Alamo] began by

directing one of his choirs (his singers were divided into two antiphonal choirs) in the singing of the invitatory, Cvrcumdederunt mcy by Cristobal de Morales; and then the other in the singing of the psalm, Extdumus9 also by Morales. Both settings by Morales are polyphonic throughout, and

the choirs sang them with the utmost sweetness. The vigil began then with a devotional fervor that elevated the minds of everyone present. After the invitatory eight cope-bearers intoned the first antiphon in
plainchant; the succentor (precentor's assistant] then started the first psalm, Verba mea aunbus fercipe, Donune, and the same eight cope bearers then sang the verses antiphonally with a chorus made up of friars
clergy, carrying it through with utmost solemnity. After the psalm, Verba mea, there followed an antiphon sung by the choirs in a polyphonic setting, and then another antiphon sung by the cope-bearers in a polyphonic
setting.

and

Next the succentor started the psalm [Domme ne in jurore\ ; when he reached the mediation, a small group of boys responded to him in a fourpart setting of the remainder of the first psalm-verse. The rest of this psalm

was antiphonally sung according to this plan: verses in plainchant sung by succentor and cope-bearers in unison alternated with verses in polyphonic setting sung by the boy choir. This boy choir was directed by the
cathedral choirmaster

[Alamo] who himself had composed

the music they

90

MUSIC IN MEXICO sang. After the psalm, Doming ne m ]urore another antiphon and psalm
y

same way with polyphony and plainchant alThen another antiphon, and still another psalm, in the middle ternating. of which last psalm the cope-bearers advanced to the main altar. There the archbishop [Montufar] started the Pater no3ter- after the 9 Pater nosier Morales's polyphonic setting of Force mih* D<mune was sung, the beauty of which enthralled everyone. The response was sung in plainsong; the cope-bearers remained at the main altar during the singing of the verses of the response. There they remained also during the second lesson which was read by the bishop of Michoacan [ Vasco de Quiroga] .
followed, sung again in the

After the second lesson Qta Lazarum resuscitasti (in polyphonic setting) was sung; then the archbishop began the last lesson. ... At its conclusion the cope-bearers began the psalm, p-ofundis, during which the clergy and the friars prepared to form their recessional. At the conclusion

De

of De p-ofandts the singing of the response, Libera me, aroused the deepest devotion. The response completed, the archbishop . . . and all the chor. joined in the final prayer; the vigil service thus came to an end with the profoundest solemnity. Early Mass the next day [December I ] was sung by thirty friars with such great fervor and pathos that tears involuntarily started in the eyes of those present. . High Mass later during the day was sung in a five-

isters

voice setting. 66

generation later the exequies of Philip II provided the colony with another opportunity for an ostentatious display of public grief. Dr. Dionysio de Ribera Florez, canon of the metropolitan cathedral, wrote

the
.

official
.

del

Reladdn historiada de las Exequias Funerales D. Philippo which was printed in 1600. Though not as Rey
account in his

informed a person, musically speaking, as Cervantes de Salazar, Ribera Florez nevertheless emphasized the role of music in the pageantry. After
the death of every subsequent Spanish sovereign a similar public act was staged in Mexico, and then the account printed for distribution in Spain
as well as the colony.

Among

its

rare books the Biblioteca National in

Madrid now houses a series of these accounts; the musical extracts from them enable the reader to gain an accurate idea of the shifting currents
of musical taste in the colony.

SIXTEENTH CENTURY DEVELOPMENTS IN INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

As

formed part of the musical ensemble

has been already noted in the chronological synopsis, an orchestra at the Mexico City Cathedral as

TRANSPLANTING OF EUROPEAN CULTURE

91

early as 1554. Despite Montufar's eagerness to suppress all instrumental music except that of the organ, orchestras continued to exist everywhere,

even in his own cathedral. The very year Montufar's successor, Moya y Contreras, was consecrated (1574), the orchestra at the metropolitan cathedral was further enlarged, and a director of instrumental music, Bartolom6 de Luna, engaged at an annual salary of 200 pesos. The next year three more expert instrumentalists were added to the cathedral staff, Luna's salary enlarged, and 1,000 pesos budgeted annually for
instrumental music. Brass as well as
as

woodwind instruments

are mentioned

components of the cathedral orchestra at the end of the century. If even the metropolitan cathedral, long after the warning voice against
noisy

and

frivolous instruments

trumpet, trombone, flute, strained parochial churches throughout of the implied license.
is

had been sounded, still continued to use cornett, and harp, small wonder the less re-

New Spain took fullest advantage

That the use of instruments was not merely confined to relief or variety proved by the numerous notations scribbled over manuscript copies of polyphonous and monodic music still preserved in such archives as those at the Puebla and Mexico City cathedrals. It is coming more and more to be recognized, of course, that performance practice even in the more influential European centers was not exclusively confined to caffella
Michael Praetorius suggested as an acceptable way of a double-choir ten-voice motet, Quo froferas, by Orlando di performing Lasso, although his evidence dates from the earliest years of the sevensinging.

What

teenth century rather than from the years immediately preceding di 67 Lasso's death in 1594, is nevertheless of interest here.

He suggested the following "orchestration" for the successive sections

of this motet:

Choir I
1.

Choir
I.

cornett or voice, with four trom-

cornett or voice, with four trom-

bones
2.

bones
2. cornett
3. five viols

voices alone

3. voices alone 4. voices alone

4.
56.
7.

5. five viols 6. five viols

7.

da bracdo da bracdo

two

flutes,

two trombones, bassoon

and four trombones da bracdo two flutes, two trombones, bassoon flute and four trombones two flutes, two trombones, bassoon cornett and four trombones

of fact (with the exception of Just these very instruments, as a matter the viola da braccio), are to be encountered in the Mexico City orchestra

92

MUSIC IN MEXICO
chapel

antiphonally establishments during the

as early as 1575, evidently performing the same function in Franco's conceived music. In Mexican as well as European

kte

sixteenth century

the chapel master was left free to adapt, arrange, and orchestrate the music. The written notes were used only as a guide to an end result de-

termined by the conductor: a result often diverging widely from the

original textual significance of compositions.

The

variety of instruments available in sixteenth century

New

Spain

and the generally high quality maintained in their manufacture may be learned from a municipal ordinance passed by the Mexico City cabildo on August 30, 1568, and confirmed by the audiencia a month later.

No carpenter, no engraver, no joiner, no maker of musical instruments,

shall set

up shop in

this city
.

or in

its

environs without passing the

officially

. . instrument-maker must show by examiprescribed examination. nation that he knows how to construct the organ [without pedals], the

An

spinet, the

monochord, the

lute, the various different kinds of viol,

and

the harp; and he must know not only how to make these instruments but also moist be able to demonstrate the correct method used in playing

them.

The examination shall be given under authority of the alcalde, and of the municipal supervisor of construction. fine of ten pesos shall be levied against anyone who opens a shop without first passing his examination.

Special care shall be exercised to see that

the various classes of viols unless he

knows how

no one presumes to make to attend to the most

.

minute details and can fashion a truly presentable instrument. . Every four months an official examiner shall overlook the stock of instruments carried by an instrument-maker, and shall confiscate all those which
.

are faulty in workmanship. 68

The enactment of such an ordinance in 1568 (and its renewal in 1585) M shows instrument-making had developed into a thriving industry during the latter half of the sixteenth century. Where did a market exist in New Spain for a stready stream of new instruments? The springing up of an
instrument-making industry subject to legal regulation certainly implies that a market did exist. In 1568 Bernal Diaz wrote that it was not private
individuals but rather churches which acquired a plethora of trumpets (of the loudest and shrillest kind), a plentiful supply of "flutes, oboes, sack-

TRANSPLANTING OF EUROPEAN CULTURE

buts,

93
70

and
all

lutes,"

and

also organs

when

financial resources

permitted

With

use of instruments in Neo-Hispanic churches

ideal

the other evidence that can be gathered showing the universal from foremost cathedrals

on down to humblest village chapels it seems obvious that the sonorous even during the so-called golden age of Neo-Hispanic polyphony was not one of unaccompanied (a cappella) vocalism, but rather was that of

%roken music."
SECULAR MUSIC

In Aztec society (historians now universally agree) religion swathed

every cultural manifestation. With the advent of the missionaries the Indian was baptized but not secularized. He exchanged one mode of expression for another, his creative energies were re-channeled, and instead of praises to Huitzilopochtli and Texcatlipoca he sang praises to God and the saints.

in their

After the Conquest the Christian Indians were extremely eager to exult new-found religion with songs. . . Don Francisco Placido, lord of Atzcapotzalco, with his Tecpan subjects, celebrated the enthronement
.

of the blessed image of Our Lady of Guadalupe with such newly composed 72 songs; he initiated a custom which continued for a century.

Indian secular art was not yet born. If

secular music, as

Spaniards
Indians.

we wish information concerning we must turn to the records of the designate it, who came to Mexico, rather than hoping to find it among the we

Of
Cuba

who

the original band of three hundred who came with Cortes from in 1519, six were excellent musicians, according to Bernal Diaz, uses such phrases as "a fine singer," <<an excellent performer on the

soldier viol," "a great musician," in describing them as individuals. in the original expedition, Ortiz by name, taught dancing and viol-playing in

Mexico after 1521. Diaz tells of certain other nameless Spanish musicians who joined Cortfe on his 1524 expedition to Honduras.
Cortes brought along five players on the oboe, sackbut and dulcimer, and an acrobat and another who did sleight of hand tricks and worked the hardships we puppets. ... I moist refrain from telling in detail all

94
endured.
. .

MUSIC IN MEXICO
.

The

players

on the

oboes, sackbuts,

and dulcimer,

whom

Cortes had brought with him, as I have already recorded, and who were accustomed to dainties in Castile and knew nothing of hardships, had fallen ill through hunger and made no music, excepting one of them, and
all

the soldiers cursed the sound of

it

it

and

we

said

it

was

like foxes

and

jackals howling and

would be

better to

have maize to eat than music. 78

In several places Diaz dwells on Cortes's fondness for music. At a banquet 7 for instance, "singers at each given in Cort6s s honor by the first viceroy, and all sorts of instruments, harps, guitars, seat of honor, and trumpetry music which rivaled the violas, flutes, dulcimers, and oboes" provided
in Spain. any of the guests had ever heard at home introduced a new dance into Spain Formerly it was thought that Cort6s arrived in Castile during during his first visit after the Conquest. He from Mexico, and bringing December of 1527, weighted with trophies and jugglers. These along in his entourage certain Indian entertainers the members of Charles Vs court, and Cortes entertainers

best

delighted forthwith sent them along with a lieutenant of his in order to display themselves before Pope Clement VII. The dance which some writers

have thought was introduced by these Indian entertainers (dance-steps, not the dance-music) was the pavane j eventually the pavane became the most important dance-form of the century. Compan (Dictionnaire de
dansey 1787) identified the pavane as of New World origin, and said the his hen. Other steps imitated the courtship of a turkey-cock approaching

up Compan's idea concerning the them Chavez and Saldivar. 74 among

writers have taken

origin of the pavane,

The

first

pavanes printed in Spain appeared in Milan's El Maestro

(1535-6). Milan, however, spoke of imitating Italian pavanes. Italian

publications of the period alternately entitle the same dances fadovanas (faduanas) and pavanas. The confusion in dance titles makes it difficult

when either dance was actually introduced. Petrucd published padovanas (paduanas) as early as 1508. If it is now indiscreet to accredit Cortes's Indians with any decisive part in introducing the pavane (despite the opinions of Chavez and Saldivar), it is on the other hand
to decide just
certain that

the New World

two other dances of capital importance were derived from the sarabande and the chaconne.

Curt Sachs in his World History of the Dance stated sometime ago that both the sarabande and chaconne were of New World origin and offered

ample proof

for his statement.

To

the evidence he presented showing the

TRANSPLANTING OF EUROPEAN CULTURE

New World
origin of these

95

two dance-forms should now be added an-

other most important bit of fact. Sachs stated legislation prohibiting the dancing of the sarabande enacted in 1583 was the first dated reference to

the sarabande. 75 Actually, however, Diego Duran, the Dominican historian writing a history of the Indians whose remarks we have already had
occasion to quote, mentioned the sarabande four years earlier in 1579. Thus, the first dated reference to the sarabande now becomes one con-

tained in a history written by a friar in Mexico. In a passage describing the dances of the Indians Duran said they had one called the cuecuecheuycatl

which was almost as lewd and offensive as a dance "que nuestros naturales usan" called the zarabandaJ* Duran's 1579 reference dearly shows that the sarabande, though danced by the native-born in Mexico, was
nevertheless not an Indian dance.
iards born in Mexico.

The "native-born" would refer to Spansummarized here.

The

references which Sachs collected will be

He

mentioned Mariana's imprecations on the sarabande, Cervantes's horror of it, and Marino's disgust with it. Giambattista Marino in 1623 published
7T in which he identified and described a long poem entitled L'Adone dances which he called twins, the sarabande and the chaconne. He said in both dances obscene motions and lewd gestures were used. He called

down

dances.

the wrath of heaven on the lascivious inventor of these vulgar Both dances he said were imported from New Spain. The dancers

he found pantomimed the ultimate intimacies of the conjugal act. Their sound of castanets dancing, according to him, was accompanied by the wanton maidens who alternated the loud clack of the castanets pkyed by with the snapping of their fingers, beating out the rhythm meantime with
their feet

The men dancers beat on tambourines. Far from the staid dances

frenetic orgies accompanied they kter became Marino knew them as instruments. only by noise-making Sachs listed several references from other authors such as Cervantes, Lope de Vega, and Quevedo Villegas, all of which show the chaconne as

well as sarabande to have come from

New Spain. In

1599 a certain writer

named Simon Agudo included in a farce of his "an invitation to go to in La Tampico in Mexico and there dance the chacona? Lope de Vega introduced a band of musicians. They are being frueba da los tmigos that chaconne with importuned to play. <Tlay what?" they ask. "Play 78 comes the reply. In another the words beginning: <Go to Tampico *," of Lope de Vega comedy, El amante agradecido ( 1 6 1 8 ) , a troop musicians

96
start singing:

MUSIC IN MEXICO
"A
life jolly life, a jolly

as

came over from the Indies by mail, its homej here it will live and die."

we lead, dancing the chaconne. It and now it dwells here in this house
70

From a study of his references, Sachs came to believe that the sarabande
and chaconne, clearly Neo-Hispanic in origin, showed negroid influence. one of Cort6s's gunners was Negroes came along with the conquistadores j a Negro. After Las Casas suggested substituting Negro labor for Indian labor (in order to save the Indian population from extermination) they were brought over in ever-increasing numbers. In 1 580 there were slightly less than 15,000 Spaniards in New Spain, but over 18,500 Negroes, and
almost 1,500 mulattoes. Throughout the colonial epoch we shall have occasion to note the importance of negroid influences j the dance forms of the tterra caliente, the rumba, the bomba, and even the huapango, all

show easily recognizable Negro traits. 80

NOTES
1.

Bernal Diaz del Castillo, of.

cit. y I,

2.

For

full biographical details see J.

138. Garcia Icazbalceta, Obras (Mexico: Imp. de

V. Agueros, 1896),
3.

III, 5-39. Higinio Angles, La musica en la Corte de Carlos

1

(Barcelona: Institute Espanol

de Musicologia,
4. Jesus
p. 90.

944) ,

p. 20.

Romero

Flores, Iconografia Colonial

(Mexico: Museo Nacional, 1940),

Mendieta, of. cit., pp. 412, 414. A. Chavez, El frimero de los grandes educadores de la America (Mexico: Editorial Jus, 1943), pp. 49-60. j. Carias de Indias (Madrid: Ministerio de Fomento, 1877), p. 52.
5.

6. Ezequiel

8. Ibid., p. 56.

9. J.

Garcia Icazbalceta, Coleccion de Documentos (Mexico, 1858), I, 50. See also E. A. Foster, MotolinWs History of the Indians of New Sfain (Berkeley: The Cortes Society, 1950), p. 52.

Documentos (1858), I, 109. "Fray Juan Caro, un honrado viejo, el cual introdujo y enseno primero en esta tierra el castellano y el canto de organo . . ." 11. /*., I, 209-11. 12. E. A. Foster, of. tit., p. 8.
10. Col. de

13. Psalm

114.3 (Vulgate)

= 116.3

(A.V-):
.

"The

sorrows of death compassed

." This same psalm in a polyphonic me, and the pains of hell gat hold on me . setting by Morales was wing by the Mexico City Cathedral choir at the funeral commemoration for Charles V in 1559. Although Motolinia does not say who composed the version the Tlaxcalans sang, it might well also have been Morales's setting. (The oldest polyphony of Morales still extant today in a Mexican church

archive

is

his

Liber mUsarum,

I, 1

544.)

TRANSPLANTING OF EUROPEAN CULTURE

14. During epoch in Spanish history the villancico was a poetic ginning with a refrain (estribillo) , continuing with a stanza (copla) immediately repeated, then the refrain, then a second stanza which
this

97

form be-

which
is

is

immeform:

diately

E
as

OC

repeated,
1

then

the

refrain,

and

so

on.

long

as desired.

C*C2 E The music fits

CC

diagram

of

the

et cetera.

The

pattern can go on

the words, of course.

15. Col.

de Documentor (1858), I, 79, 81-2, 84-7. 1 6. J, Jesus Estrada, "CHsicos de Nueva Espana," Schola Cantorum (Morelia), July, 1945, p. 91. The date of appointment to the chapelmastership was February I> I 539> but XuSrez had filled various musical posts since his arrival almost a
decade
earlier.

de Docum. (1858), I, 24-5. 1 8. See Lota M. Spell, "Music in the Cathedral of Mexico in the Sixteenth Century," The Hispanic American Historical Review, August, 1946, p. 296. 19. P. Mariano Cuevas* Documentos Ineditos del Siglo XVI (Mexico: Talleres Graficos del Museo Nacional de Arqueologia . . 1914), pp. 989. 20. J. Garcia Icazbalceta, Nueva Coleccion de Documentos 'para la Historia de Mexico (Mexico, Imp. de Francisco Diaz de Leon, 1889), II (Codice Francis17. Col.
.
,

cano),p. 169.
21. Ibid., pp. 65-6. 22. Rafael Montejano

y Aguinaga, "La Conversion de los indios por medio de la Musica," Schola Cantorum, September, 1947, pp. 1346. 23. Angela Blantenburg, "German Missionary Writers in Paraguay," Mid-America
1 5, 1 729, by Matthias Strobel.) Quoted from Henri Ternaux-Compans, Voyages, Relations et Memoires . . . , XVI, 218, in Montejano y Aguinaga, of. cif., p. 134. 26. Constituciones del arfobisfado . . . de Tenuxtitlan Mexico (Mexico: Juan

(Chicago), January, 1947, p. 4$n. 24. Ibid., p. 44. (Quoted from a letter written June

25.

Pablos, 1556), fol. YTTiii recto (cap. 66).

27. Ibid., 28. Ibid.,

29. Ibid., 30. Ibid.,
31.

f.

xix recto.
xxxiii verso.

f.
f.
f.

xxxv

recto.

xxxrv verso.
cit,,

H. Angle's, of. 32. Ibid., p. 10.

33.

p. 23.

Genaro Garcia, Documentos

fora la Hittoria de Mexico (1907), XV,

.

141-2.
34. Coleccion de

Documentos Ineditos

del Arch&o de Indios (Madrid, 1870),

XIII, 287.
35.

For a striking illustration of the changed attitude towards the Indian, see Alonso de Montufar, <<Garta del Arzobispo de Mexico al consejo de Indias ...,'* Anales del Museo Nacional de Arqueologia, Historia y Etnografia> 1934, p. 355.
cit.,

36. Gabriel Saldlvar, of. 37.

pp. 90-94.
i

Juan de Torquemada, Veinte 1723), III, 214. 38. Ibid., HI, 214.

un

libros rituales i

Monarquia Indiana (Madrid,

98
39. Ibid., Ill, 214.

MUSIC IN MEXICO
Most of
wliat

Torquemada

says in this passage

comes from

Mendieta, pp.

4123.

and Bibliographical Notes on Early Spanish Music 40. Juan F. Riano, Critical (London: Bernard Quaritch, 1887), pp. 81-94. Publicaciones del Archive General 41. Libros y Libreros en el Siglo XVI (Mexico:
de la Naci6n, 1914), pp. 263-281.
42. Mendieta, of. cit., p. 412. A History of the Dominican Liturgy 43. William R. Bonniwell,

1215-1945 (New

York, Joseph F. Wagner, 1945), P- *95List of Early American Imprints 44. Samnel A. Green, A Second Supplementary

(Cambridge [Mass.]: University

Winship.)

Press,

1899), p. 20. (Quotation from George P.

Mexicana del Siglo XVI (Mexico: Libreria 45. J. Garcia Icazbalceta, Bibliographta de Andrade . . . , 1886), p. 124. Variants from modern usage were found in St. Francis, St. Augustine, and in the use of beneof St. the John Baptist, prefaces diction at requiem; this latter was a custom continued
by the Dominicans into
the next century. 46. Emilio Valt6n discovered this Gradual and dated

Nueva
p. 25.

Bibtiografia Mexicana del Siglo

XVI

it 1571 ; see Henry R. Wagner, (Mexico: Editorial Polis, 1940),

47. Libros y Libreros en el Siglo XVI, p. 139. 48. H. R. Wagner, of. cit., p. 273.

4Q.-Libros y Libreros . . . ,p. 139. 50. Garcia Icazbalceta, BibUografta . . . , p. 329. note 116. 51. Lota M. Spell, of. cit., p. 315, especially
Plancarte in

When

Archbishop Francisco

1916 presented the Newberry Library in Chicago with a copy he stated he himself had seen copies of each of the jour editions of the 1 576 Gradual.
in Mexico," Hispanic 52. Gonzales Aguirre Beltran in his article, "The Slave Trade American Historical Review, August, 1944, quotes this population figure, p. 414.

53. Hilarion Eslava, Musica Religiosa enEspana (Madrid, 1860), p. 63. 54. L. M. Spell, op. cit., pp. 298-9. 55. Ibid., p. 299. Ramos, the organist, had come from Seville the previous year. His son came with him and immediately started singing in the choir (p. 300).
56. Cuevas, op.
5 7. Estrada, op.
cit.,
cit.,

p. 98. p.

91.

58. Spell, op. cit., p. 305 (note 62). 59. Francisco Antonio Lorenzana, Concilium

Mexicanum

Provinciale

HI

(Mexico:

Typ. Josephi Antonii de Hogal, 1770), Part II, pp. 115-130. 60. Cartes de Indias (Madrid: Ministerio de Fomento, 1877), p. 192. 61. Spell, op. cit., pp. 310, 316.
62. Lorenzana, op.
pp. 66-70.
cit.

(Part II), **De Magistri Capellae

officio,

&

Cantoribus,"

63. Spell, op. cit., p. 317. 64. Steven Barwidc, "Sacred Vocal Polyphony in Early Colonial Mexico," Harvard Ph.D. Dissertation, 1949, p. 60.

TRANSPLANTING OF EUROPEAN CULTURE

65. Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo

99

Valde*s, Historic General y Natural de las Indias

(Madrid: Imp. de Real Academia de Historia, 1853), HI, 304. 66. Cervantes de Salazar, Tumulo Imferial dela grand ciudad de Mexico (Mexico: Antonio de Espinosa, 1560), folio 3 verso, 23 v., 24 r., 25 r., 25 v., 26 r. The only extant copy of this book is now in the Huntington Library at San Marino,
California.

Musicum, Vol. II: Translated by Harold Blumenfeld (New Haven, 194.9), p. ii ff. 68. Juan Francisco del Barrio Lorenzot, Ordenanzas de gremios de la Nueva Esfana (Mexico, Direcci6n de Talleres Graficos . . . , 1920), pp. 80-5. 69. According to Saldivar, of. cit. y pp. 185-6. 70. Diaz del Castillo, of. cit. y V, 266. Sackbute must be identified as precursor
trombones.
71. Barwick, of. cit. y p. 135, states: "Although I do not believe that the texts were omitted only in places where parts for instruments were intended, I do feel that

67. See Michael Praetorius, Syntagma

instruments were used in the performance of this music.

indications in
parts."

...

have noted

specific

some manuscripts

as to

which instruments were

to play the different

72. Lorenzo Boturini Benaduci, Idea de 73. Diaz del Castillo, of. cit. y V, 16.

una nueva Historia General

,p. 91.

74- Herbert Weinstock, Mexican Music (1940), p. 9 quotes Chavez's opinion. For Saldivar's see his Historia de la Musica . . . , p. 1 59. See also Grand Dictionnaire

Universel
75.
p.

du XIX9 Siicle (P. Curt Sachs, World History

367.

Larousse, 1874), XII, 444, coL 3.

of the

Dance (New York: W. W. Norton, 1937),

76. Diego Duran, Historia de las Indias de

I.

Nueva Esfana (Mexico: Imprenta de

p. 376.

Escalante, 1880), II, 230.

77. Giovanni Battista Marino,

L'Adone (Turin: G. B. Paravia & Co., n.d),

Canto Ventecismo, 83-85. 78. Ricardo del Arco y Garay, La Sociedad Esfanola en las Qbras Dramaticas de Lofe de Vega (Madrid: Escelicer, S. L., 1942), p. 916.
stanzas in question are in

The

79. Ibid., p. 91 5. 80. See Saldivar, of.

tit.,

"La

Influencia Africana," pp.

219-229.

THE CULMINATION AND DECLINE OF NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC

SOURCES

The

student of Mexican colonial architecture or colonial painting will find interesting remains almost everywhere he travels in central Mexico.

From Oaxaca and Merida on

the south and southeast to Zacatecas and

Durango on the north and northwest, and from Jalapa on the east to Guadalajara on the west, he will find in almost every town of any size or importance a colonial monument or two well worth study.
But with music the case is different Colonial music manuscripts by an fate have disappeared nearly everywhere, and in only the barest handful of Mexican centers do any still exist. In many a town where a
unkind

now disused colonial organ may sit, still testifying to the important role music once played in the life of that town, all music manuscripts and printed music books will have vanished forever. Why this loss of colonial
manuscripts and books?
wilful destruction.
Priceless music manuscript books containing the greatest European and of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have on polyphony

The

reasons are principally these: neglect and

colonial

As an

occasion fallen into the hands of persons who instance the so-called Valdes Codex

knew nothing of their value. may be cited. Some years ago

possession

a priest, Padre Octaviano Valdes from Tacubaya, came upon a group of Indians in the small village of Cacalomacan who had in their a 28o-page music manuscript book bound in worn parchment.

through

its

leaves

Padre Vald6s was suddenly

100

startled

Thumbing when he came

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC

101

upon the name of Palestrina. He looked further through the book and found that it contained no less than five Masses attributed to Palestrina:
Aeterna Christi munera, A<ve Regina coelorumy Gia ju chi irfebbe caray Quern dicunt homines, and Christus resurgent. The Indians who had
the book thought it was only worthless paper, and gladly gave it one of them told the padre that but a short time before they had upj owned another music book of the same kind, but that they had lost it.

owned

When

he took

it

of the Masses attributed

back to Mexico City, Padre Vald6s found that four to Palestrina in his newly acquired codex were

indeed authentic Masses, published originally in 1590, 1599, and 1600 collections; but the fifth, Christus resurgent? Is it a Palestrina Mass
hitherto

unknown? one
still

question is Valdes's find?

added to the canon of 94? That But what of the other compositions in Padre unsolved.
that should be

Two
in

of them turned out to be the only polyphonic pieces

still

with Aztecan (Nahuatl) text

preserved} these two pieces were simple

honor of the Virgin whose music later in this chapter four-part is transcribed into modern notation. Other compositions by early NeoHispanic composers and by their European contemporaries made this

hymns

book

as exciting a discovery as the finding of a genuine but uncatalogued

Stradivarius.

If by chance the Vald6s book was recovered, many more of similar worth have perished simply through neglect. And still other music books have perished during the periodic storms that have swept bands of soldiers into such cathedrals as those at Morelia and M6rida where they have been for a time quartered, only to leave after the cathedral had been

well as the gold on the altar. Just as stripped of its artistic treasures as the period of Cromwellian stress military occupation of churches during

and cathedrals took a heavy toll of cultural monuments such as organs and stained glass, so during the periods of revolution in Mexico military
losses. occupation has resulted in many irreparable two cathedrals which have perhaps suffered least have been those The and it is to these two principally that the at Puebla and at Mexico

from the colonial period will go. two great cathedrals still contain enough The a basis for judging the magnitude of NeoJffispanic polyphony to afford the colonial achievement Though perhaps that which still remains is in with that which has been lost a$ the visible part of an iceberg
tesoros artlsticos at these

City, traveler in search of musical materials

comparison is to the subsurface invisible part,

still

the extant Neo-Hispanic repertory

MUSIC IN MEXICO
of sufficient magnitude to warrant judgments concerning style, musical and even performance methods. substance, technique of composition,
is

THE PRINTING OF PART-MUSIC

No

Some monodic music

the colonial epoch. Neo-Hispanic polyphony was printed during continued to be published in the seventeenth and

Passiones by Juan Navarro, the eighteenth centuries: the 1604 Quatuor 1 Breve Noticia del Canto Llano by Manuel Sanchez, and the 1770 1725 Missa Gothica seu Mozarabka et Officium itidem Gothicum edited by

But polyphony was not published, of all types became inordinately expensive after partly because printing the very difficult 1600, and also of course because the market for some of masters as Franco and Padilla part-music written by such Neo-Hispanic
Francisco Lorenzana,
for instance.

must have been quite limited. It was not exclusively the monopolistic practices of the home country which prevented New Spain from developing a music printing industry.

home country the printing of polyphonic music lagged. No or Gardano settled early Spanish music printing of part-music Attaignant on a firm basis, and consequently all of Morales's music was published
Even
in the

abroad, as was also all of Guerrero's sacred music, except one book. Victoria published his first Spanish collection as kte in his career as- 1600. The first polyphony published in the Spanish capital was Philip Rogier*s

book of Masses (1598)5 Victoria's Missae, Magnificat, Motecta, Psalmi . . (1600) was second, and Alfonso Lobo's Liber Primus Missarum (1602) was third. These books were immediately sent over to Mexico, and a copy of Rogier's book is still preserved at Puebla. Five copies of the Lobo 1602 book are scattered over Mexico, one each at Mexico City,
.

Puebla, Oaxaca, Guadalajara, and Morelia. If at the same time a printer of polyphony was found for

Madrid one

Mexico City an entirely different story of Neo-Hispanic culture might now be known. Instead of only literary personages such as Alarc6n and Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz as the bright ornaments
had been found
for

of Neo-Hispanic culture,

we

should perhaps have heard also of com-

posers such as Franco, Bermudez, and Zumaya. The superlative reputations of the two literary figures we have just named rest not upon any pro-

nouncedly "Mexican"

traits in their writing.

Alarcon even returned to

Spain and so thoroughly devoted himself to Spanish themes that without

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC

103

a knowledge of his biography no one would ever guess he had attended the University of Mexico. Spanish approval has assured these two authors
their international reputations.

the composers

we have named

But Spanish approval was perforce denied because their works have had no way of

reaching European eyes. Even yet the bulk of Neo-Hispanic polyphony seems destined to remain unpublished. The issuance of such renowned historical editions as
the

Denkmaler der Tonkunst

in the

in Qsterreich

and in Bayern was

in every

promoted spirit that a public monument to a dead national hero is promoted. Logically the publication of Neo-Hispanic
musical monuments now would redound more to the advantage of Spain than to the advantage of Mexico. In this connection k is interesting to note that the only large-scale publication venture involving a Neo-Hispanic master currently in the offing is being editorially supervised by a

instance

same

prominent Spanish expatriate

now

resident in Mexico. 8

Although

his

subsidized by the Departamento de Bellas Artes, his interest in the project and background for it steins from his own Spanish antecedents,
is

work

undoubtedly. If the publication of the total extant repertory were now to be attempted, a subsidy of the magnitude provided for the Tudor Church

by the Carnegie Trust would be needed. The sixteenth and seventeenth century polyphonists would, according to informed estimate, involve six or seven volumes if printing in the style of Tudor Church Music were attempted
series

Music ten-volume
presently

known music from the

THE EXTENT OF THE REPERTORY

In conspectus the Neo-Hispanic polyphonic repertory of the sixteenth,
seventeenth, and early eighteenth centuries consists of the following

works:

Hernando Franco

(fl.

1580)

7 Magnificats, 2 Salves, miscellaneous psalms, hymns, and responsories

Juan de Lienas (i6th

cent.)

nificat,

3 Masses (one a Requiem), a Mag4 motets, a set of Lamenta-

tions

Pedro Hernandez and Fructos del

Castfllo

(1600? )

One

motet each

104.

MUSIC IN MEXICO
4
1645)
Salves

Pedro Bermudez (fl. 1605) Bernardo de Peralta (1640?)

Francisco

and a psalm

Lopez y Capflla
(fl.

(fl.

Magnificat 3 Masses, 2 Magnificats, 12 motets, a set of Lamentations

5 Masses, 5 Magnificats, a passion, miscellaneous motets and vfllandcos
7 hymns for the church year, 2 psalms, miscellaneous vfllandcos 3 Magnificats, 2 Misereres, 2 sets
of Lamentations, miscellaneous vi-

Juan de

Padilla

1650)
(fl.

Antonio de Salazar

1690)

Manuel Zumaya

(fl.

1720)

llandcos

of Neo-Hispanic composers suggests that the period of greatest activity ky between 1575 and 1650. During that particular 75year period colonial life had sufficiently stabilized itself so that a full

The bunching

musical apparatus could be provided in the chief centers of population. The silver and gold mines of the colony had established it as the richest
in the Spanish empire, as they

and composers emigrated as readily to New Spain have emigrated to the United States during the present century.

HERNANDO FRANCO
Although the
investigated,
lives of

most Neo-Hispanic composers remain yet to be

early

Hernando Franco has emerged from anonymity. During the 'thirties Jesus Estrada, eminent organist of the Mexico City Cafirst

thedral,

modern

notation.

began the laborious task of transcribing Franco's music into In 1934 Saldivar after studying the Adas del Cabildo

Eclesiastico at the metropolitan cathedral published a valuable summary of the information he found there. More recently two American scholars

sixteenth

have expanded our knowledge of cathedral music in Mexico during the and seventeenth centuries, and have both discovered new facts

concerning Franco. The following summary therefore represents a composite of information derived from Estrada, Saldivar, Lota Spell, and Steven Barwick.

Like most early colonial chapelmasters at the Mexico City Cathedral,

Franco was imported from Europe. Although been fixed he is known to have been born in the
Alcantara
5

his birthdate has not yet

village of

La Serena near

(Alcantara lies on the Tagus River a few miles from the Portuguese border). That information concerning his early life should be lack-

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC

105

ing does not surprise us when we consider that little or nothing is known of the early lives of such more important as Morales and Guerrero.

composers Franco during 1542, or thereabouts, was in Espinar (approximately 23 miles from Avila). Espinar was the home of the Alamo family, and Franco during his sojourn there knew Lazaro del Alamo 6 who later

(1556) was to become chapelmaster

Franco's arrival date in the
uncertain,

at

Mexico

City.

New World, though like his birthdate still

may have occurred in 1554. The patron who sponsored his was a civil functionary, Sedena by name, an oidor, who later becoming came rector of the University of Mexico. At first after his arrival in the

New World Franco settled in Guatemala, but soon after Alamo's chapelmastership ended (1570) he was invited to Mexico City. was promoted by Sedena, but Alamo's personal

The

invitation

acquaintance

may have

had something

to

do with

it.

Franco's immediate predecessor in the Mexico City chapelmastership, Juan de Victoria, was so unwise as to allow his choirboys to appear in a farcical interlude 7 (December, 1574) satirizing the viceroy's taxation
policy.

A collector of the newly imposed (and thoroughly hated) alcabala

bed new

tax appeared on the scene and tumbled some nude choirboys out of The moral taken by the thoroughly amused audience was that the

topical satire de was allowed to languish a few days in prison, and although the archbishop soon enough secured his release, he either died shortly thereafter or was relieved of his chapelmaster responsibilities and retired to obscurity. In any event Franco was engaged as his successor on May 20,

tax

would strip everyone naked. For this little venture in

Victoria

600 pesos de oro comun. 8 Along with him was hired his cousin, Alonso de Trujillo, who as precentor was engaged at an annual salary of 200 pesos de oro comun. These salaries may be compared with the dean's (1,800) pesos), a canon's (1,200), a prebendary's (840), and an unbeneficed clergyman's (240). Franco wisely abstained from choirboy plays, thereby avoiding all
J 575j

frith a stipulated salary of

danger of affronting the viceroy. However, his career did not move with perfect smoothness. Within four years after his appointment to the chapelmastership he had incurred such huge debts that the
ecclesiastical cabildo

only saved him and his cousin, Trujillo, from dire consequences by ordering paid in their behalf the sum of 500 pesos in partial satisfaction of a
4,OOO-peso.debt which these two had run up with the corregidor. The cabildo in ordering this joo-peso partial payment noted the value of

io6

MUSIC IN MEXICO

a special favor."

Franco's services to the cathedral "and agreed to take care of the bills as g The bills in aggregate equaled Franco's and Trujillo's
salaries for five years.

combined

Someone has

asked,

how

could these

two, both in orders (all Spanish church musicians, Morales, Guerrero, Victoria, and all the rest, were in orders) have run up such huge debts? The most often-mentioned vice of the clergy in New Spain during this
10 Since the cabildo accepted responsibility for the epoch was gambling. without demurring no serious derelection must have been involved. debts

A gambling debt might furnish a plausible explanation

sum.

for such a large

September i, 1581, Franco was appointed a prebendary to fill a vacancy left by the death of a certain Manuel de Nova. A little kter during the same month (September 19) the cabildo quashed a penalty against him for having violated a holy day. Franco, it seems, had actually taken

On

day set aside for remembering the next year, 1582, Archbishop Moya y Contreras asked the cabildo to reduce the salaries of singers and instrumentalists because
his

young

choristers to a fiesta on. a

seven dolors.

The

the expenses of the diocesan revenues.

new

building program were eating up the arch-

When in July Franco learned that he was to be reduced to 300 pesos, a

was
per cent reduction in salary, and his cousin Trujillo also learned he to be correspondingly reduced, the pair resigned. 11 Twice again durthe month they affirmed to the cabildo their intention of ing quitting. On July 19 Franco even told the cabildo to go ahead and keep the amount
fifty

of his salary that he had already earned during 1582 before the reduction was announced in a spirit of bravado, no doubt. With his musicians
all

out on strike and no volunteer songbirds to

fill

bishop a

month

later (in

August) changed

his

mind on

their places, the archsalary cuts and

of the singers to come back. They did, but in February, 1583, a cut in Franco's salary was again announced, this time not to 300 (as had

asked

all

his salary

been announced the previous year), but to 400. In September of 1583 was mulcted another 100 pesos "because he had failed to give

is of this financial type, simply because the cabildo records dealt so extensively with money matters. In May, 1584, Franco was raised to 450, and his subordinates in the musical establishment were all boosted to what they had earned before any cuts were made in 1582. But Franco was enjoined to teach singing to the choirboys} he failed to fulfill his duties as a teacher, however, and

the choirboys proper instruction." Most of the information concerning Franco

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC
later in the year
priest

107

50 pesos were taken from the 450 and given to another taught the choirboys not only reading and writing, but also singing in addition. In November of 1585 Franco was ailing; on the 22nd

who

he attended the last session of the cabildo and on the 28th he died. As a mark of honor he was buried in the main chapel of the cathedral back
of the viceroy's seat. 12 The cathedral in which Franco's music was
first

heard stood where

the present sagrario stands. The present imposing cathedral, one of the world's largest, was not started until 1573," just two years before Franco

was hired. During his incumbency, therefore, the archbishop well needed every peso he could lay hands on$ approximately 200 workmen were
constantly employed during the last quarter of the century in the initial building operations. The zocalo, where now rise the present cathedral
edifice,
still

an

the Palado Nadonal, and other important buildings, was then island, just as it had been since Tenochtitlan was founded in the

mythical year, 1325. Building materials therefore had to be brought over in canoes, and the constant hum of Indian workmen laying the foundation of the new cathedral was a part of Franco's everyday existence during his

decade as chapelmaster. 14

In

his cathedral the choir sat in the central

15

railings.
is,

The placement

nave surrounded by gilded of the choir in the middle of the central nave

of course, normal procedure in Spanish cathedrals, but for those who have never seen such an arrangement, seems novel. The long central nave with a continuous sweep of vision which we associate with Gothic cathedrals was therefore missing j instead the choir bisected the nave. To the west of Franco's choir was the altar of pardon and the door of pardon. To the east was another altar and door. In the choir itself sat not only the half on singers, but all the dignitaries also. With their stalls separated,
each other.
possible
is

one side and half on the other, the choir members constantly sat facing The answering back and forth such an arrangement makes

an everlasting presupposition in

all

Neo-Hispanic (and Span-

ish) polyphony.

The music was of two types, of course: plainsong and polyphony, with the .precentor in charge of plainsong and chapelmaster in charge of polyphony. Most sixteenth century music we now know such as Palestrina's
Stabat Mater does not require the intoning of interspersed sections in plainsong. Only the Mass sections beginning c with "Et in terra pax" and Tatrem omnipotentem" require plainsong intonations and those are usually left out in performances. As a conse-

Pope Marcellus Mass or his

io8

MUSIC IN MEXICO

even those who have heard some Palestrina, quence, present-day students, know nothing of his or anyone else's vast numbers of compositions where
plainsong and polyphony ony that has descended to us
alternate.
is

Nearly

all

of the alternating type

the Neo-Hispanic polypha verse in plain-

extremely important between two antiphonal choirs one singing a verse in polyphin plainsong reminds one of a swinging penduony, the other a verse Our first example shows how this principle of alternation worked lum. in the singing of a penitential psalm (Psalm VI).

one in plainsong, and one in polyphony, song, then one in polyphony, and so on. This alternation back and forth establishes a kind of large duple to the success of the music. This that is

rhythm

oscillation

3)omint, xefnfurort

{&t4W*6J
Ji

J>

i.

s* - mi JM -tf* /

**,

H
iu
.

/ -7

- -

r p p p P F P *** ***'*-** **3' '**'**,

yu-*i-*m

i,

I .ij.i

jj

'.^.MP.f

If

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC
StJ tu

109

Jo- */
J

ut-yut-

in

-,,.*

TM
^ r

j=F*=

!f r*..

'7

-6w

>i^-

P P

pp

p
is

Uc-tw*

p p p p p J6-&MHr-4Mi/iy->

^K?* ~

110

MUSIC IN MEXICO
-

tu

- tos

-ntt

us:

ij---

|-j
P

7
,s

j
f

^
F
F
I

-'P

33
j *

/ua o- nr-A* -

t^n-Mt oar

;R V v

P'K

-a-

- - -

new -

i*t

oR.-

3>o - /*

- TWtf

07 -&

'

H
The
reliance

suited to the texts chosen

survives.

on antiphony as a prindpal artistic device was especially by most Neo-Hispanic composers whose music Their Magnificats, their Salves, their Lamentations, and their

psalms,

all

employ texts which seem naturally

to call for antiphonal treat-

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC
ment.

in

It is a well known fact that Hebrew poetry, even in translation, preserves a large duple rhythm. Cognizance of this fact is taken today when ministers of religion in both Hebrew and Christian denominations

read the psalms responsively. The very structure of the poetry itself suggests such answering back and forth. Even with only a cursory glance at the words of some such psalm as that just transcribed from Franco

one can see how each verse divides

halves and

how

itself naturally into two balancing each odd-numbered verse alternates with each even-

numbered verse
nificat

in

going back and forth over a single idea.

all students of

The Magthis

and

certain other poetic passages

from Scripture show

same

tendency towards parallelism 5

this structural device as a

Hebrew

poetry recognise

commonpkce. Recognizing

this basic structure

that

why the composers so often wrote music tends to sound like a striped peppermint bar" to carry out the analogy, with the white stripe representing the plainsong, and the red
<c

in the texts, one can understand

the polyphony.
Particularly notable in Franco's psalm-setting just given (Mode VIII) his subtle handling of such words as morte in verse 5 with the unexpected b flat in the bass, and his vigorous melisma distributed among all
is

the voices

on furore oculos in verse

7.

The ending

of the psalm (not

given) leads immediately into the Requiem aeternam.

THE MAGNIFICATS
Franco's most artful compositions are his seven Magnificats.

He

un-

doubtedly composed eight one for each tone but the Magnificat for the Third Tone seems to have been lost. In order properly to evalue his

achievement

it is

necessary to

were written during

his century.

know something Most musicians

S. Bach's.

of the

way
if

Magnificats

today,

they

know any

Magnificat-setting at all,

know J.

for an understanding of would be a knowledge of

Much more helpful, however, the Magnificats now about to be discussed, Morales's or Guerrero's. The list of sixteenth
certain

century composers

who wrote important Magnificats is very large j

procedures were followed by everyone who wrote them Palestrina, Lassus, de Monte, de la Rue, Duarte Lobo to name composers of
different nationalities. According to a recent scholar's analysis (Carl Heinz der Magnificat Illing in a 1936 doctoral dissertation, Zur Techirik
: Composition des ;6. Jahrhunderts)

(i)

the composer was not at liberty

112

MUSIC IN MEXICO

to pick his themes at random out of the air but had to use the psalm-tone melodic formulae} (2) each short section of the Magnificat had to end on a chord whose root was the final of the "tone"} (3) the more learned devices such as extended canon or imitation by inversion were usually

reserved to the Gloria Patri at the end.

Palestrina wrote 35 Magnificats, Lassus 100, yet each of these com16 all the verses of the Magnificat. The common proposers only once set alternate verses. Occasionally the odd verses were set, cedure was to set

but

much more commonly the even

first

verses

were

set.

Morales, however,

collection of five Magnificats published at Venice in 1542 set all in his verses consecutively. Franco chose to follow Morales's primitive dozen

preserved Magnificats therefore inpractice, cludes all the verses consecutively set. It is known that Palestrina's eightpart Magnificat (the one in which he provided continuous music for all twelve verses of the Magnificat) was designed for the Papal Choir as an 17 the other 34 Magnificats were designed for extremely choice work}

and each of

his seven still

the Julian Choir and the St. John Lateran Choir less important choirs. Franco's settings speak well for the pretensions of his choir, and for the seriousness of his own purpose.

The

fidelity

constructing his

with which Franco followed the plainsong intonations in themes deserves note. The openings (cantus part) of his

Magnificats illustrate this fidelity.

a-ni-ma mt-A

.3

Fr**co: M+*nii

P.f'

Jl

A-nt-Ma

- - - -

V4T-x*r

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC

113

That Franco was but following the universally prescribed custom in generating his own melodies from plainsong formulae can be proved by comparing his Magnificats with those of any other Neo-Hispanic comthe beginnings posers one -may choose to examine. Below, for instance, are two Magnificats by Lopez y Capilla and of one of Bernardo de Peralta. of

Lottl y CopHIa,
Majitificat

X*tX
3>

**/?#cat
Efc
i

a- TtL-mA me -a

me -a Jo- mi - nxm

"ma mi

-FT Mum.
to the traditionally accepted idea that a

Having committed himself

Magnificat should simply ring changes on an already thrice-familiar melodic formula, the sixteenth century composer's task then became one
of demonstrating his taste and skill as a variationist.

The utter
it

familiarity

of the formulae redounded to his advantage because indulge in much more subtle types of variation than a

allowed him to

modern composer

working with a theme the audience does not

ation-devices

know

is

allowed.

The

vari-

were of several types. Palestrina often chose to intersperse extraneous notes or rests between successive essential notes in the formula. Henry Coates in his study of Palestrina (1938) showed how "each part 18 and gave the of the psalm tone generates contrapuntal melodies," asterisks stand above notes which belong to following example. (The
the plainsong formula.)
it Magnificat XUL
t'S0/J

an

cU- lat Su

Franco used the same means of extension by interpolation; the opening of the cantus part in his Magnificat t shows such an extension. A favorite device with such Flemings as de la Rue and de Monte 19 consisted in stating the melodic formula as an inner voice cantus finnus in a play of imitation between or long notes. Meanwhile they contrived the imitative fragments usually were among surrounding voices, but

II4

MUSIC IN MEXICO

to the psalm-tone formula. Another device somemelodically unrelated used consisted in stating the psalm-tone formula first in long notes, times shorter notes. The Gloria Patri from Franco's Magthen in

successively

nificat

in note values at the end. (Tone VIII) shows such a speed-up Sicut erat from the same Magnificat shows a canon worked out on The

the notes of the psalm tone.

Magnificat '

ToiuyaL(^ior/aTairi)

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC
T<mtlBl(Sieut ami)

"5

MUSIC IN MEXICO

Franco's technical competence is beyond dispute; if he has nothing quite as elaborate to show as Palestrina's double canon at the octave and
fifth in the Sicut erat of Magnificat IV (Lateran Magnificats), or the canon cancrizans at the end of Magnificat V) or the canon by inversion at the end of Magnificat VI, neither for that matter do Morales or Guerrero

in their Magnificats, The various refinements that acute students of sixteenth century counterpoint have been led to expect in all the better-

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC
fabricated

117
his

works of the period are certainly there:

is

handling of the

nota cambiata

at all times meticulous; accented syllables are always

of notes, with longer values than weak syllables placed on notes, or groups the same word; the ambitus of the voices in their respective modes are in
carefully preserved; the rhythmic problems involved in what we are pleased to call "ties" are all handled in approved fashion 5 the

now

balance between voices

is

rhythmic well contrived; the melodic and harmonic pro-

gressions will satisfy the most fastidious text-book theorist. Students who are unfamiliar with the convention that

required the of every section in the Magnificat with a complete or incomplete ending chord built on the final of the formula may perhaps cavil at twelve short
sections all

coming to

rest

with chords on the same root.

is

The

taking of

exception, however,

to this procedure

as anachronistic as the taking of

exception to the dances in a Bach keyboard suite because they all "are in the same key." Franco, like most of his contemporaries, stayed away from the "chord" with which each section was required to end until the final

cadence in the section. It

may be worthwhile

disposed to look at Magnificats that I

D chord (G if one

flat is in

to remind those who are and II Tone Magnificats end on a the signature) ; III Tone end on an A chord;

IV Tone on E; V on A; VI on C VII on A; and VIII on G.

(or

if

one

flat

is-b the signature);

In his Magnificats as in his other preserved works he showed exquisite sensitiveness in his timing of cadences. In a long motet like the one in familiar style he wrote using Job:i6b-2i for a text, he included twenty
cadences, but only one

the penultimate

comes ta rest on the

its

crucial

"F-chord" which gives the Phrygian mode

distinctive flavor.

We are

chord simply

not anachronistically imputing to him a chordal sense, and use the word as a convenience, but are commending his manipulation of
less obtrusive

harmony as well as melody. His word-painting is neither more nor

than

is

the word-

painting in such other polyphonists of his time as Morales and Guerrero. As is well known, Bach was stimulated by the Magnificat text to some

the voices burst

of his most literal word-painting. Where the word "omnes" occurred all in. Where the word "inanes" occurred two flutes ended

on an unresolved chord. Nothing quite as literal as that should be expected from Franco, but for words like ^misericordia" 20 he chooses a gliding ?1 he chooses an upward thrusting scale-line; rhythm; for "exaltavit"

ii8

MUSIC IN MEXICO

for a phrase like "deposuit potentes" he chooses a widely skipping bass

line with an implication of strong accent. In order to see his word-painting in its clearest aspect it is useful to contrast his setting of "fecit potentiam"

in the

IV Tone with
22

entes":

in his handling of expressive device

the immediately following three-voice "esuriit will be seen everywhere

that though not proleptically gifted he always

knew how

to

conform to

enlightened usage of his own epoch. Perhaps without the necessity of further analysis our point has been made. In the same decade Palestrina was writing his Magnificats

(1575-85) Franco was writing hisj a comparison of their Magnificats by no means throws discredit upon the Neo-Hispanist. One discovers instead that Franco had mastered the craft of his age, and that he transported to New Spain a type of liturgical music that compares favorably with what was being heard in the more pretentious European chapel establishments.

The rules formulated by the Third Mexican Provincial Council (1585)

show the advanced stage of musical discipline in Franco's organization. From a purely musical point of view no other Mexican church council has at any time passed legislation so conducive to superior performance standards as did the 1585
for the administration of archdiocesan choirs

Franco had the pleasure of seeing the assembled Mexican hierarchysix bishops and an archbishop pass a written rule to the effect
council.

that in the chapelmaster was vested absolute control over all musical forces in the cathedral including not only his own choristers who would

naturally obey him, but also including the clergy whose business it was to sing during the service. Furthermore all instrumentalists in the cathedral orchestra were by statute subjected to the control of the

chapelmaster.

... If he directs them to sing with organ accompaniment they shall obey; if he prescribes a descant above the cantus firmus they must likewise 28 obey without excuse or delay.

Instrumentalists, choristers, as well as clergy who participate in the choral service, must reverently heed the instructions of the chapelmaster.

Further regulations passed in 1585 concerning fa bordon, alternation of organ and choir in psalm verses, singing of cantus figuratuS) and like

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC
sual precision, despite the

119

technical matters, enable us to reconstruct Francois procedures with unu24 kpse of centuries.

NAHUATL HYMNS

Two hymns
pretentious

and both attributed

music.

honoring the Virgin, both with Aztecan (Nahuatl) texts, to Franco, deserve attention along with his more

Pint Na/tuatt
YaLdis
Coctcx, Tttcitati*-*

M& *4*-3 *

m
1

EAlUjrol

_ ^

f '?*/'

]fnnin
.

r
J

-J

a*.

* In the manuscript the tenor reads E ** In the the tenor reads

manuscript

instead of F.

G instead of A.

I2O

MUSIC IN MEXICO
Steoncl Nahuatl Hymn
tf o

4* r& tol
-

/* on'] **l

4*

trmu&Ma

-r/i.1 nf\

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC

121

The text of both foregoing hymns has been translated by the learned Nahuatl scholar, D. Mariano Rojas. The words of the first hymn say: "Celestial Queen, Mother of God, Our Advocate, pray for us." The words of the second say: "O Lady, beloved Mother of God, always virgin, intercede for us with Thy beloved Son, Jesu Christ, Thou most beloved " The actual text of both of the Most High hymns in Nahuatl may prove
!

interesting:
1.

In

ilhuicac dhuapflle tenantzin Dios in titotepantkhtohcatzin.

Ma-

huel tehuatzin topan xinotlahtolti in tidahtlacoanime.

2.

Dios idazo nantzine cemihcac ichpochtli cenca timitztotlatkuhtilk

ximotlatolti ixpantzinco in

matopan

modazo

conetzin Jesu Cristo.

Ca

ompa

timoyestica in inahuactzinco.

As can readily be seen, these hymns differ pronouncedly in style from Franco's liturgical music with Latin text. The traits which noticeably differ
from his ecclesiastical manner include:
(i)

an abundance of parallel fifths,

unprepared and on accentual rather than

octaves, arid other forbidden consecutivcs, (2) the use of

unresolved dissonance, (3) a constant

reliance

two hymns seem much nearer agogic rhythm. In actual performance these to us than does the liturgical music j the jauntiness and carefreeness of the
music exerts an immediate appeal. Such devices for the securing of rhythmic vitality as the hemiola at the beginning of the repeated section in the
first

hymn, and the

obtrusive syncopations and frequent repeated notes

12*
in the second

MUSIC IN MEXICO
hymn, are all sufficiently obvious to make telling impressions

at first hearing.

Both hymns are important in Mexican music history simply because they alone remain among the vast store of polyphonic compositions with
Indian language text that must have once existed* If they are correctly
attributed to Franco, then

learned sock ability to doff the

he showed when he wrote them an uncanny and sport it on the green. They show him

in an unexpected mood, and prove he knew perfectly well villano with the blithest of the frottola composers.

how to

act the

THE PUEBLA SCHOOL OF COMPOSERS

Although Mexico City provides an example to the contrary, Spanish colonial policy did not dedicate itself simply to the planting of Spanish enclaves in populous Indian centers. The more typical Spanish colonial
procedure involved the selection of an entirely new site such as Lima, where a new city with a completely Spanish background might grow up. In New Spain two important towns were founded soon after the Conquest with the express purpose of developing them a pure Spanish tradition. One was Puebla de los Angeles, the other Guadalajara. In Puebla was

constructed within a decade of

its

church so imposing that Motolinia called

built in

New Spain 5 he particularly praised its -three imposing entrances with elaborate carvings, and the separation of the interior three aisles by black porphyry columns. 25 Charles. V raised his church to a cathedral

founding by the audiencia in 1531, a it handsomer than any other yet

1550, granting it rich privileges with the intention of elevating it to equal 20 dignity with the Toledo Cathedral. During the next century royal benefactions lavished on the Puebla Cathedral made it the peer of the metropolitan cathedral itself.

The first composer of note at Puebla was Pedro Bermudez. His music the most rhythmically vital of any yet discovered by a Neo-Hispanic composer. As an example of his style we subjoin an excerpt from P&alm 69 (Vulgate) , Domin* ad adjwandvm me fatina.
is

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC
3>om/x* ad
i,yi//**

123

5*- 5

^
I
I ..

Jo-

LIJ

a-x* *<*'/*

124

MUSIC IN

in each individual voice part adds impowerful rhythmic drive to the virility of Bermudez's superb setting. Just the rhythmic measurably

The

for instance, reading thus pattern of the upper voice alone,

pui/lr prpr Irttrr

Efprp'lr
*

Ir

PHf
r

t_r

a; rite ti.

is sufficiently

endowed with a life of its own

to carry the listener's interest

constantly forward.

The

other four voices have been assigned equally

propulsive patterns. In his four Salves he spoke in more passionate accents than Franco had 27 a generation after Franco, Bermudez spoke permitted himself. Active

with an enlarged harmonic vocabulary. His chord of suffering was the Italian augmented sixth. In his first Salve Regina for four voices he begins
the phrase, "to thee

we cry, weeping," with this melodic inflection:

mus
Immediately thereafter occurs
sus Ttt

this passage:

*** -

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC
in

125

Phrases like lacrimum valle ("vale of tears") are wrung dry of sentiment Bermudez's Salves. Without actually writing chromaticisms he did

his

utmost to imply them.

He showed a fine sensitivity to the emotional

o

28 impact of cross relations.

ctt-

m
Already before Bermudez's time (c 1605)
achieved a reputation not only in
well.

m
^e
Puebla choir had
also in the

New Spain but

at

homeland
"

as

Salamanca in 1577, v 3 sent f1 0111 as a youth to study among other subjects music at Pueblaj later Spain when he came to write a chronicle of his order he said he learned music

Diego de Basalenque, born

in the diatonic

and chromatic kinds

to perfection while a student at

music is clear j what he meant by chromatic genus music may be discovered by reading Juan Bermudo's explanation in his 1555 Declaration de mstrumentos (Bk. V, ch. 32). Bermudo said (f. 138*): "What we now universally play and
sing [though the accidentals are not written] is a mixture of the diatonic and chromatic kinds of music." The obligatory use of organ accompani-

Puebla. 29

What Basalenque meant by diatonic genus

ment for "chromatic genus" music was mentioned 80 theorist, Eximeno.

in a tract

by the

later

The crowning epoch

in Puebla's musical history

was the fourteen-year

period during which Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza ruled the see. Himself an intimate of the Spanish royal house, a scion of nobility, and

he rose to be viceroy of New Spain for a brief time. His tastes were always patrician, and his learning immense. He spared no effort to make the consecration of the Puebla Cathedral on April 1 8, 1649, t^ e most brilliant of its kind ever celebrated in the New World. In the official account, Relaci6n y description del Templo Real de la tivdadde la Puebladelos Angeles . , . , y sv CatedraL Q<ve de orden de Sv Magesfad acabb> y consagro a iS.de A Ml de 1 640, constant mention is made of a double choir. His appropriations for music reached the una devotee of the fine
arts,

precedented

sum

of 14,000 pesos annually, a

sum

considerably in excess

iz6

MUSIC IN MEXICO

of that spent anywhere in the New World during his particular epoch. 81 Because his lavish spending made possible a double choir of "diestros" skilled singers the repertory at Puebla was enlarged to include music
for two and three choirs by Bernardo de Peralta

and Juan de Padilla. The

sonorous ideal in the Puebla Cathedral approximated that of Giovanni GabrielPs Sacrae SympAoniae; such a work as Peralta's twelve-voice Magnificat, thought to have been sung at the 1649 dedication ceremonies, while not of as Gargantuan dimension as Oraxio BenevolPs festival Mass

for the consecration of the Salzburg Cathedral (1628),

is

nevertheless a

Foreshadowing Bach in one detail, Peralta withholds his first vocal tutti until the "omnes" of beatam me dicent omnes
scope.

work of tremendous
generationes.

The

expressive devices furthermore are typically early

baroque. Et sanctum nomen is answered back and forth in typical sequence

pattern with this rhythmic pattern
nificat ("misericordia") is

f f

^erse 5

* t^ie

Mag-

assigned the
is

high voices. Fecit potentiam

sequence involving
is

composed of light, hurled between the choirs in an effective

first

choir

this pattern: f

p p

P
p
I

Disfersif superbos

assigned this characteristic lashing rhythm:

6 6 f

f^tl
cli-

D & &

^
I

'

e Gloria

moves up

tier

on

tier to

a resonant

max of really striking magnificence. The changes from duple to triple and from triple to duple meter throughout the work provide dramatic relief. On occasion Peralta does not scruple to write one melodic line in duple meter and another simultaneously in triple. In 1 649 at Palafox's behest there was printed at Puebla a 24-page book of choir regulations: Reglas y ordenanzas del Coro desta Santa Iglesia Cathedral de la Puebla de los Angeles. It was during Palafox's regime that Juan Gutierrez de Padilla was secured as Puebla chapelmasterj undoubtedly Padilla was a talent whom Palafox had personally observed in Spain or else was a rising light recommended to Palafox by one of his deputies in Spain (Palafox came over in 1639). Padilla's musical achievement has not yet been fully canvassed, but it is known that his extant
repertory
is

composer in Mexico.

larger than that of any other sixteenth or seventeenth century The first printed allusion to his Puebla activities

occurs in the already cited Relation y description in which he is several times mentioned by name, 82 and his compositions lauded as the wonder of
their time.

His

successor as chapelmaster

was J-icenciado Miguel Mateo

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC

1*7

Dallo y Lana, who is now prindpally remembered for his part in setting S8 Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz's Villancicos (printed at Puebla in i69o). Padilla himself wrote numerous villandcos in the vernacular, in addition to liturgical compositions with Latin text, but he did not have the good
fortune to conjoin any of his villancico-music with words by as famous a figure in Mexican letters as Sor Juana. The first work of Padilla transcribed into modern score was a Passion

According to

St. Matthew (Steven Barwick: "Sacred Vocal Polyphony in Colonial Mexico," 1949). More recently Alice Ray's transcriptions Early of the Padilla Masses have extended our acquaintance with this fecund

Choir piocomposer. The University of Southern California Madrigal with the first performances of any Padilla music in this country. neered Their renditions were received with warmth, and the immediate impression left by the music

was entirely

heartily applauded the music 5 the tendency to thickness that so

themselves positive. The singers Padilla's "orchestration" for voices avoids

than the sixteenth century

vocal movements.

much double choir music shows. More music of Franco it commands the sympathy of

modern audiences because a clear striving for climax inhabits all the larger

The use of accidentals for the most part adheres to normal early baroque
de Torres's 1703 Missarum Liber printed at Madrid (a practice 5 Jose book now in the Puebla archives) shows a similar stage of advance in the use of accidentals. But Padilla sometimes intruded accidentals which
call for
fit

his

normal

a succession of diminished and augmented intervals that do not It is known that on occasion he parodied his own
practice.

34 motets in his Masses. Whether his more adventurous moments in the

use of accidentals point to some unknown possibly indigenous compositionwhich he was at the moment parodying, remains an open question.

Such an explanation has been suggested, but the

firmation.

thesis yet lacks con-

Matthew Passion was not a continuous composition, but rather choral music for only the turba parts that is to say the parts provided In of the passion narrative in which the Jewish or heathen crowd speaks. Padilla's probably was written about the same actual date of composition as Heinrich Schtttz's Matthaus-Passion (1666). The plan of both
His
St.

time

is

with a choral section declaiming the title of the analogous 5 bqth open about to be read. The number of choral sections in scripture selection
Padilla's Latin passion
is

the 20;.in Schutz's vernacular passion

number is

12$

MUSIC IN MEXICO

23. The choral sections in both are of about equal length, and they are both interspersed with monodic declamation of the remaining scriptural narrative. Three short excerpts are given below, the first in each case from Padilla, the second from Schfttz. In general it will be seen that

Padilla resorts to chromaticism to express emotion, whereas Schiitz resorts to

abstract reaction,

rhythmic oppositions. Padilla's would engender perhaps a more and Schutz's a more personal. Padilla's is the more

contemplative, Schtitz's the more participative. In conformity with his does not allow himself the dramatic assistance liturgical purpose Padilla
nettes

of repeating scriptural words. Schiitz does, however, and his brief vigno doubt gain in sharpness because he repeats words and phrases,

thus etching them in the hearer's imagination. Padilla's passion was written for Palm Sunday, the traditional day for the reading of the Matthew narrative; Schiitz's, on the other hand,

was presumably intended for Good Friday, as was Bach's.

Crucify

Hm
ScAutz

TactiUa. C/3J

J.

i
r

J>

iC

&

^
Hi3
-4/4

blood,

:ki

upon

its

Sehiitl

'

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC

129

L*t usstt if

ELias

trt

3o

MUSIC IN MEXICO

shows him at his simplest and most "unHis command of canonic and fugal device as exhibited in the Masses and Magnificats, on the other hand, proves him to have been past master of the learning of his epoch. It would not be overweening for us
Padilla's Matthew-Passion

learned."

to set Padilla as a peer of any Spanish baroque composer between Juan

Pujol and Jos6 Nebra. The existence of a highly developed school of composers but accords with other evidences showing a high concentration of cultural activity
in colonial Puebla.

The

cathedral

grew ever more sumptuous with the

the Mexico City Cathedral was beginadornments brought from such distant places as ning to house expensive Macao, Puebla Cathedral was being enriched at equally lavish expense.
passing of years. At a time

when

Her

chroniclers

were fond of

listing the proofs that "this

incomparable

pkce to none; "its like cannot be found elsewhere 85 The most significant single culin America, not even at Mexico City." tural asset in Puebla was the cathedral, no doubt, but from our viewpoint equally noteworthy was the magnificent Palafoxian Library probably the most important single library in all colonial America during the
cathedral" took second
86

eighteenth century.

MUSIC IN MICHOACiN
If Puebla developed a school of composers whose music compares favorably with the best homeland product of the epoch, one finds evidence
that in
also.

The most
to

Michoacan an important center of cultural activity sprang up notable epoch in the history of Michoacdn music would

seem

be the eighteenth century, during which a school of composers works were preserved at the former convent o Santa Rosa de (whose Santa Maria de Valladolid) was active. The beginnings of Michoacan
music can, however, be traced back to the sixteenth century. In 1572, as has already been shown in the discussion of music books

printed in

New Spain during

Frenchman from Rouen

the sixteenth century, Pedro Ocharte the ordered a hundred Pasioneros from his press

delivered to the Tarasco linguist, Juan Diego de Rincon, then bishop of Michoacan. These Passionaries included music for the last three days of Holy Week, and therefore included music only for the passion narrative
in the

Holy Week when

Fourth Gospel. In order to supply music for the other days of the other passion narratives were read, a Franciscan

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC
residing in the diocese

131

pseudo-plainsong
his projected

of Michoadin conceived the idea of creating his own setting of the other passion narratives. In order to make

book as usable as possible he set it up to include not only all four passions but also certain scripture selections read on Holy Saturday, namely parts of Lamentations and the so-called Prayer of Jeremy.

Juan Navarro, the Franciscan in question, was originally a native of Cadiz, but he claimed in his preface to the printed book that his music was written in the New World. It would therefore qualify as the oldest
in America* The style of the music is printed music actually composed from conventional plainsong, but he stated in his introindistinguishable duction that he had actually made up the music himself. His book con-

taining

monodic

quatuor
ico

settings of all four passions fassiones Christi Domini continentw,

was entitled Liber in quo and was published at Mex-

City by the printer Didacus L6pez Davalos in 1604. Consisting of 105 numbered leaves, the book is further distinguished as the only Neotain the passions,

Hispanic imprint exclusively devoted to music The first 89 folios conand the remainder the Lamentations and Prayer of

fulfill the needs of ordinary the music enables us accurately to gauge the level of music abilchurches, and deacons in the common-garden-variety church. That ity among priests

Jeremy. Because the book was expressly designed to

is

Navarro was intensely concerned over the financial success of the book Dominican and proved by his insertion of commendatory letters from

87 As a Franciscan Augustinian authorities at the beginning of the book. he knew the importance of securing approbation not only from his own from the archbishop, and from the viceroy. Withcommissary

general,

out these three licences his book could never have gone to bed 5 but the apvicars choral were clearly probations of the Dominican and Augustinian inserted to help the sale of the book among clergy of those orders. It is obvious, therefore, that Navarro's Quatuor Passwftes containing music of

was a book which he hoped priests and deacons everywhere would use, even if they belonged to rival orders. The book was ready for the printer in 1601 ; in that year the viceroy and declared a fine gave Navarro "copyright" privileges for twelve years, who presumed to break the copyof 1,000 Castile ducats against anyone letter dedicating the book to his provincial suright on it. In Navarro's no time from his major enterprise in order to perior, he avowed he took exercise." In the compose the chants, but rather did them as a "nocturnal
only moderate
difficulty

132

MUSIC IN MEXICO

preface to the reader (which follows the dedication) he wrote an interesting essay on the history of music in the Western Church 5 his frequent

and on the whole apt quotation from Scripture and from

ties

patristic authori-

extensive reading, or the easy availability of a catena of well selected passages. In order to justify the time he had
indicates either his

S8

own

spent composing music (an expense of time his fellow-friars had evidently criticized) he reminded them that according to Revelation their chief oc-

cupation in heaven

would be musical exercise.

He then continued with the

time to a heavenly work.

following apologia pro vita sua:

I have as a
. ,
.

man endeavored

to devote all

my

Whether I have excelled in that work or not, let others judge. Those who always disparage the labors of others which they cannot
and those who clamor against the unceasing nightly
toil

duplicate,

of

others, are but asked to recall the story of Michal, daughter of

King

Saul,

despised David for his playing and dancing before of the Covenant, and for her gesture of contempt she was punished with sterility. Those who deride the conscientious encfcavor of those

and wife of David. She

the

Ark

who devote themselves to music, and who rail at the

nightly labor of others

while giving themselves to rest, relaxation, and leisurely living, we say are deprived of sweetness of disposition towards God or man, and are in reality

dropping insidious poison. But just as David was not at all impaired in his joyful praise despite Michal's derision (for he said: "I shall go on playing

and

before the Lord, and I shall, yet be more shameless than I was hitherto, will be base in mine own sight," 2 Reg. 6) so in like manner I shall

also delight in the

Lord and

praise

Him

for His kindness.

In His

praise

I shall spend my time with carefree mind, overlooking the assembly of those who unfeelingly mock and carp at my endeavof , 89

Juan Navarro, the author of the work now under consideration, Quatuor Passiones^ was formerly confused with another Juan Navarro,
a Spanish polyphonist

who

died several years before 'the

New World

book was published. Eitner's Quellen-Lexkon and Gro*ve*s Dictionary are but two of the more available authorities which confused the two men.
Gilbert Chase, however, in an article- entitled "Juan Navarro Hispalensis and Juan Navarro Gaditanus" (The Musical Quarterly, April, 1945), disentangled the two men. The mistake was a natural one to make 5 Juan Navarro HispalensisT ("of Seville") published Psalmi> Hymni, ac Mag-

anni at Rome in, 1590. copy of this very 1590 book was preserved in the Puebla cathedral archive^ why should not Navarro Hisnificat totius

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC
palensis

133

have emigrated to Mexico? Rafael Mitjana, who first confused the two, did not know Juan Navarro Hispalensis was old enough in 1553 to compete for the Malaga chapelmastership left vacant in that year by Morales's death.

The temptation to carry over famous figures from the Old to the New World still persists, however, even if the Navarros have been forcibly separated into two distinct personalities. The most tantalizing identification now before the Latin American world takes Domenico Zipoli, the great Italian organist who became organist of the Jesuit church at Rome
in 1696, to the
40 Paraguay Jesuit mission in 171 6. But Adolfo Salazar, the
it

Spanish musicographer, thinks

Zipoli ended case of homonymns?

his life in Argentinian obscurity. 41

unlikely that so adept a musician as Do we have here another

And was the Jose de Torres who succeeded Zumaya

as chapelmaster at Mexico City in 1732 the same Jose de Torres who had already published a book of Masses in Spain and whose Arte de canto llano nuevamente corr. y aora aument. for J. da Torres was published at Madrid in 1734? 42 The breakdown of the Navarro identification has put everyone on guard, and no similar identification in the future is likely to

be accepted without ironclad proof. But even if denied the privilege of attributing Quotuor Possiones to an already renowned European figure, we still have before us a book worthy
of inspection. Navarro though claiming as his model the Roman chant, presented his book as an original creation. It should be compared with an

English redaction of plainsong by John Marbeck, The Booke of Common Prater noted (1550). The music in both books is closely patterned on traditional plainchant, but there is enough of the individual creator in
both to justify calling them original products.
itself

Any melody which

confines

to those intervals found in Gregorian chant, which adheres to the same system of dominants and finals, and which does not flagrantly divide
in our own day scarcely from authentic chant of the Middle Ages ; nonetheless distinguishable Navarro's music has an individual profile of its own and he therefore deserves to be classed as a creator. If Navarro in Quatuor Passiones, Marbeck in The Booke of Common Prater noted> and Luther in Deudsche
itself into

rhythmic sequences, will seem to many

Messey
musical

all

wrote melodies that sound

alike, the reason is sufficiently obvi-

ous: despite their denominational differences, they all cobbled

last.
is ail

on the same

Navarro Js music

in the Dorian.

The

chants are predominantly

134
syllabic,

MUSIC IN MEXICO

with only an occasional eruption into melisma, Melismas are reserved for words or expressions of dramatic intensity (such as, "My God, God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?")* The punctum is used for un-

My

accented syllables in the text, the virga for accented syllables. The neumes of two or more notes used are the podatus, clivis, scandicus, dimacus, and
porrectus.

The neumes are printed

is

in black

over a red five-line

staff,

and

poorer than in the sixteenth and Ocharte liturgical books. The F-clef on the middle century Espinosa line is the most common. B-flats and b-naturals are the only accidentals
the registration
often faulty j certainly
it is

used The four passions are written throughout

in dialogue form,

with the
is

priesfs voice as the higher. Modulation, in the plainsong sense,

con-

Navarro's style in following example spicuously missing. 4S with dashes over them are his more expansive moments one of (notes virgas in the original) :
illustrates

The

ra f

ri-ji-ta-r*

**

- cu m

Vi-jl-U

-U , tt o -ra -

ut

r - tut oui

-dm

ca-ro au-ttm In Jir

<c

What, could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray
is

that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed

is

willing, but the flesh

weak." Matt.

Torquemada (1615) noted the flourishing state of church music in Michoacan, and it therefore appears likely that enough sales of Navarro's book were made in his own territory to return him the costs of printing it.
Throughout the seventeenth century we continue
notices of musical life in
cal talent

to encounter sporadic

Michoacan.

It

seems evident that Indian musiin. such

was for a longer time encouraged

outlying centers as

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC
Valladolid

135

[now Morelia] than was the case at Mexico City. Diego de Basalenque^ whose early studies at Puebk we have already mentioned,
wrote a chronicle of Michoacan in which he told of two exceptionally talented Indians, father and son: the father brilliantly competed with the best Spanish organist of his time, and the son occupied the organist's bench
in the Valladolid Cathedral.
44

eighteenth century school of composers devoted themselves largely to instrumental works, according to the catalogue supplied by Miguel Bernal Jim6nez in his 1939 publication, El Archivo Musical del
presented in this several excerpts in illustration of their achievements,45 and monograph he has promised us a fuller discussion of these eighteenth century composers in a later publication. Whether it later develops that all the listed

The

Colegio de Santa Rosa de Santa Maria de Valladolid.

He

composers in the Santa Rosa archive were Michoacan residents or not, at least the presence of their works in the archive denotes an advanced musi-

A colonial orchestra capable of playing these works could hardly have existed in Valladolid unless some especially wealthy magnate with Borda defrayed the exthe generosity and artistic taste of a Jose de According to Bernal Jimenez a school of music was founded in pense.
cal taste.

Valkdolid (Morelia) as early as 1743. It is significant that the first imin Mexico was a Morelian^-Jose Mariano portant republican composer
Elfzaga. major figure in nineteenth century Mexican music, Elfzaga could hardly have outdistanced all his contemporaries in Mexico City
unless his

own background training

(in Morelia)

had been of quite a sub-

stantial kind.

MUSIC IN OTHER PROVINCIAL CENTERS

Oaxaca was another center whose records scanty though they be show that music of a pretentious kind was cultivated at the cathedral during colonial times. The best known of the Oaxaquena chapelmasters was 46 Juan Matfas, an Indian from the Zapotec village of Zaapedie. At the a and age of twenty he dispkyed such phenomenal ability both as singer the then chapelmaster proposed to export him to Spain that as an
organist
as a notable rarity for Spanish royalty to gape at j this plan was frustrated, however, because shipping at the moment was impossible to obtain and the

the competition for chapelmaster himself died soon thereafter. During the post that shortly ensued, Matfas successfully competed against "able

, 36

MUSIC IN MEXICO
illustrious competitors

and

from both the

who

offered themselves. Elected

and from Puebla" capital city by common acclamation, Matias occu-

achievement

with distinction for a space of fifteen years. His pied the chapelmastership Guillermo A. Esteva in a short bulletin, was discussed

by

in 1931. Esteva concluded published at Oaxaca Matias was a seventeenth century composer, his one survivthat though 47 a Stabat Mater fragment, showed him to have been ing composition, interested in the contrapuntal exercises still popular among but

La Musica Oaxaquena,

slightly

of his epoch. Instead he wrote for voices with Spanish choral composers in a homophonic style. The following somewhat organ accompaniment trivial excerpt shows him in search of chromatic color j this kind of passage need not indicate, however, that the best he was capable of elsewhere was

simply a succession of cliches.

cu

JMS

tbU

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC

137

Sporadic notices concerning certain other seventeenth and eighteenth century chapelmasters at Oaxaca are recoverable. A chapelmaster named Matheo Vallados, for instance, in 1 69 1 set several villandcos of Sor Juana
Ines de la

Cruz which were sung with great

in the

November 25

success on the morning of Oaxaca Cathedral. 48 Notices of the kind that can be

obtained, however, all point to the fact that in Oaxaca, in Queretaro, in

Guadalajara, and elsewhere, the more influential posts during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were reserved for either foreigners, or in lieu of them, for Creoles. Certainly no attempt was made the

during middle and later portions of the colonial period to integrate Indians into

the musical life of the church, as there had been during the missionary Had not the filling of an important post by an Indian grown to be period. a great rarity during the second century after Cortes's conquest, neither

Basalenque nor Francisco Burgoa would have made so much of a few isolated cases when exceptional Indians did cross the rigid lines drawn

between them and the master class. The more typical mention of Indian participation in church music was not Burgoa's mention of Matias at Oaxaca, but Don Carlos de Siguenza y Gongora's mention of the Indian outdoor dances and musical concert on
native instruments which he saw when he visited Quer6taro in 1675. Invited to help dedicate a church, Sigttenza y Gongora, professor of mathematics in the University of Mexico, made a trip up to Quer6taro in that
year,

and left a minute description in his Glorias de Queretaro. What he saw the Indians doing was dancing their famous toncontin during the fourth part of an elaborate masquerade in honor of the Virgin. 49 Siguenza

y Gongora, who was himself profoundly learned

in Nahuatl, said they the tlapanhuehuetl, the teponazdi, the omichicahuaztli, the ayaplayed caztli, the cuauhtlapitzalli, *<and other similar instruments suitable to the

Mexican nation." With these "they praised the Virgin in holy songs conceived in a most elegant style." The Spaniards, on the other hand, had 50 that pkyed indoors their own orchestra of "suavissimos instrumentos"
during interludes between readings in a poetical tourney. Inside the church Sigiienza y Gongora himself sung one Mass and assisted at another

one sung by Padre Juan de Robles. 51

He obviously considered the Indians

their

had a

distinct contribution to

make

own music sung and danced

in

their own way but just as obviously he thought the music for the "main events" should be music pkyed on European instruments by musicians of

European

stock.

Don

Carlos's attitude represented the enlightened

atti-

I3 8

MUSIC IN MEXICO
52

tude of a colonial who while a friend of the Indian, did not favor cultural
integration.

THE VILLANCICO

IN

NEW

SPAIN

The Neo-Hispanic compositions thus far alluded to in this chapter use Latin texts in nearly every instance. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, however, a large literature of villancicos sprang up, all definition a villancico is a using Spanish texts. According to dictionary Christinas carol or a metric composition sung in church on certain other
Perhaps a third of the preserved Neo-Hispanic villanwere intended for use at Christmas j the other two-thirds were written for other festivals in the church year. In all of them a note of intense happiness is found 5 words and music alike breathe an atmosphere of exfestival occasions.
cicos

uberance and exhilaration.

In New Spain all the

villancicos thus far encountered

were intended for

church usage. The villancico originated, however, not as a type of sacred song, but rather as a type of secular song. The earliest printed villancicos

Juan Vasquez's
tos

Villancicos (Osuna, 1551 )

villancicos a quatro

y a

ctnco (Seville, 1560)

and his Recopladdn de soae5 and the anonymous

villancicos in the so-called Canrionero

de Upsala (Venice, 1556) treated sacred themes only in the rarest instances. Almost invariably they had to do with the pangs of love, the joys of love, the awakening of love, or "the spring time, the only pretty ring time, when birds do sing, hey ding a
ding, ding."

The melodies "had

associated with a sophisticated text j the

a simple folk-like quality, even when meaning of the text was translated

into simple musical terms, and the expressive effect never disregarded." Because of the secular origin of the villancico, and also because its text

even when pertaining to a religious subject remained in the vernacular, the use of the villancico in churches was discouraged during the sixteenth
century. Philip II (whose religious austerity is well known) would have none of it 54 But with his passing in 1598, the villancico gradually intruded itself, and during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries usurped first place in the affections of the broader public. In New Spain the publication of villancicos (text only) became an endemic disease. Every sainfs day was celebrated with new villancicos 5 these were sung
at matins, usually, but

during the latter part of the sixteenth century even so proper a poetess as the Jeronymite nun, Sor Juana, wrote villancicos

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC

139

which troped the Mass. As examples of her interpolated tropes we point to her expansion of the Gloria in excelsis (St. Peter Nolasco villandcos,
1677) and of the Ite missa est (St. Catharine villandcos, 1691). Because the prevailing mood in the villandco was always that of happiness, she abstained from troping the sober sections in the Mass such as the Kyrie

and Agnus Dei. However since the Gloria and Ite both express triumph and exaltation she did not hesitate to provide Spanish tropes for these sections. It must be confessed her villandcos are particularly joyous all expectation, and it is not to be wondered at that in charming beyond
her lifetime during one fourteen-year period (1677-91) demand was so fifteen collections. She, moreover, was but one of a great she published
Spain. At a time the paper flourishing school of villandco writers in shortage was so drastic that no one could publish a scholarly work in

New

illustrious Siguenza y Gdngora w these villandco Spain not even the writers, many of them mere hacks, were able to get their ephemeral jot-

New

tings into print

That such a number of villandco

collections could

have
is ac-

reached print is proof irrefutable of their enormous popularity. Because of Sor Juana's acknowledged literary supremacy she

knowledged

to

have been the most

brilliant literary light in

New

Spain

during the entire colonial period her villandco collections will here be examined briefly. As a literary type it is known that the villandco conventionally

began with a refrain

[estribillo]

sung by a chorus, then proceeded

to a bipartite stanza [capias]

sung by a soloist or soloists, then to the refrain again by the chorus, then to a new stanza but sung to the same music as the first stanza, then to the refrain, then to a third stanza if desired,

then to the refrain, and so on and on, always ending at the last with the refrain. Sor Juana's villandcos usually follow the conventional estribillopattern. But she imposed upon her villancoplas-estribUlo-coplas-estribillo

dcos a larger literary unity by gathering them almost invariably into

villandco-sequences,

Everyone knows what is meant by a sonnet-sequence j Sor Juana did not try to gather as many villandcos into a sequence as most

sonneteers do, but usually gathered only eight or nine into a particular some chosen saint. The villandcos in sequence. Each sequence honored a particular sequence were usually distributed with three sung at the first nocturn of matins, two or three at the next nocturn, and one or two at the third nocturn. If villandcos to be sung at Mass were included, their position in the villandco-sequence was at the end. The latter villandcos in a Often one of the villandcos for the second nocseries were the
longest.

140

MUSIC IN MEXICO
se-

turn would be called a jacara. Often the final villandco in the entire quence if it were not a villandco for Mass would be called an ensalada.

Her villancico-sequences are really best described as playlets, with each villancico fulfilling the function of a separate scene speeding forward the
action.

two or three villanticos in a particular sequence set the whose day is being celebrated. The jacara, which she extage by telling tells in plains as meaning the same thing as a corrido jaunty ballad fashion the story of an exploit or group of exploits by the saint being
first

The

honored The only pronounced difference between a seventeenth century jacara honoring Nolasco and a twentieth century corrido memorializing Zapata
is

that one

is

a ballad concerning the exploits of a religious

figure and the other is a ballad concerning the exploits of a political figure. The ensalada at the end of Sor Juana's villancico-sequences are medleys in which a host of comic characters are pushed out on the stage, as it were,
to delight the audience with a little buffoonery. In the ensalada Sor Juana

and her other contemporary villandco-writers often indulged in slang, colloquialisms, and dialect A Negro with a James Whitcomb Riley accent, an Indian with half his vocabulary composed of Nahuatl words, or a
university student
figures in

who

spouts Latin at every opportunity, were stock

Sor Juana's ensaladas.

Addressing ourselves now to the Nolasco villandcos, sung at the Mexon January 31, 1677, ^th words by Sor Juana and music by Joseph de Agurto y Loaysa, chapelmaster of the cathedral, we
ico City Cathedral

discover that there were in this sequence ten villandcos.

Three were

allotted the first nocturn, three the second, two the third, and two were inserted in Mass. The villandco sets the stage by telling us opening Nolasco was a Frenchman who spent his life ransoming Christian captives from the Moors. The second and third in the first nocturn describe his

apotheosis.

The

first

lyric vein, but the third

and second for the second nocturn continue in the a jacara changes to the narrative mood.

ransoming capwere rewarded. The second villancico for the third nocturn introduces in an ensdadilla^sL little medley first a
tives,

"Listen," Sor Juana says, "while I sing his valiant deeds." how he came to Barcelona, how he formed a project for

Then she tells

and how

his exertions

Negro who
flects

that

if

sings a dance song while shaking a gourd In it only he were white he would be better treated.

he sadly

re-

He confesses

that the other night while he thoughts, but he hopes his good

at his conga, 57 he had some wicked angel will pardon him now. Then he sings

was

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC
the estribillo again:

141

porto forward. Everything he say in Latin sounds like someing Nolasco steps different and irrelevant in Spanish. His next door neighbor, thing entirely a simple man, thinks the university fop is saying some highly ridiculous such as, how do you like your liquor, where did you learn to be a
things,

tumba, la, le, le. This particular Porto Rico; the porto rico was an exNegro song dance introduced from the West Indies. After tremely popular negroid rico a young university student spouting Latin phrases honorthis

Tumba,

la, la, la,

receives as

its title,

warlock, and so on. Sor Juana carries off this little repartee between the with real eclat. Then she brings on an Indian who fop and the simpleton
is

a baker.

He sings a tocotfn
if

58 In (the same thing as a toncontm).

it

he

plays

a bit of a braggart, says

he had been Nolasco he wouldn't have paid

ransom to a Moorish dog, no, he would have killed him with his bare fists. After the ensaladilk Sor Juana finally brings her Nolasco villancicoto a conclusion with two of them designed for the Mass that

Of the pair of concluding villancicos the first expands the Gloria in excelsis, but the other has no obvious relation to the liturgy. Her other villandco-sequences are equally fresh and delightful. Her
subject as Peter, Joseph,

sequence followed matins.

matter varied 5 one was for Christmas, others were for such saints and Catharine 5 she also wrote several for special events

in the life of the Virgin Mary. In one of her Virgin Mary sequences she 50 The introduced a truly virtuostic villancico founded on musical puns.

Virgin

is

represented as the teacher of a singing class

who

instructs

her

their voices pupils to raise

celestial.

by

successive degrees until they reach the

flat is

Juana's puns can hardly be translated, but are of this order: the earthly sound, but the Virgin raises the pitch to b natural, the

heavenly sound. The Virgin shows how to make a perfect counterpoint with the Three Persons in the Trinity, and shows how to lift the imperfect
duple, two-dimensioned, earthbound rhythm, to the perfect triple, three-

dimensioned, heavenly rhythm. Man's phrygian mode (the Spanish word that is to say, his frigid mode aroused justly frigio is a pun for frio)
the wrath of God, but as Mary teaches him to sing in a dorian dorian punning with adoring) the divine wrath is mollified.

mode

(a

musical knowledge was gained from El Melofeo y Maestro by Pedro Cerone, 60 an invaluable work published at Naples in 1613, but 61 written in Spanish. Her own annotated copy of Cerone still survives.

Her

She may possibly have known other musical

treatises.

The
62

leading book

shop in Mexico City in 1683 was that of Paula Benavidesj

an inventory

42

MUSIC IN MEXICO

of the stock preserved from that year shows two other titles: El PorquS de la musica by Andres Lorente (published at Alcala de Henares in 1 672) and Arte de canto llano by Francisco de Montanos (published at Madrid

Both these other books are now recognized as superior boob of book has been characterized as "one of the best planned and intelligently executed didactic books published during the 68 The accessibility of these books in Mexico City during baroque epoch."
in 1648).

their kind 5 Lorente's

the latter part of the seventeenth century proves a certain diffusion of music knowledge in the colony; had there not been a rather persistent

would have A. Leonard, an authority on colonial culture of the middle period, has reminded us that "colonial readers were able to acquire a wide variety of the books that their relatives enjoyed in
stocked such books. Professor
I.

demand

for serious theoretical treatises no commercial seller

their opportunities for stimulation in this respect were hardly less than those of the Spaniards who remained in the homeland."

Spain,

and

The most
ical
sis

convincing proof of the rather widespread diffusion of musknowledge during Juana's time, however, comes from an analyof her own allusions to music, and not from a study of booksellers'

lists.

associated with her villandcos, two were and two chapelmasters at the Mexico City Catheprovincial chapelmasters dral* Joseph de Agurto y Loaysa, Mexico City chapelmaster, wrote the

Of the four composers' names

music for her villandco-sequences published at the capital city between 1 1677 686, and Antonio de Salazar, Agurto y Loaysa's successor,

^d

pro-

vided the music for her villandco publications at the capital between 1689 and 1691. Salazar, whose music for two villandcos honoring Ildephonsus is transcribed below, was probably her only worthy collaborator.

His Latin hymns are superb, and show him

puntalist in an

to

have been a master contra-

epoch when the art

a

His name

is

common

of vocal polyphony was decaying. one in Spanish, but it has been suggested that

he came from

in the Seville cathedral archive. 64

Seville, since certain Salazar compositions are preserved came at a time the Cabildo was

He

ordinarily eager to secure a competent composer. In 1682 the Cathedral Cabildo invited applications for a chapelmaster to succeed

more than

Agurto y Loaysa, who was then presumably near the retirement age. Three competitors appeared for the post, one of whom, a Juan Coronado,
was forced to withdbaw since he was adjudged ah incompetent as a com-

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC
poser.

143

Mann was chosen, but seems not to have actually enthe exercise of chapelmaster duties 5 66 in any event Salazar upon became the chapelmaster in 1687 or 1688, occupying the post as Agurto

Nicolas

tered

successor. Salazar remained for almost a quarter y Loaysa's immediate he was followed by Manuel Zumaya, thought to have been his century 5 who remained until 1732, in which year he removed to pupil. Zumaya,

Oaxaca, was the first Mexico City chapelmaster who we are certain was 60 a Creole. Like Loaysa and Salazar, Zumaya continued to compose villandcos, but during his epoch the villancico developed into a cantata, with an opening chorus, interspersed arias, and a choral finale. The villandcos of Salazar and Zumaya both presuppose an orchestral

accompaniment, and the vocal parts therefore represent only a skeleton. Figured bass was utilized in eighteenth century music composed in Mex-

was used during the seventeenth ; may prove ill-founded, but seems accurate now. The two villandcos with Salazar music printed below were written for a celebration on January 23, 1691, honoring Ildephonsus, an ecclesiico,
it

67

but no indication remains that

later

this generalization

astic

of the seventh century

who wrote

in behalf of the perpetual vir-

ginity.

His

cult

was extremely popular

in

Mexico.

The

sense of the

first

one runs thus:

Estribitto
his life
listen

Listen to our taunt hurled at the heretic, Helvidius,

May

be a thousand times embittered. Listen while everyone derides him; while the heavens, on the other hand, rejoice at his discomfiture.
If he thinks

C of las
is

we are going to trade insult

for insult this time he

are going to hit back three times for his mistaken; every because we already know he is a blasphemer and a scoundrel.

we

two

times,

The sense of the second runs as

Estribille

follows:

Take care against the wfld

his evil

beast

who stamps

the ground on

the fertile banks of the

other side.

But

Tagus hoping he will consume designs are known, and will be

the flock

frustrated.

on the Bde-

phonsus will rescue his favorite flock. K- The lurking figure of Helvidius can be discerned in the Coflas darkness of the night. He wants to play the wolf and carry off his victims,
but like a booby he gives himself
2.

away with

his

wolf howls,
shepherd

Although theTrench beast rages at the

flock, Ildephonsus,

,44

MUSIC IN MEXICO

of the sheep, will whirl around and protect them so that not even the purity of their wool will be soiled.
3.

Let the wild beast

in

who comes
dominions.

raging from abroad deceitfully

wrapped
spread

ewe's skin realize his evil designs are

in Spanish

known; he cannot

his

plague

The meaning of these two villancicos seems at

first

somewhat

abstruse,

but the political situation in 1691 makes clear their true significance. Helis only a straw man set up to be vidius, who lived sometime before 383, knocked down. Nothing is known of Helvidius's nationality, and there
68 no reason to believe he was French. But for the purposes of the villancicos at hand, Helvidius had to be a French heretic, and Ildephonsus had
is

to be a Spanish hero protecting the flock against the base intruder. The Tagus river is mentioned because on its banks Ildephonsus set up shop,
as

were, while he was writing his theological treatises. Helvidius and and France were Ildephonsus were merely convenient prototypes. Spain
it

and for propaganda purposes the signatories of the League of Augsburg (to which Charles II adhered) labeled their opponent, Louis XIV as insufficiently firm in the faith. It mattered not for the propaganda purposes in hand that Louis XIV was at the particular moment
at war in 1691,

(1691) thoroughly under the dominance of a Jesuit confessor. These villancicos carry therefore a double meaning. The well-known
Neo-Hispanist, Alfonso

Mendez

Plancarte, thinks these Ildephonsus

69 verses were written by a peninsular poet

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i4

MUSIC IN MEXICO

MUSIC AT THE MEXICO CITY CATHEDRAL (SALAZAR TO ALDANA)

fortunately still extant in which are given the names of fifteen instruments used in the cathedral orchestra during i69i. 70 It different is also known that these instruments were used conjointly as a group
is

A list

accompanying the Salazar villancicos sung on June 29 of that year. Presumably the same instruments were used in accompanying the two villancicos honoring Ildephonsus which were sung earlier that same year (January 23), and whose vocal parts in condensed score have been shown above. This June 29
violin 5
it

list

specific instruments j this list

has been found particularly helpful because it names was the first which specifically named the

also mentioned the treble viol, the tenor viol,

and the

rebeck.

The other

chordophones named in the list were the bandore, the cittern, the marine trumpet, and the harp. The brass instruments used were the
clarion, the trumpet,

tioned in the

list

and the trombone. The only two woodwinds menwere the double-reed chirimia, for which instrument the

and the bassoon. Flutes did not appear in the 1691 list, it is although conjectured recorders were still used in the cathedral orchestra* The organ is mentioned, but its
violin is spoken of as providing a suitable obbligato,

function seems to have been relatively unimportant as far as the effect of

the total ensemble was concerned.

The

interior of the

present structure
chapelrnaster.

Mexico City Cathedral and now we speak of the had only recently been finished when Salazar became The second solemn dedication of the cathedral had oc-

71 curred in 1667 when the interior was Three years before completed. 72 the solemn act a campanile had been erected containing twenty bells. These were not a tuned carillon, but simply rang peals. When they started ringing while the cathedral orchestra and choir were performing, Sor Juana exclaimed, "Jesus! what confusion!" (ijesus, y que confu7* sion!) Any mental picture which can be conjured up of the

flickering

by capable Neo-Hispanic painters as the two Behaves, the two Juarezes, and Juan Correa, hung everywhere, will probably still fell short of the actual panoply and display during Salazart
one sets his surging hymns or his bright and gaudy their proper environment, in calling up imagination the sharply differentiated tone colors in his orchestra, one then catches some
incumbency.
vdlancicos
in

lights illurninatingthis vast cathedral, of the altars served such ckrgy* of t^e fine canvases

by richly vested

When

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC

149

notion of the potent synoptic experience which the Neo-Hispanic church in providing. The humbler folk in the city might want foodj specialized
in 1692, for instance, a great corn-riot broke out in the Mexico City market. But Mexico has always specialized in dramatic contrast The

poor

pressed to death in the riot on June 8 while the tintinnabulation of the bells, bells, bells, at the cathedral blended with a

Indian

woman who was

gay villancico was but the ancestor of a hundred others who have perished while the band played on.
Salazar's

hymns
that

are
is

hymns

in the Palestrina or Victoria sense of the

word hymn

to say, polyphonic settings of certain texts that in

Latin usage are classified as hymns. From a musical standpoint the word motet would more aptly describe a Salazar hymn as far as English readers
are concerned.

but for his

His hymns were not at all intended for congregations, professionalized choir members to sing. Perhaps the most im-

portant of his

hymns preserved
is

in the

Puebla archive

is

the St. James

the patron saint of Spain). 74 His other hymns preserved at Puebla include two for the Assumption and one each for

hymn

(St.

James

and Paul and for St. Joseph. In addition, two Salazar hymns are preserved at the Mexico City Cathedral tesoro artistico.
SS. Peter

Manuel Zumaya, SalazaVs successor, was the first chapelmaster at Mexico City who can definitely be identified as a Creole. Beristain y Souza tells us that Zumaya was born in Mexico, that he became a priest, and that
he acquired fluency in Italian. 75 Zumaya's musical importance rests not so much, however, on the fact he was the first Mexico City chapelmaster who can be proved to have been born in Mexico. Rather it rests on the fact he was the composer of the first opera produced in the New World,

La Partenofey given at the viceregal palace on May

i,

171 1.

The libretto

was by Silvio Stampiglia, and another opera using the same libretto had been produced at Naples in 1699 with music by the obscure Neapolitan
composer, Luigi Manzo. Since it is difficult to account for Zumaya's acquaintance with this particular libretto unless he himself had lived in

and more particularly in Naples, it has been postulated that in early youth he studied in Italy. Wherever he may have acquired his musical knowledge, he still is distinguished as the first American composer of opera, and his La Partenope is still distinguished as the first opera of any sort produced on American soil.
Italy,

Before the production of

original

La

pky, El Rodrigo, printed

Parttnofe he had already published an in 1708. After the arrival of a new

i5o
viceroy, the

MUSIC IN MEXICO
Duke
of Linares,

Alencastre Norofia y was immediately pressed into the 15, 1711, Zumaya Silva, duke's musical service. Beristafn y Souza tells us that the duke was a devotee of Italian opera. Zumaya was commissioned to translate Italian

Don Fernando de

on January

libretti,

and

to write

new music

for these libretti. Beristafn

y Souza adds

that his music thoroughly pleased the duke. Zumaya if not in Italy at least somewhere had learned how to please him. The libretto of La Parti-

nofe was printed with text in both Spanish and Italian, and although the music has not survived it must have been thoroughly Italianate. Like the
prevailing baroque plots, that of La Partenope was intricate in the extreme. Two of the seven characters were rival leading ladies princesses.

Their roles were

in all probability

sung by cathedral choir boys. The con-

tinued production of operas in the Italian manner was inhibited in Mexico largely through lack of a troupe. The first Italian troupe settled in Madrid in 1703, but the viceregal court could not independently support

a troupe,
to Oaxaca with

Zumaya's term as chapelmaster lasted until 1732 j in that year he went Tomis Montano, dean of the Mexico Cathedral who was

pattern, cantata. After the opening tenor solo, in the example ^miniature Saldfvar transcribed, the estribillo required an eight-part double chorus. the double chorus the interior voice Throughout parts seem more often designed as mere harmonic padding than as independent vocal lines. The ten measures between the one numbered and the
as

parishioners." Zumaya's Magand villanckos surviving in the Mexico City tssoro artistico have not yet been examined minutely, but Estrada, present organist at the cathedral, thinks him to have been the finest Mexican composer of the eighteenth century. A villandco transcribed by Saldfvar, if it may be taken as representative of Zumaya's style, shows him to have conceived of the form not in terms of a refrain-stanza-refrain but rather
nificats

biography of Sertorio Caputo, a Jesuit, from Italian into and cultivated "the sacred sciences." Spanish, There he died "much lamented by his

elevated to the bishopric of Oaxaca. In Oaxaca translated a entirely to religious duties.

Zumaya devoted himself

He

24

one numbered 34

in the

Alto I part

(estribillo)

provide an excellent example of an instru-

mentally conceived inner part, for instance. But there are also imitations, in total effect even if the separate vocal parts often lack a rhythmic vitality of their own the villandco in question undoubtedly conveyed an

and

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC
solo (an introduction)

151

impression of garish brilliancy. The contrast between the opening tenor and the estribillo is well handled^ the tenor solo,
its

with

supple ternary flow, gives no hint of the hammering force in the

estribillo to follow.

of the Zumaya villandco is too lengthy to set out here. a sample we have therefore chosen the Simply as opening tenor solo, following it with several bars of the estribillo. It should be noted that the two choirs in the estribillo are throughout handled in antiphonal style. The words laud Peter, as would befit his day in the church calendar. The

The whole

probably Pedro Munoz de Castro's j he is known to have been supplying Zumaya with villandco-texts. But Castro's lack the inimitable
text
is

swing of Sor Juana's. He left out the low comedy characters which she was so fond of introdudng in her ensaladas at the end of her villandcosequences,

and

instead wrote "glosas," smelling of the lamp.

15*

MUSIC IN MEXICO

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NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC

153

Zumaya's music, like that of several other Neo-Hispanic compeers, seems worthy of protracted study. For the music of some of his kter
successors in the Mexico City chapelmastership less eighteenth century favorable representations can be made, however. His immediate successor was Jose de Torres (1732), during whose regime a new organ of

monumental size was installed at the cathedral. Puebla had in 1695 secured a new organ built by the brothers Tiburcio and Felix Sans of Aragon, both of whom had been expressly imported
for the purpose of building Puebla an organ suitable for
tensions.
77
its

musical pre-

Guadalajara

at a cost of

20,000 pesos

an enormous figure in

day had secured in 1730 a handsomely cased instrument built by famous maestro, Jose Nazarre, containing 2,226 pipes. 78 Mexico City, the not to be outdistanced by any provincial center, commissioned a new instrument of even larger size. At the dedication on August 15, 1735, "several thousand" persons saw Don Juan de Vizarron y Eguiarreta, who was at the moment both archbishop and viceroy, cooperate with the audiencia
that in staging a solemn "act" If Guadalajara's had 2,226 pipes, Mexico's had to have more, and the total number was therefore 3,350. The number

of mixture stops alone reached 86. Five hidden bellows supplied the necessary wind.

Manuel de San

Vicente,

whose Exacta DescrifciSn de

la

Magwfica

Cadiz, Spain, in 1768, listed this organ, built in Mexico City but under European supervision, as one of the wonders of the New World. At the time he visited Mexico the organ

Gone Mexicans was published at

was one of the principal daily attractions 5 visitors today can still see the tremendous rows of pipes, and although the organ is now no longer usable
because
it has fallen completely into disrepair, it takes no great stretch of the imagination to appreciate San Vincente's glowing account. As he describetf it, the organ was divided: what amounted to a completely individualized instrument was placed on each side of the nave. The two

antiphonal choirs were therefore each supported by two antiphonal organs, The pipes of each of the antiphonal organs were again subdivided

and housed in four separate chambers. The ideal of a unified instrument which many organ builders today follow was completely absent from the minds of Neo-Hispanic builders. Theirs had no swell shutters, and whatever effects of loudness and softness were procured on their organs were

more the result of nearness or distance of the pipes rather than of voicing of individual ranks. The names of stops cannot be readily translated

MUSIC IN MEXICO into modern terms. We have no exact record of the stops on the Mexico
i54

organ when

it

was dedicated but the Gazeta de Mexico carried a

list

of

dednovenas, dmbales, ventidocenas, nazardos, cornetas, trompeta real, bajondllos, 79 clarines, trompeta magna, chirimia, oboe, voces naturales y sictas." Our of the Spanish organ ideal understanding during the Cabanillas
period
is still

the Guadalajara stops at the time of the Guadalajara dedication ceremony. The list included "octavas, dozenas, quinzenas, dedsetenas,

in such

the practice

means of equating of the early eighteenth century with our own. It does seem
exact

a primitive state that

we have no

obvious, however, that the Neo-Hispanic organ contained several stops imitating instruments in common use 5 mixtures, moreover, were as im-

portant (proportionately speaking) as they were in Bach's Leipzig organ of the same period. The pedals extending through only one octave (from

though horizontally out did not admit of any rapid foot-work, since they could be played only with the toes. Obviously legato in any kind of moving passage was out of the question.

keyboard for the feet in NeoHispanic organs. Independent parts were not written for the pedals, which were actually short knobs. These knobs laid
80

C to Bti)

were not disposed, however,

as a

The organ cases were of ionand he had seen the

incomparable richness. In San Vicente's opinbest in Spain the costliness of the Mexico

brightly painted faces representing angels. With his mouth wide open each angel looked as if any instant he were ready to blow. Pal Kelemen, noted art historian of our own time, in 1942 wrote an interesting study of "Church Organs in Colonial Mexico" 5 while he ignored musical technicalities, which were not germane to his purpose in writing the article, he nevertheless did us a service by calling attention to the superb craftsmanship of these eighteenth century organs. He praised "these majestic instruments . . . built by inspired artists and devoted artisans," which though now silenced "are monuments of hope for a brighter future in which mankind will recover its love for the arts and for humanitarian values." 81

City organ was unparalleled. The top level of the pipes stood 47 feet above the floor of the choir. In conformity with the usual Spanish practice of the time, the lips of the Mexico pipes were surrounded with

was the most spectacular event during his Torres deserves mention also as a creditable incumbency, composer if nbt

If the organ dedication

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC

i55

an inspired one. Masses of his are preserved at Morelia as well as at Mexico. He favored the music of the Italianized Spaniard, Domingo
Terradellas (1713-51)? and acquired a f-part Mass with orchestral accompaniment by him 5 as is the case with certain works by Galuppi and
82 Jommelli, the only known score of the Terradellas Mass is today preserved in Mexico. Whether a unique copy in Mexico means the work was

for performance in Mexico, we are not prepared to especially procured What these scores do indicate with certainty, however, is the active say.

the very

musical life of the home country until participation of the colony in the end of the colonial epoch. The weaknesses that beset Spanish

music during the eighteenth century were precisely those which beset Mexico the influx of second-rate Italian musicians exercising the most
deleterious influence. Ignacio Jerusalem, who became chapelmaster at Mexico City in 1764, provides but one especially conspicuous example of a second-rate Italian who, graduating from the orchestra pit at the Coliseo

de M6xico, carried into the cathedral the vapid

at its worst.

inanities of Italian

He

did further

harm by

selfishly

opera opposing the University

rector

who wanted an independent

university capilla

de

mtisica 83 (sing-

ing traditional polyphony). In contrast with the insipidities of Jerusalem and Antonio Juanas, Jose Maria Aldana sounded a somewhat fresher note; he also was essentially

a theater musician, beginning his metropolitan career as a second violinist in the Coliseo de M6xico orchestra in 1786. During the 1790-1 season

he was advanced to the directorship of the Coliseo orchestra. 84 His playing was combined with teaching in the Colegio de Infantes, and like many of
his musical colleagues

income was meager.

cathedral, but if

during the latter days of the viceregal period, his is alleged to have been chapelmaster in the so his dates would overlap with those of Juanas. He un-

He

D, redoubtedly pkyed in the cathedral orchestra, however. His Mass vived for the Museum of Modern Art concerts in 1940, follows the pattern of the usual Italian

of short choruses with

with solos and duets.

andante, G major, %

Mass of the late eighteenth century. A succession or no contrapuntal writing was interspersed Aldana's Mass started with an instrumental introlittle

by a choral Kyrie, largo. The Christe eleison contrasted neatly with the first Kyrie. The second Kyrie ran no slightest risk of tiring the audience, comprising as it did only
duction, allegro, followed

two measures. The Gloria, a fast

% allegro^ was succeeded by a Laudamus

1 56

MUSIC IN MEXICO

minor, sung as a solo, but with no indication of voice except (a mezzo's range). The Gratias agimus, of which we present a few range sample measures, called for only three voice parts, two trebles and a bass. The remaining short sections need not be described. The Sanctus and
te, andante in b

Agnus were combined

in

a single skeleton movement, in accordance with

the musically indefensible practice of the time. In this example, as in others of its immediate epoch, the largo should doubtless be understood more in

our present sense of moierato. The popularity of this Mass obviously extended beyond Aldana's own immediate epoch. A copy of the manuscript
Mass. /> 2>

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC
tu

157

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made about 1 850 is on dispky in the library of the Conservatorio National at Mexico City* The copy was made for an actual performance of the wort The style of the work can be taken to have appealed more to nineteenth
century Mexicans than the style of anterior colonial composers such as

Lopez y Capilla and Padilla. Aldana has the distinction of having been the only known colonial com85 The Virgin of paid a musical tribute to San Felipe de Jesus. Guadalupe inspired numerous tributes, but San Felipe the only canon-

poser

who

ized Mexican

hymn

next to none. The first performance of Aldana's San Felipe occurred by a coincidence the very day of his death, February 7,

S8

MUSIC IN MEXICO
He

where

had lived through an epoch when bad taste prevailed everyin Spanish and Neo-Hispanic music. Although he adapted himself taste of his epoch, his own musical instincts were perforce to the shallow
1

8 10.

healthier than those of his audiences.

REASONS FOR THE DECLINE OF NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC

was essentially a cultural outpost of heroic period, music in the colony prosthe homeland. During Spain's and Cabezon 8fl impered. Not only were works of Morales, Guerrero, but also excellently trained musicians and
performed, mediately imported from such universities as Salamanca implanted a living tradition in the New World. Furthermore the musical standards of the Mexico and
set

New Spain during three centuries

Puebla cathedrals were deliberately

with the purpose of rivaling the

highest standards in any Spanish cathedral.

The
trunk.

When sap rose in the trunk, leaves

out of the Spanish colony developed always as a branch growing appeared in the Neo-Hispanic

when the sap in the home trunk dried up, the musical life of the colony lacking any rootage of its own necessarily withered also. No really effective schools for imparting music instruction on a broad
branch. But
in Mexico, and the lack of schools, rather professional level developed than the lack of musicians, proved ultimately the most harmful result of homeland domination. Although choir-schools such as those at Mexico

and Morelia continued to train adequate cathedral singers, and although certain convent music schools prepared efficient female teachCity, Puebla,
ers of music, schools that could give sufficiently
responsibilities as those of a

broad preparation for such

is sufficient

chapelmaster were lacking. There

presumptive evidence to show that when at last the Mexico City Cathedral did engage a chapelmaster of New World birth Zumaya his musical
credentials had been gained not in
ies

Mexico but rather in Italy. Conservator-

of the kind Dr. Burney saw during his visit to Naples, "three ... for the education of boys who are intended for the profession of music"

(1773), nowhere existed eighteenth century Mexico. There tfras a convent music school founded in 1740 at the San Miguel de Belfin Convent in the capital j 87 there were also two convent music
schools outside

mg

that the Colcgio

called

Mexico City. Bernal Jim6nez has offered evidence showde Santa Rosa Maria founded at Morelia in 1 743 was a conservatory. 88 He also has shown that the short-lived Colegio

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC
de San Nicolas founded
school.
at

159

These three

San Luis Potosf in 1760 was primarily a music institutions, however excellent they may have been,

talent. Boys only partially fulfilled a need since they trained feminine could only have secured professional training by going abroad. But even, however, had conservatories for men as well as women ex-

and had opportunities for advanced professional training been freely available, it is doubtful that Creoles would often have successfully competed for chapelmasterships in the most prestigious locations. With chapelisted,

masterships in colonial Mexico, as with conductorships in present-day America, the prizes were usually bestowed upon Europeans.

Neo-Hispanic music insofar as it was "high art" was certainly not Mexican music, if by Mexican is meant non-European. Even the Indians who

were trained to compose reaped praise only when their Masses and villancicos sounded acceptable, to the European ears of the friar-chroniclers. True, for conversion purposes, the friars encouraged Indian music, and
as Siguenza y

contribution continued to be

GSngora in 1 675 observed at Queretaro, the Indian musical welcomed at church feasts. But in the sense
such as that of Juan Matias during Oaxaca Cathedral had to conform

of "high art" any Indian contribution

his exceptional years of service in the

European ideal, Perhaps when the repertory of Neo-Hispanic music has been studied more minutely it will be possible to isolate in the works of Bermudez, Salazar, and Zumaya traces of Indian influence. Perhaps Padilla used Indian themes j but even if these traces are found it seems categorically certain the Indian element was never intruded for its own sake. On the
Mexico, if we look attentively, we can see at the bottom of the page some nopal cactus incongruously shooting up its stems. Not unless a person looks

to the

he see the nopal cactus. So it will probably be with Neomusic An attentive student may find a non-European theme here Hispanic or there, but his finding of it will be the reward of close study. The more Indian a present-day Mexican feels himself to be the less interested is he likely to be in the remains of colonial musk. If the Mexican, who is first an Indian, pays Neo-Hispanic music any attention at all, he is likelier to disparage than praise it It is a well known fact that one of the first acts of the Mexican Congress after Independence was to propose that Cort6s*s bones be dug up and burnt. When any mind at all has been paid the Neo-Hispanic composers, the spirited approach of many a Mexican
attentively does

160

MUSIC IN MEXICO
it,

Indian has been to dig

and burn

it all out of its present resting-places in cathedrals "as Cortes's bones should have been burnt." Outsiders who

are emotionally uninvolved can admire a Miguel Cabrera painting or a Francisco Tresguerras church without bothering mentally to count the

number of dead bodies taken up out of a Zacatecas

a new artistic masterpiece was created in
can

silver

mine every time

New Spain, but the literate Mexi-

who prides himself on being an Indian remembers. The outsider admiring the Tasco or the Celaya churches often does not know how few the Europeans actually were who dominated Mexico for three hundred years. The total number of Spaniards who came during
three centuries has by informed historians been estimated at only 300,000. All the vast panoply of New Spain was created primarily to glorify the few they were may be judged by Mexico urges of the few.

How

City

alone, which contained the largest concentration of Europeans. 1680 in a population of 400,000 there were 22,000

only

Here in Spaniards who

89 effectively controlled the city, and therefore the colony. in the city were Creoles of unmixed blood.

Another 50,000

European Skipping over a century one finds that in 1790 the population of Mexico City was estimated at only 113,000, with 2,000 Europeans and 65,000 pure blooded
If these were the population figures in the capital where the greatest concentration of Europeans and Creoles was to be found, the perCreoles.
90

centages over the colony generally were much smaller. The Spaniard in Mexko, riding as he did on the backs of the Indian, the mestizo, and the Negro, lived the life of a patrician. With their manual assistance he reared
ruins excite

to himself such enduring and pretentious monuments that even today the wonder and admiration. But the Mexican who feels the throb-

bing of his Indian blood within him cannot forget that these monuments

sepukher his ancestors' blood, sweat, and

tears.

SECULAR MUSIC DURING THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES

Where the

musical remains have themselves perished,

it is still

often

colonial church music simply from reading the ecclesiastical records that survive. But with colonial secu-

possible to reconstruct the story of

Mexican

lar music no such

most instead rely

copious "literary" aids are available to the historian, who escclusively on the music itself which survives. Three

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC
tablatures

161
first

may be

instanced as examples of

what remains. The

tabla-

ture was described in the July 21, 1942, issue of Revista Musical Metdcanay and in three successive issues of that magazine photographic reprotablature in question exists today only in a fragmentary condition, but can be dated at about 1620. The tablature is in tetragram for organ, and follows the same system of tablature en-

ductions were given.

The

countered in Francisco Correa's Facultad Organica published at Alcali de Henares in 1 626. On page 5 of the tablature occurs this indication "Tiento
:

de quarto tono, medio Registro, tiple del Maestro Fran.co correa y son muy elegantes sus obras de este Maestro." It has thus far proved impossible to collate the top part of the particular tiento in the

Mexican tablature

with any one of the fourth tone compositions (listed as such) in the Correa Libra de tientosy recently published in modern transcription. However,
a comparison of the facsimile page in the Correa volume 91 with the facsimile pages in the Revista Musical Mexicana 92 clearly proves that the Mexican tablature follows the same system of organ tablature. In
present-day terminology the
title

would mean a "tiento in the fourth

tone,

played on an 8-foot stop, with the soprano part by Maestro Francisco Correa, whose works are extremely elegant." An overly precise definition of the term tiento cannot be given, but it was a contrapuntal form similar
to the ricercar. Cabezon's

and Correa's are the best known

tientos.

The

Correa reference

in the

Mexican tablature

establishes but another link

with peninsular musical culture. Correa, thought to have had Portuguese antecedents, was organist at the Seville Cathedral parent of the Mexico City Cathedral. Correa's tientos are indeed "elegant," as anyone who

new edition issued by the Institute Espanol de Musicologia must agree. The enthusiasm of the unknown tablaturist in Mexico who wrote "son muy elegantes sus obras de este Maestro"
has studied their style in the

proves more than amply

justifiable.

This particular organ tablature contains another interesting notation (on page i) "Esta fanfarria sse llama scala celite, puso el apellido el Maestro Antonio carrasio, porque es muy bueno tiento de octavo tono.
:

tiple

de cabrera. en

el

this tablature, in the punctuation of this sentence.

peru fue Maestro." I follow Saldivar, possessor of The same sentence can

Revista Musical Mexicana,

clearly be read in the photostatic reproduction of this particular .page in The reference to a fanfarria composed by

a Peruvian master, dating as it does from the early years of the seventeenth

,6*

MUSIC IN MEXICO

an interesting musical link between the two colonies at a century, provides date. Transcriptions of this piece and of the several others in very early this particular organ tablature have been promised by Saldivar. The second tablature deserving of mention is also in Gabriel Saldivar's
possession.

The title of this second tablature, Metodo de Citara, indicates its original purpose as an instruction book for the cittern. The author was

one Sebastian de Aguirre, and his tablature has been dated c. 1650. His book primarily contained dances, among them the following: pavana, de fasacalk) gallarda, branle, panam&, zarabanda, minuet*, puertorrico
la Pueblo, paso

de

balona fantasia, portuguesa, frames,

de

bailar,

and

morisca. Aguirre also included a tocotin, referred to as a "pole dance around a hungry tree." This Indian tocotin, according to Saldfvar, is al-

most exclusively pentatonic throughout In Aguirre's tablature what is also occurs, labeled a portorrico de los probably the oldest Negro dance
which also takes priority as the oldest negros. Lastly there is a corrido, musical example in its class. The. contents of this book, as briefly listed,

show its value, and when a transcription of it appears the musical world will better be able to appreciate its debt to Dr. Saldfvar for his discovery of it. Since he is its possessor, any anticipation of his results would be
inopportune. The third tablature
is in the manuscript division of the Biblioteca NaTablatvra de vihuela dated approximately 1740, it contains dance music. These dances occur: jota, fandango, folios esfifty types of pafiolas, folios itdianas, sarabanda, paspied, coranta, cotillon, rigaudon,

donaL*8

rondeau, alemanda, burro, tarantela, valona, and seguidillas. The most unusual type listed is titled cumbees o cantos negros. Here again in this tablature the powerful impress of the Negro in colonial dance types is
clearly discernible.

The cumbees are subtitled cantos en idioma guinea. cumbees the player is directed to hit his vihuela with a In playing the thump at certain odd moments. In this vihuela tablature occurs also a

zarambeqves; this name was applied to a five-string variant of the guitar mrch favored by the Negroes in the hot country.
tion for

Attempts at reducing this Biblioteca Nadonal tablature to modern notaa long time proved futile until it was discovered that an unusual

accordatura had been used in tuning this particular wA^Z* ^* five open strings sounded these notes: (below the bass clef)

#*?. The

C Aflat B flat. Because of the Negro music which it contains, a publication of this vihuela tablature in modem notation will be particularly wel-E Sat

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC

163

corned. Certain other features in the book enhance its value. Seventeen movements from Corelli chamber sonatas in vihuela-transcription are contained in it, and in addition a complete Sonata de Samuel Trent. Samuel <c Trent's sonata, comprising a preludio, largo, giga, and alegro," may be an original sonata, or it may be a transcription. Since Samuel Trent is a in music history thus far completely "desconocido," we have no figure slightest means of guessing how his music got into a colonial tablature in

Mexico.

NEO-HISPANIC FOLK-MUSIC
Spaniards dispersed throughout Mexico carried Andalusian, Castilian, Galidan, Extremaduran, and Aragonese folk-songs with them
into the remotest corners of the colony.

The

The

colonizers

were not simply

peninsulars" but on the contrary represented a variety of national traditions in the peninsula 5 Aragon and Castile, for instance, were not united

end of the fifteenth century when Ferdinand and Isabella in united the crowns. An amazing diversity of local traditions from marrying
until the

the peninsula was introduced into the

New World

colonies,

and any

at-

tempt to pigeon-hole colonial folk-song into such and such neat categories does violence to the richness and diversity of it. The Mexican scholar,
Vicente T. Mendoza, brought out in 1939 an historical study of the type of folksong now known as corrida. In the space of 833 pages he laboriously
discussed the different types of corrida that have been sung at various times in Mexico 5 he also discussed the Spanish romance or ballad, which
-,

he defined as the ancestor of the Mexican

corrido.

He found ample proof

that the Spaniards long after their departure

in their romances to keep alive the local history of the

from Spain still continued homeland region

from which they

originally came.
j

The conquistadores sang folk-songs

Bernal Dfaz mentioned several of

these by name, such as those beginning,*4

Mira Nero dc Tarpeya/a

Roma como se ardia

and
Cata Francia, Montesinos,/cata
Paris, la ciudad
.

and
Denos Dios ventura en annas/como
al

Paladin Roldan

164

MUSIC IN MEXICO

Francisco de Salinas's De musica libri seftem ( 1 577) provided a printed source of folk-song melody, enabling one to judge the musical characteristics of the sixteenth century folk repertory. Collections of Spanish folkare to be found in such publications as the Can* poetry (without music) cionero de Romances (Antwerp, 1548), the Silva de Romances (Zararomanceros of slightly later date j all this balladry goza, 1550), and other has been enthusiastically kuded by Ramon Menendez Pidal, and several students of Spanish literature following his lead have devoted

prominent themselves to an exhaustive investigation of the ballad cycles. The first romance known to have been published at Mexico City appeared in 1658 (words only); others appeared in 1709, 1717, 1724, 1734, 1764, and
I 779-

w These were

pages, and the list of them is instanced by the number printed in Mexico. The wide diffusion that survived in peripheral New Mexico. Professor Aurelio Espinosa at

fugitive publications, usually comprising only a few of dates gives no true idea, perhaps, of the numbers

the time he published his Romancero Nuevo Meccano (1915) had succeeded in locating ten traditional ballads which had been sung in New

Mexico probably since the time Juan de Onate, or at least since the reconquest under de Vargas ( 1 692) Subsequent investigation brought the number of New Mexican romances to forty, of which '^thirty-two are found in Spain and Spanish America as well as in the Sephardic colonies of Amerw This wide diffusion of traditional ballads is the more remarkable ica."
.

because very often in the remotest spots are preserved today the purest
case of English ballads yet preserved the mountaineers in the Appalachians, where until the juke-box epoch, by the ballads with their modal tunes were still sung as they were two hun-

and most uncorrupted versions. The same situation exists in the

dred or more years ago in England when the mountaineers' ancestors first emigrated. In the Appalachians an uncorrupted Barbara Allen would,
however, be
remarkable than would an uncorrupted Gerineldo in Mexico, simply because in one place the English tradition once established remained dominant, whereas in the other a Spanish tradition
less

New

has given way to a bilingual culture. For lovers of folk-poetry and folkmusic a study of variants in the words and melodies of the romances known
as

Delg&dma (the Cenc* theme), La esposa infiel (unfaithful wife), E&rnal Frances (mistaken identity of the paramour), Don Gato (a romantic cat), Gerineldo (page's love for a princess), Mambru (arms and
the man), and so on, has provided an interesting exercise.

The

oldest of

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC
these such as Gerineldo
that

165
incidents

and

La batalla de Roncesvalles concern

happened in Charlemagne's time. Obviously the music cannot be have not changed uncorrupted after a thousand years, but if the words
during several centuries, it is also probable that the tunes are as those sung hundreds of years ago. In a history substantially the same
significantly

of

Mexican music we mention these Spanish ballads merely to emphasize

of Spanish cultural elements among the descendants again the persistence As one historian said recently: "Where there is a group of the invaders. of Spaniards, there are coflas; wherever there is a Spanish community, 9T even at the Antipodes, there spring up romances."
Since romances

and

their

Mexican

successors, corridos

and decimas,

were folk-expressions we should not expect to find romance-rex^: or corrulo-mvsic "high art." The single melodic line was accompanied oftenest by some such folk-instrument as the hurdy-gurdy (vihvela de 98 for each successive stanza the same tune was repeated. The rueda) j of the melodies scarcely ever exceeded a sixth. Closely allied with range the romances were their religious counterparts, the alabados. They, too,

preserved the folk-elements

strong accentual rhythms, melodies cast

in sequence patterns, implied tonic-dominant harmony everywhere. The alabados in Spain stood in relation to the liturgical music of the day

New

songs of the Homer Rodeheaver type stand today in relation to Randall Thompson's Alleluia. If in a discussion of music in the United States slightly more time were than some such hymn as In discussing Copland's In the Beginning
as gospel

spent the Garden^ no one

would therefore have the right to infer that In the touches the lives of as many as In the Garden. Charles Seeger Beginning has pleaded eloquently that students of Latin American music spend more
time with those types of music that touch the lives of many, than those Mr. Seeger, one of the most types that touch the lives of only a few. wrote in 1943: sympathetic students of folk-music in our time,

To

an understanding of contemporary music

activity

and to

history,

functioning upon a very scale is essential. The contemporary popular commercial idiom holds large the public attention and interest of uncounted millions.*

due regard for the mediocre, especially

when

Applying ourselves to the "mediocre" in colonial music, such as the alabados with their constant doubling of the melody in thirds, we may be able to reach nearer to the souls of the commonalty. The "popular com-

i66

MUSIC IN MEXICO
recalling
busi-

greatest historians

mercial idiom" of any day will always be that idiom which reaches the number. Mr. Seeger has therefore spoken justly in

from the ivory tower of "high art"

it

to the

more important

ness of everyday music as the few.

has touched the lives of the

many

rather than

Because essentially the music of Franco, Bermudez, Padilla, and the rest, glorified the privileged few, it lost relevance when the old order gave way to the new. The musicians of the new era after 1821
ostentatiously

discarded the past with all its "outworn" theories, and instead announced their intention of building a musical culture on an entirely new foundation.

NOTES
1.

Manuel Sinchez, Regla de NJ$. Francisco y breve declaration de sus freceftos fora su mejor observancia y facil inteligencia con una instruction fara los Novitios . . y breve explication del canto llano con advertencies (Mexico: Bernardo de
.

Hogal, 1725). Breathing a visible sigh of relief at the conclusion of the section on plainchant, Sinchez wrote (p. 53): "The teaching of plainchant is not my profession and the writing of this guide to plainchant has cost me such effort that
only the precept of obedience has sustained me until I reached a conclusion." Of interest in this 78-page book are the Guidonian hands on pp. 52 and 58.
2. Francisco Lorenzana,

Missa Gothica . . . (Puebla: Typis Seminarii Palafoxiani, 1770). Lorenzana, who became a cardinal after his return to Europe, was interested in the Mozarabic rite. On pp. 69-72 Mozarabic neuxnes are transcribed
into their supposed

modern equivalencies. Between pp. 73 and 137 a lengthy on Mozarabic usages is inserted. Mitjana believed the transliterations of Mozarabic neumes in this missal might afford a clue to their correct interpretation; no agreement has yet been reached, however, on the exact significance of Mozarabic neumes despite much patient research.
disquisition
3. Jesus Bal

complete works of Juan de Lienas. Bal y Gay came to Mexico during the Spanish Revolution. He was the focus of a controversy during the summer of 1950 provoked by his forthright newspaper criticism of a Mexican performing artist who failed to reach a high professional standard. His influence has doubtless been salutary. 4. This list represents only those works whose presence in the tesoros artisticos of the Mexico City and Puebla cathedrals was verifiable in 1950. 5. Lota M. Spell, "Music in the Cathedral of Mexico in the Sixteenth Century," The Hispanic American Review, August, 1946, p. 313. 6. Cristobal Bermudez Plata (ed.), Ca&ogo de Pasajeros a Indias . , . (Sevilla,

y Gay, editor of the Contionero de Ufsala, co-editor of the indispensable quarterly, Nuestra Musiea, and chief of the research section at Bellas Artes, has been entrusted with this important editorial task involving the known

Imp. de

la

Gavidia, 1946), III, 147 {2192).

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC
7.
1 1 (note Spell, op. tit., p. 3

167
amusing
transaction.

90) , adequately documents

this

8. Jesus

Estrada, "Clasicos de
la

de Capilla de
p. 101.
9.

Nueva Espana: Ensayo hist6rico sobre los Maestros Catedral de Mexico/' Schola Cantorum (Morelia), July, 1945,

10.

Steven Barwick, "Sacred Vocal Polyphony . . . ," p. 114. This habit persisted as an abuse throughout the colonial epoch: "de otra parte

del elemento religioso . . . produce graves esca"ndalos por la frequencia con en las casas de juego" (Cayetano Alcazar Molina, Los que era notada su presencia Virreinatos en el Siglo XVHl, Barcelona, 1945, p. 13).
11. Saldivar, of. cit. y p. 123.

12. Estrada, of. cit., p. zoi.

13.

La Catedral y

el Sagrario

de Mexico (Mexico: Departamento Editorial de

la

Direccion General de las Bellas Artes, 1917), p. xxv.

14. Ibid. y p. xxvi.

15. Ibid*> p. xxiv.

1 6.

Palestrina,

Ofere

Comfletey XVI (1943),

p. 323.

Concerning LassusV unique

Lassus

continuous setting of all the verses, see Charles (Paris: Librairie Felix Alcan, 1920), p. 152.
17.
1

Van den Borren, Orlande de

Henry

Coates, Palestrina (London: J.

M.

Dent, 1938), p. 184.

8. I&id.y p. 1 86.

19.

For modern reprints set Philippi de Monte, Canticum Magnificat (Bruges: Dcsclee de Brouwer et Socios, 1930) 5 and R. J. van Maldeghem, Tresor Musical
.

(Brussels:

C. Muquardt, 1893), pp. 23

ff.

(de

la

Rue).

20. Barwick, Supplement) p. 62. See also p. 100. 21. lbid. y p. 44. See other examples on pp. 64, 84, IOI, 120.
22. Ibid*, pp. 71 and 72. The contrasts between "Esurientes" and "Fecit potentiam" in the other Magnificats are all splendidly conceived, and deserve study.
23. Lorenzana,

Concilium Mexicanum Provincial 111 (Mexico: Joseph de Hogal,

p. 68.

1770), Statuta Ordinata,

24. Ibid., pp.

66-70

(especially p. 70).

25. Garcia Icazbalceta, Coleccion

p.

de Documentos fora

la

Historia de

Mexico (1858),

242. 26. Nicolas Leon, Bibliografia Mexicana del Siglo XVIII (1908), pp. 199-200 (quoting Diego Antonio de Castro's Historia de la ciudad de la Puella^ Puebla,

1746).
27. Barwick, Supflementy pp. 184-216, 28. Bermudez read a maximum meaning into every exceptional procedure; see the

nota cambiata, p. 185 (meas. 1 6); the augmented sixths on pp. 198 and 208; the diminished interval in the penultimate measure of p. 190; see also p. 189
(meas. 6).
29. Saldivar, of. dt. y p. 107.
30.

funto del

Duda de D. Antonio Exvmeno sobre el Ensayo fundamental fractico de contraMJR..PM Fray Juan Bautista Martini . . (Madrid: Imp. Real,
.

'797)> P; 5531. Antonio Tamariz de Carmona, Relacion y deurifcion

...

(Puebla, 1649),

i68
r

MUSIC IN MEXICO

act sums spent on music in the Mexico fol. 3i . In 1647, a y*21 *or wkkk City Cathedral are recorded, only 5,500 pesos were spent. (See Isabel Pope's figures in Nuestra Music*, V* Trimestre 1951, p. 23.)
r 32. Tamariz de Cannona, fols. 2O and 31'. Padilla is called "insigne Maestro." His peninsular antecedents before his arrival in New Spain can only be guessed at His later Spanish career was a fitting fulfillment after his distinguished service

at

Puebla.

He

was successively chapelmaster

at the

Zamora Cathedral (7 1663-16 Dec 1673).

archive.

May 1661-27 Jan 1663) An etent TO*** Magnificat

Zamora Convent of San Pablo, and Toledo Cathedral (7 Sep

is

preserved in the Valladolid

33. J.

T. Medina, La Imprenta en Puebla (Santiago de Chile: Imp* Cervantes,

1908), pp. 84-5. 34. Miss Alice Ray has found two examples of parodying*. 35. Leon, of. cit. (1908), p. 206.
36. Juan B. Iguiniz,

"La

Biblioteca Palafoxiana de Puebla,"

Andes

del

Museo

National de Arfueologia, Historic y Etnologia, 191 3, p. 293. 37. The letters of commendation are dated November 24, 1601 (Dominican) and November 28, 1601 (Augustinian) ; publication of Quatuor Passiones was, however, for some reason held up three years after all the necessary approvals.
authority of Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory, Isidore, and Rabanus Maurui invoked; Navarro also plentifully quotes Scripture. 39. Last page (unnumbered) in Preface to the Reader.

38.

The

is

40. Guillermo Furlong, Musicos Argentinos (Buenos Aires: Editorial Huarpes,

1945) ? * *5 Tta first disclosure was made by Lauro Ayesteran in Zipoli, el gran competitor y organista romano del ijoo en el Rio de La Plata (Montevideo: Imp.
Uruguaya,
s^u,

1941). Zipoli, born in Tuscany in 1688, supposedly sailed from

Jesuits (1717), and spent the years, 1718-26, in Cordoba, Argentina. 41. Adolfo Salazar, "El Caso de Domenico Zipoli," Nuestra Musica (Mexico), May,

Cadiz

in the

company of 72

1946, pp. 80-3, re-issue of Francisco de Montanos's Arte de canto llano (Salamanca, 42. 1610), with editorial additions by Jose* de Torres. The Torres identification is, how-

ever, completely untenable. T 43. Navarro, Quatuor Passiones, folio 8 . 44* Diego Basalenque, Historia de la frowncia . . , de Michoacan, del orden de n.pj. Agustin (Mexico: Barbedillo y comp., 1 886) , I, 1 24.

45.

allegro-andantefuga). For further details see Miguel Bernal Jimenez, Morelia Colonial: El Archwo Musical Del Colegio de Santa Rosa . . . (Morelia: Ediciones de la

The three otherwise unknown composers whose works seem the most substantial were (i) Francisco Moratilla (active as a villancico-composer during the 1720'*), (2) Antonio Rodil (composer of an Obertura con Violini, Viola, Oboe, Tromfe Obligatti t Basso constructed on the Scarlatti-overture pattern: allegro-gravepresto, (3) Antonio Sarrier (composer of an Obertura con VioUni, Viola, Oboe, Tromfas e Basso divided into the following three movements:

Unzvenidad Michoacana, 1939), pp. 19-29.

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC
46. Francisco

169

de Burgoa, Geographic* Descripcidn de la Porte Septentrional, del Artico de la Amirica (Mexico: Publicaciones del Archive General de la Polo
Nacion, I934)>
I> 416- Burgoa's two-volume description, originally published at in 1674, contained several invaluable musical references. See

Mexico City
II

Tomo

(1934 edition), p. 422. A. Esteva, La musica Oaxaquena (Oaxaca, 1931), pp. 9-10. Ac47. Guillermo to Esteva Matias was born at Coyotepec c. 1635, but he has no exact date. cording

The
48. J.

authenticity of the Stabat

Mater fragment must

rest

on Esteva's own voucher,

T. Medina, op. cit., pp. 91-2. Carlos de Siguenza y Gongora, Glorias de Querltaro (Mexico, 1680), p. 51. 49. For explanation of these instruments see our Chapter I, "Early Aboriginal Music."
50. Siguenza

y Gongora,

op.

cit.,

p. 60.

y Gongora said de Robles "sang like a swan." were still making conversions, music as a tool was eagerly seized 52. While the friars upon, but after the zeal for conversions cooled, no one in authority among the Indians during the eighteenth cenSpaniards favored teaching them music. The were actually much worse off musically than during the sixteenth. For the tury low estate to which music declined among them, see the request for the re51. IMS., p. 56. Sigiienza

establishment of the Indian school, the Colegio de Santiago Tlaltelolco; this request in the form of a memorial signed by eight Indian chiefs was presented
to

whose duty among us

one of the archepiscopal supervisors in 1728. In part it read: "The singers it is to sing at Mass and at the daily office are [so badly

trained] that they cause laughter and contempt for the divine mysteries, rather than true devotion and contrite meditation." (Reprinted in Boletin del Arcfovo

53. Isabel Pope,

de la Naci6ny January-February, 1935, p. 31.) "The Musical Development and Form of the Spanish Villancico"
. .

Papers of the American Musicological Society (ip^o), p. 15.

54. Higinio
Angle's, La Musica EspaZola 1941), p. 41. "El villancico religiose que obstante la prohibition de Felipe II . . ."
se
. (Barcelona: Biblioteca Central, habia practicado en el siglo XVI, no

55. Irving A. Leonard, Don Carlos de Sigiienza y Gdngora: A Mexican Savant of the Seventeenth Century (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1929), p. 17.
56. Sor

Juana In& de la Cruz, Poemas de la Unica Poetisa Americana, Musa Dezima (Madrid: Juan Garcia Infangon, 1690), p. 271. "Un corrido es lo mlsmo q una

Xacara."
57. Ibid*, p. 266. (Coplasy line 9.)

58.

Another tocotin, even more astounding than the Nolasco tocotin because written throughout in Nahuatl, was inserted in the second noctorn of the 1687 Villancicos for August 15 (Assumption). The metrical scheme in the Nolasco tocotin differs
from the scheme of the Assumption tocotin. See Poemas (1690), p* 274.

59. Ibid^ pp* 275-6. 60. For a discussion of Cerone's continuing relevance, see

Ruth Mannas, ^Cerone's Approach to the Teaching of Counterpoint," Papers of the American Mvsieolog*col Society (1057), pp. 75-8. 6 1. Two facsimile page* showing her annotations appear in E. Abreu Gomez, Sor

i7

MUSIC IN MEXICO
Ms de
la

Jtum*
62.

Cruz: Bibliograjia y Biblioteca (Mexico: Monografiaa

Biblio-

graficas, 1934.), pp.

I.

448~9the

A. Leonard,

"On

Mexican Book Trade, 1683," The Hisfanic American

p.

Historical

Review > August, 1947,

419.

63. Enciclofedia Universal Ilustrada (Barcelona: J. Espasa),

XXXI, 221.
name was

64. Henri Collet,

Le Mysticisme Musical Esfagnol

(Paris: Librairie Felix Alcan,

1913), p. 248.

The

inventory at the Seville Cathedral listing Salazar's

made

in 1721.

65. Jesus Estrada, "Clasicos de la Nueva Espana," June, 1945, p. 90. 66. Jose Mariano Beristain y Souza, Biblioteca His'pano Americana Setentrional

(Amecameca: Colegio Catolico, 1883),

III,

325.

67. For a facsimile reproduction of an eighteenth century Mexican manuscript with

figured bass, see Saldivar, pp. 1334. 68. Jerome in his diatribe against Helvidius gave no hint of the latter's being anything else than Roman. It is possible the writer of this villancico confused Helvidius

with another of Jerome's enemies, namely, Vigilantius. Vigilantius was a Gaul. 69. Mendez Plancarte, Poetas Novohisfanos: Segundo Siglo, Porte Segunda (Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autonoma, 1945), p. 136.
70. Ibid.,?. 113. 71. Francisco Sedano, Noticias de Mexico.
72. Ibid., p. 83.
.

(Mexico, 1880), p. 83.

73. For attribution of the 1691 San Pedro Villancicos to Sor Juana, see Gomez,
of.
cit.,

74.

The

p. 445. Salazar hymns are

on

ff.

129, 131, 149, 150, and 151 of Libro de Coro

at Pucbla,

75. Beristain y Souza said that for the

lated various Italian libretti

Duke

of Linares's

and wrote music

for them.

amusement Zumaya transOpera as such gained a

tardy foothold in Spain ; for a discussion of Spanish antecedents see Gilbert Chase, "Origins of the Lyric Theater in Spain," The Musical Quarterly, July, 1939. 76. Francesco Florimo, La Scuola Musicale di Nafoli e i suoi Conservatorii (Naples:

Vinc.Morano,i88i), IV,
77. Saldivar, p. 189.

8.

111 (1903), p. 223. Leon re78. N. Le6n, Eibliograjia Mexican* del Siglo printed the Gazeta de Mexico; the account of the Guadalajara organ appeared in the December, 1 730, issue of the Gazeta.

XV

79. Ibid., p. 223.

80. English organs during this period lacked pedals; many Spanish organs also lacked them. The Seville organ had them, however; for an authoritative description of Spanish organs during the baroque era see Albert Merklin, Aus Sfaniens attem Orgelbau (Mainz: Rhemgold-Vylag, 1939), especially pp. 61-2. 81. P*l Kelemen, "Church Organs in Colonial Mexico," Bulletin of the Pan Ameri can Union^ March, 1942, p. 132.

82- Beraal Jimenez, of. cit., pp. 44-5. 83. Foar details of the dispute between university and cathedral authorities, tee

NEO-HISPANIC MUSIC

171

Isabel Pope, "Documentos Relacionados con la Historia de la Musica en Mexico," w Nuestra Musica, l Trimestre, 1951 ; Jerusalem carried the dispute to Spain*

(1940), p. 9. 84. Weinstock, Mexican was canonized in 1862. 85. San Felipe 86. Furlong, of. cit. t p. 19. In 1586 three Cabez6n volumes
according to a booklist printed
87. Saldivar, p. 145. 88.

Music

were sent to Mexico,

by Leonard.

Miguel Bernal Jimenez, "La Musica en Valladolid de Michoacan," Nuestra Musica, 3** Trimestre, 1951, p. 163. In a brief dated February 12, 1746, Pope Benedict XIV called the Morelia Colegio de Santa Rosa Maria a "conservatoriuin
I.

et puellarum." A. Leonard, of. cit., p. 404. 90. H. R. Wagner, The Rise of Fernando Cortes (The Cortes Society, 1944) , p. 498,

mulierum

89.

n. 1 6.
. . . (Barcelona: Institute Espanol de Musicologia, 1948), facing p. 33. 92. Revista Musical Mexicana, July-August-September, 1942, pp. 37-8, 65-6, IIO-I.

91. Francisco Correa de Arauxo, Libro de tientos

93. Collocation number: 15-4-152. This tablature 94. Vicente T. Mendoza, El

is

in pentagram.

Romance Esfanol y El Corrido Mexicano (M&dco,

Imp. Universitaria, 1939), p. 125.

95. Ibid., pp. 783-5* 96. Arthur L. Campa, Sfanish Folk-Poetry in versity of New Mexico Press, 1946), p. 29.
97. E. Allison Peers,

New

Mexico (Albuquerque: Uni-

Critical

Anthology of Sfanish Verse (University of Cali-

fornia Press, 1949), p.

98.

99.

Mendoza, of. cit., p. Handbook of Latin American

rmx.^ 28. The

picture

on

this

page should be noted.

Studies (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,

I943)> P- 446.

THE OPERATIC NINETEENTH CENTURY

MUSIC IN MEXICO (l8lO) COMPARED WITH MUSIC IN OTHER

HISPANIC COLONIES
Since most of the Spanish colonies in the New World revolted during the 1 8 10-1 820, it has often been assumed that culturally as well

same decade,

as politically the colonies had all reached approximately the same stage in their development around 1810. This is an untenable assumption, how-

ever.

Other Mexico was

colonies

were

at the crest of their

wave, musically speaking.

in a trough.

Among the colonies which were at their crest were Cuba and Venezuela. In Cuba, Esteban Salas, chapelmaster at Santiago from 1764 until his death in 1 803, remained continuously productive throughout the fortyyear period of his service, turning out a succession of Masses and other sacred works whose quality was noteworthy. 1 In Venezuela a whole school
of composers in Caracas, including one or two such as Jos Lamas and Cayetano Carrefio whose worth has not been matched at any other period in Venezuelan history, made the capital a respected music center during

the immediate pre-independence epoch. 2 But in other Hispanic countries, musical life was at low ebb. In Argentina the posts of distinction were all occupied by foreigners of dubious

Peru musical life in 1800 had entered a purely reproductive Columbia was actually worse off (musically) in the latter part of phase. the eighteenth century than she had been a century earlier. For that matter it could almost be said Columbia was less advanced musically in 1 800 than in 1550 if we think for a moment of what had happened in once proud The Cartagena Cathedral precentor, Juan Perez Materano, Cartagena.
merit.* In

17*

THE OPERATIC NINETEENTH CENTURY

173

distinguished himself by being the first in the Americas to finish a book, Canto de organo y canto llano, which he craved Charles Vs permission to have printed in 1554.* Some of his admirers even called him a second

"Josquin."
cal annals

No one of equivalent distinction appeared in Columbian musi-

during the entire colonial period.

MEXICAN MUSIC DURING THE LAST YEARS OF THE VICEROYALTY

(Mexican music was unfortunately in a depressed state at the end of the period^or the same reasons apparently that Argentinian, Peru-

colonial
vian,

and Columbian music were depressed at the same time. Here are the inadequacies that may be noted in Mexico City around 1800: (i) Even the more ambitious composers such as Manuel Arenzana, Soto Carrillo, Luis Medina, and others mentioned as outstanding in the columns of the Diario de MSxico, devoted themselves not to the larger forms of musical composition but entirely to journeyman work on theatrical farces, interludes, and "comedies with music" (2) Performance standards had notoriously declined. (3) Better off economically than such a poor colony as Venezuela, Mexico attracted foreign talent, but in so doing lost a chance
to exploit her native-born talents needing encouragement. Documentation in support of these generalizations will be offered,
in respect to the operatic situation.
first

opera was produced at the in 1711 the very year Handel's first opera in England, viceregal palace Rinaldo> was produced But the lade of an Italian troupe and of a suitable
first

The

playhouse inhibited further operatic experiment after the Duke of Linares withdrew his powerful patronage. The ventures in the direction of

"opera" during the

all

last years

designed to

pay

their

of the century were commercialistic efforts, 6 way at the playhouse, the Coliseo Nuevo, and
is

where possible

to reap a profit for the impresario. It

history that provincial houses run

on a commercial

basis

a truism in opera never have en-

couraged high standards, and the Coliseo Nuevo, insofar as can ascertained, did not provide an exception to the rule.

now be

The

musical fare at the Coliseo during the sample seasons of 1805-6,

and 1806-7, included predominantly zarzuclas of the bufa type, tonadillas, and sainetes. Zarzuelas, an idiomatic type in the Spanish theater, were produced in Spain as early as Lope de Vega's time (1629) j 6 they differ from operas in that spoken dialogue is the rule. The zarzuela was usually short an hour in length perhaps and other theatrical fare went

174

MUSIC IN MEXICO

into a single evening's entertainment. The tonadilla was a short skit origiT nally intended as an entr'acte; its purpose was oftenest sharply satirical, and two characters were usually sufficient. The sainete was a farce, pkced
at the tail-end of a theatrical

evening as a rule 5 almost invariably

it

em-

8 phasized the lewd for the benefit of the groundlings. The evening's entertainment was therefore highly diverse, constituting not an artistic unity

but an olla-podrida.

The more substantial offerings of the 1805 season included Cimarosa's El Filosofo Burlado, billed as a "zarzuela bufa," 9 Manuel Arenzana's El Extrangero, billed as a comedy in two acts with music, 10 Arenzana's Los Dos Ribales en amory billed as a "new duo," n and Luis Medina's
12 but with singing as well as dancing. Siana y Silvio, billed as a "bailete," Cimarosa was, of course, an international figure, but his opera in Mexico

"

became a zarzuela, with numerous topical spoken asides. Arenzana was chapelmaster at the Puebla Cathedral in 1805-6. Medina (1751-1806), also from Puebla, had come to Mexico City in 1 770, acquiring in the capi18 His two daughters tal a post as accountant in the Royal Court of Justice. in Siana y Silvio, and he himself played their guitar accompaniment sang The most notable event in 1 806 was the Mexican premiere of Paisiello's // barbiere di Siviglia, translated however into Spanish and presented as an "opera bufa en cuatro actos." On December 4, 1 806, the premiere date, the Diario de Mexico carried the following notice:

The orchestra wfll be considerably enlarged

in order to

meet the

instru-

mental specifications in this opera. The interludes wfll consist of short Mexican dances [bafles del pafs] in order not to lengthen unduly the whole
evening's presentation. The admission price wfll be double the ordinary price in order to pay for the heavy expenses of this production.

Five days later a repeat performance was staged, with interludes again consisting of popular Mexican songs [sonecitos del pais] . The two foreign
composers whose operas were pkyed during the early years of the nineteenth century (before independence was achieved) were Cimarosa and Paiaello.

The star system with the usual inequities in pay ruled in the Coliseo opera troupe. The principal singers during the 1806-7 season were Dolores Munguia (1,600 pesos), Josefa Cardenas (ipoo pesos), Andrfe
Castillo (1,500 pesos), Victorio

Rocamora (1,050 pesos), and Antonio Bemasoonl (600 pesos). Luciano Cortes, also an author, earned more than any of the other singers simply because he wrote pkys a$ well a$ sang;

THE OPERATIC NINETEENTH CENTURY

his
14
still

175

combined earnings were 3,000 pesos. Ten years later Munguia was 15 These salasinging (2,700 pesos), as was Andres Castillo (4,38o).

mean little unless we compare them with those of the orchestral players, who received salaries averaging a third of the singers' 16 and unless we take into consideration the purchasing power of salaries,
ries individually

the peso. The singers all received salaries in excess of the top salaries in colonial government bureaus.

But in return for the large investment which drove the Coliseo management to financial ruin in i8i6, 17 it can hardly be said that the Mexican public received a high standard of performance from singers or orchestra.

The orchestra comprised in 1813 when prices were at a peak, sixteen

ers.

play-

Concerning their quality, a correspondent of the Diario de Mexico wrote in the February 25 and 26 (1813) issues the following statement:

The
chestra.
passes
.

phief defect
.

is

.
.

The trumpets ...

the instability of the beat throughout the whole orthe kettledrums . . . and the double

sound miserably.

We must confess, however, that their thin

rasping tone and the poverty of the whole orchestra is not entirely the fault of the players, but is partly due to the location of the orchestra. The
pit is entirely

Moreover
sound
bassoon,

the acoustical effect

too small, squeezed between the stage and the front rows. is further hampered by the absorption of

in the alleys

running beneath the

stage.

And

if

the flute, the

artistically,

and the clarinet discharge

their duties intelligently

and

might bespeak greater attention to the written notes by the flutist and the bassoonist, and less attempt to add capricious adornments. The first
violinist should play more decisively and vigorously. He is the rudder of the orchestra, and fewer violent pitchings occur when the first violinist from time to time indicates the beat; . . . mistakes would moreover be

we

considerably reduced

if

more rehearsing were done.

None of the singers was noted as a vocalist. Under the system then prevailing the singer's principal asset was his or her acting ability, not vocalism. If frequent objections were made by the discerning to the vocalism of

the singers, even more inept was their musicianship <x>nsidered to be. The rank favoritism bestowed upon imported players, singers, and com-

was also a subject for comment. Manuel Corral, a sycophantic Spaniard whose musical merits were negligible, forced performances of his theatrical pieces because he stood high in the favor of Viceroy
posers,
18

Apodaca.

An Italian, Esteban Cristiani, a teacher of piano, succeeded

19

in

having his jottings taken seriously enough to reach performance. Andres Castillo, a member of the imported troupe, further augmented his in-

76

MUSIC IN MEXICO

come by composing lurid sainetes, completely devoid of artistic purpose. When Jose Aldana ventured a different type of entertainment he was was a Mexican, and when a concerto he petulantly thrust aside. Aldana an anonymous letter, signed only, "A Lover offered was badly received, of Music," appeared in the Diario de Mexico (October 13, 1805):
Please tell D. Jose* Aldana, first violinist in the theater orchestra, that he should change his name to Aldani or Mr. Aldam, and act like a foreigner, if he wants to gain the applause that he deserves. ... Or he
. . might consider impersonating a woman. Those who know something of the art of music, and have heard him,
.

know

his merits; but the greater part of his audience has ears but no musical understanding, and so responded coldly to the refinements of the violin concerto he played yesterday.

MUSIC AT THE SCHOOL OF MINES IN MEXICO CITY

M6xico provided no arena for regular performances music, the newly opened School of Mines, built under the superintendence of the renowned neo-classicist, Manuel Tolsa, did. In a "large and well-lighted hall of the new school, an orchestra of uncommon
If the Coliseo de
first-class

of

merit" gave concerts which were called "academies of music." 20 The mine-owners as a class were not only the wealthiest, but also the most enlightened musically of the colonial aristocracy, if one can judge from their patronage of these academies. Aldana played in this orchestra, as did
also

two other

Vicente Castro and

not,

remembered as better-than-average performers, Manuel Delgado. The School of Mines orchestra was however, organized on the Mannheim pattern, and still depended
violinists

mandolin upon, a concertmaster instead of a conductor for the beat. and a guitar player were regularly enrolled in the orchestra; but player Haydn appears to have been a composer much favored in the academies.

Amateurs
torian of

as well as professional perfonned, and Otto Mayer-Serra, hisMexican music during the nineteenth century, points to the preponderancy of female amateurs as an ominous sign. The individual performer who won the most liberal praise was the pianist, Soto Garrillo. His polished performances of Haydn sonatas were admired, and he was considered an excellent extemporizer.n As a composer he had made a name with his "boleros, polonaises, and tonadillas." A trait in his playing which won praise was his firm "command of 21 rhythm." Along with another pianist, Horcasitas by name, he helped

THE OPERATIC NINETEENTH CENTURY

177

everyone Pianos were not only imported from Spain during the early iSoo's but were also manufactured in Mexico, both at Durango and at Mexico City. 2S confirm our assertion Notices in the Gazefa de Mexico as early as 1793
of piano-manufacture in

to popularize the piano as the coming instrument in Mexico. Before long with pretensions to culture owned an instrument of a kind.

Durango and

as early as

I796

24

of piano-

manufacture in Mexico City. At the academies in the School of Mines music history for the first time in Mexico formed a topic for learned discussion. A Discurso sobre la
mtisica published in the October 24, 1807, issue of the Diario sums up the ideas on music history that were then entertained

de Mexico

among the

well-informed.

The anonymous The

author of

this "discourse"

quoting Aristotle and Pindar,

living reality.

as if Aristotelian music theory

delighted in were still a

Spanish author most reverentially referred to was

(1750-91)5 Iriarte's didactic poem, La Musica, proauthor of the Diario de Mexico discourse with a rich lode of vided the factual information. On Iriarte's authority, canto llano was defined as

Tomas de

Iriarte

monodic music with each note

canto figurado as

homophonic length 5 music. Boethius's classification of modes was polyphonic or contrapuntal still valid. Guido d'Arezzo was listed as the "inventor of notabelieved
tion in 1025."

in the chant occupying a beat of equal music 5 and canto de 6rgano as

author of the Discurso was interested in the marimba, which he considered a Guatemalan instrument. A characteristic feature of the

The

marimba

in his opinion

was the placing of gourds under the wooden keys

to enforce resonance.

He was interested also in Franklin's harmonica ex-

hibited in Paris "in 1765." But he was patently in error in ascribing the invention of the trumpet to one Denner, a flute-maker of Nuremberg, in
in Mexico, the Discurso 1690. Like too many successor music historians author interested himself primarily in European music, which he could know about only at second hand, and neglected his own country. The that interests us now was his statement that only bit of information he gave the marimba was an instrument indigenous to Guatemala,

INSTRUMENTS AND INSTRUMENT TUNING

The

first

notice of the tuning of

keyed instruments in equal tempera-

ment appears in a Gazeta de Mexico announcement, November 21, 1786. On that date Manuel Duarte y Davila, organ-builder, and caretaker of

Z7 8

MUSIC IN MEXICO

announced he had introduced at Puebk organs in the Puebla Cathedral, a new system of tuning invented by Don F61ix Falco a century earlier

and successfully tested in the royal chapel of Charles II. Falco, according to Duarte y Davila, was a Valencian, but other information than his natal date is not given in the Gazeta announcement city and approximate The supplying of small organs with only eight or ten ranks kept Duarte 25 Mariano Placeres at busy 5 he built on a cost plus percentage basis.

Durango did the same thing. Manuel Perez, with a shop at Monterilla No. 8 in the capital, frequently advertised small organs of his own fabricabegan
tion for sale (1796-8). After 1800 advertisements of imported pianos to The first pianos actually constructed in Mexico were

appear.

made by a German who chose Adan Miller as a trade name. Inquisition records reveal him to have been active as an instrument
probably those

maker at Mexico Gty between 1790 and I795. 26 In 1799 the price asked for pianos in Mexico City was 400 pesos j the same year the annual rental of a house near the z6calo which would have been considered then the best location cost between 500 and 600 pesos.
Although
it

has not been possible to find any advertisement listing Eng-

before 1821, pianos made in Cartagena (Spain) "imitando a 27 It los Ingleses" were offered as the most desirable purchases in i804* is a well known fact that English pianos were preferred on the continent
lish pianos

during the

first

stance, preferred a

decades of the nineteenth century; Beethoven, for inBroadwood. After Mexico gained her independence
to import via Spain, English pianos were always the of the Mexican upper classes until near the close of

and no longer had

preferred purchases the nineteenth century.

DANCE TYPES POPULAR AT THE END OF THE VICEREGAL PERIOD

All the dance types popular at the close of the viceregal period except the jarabe have now become obsolete. In the dance music which still survives from the opening years of the nineteenth century no style traits
that later

became

As examples of late

identified as peculiarly Mexican intruded themselves. colonial dances we offer first a contradanza printed in

the Diario d* Mexico (July 3, 1809), but without ascription to a named composer; then a Minuet with Variations by Aldana; and finally a Polaca.
exceedingly charming, not one of these three can truthfully be said to exhibit even idiomatic Spanish traits, much less traits identifiable

Though

all

THE OPERATIC NINETEENTH CENTURY

as precursor Mexican.

179

The contradanza seems more akin to certain German contratanzen of the kte eighteenth century than to the contradanzas
28 so highly popular in the West Indies during the nineteenth century. The squareness of the division into precise eight-bar periods, each reis notable in this Diario de Mexico contradanza. peated,

Cotttradaxza

(itoj)

i8o

MUSIC IN MEXICO

In Aldana's Minuet with Variations one encounters Mozartian naivete.

would ever suspect this music of Surely no one without autograph proof having been written in Mexico, so alien is its spirit to the stereotype of
what Spanish or Mexican music should be. The Teutonic influence may have reached Mexico in any of several ways. Certain direct contacts existed between Germany and Mexico during the late eighteenth century 5 the
earliest piano manufacturer, as

grant German way to the port

j

instruments
of Veracruz

we already have seen, was a German immi"made in Augsburg" somehow found their
and were publicly offered for
sale in 1794.

In addition to occasional direct contacts, a number of opportunities existed for indirect contacts. Iriarte, the most admired Spanish writer on music

(La Musica, 1769, 1784),

concerned bore

classified

favorite composers 5 his recommendation as far as

Gluck, Haydn, as Jommelli as his Haydn's music was

fruit in Mexico Haydn piano sonatas were pkyed by Soto Carrillo at the School of Mines academies. It is, of course, a well

known
to

kte eighteenth century Spain was passionately addicted Haydn (Haydn wrote the Seven Last Words specifically for C&diz
fact that
80

cathedral).

Aldana's minuet bespeaks Mozart more than

Haydn in our opinion, but

whatever the influence, the music carries itself with an aristocratic elegance
not lightly tossed aside. No Mexican pianist up to the present moment seems to have interested himself in pkying it, but the music is distinctly worthy of re-hearing. In the manuscript copy there are no marks of expression.

The tempo indication is given as "despado," which may be inter-

preted "leisurely," or "gently." It is a notorious fact that the average player of today faced with an urtext assumes all refinements of expression

must be excluded 5 but the success of Aldana's minuet depends

refinements in performance as does Mozart's Minuet in

as surely

on

D, K. 355.

mth

Variations

s m

THE OPERATIC NINETEENTH CENTURY

181

MUSIC IN MEXICO

If a contredanse and a minuet seem strangely incongruous in early nineteenth century Mexico, even stranger seems a polonaise. Possibly the ) folaca given below was written during the I790 s so thinks Saldivar.

Whatever its

exact date,

it

departs widely from any authentic Polish type

known to us. This particular -polaca remains anonymous, but Soto Carrillo is known to have composed polonaises, and may be offered as a candidate
for authorship.

**

THE OPERATIC NINETEENTH CENTURY

183

While no one of

these three examples of late viceregal

musk

can

by

any claim to greatness, nevertheless each has been worth listing if only to reinforce this important principle: no literate composer of the late
colonial period wrote dances classifiable as "Mexican" dances. True, "bailes del pais" were called for in the theater, and some of the aristocracy fancied the native tunes of Mexico sufficiently to pay clock-makers the
price of cutting sonecitos del pais" on the musical clocks fashionable in Mexico as in Europe around 1 8oa 51 But composers who possessed
<c

technical skill to note

down

their

own

inspirations

enough whether their music

disdained the writing of native-type tunes or dances. to cultivate some international dance type, such as the They preferred contredanse, the minuet, or the polonaise, rather than to write a jarabe in

was difficult or easy

a local idiom*

Only

after independence does

one find "name" composers

signing their names tasuch distinctively Mexican dance types as the jarabe. Certainly the jarabe existed as a dance type before independence, but
it during the kte colonial period was dearly a disparaging allusion. The Inquisition authorities took an exceedingly dim view of it, condemning it at first on moral grounds. During the struggle for

every allusion to

i* 4

MUSIC IN MEXICO

the reputation of being insurrectionary independence the jarabe earned and was therefore banned for political reasons. The first dated menmusic,
82 dance tune called a fan fe jarabe tion of the jarabe occurred in I789was denounced in that year to the Inquisition authorities in the Puebla

of the song were submitted for examination, and ran Hell no longer exists $ the demons have ceased to be j come then, 88 my dear, no one will damn us. In 1796 another fan de xarabe was denounced to the Inquisition because its words were considered salacious and the dance gestures used while singing it considered lewd. In 1802 the
diocese.

The words

like this:

Mexico City forbade the dancing of the jarabe, and issued a statement of reasons which read in part:
Inquisition
in
Latterly there has been introduced amongst us another type of dance gatuno so indecent, lewd, disgraceful, and provocative,

called the jarabe

that

words cannot encompass the

evil of

it.

The

verses

and the accompany-

ing actions, movements, and gestures, shoot the poison of lust directly into the eyes, ears, and senses. That lascivious demon, Asmodeus himself

[Tobit 3.8], has certainly inspired this dance, so destructive is it of all Christian morals; but not only of religious virtue, even of the most elementary decencies. Its obscenity would shock even the most debased
. . are obliged by the character of our sacred office, . which pledges us to the salvation of souls by the blood of Jesus Christ, to .** prohibit, banish, and extirpate this dance. .

Sybarite.

We

Though prohibited in 1 802, the jarabe continued to be sung and danced. The word "jarabe" actually means syrup. "Pan de jarabe" would mean,
"syrupy bread." Faced with the same kind of stopper on direct sexual language now encountered with radio, songsters in viceregal Mexico with

a legion of decency

at their throats
is

used certain substitute words.

The

phenomenon many hits of our own epoch, and their meanings were surely understood then as now without benefit of diagrams. Not only did the jarabe ordinarily have devious sexual meanings, but also the jarabe with its ambiguous language became a favorite dance and

of substitute words

of course familiar in

song of the incipient revolutionaries. In the November 12, 1813, deposition taken under Inquisition authority at Valladolid the testimony being
that of Joaqufn Ponce, cathedral precentor
officials
it

was noted by the examining

that the secret revolutionary song sung at the conspiratorial meet8* in the house of a certain Garcia was a ings jarabe.

THE OPERATIC NINETEENTH CENTURY

After
tionaries
18

185

13 the jarabe

was adopted

as the

song and dance of the revolu-

everywhere throughout Mexico.

The

oldest surviving jarabes

were written down during the flush of the revolutionary enthusiasm. The few surviving exemplars that can tentatively be dated before the final achievement of independence in 1821 lack words. Perhaps the oldest is
one for guitar. Another composed around 1820 was written for piano.

The time signature in both reads %. Though neither the guitar nor piano which we are at the moment referring included a tempo mark, jarabes to both were obviously intended to be played fast. The movement of sixteenths in both is almost uninterrupted. The piano jarabe indeed looks on the page like a Czerny exercise. The harmonic scheme of both calls for

C major, they tirelessly repeat the same harmonies forever dominant seventh, a day C chord, and dominant seventh, chord, and the same pattern of chord change repeated. The busythen C again,
notice: both in

ness of the sixteenth notes

and the tedium of the

repetitive

harmonies

militates against artistic success in either exemplar.

The

piano jarabe in

particular includes so much ding-dong repetition that no musically sensitive person could sincerely praise it as a work of art. But if neither were works of art, at least they were historical landmarks, for later the

during

Mexican comAntonio Gomez ( 1841) or by Julio Ituarte (in Ecos 5 jarabes by J. poser de Mexico, c. 1885) are perhaps not unworthy of comparison with Slavonic Dances by Dvorak or Norwegian Dances by Grieg.
true

century the jarabe was taken to the

bosom of every

JOS

MARIANO ELfZAGAI A PIONEER DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH

in Mexico who most successfully met the challenge of conditions after independence were those like Elfzaga who changed gladly accepted the new order, and ceased to hanker after the vanished

The composers

the viceregal epoch. It was typical of Elfzaga that he should have been one of the first to drop the title **Don" mark of a Spanish gentleman and adopt the title "Citizen" instead
stability of

But he had profited from the advantages of the old order. Born in 1786 8* Morelia, from infancy he was ushered into a musical atmosphere. His father, a music teacher, noticed his phenomenal ear when he was only five.
at

The news that he

fully the best efforts of his father's students

could toddle to the keyboard and there imitate successwas not slow in circulating.

A long

descriptive artick telling of the lad's precocity appeared in the

i86

MUSIC IN MEXICO

1 792. With a father as persistent as Leopold Mozart in advertising his genius, the child began to be talked about in the viceroy's presence. The Conde de Revillagigedo, 5ist Viceroy, a man of extraordinary sensitivity, immediately wanted to hear the wonder child.

Gffzeta de Mexico > October 2,

Sent for, the child with his parents made the toilsome journey to the capital. The gifts of the wunderkind exceeded every expectation, and the
child's

viceroy offered to pay the family expenses if the father would permit the enrolment at the choirschool for boys attached to the metropolitan

cathedral.

This choirschool, known as the Colegio de Infantes de Coro de

k Santa

languages Elizagas stayed in the capital, however, only a year, and then returned to Morelia (then known as Valladolid). There he came under the tuition of Jose Maria Carrasco, organist of Morelia Cathedral, well as music.

Iglesia Catedral, existed for the purpose of preparing its students for service as acolytes and as singers. Its curriculum included as

The

The cabildo, recognizing the further of the young musician could best be promoted growth by another year at the capital, sent him back at the age of twelve for a year's study with Soto
and
a musician of unusual worth.
Carrillo,

who had been Carrasco's own teacher. Upon his return home after the year with

Soto Carrillo the cabildo

voted the purchase of the best available piano in Mexico City so their youthful prodigy might pass on the benefits of his newly gained knowledge. After Carrasco won the principal organistship at Puebla, a higher paying post than the Morelia first organistship, the second Morelia
organist became first, and the third second, leaving the third vacant. This third organistship fell to Elizaga, who when he began occupying it was thirteen. The next five years were in his educaspent
tion.

He studied Latin with a teacher at the Valladolid Seminary. Torpid

broadening

general

might today suppose the atmosphere of a kte colonial seminary to have been, the more probable truth is that the atmosphere of this particular one was charged with electricity. Hidalgo, the George Washington of Mexico, was rector of the Valladolid seminary when Elizaga was still in swaddling clothes, and Morelos, the other principal figure in Mexico's
fight for independence,

as one

was a fellow-townsman of Elfzaga's and had gone

to school under Hidalgo. Elizaga did not himself take

a gun,

as did the priests,

Morelos,

who were

leaders in the revolt.

Hidalgo and But when the ktter in 1813

was riding Jiigh oa the crest of the

revolutionary movement, Elizaga, fired

THE OPERATIC NINETEENTH CENTURY

187

with enthusiasm, set a poem eulogizing the insurrectionary Morelos to music. Contact with another revolutionary leader resulted from his enas piano tutor for a girl in one of the leading families of the

gagement
town,
Iturbide

Ana Maria Huarte. Dona Ana Maria became the wife of General who after the expulsion of the last viceroy contrived to have himself named first emperor of Mexico. During his year of rule 1822
he brought Elfzaga to Mexico City and installed him as imperial chapelmaster. During that year Elizaga finished preparing for the press a
theoretical treatise,

Elementos

<Le

Musica. Though actual publication did

not occur until after Iturbide's abdication, nevertheless Iturbide

possible
its

had made

publication.

Elementos de M.us\cay a didactic work, was but the first of Elizaga's contributions to music life in the infant nation. A second valuable contribution

was

this society's

his leadership in a philharmonic society founded in 18245 announced objectives were the patronage of orchestral con-

certs and the support of a conservatory. The conservatory came into being the next year with a "grand" opening exercise on Sunday morning, April 17, attended by the president of the republic and other notables. Elizaga's support for his excellent schemes failed him, however, and after two

years of financial struggle he

removed to Guadalajara where the chapelmastership promised security. There he remained for three years ( 1 82730), significantly bettering the music standards at the cathedral. Hoping against hope for a better turn in the capital, he abandoned

Guadalajara and returned to Mexico City in 1830. Private lessons supported him for eight years, and though he lacked the kind of powerful
support Iturbide had given he was able to publish at his own expense another didactic work of capital value, Princifios de la Annoma y Me-

he accepted a position as tutor to the sons of a wealthy landowner, Echaiz by name, whose properties had swollen at the time of the Spanish expulsion. This tutorship occupied Elfzaga two years, after which his journeying ended with a return to his natal city, now re-named Morelia in honor of the patriot Morelos whom Elizaga had eulogized in 1813. Elfzaga's last years were spent as chapelmaster in the Morelia Cathedral. He died in 184.2, aged fifty-six. His surviving compositions were all destined for church usage. Two Masses, one for Guadalajara and another for Morelia, a Miserere^ a set of Lamentations, a set of Responses, and music for the Matins of Transfiguration survive. His music, though far removed from the austere ideal
lodia (1835). In 1838

i88

MUSIC IN MEXICO
Motu
Profrio, nevertheless deserves performance 5 if the prevent its being heard in a Roman Catholic church

of Pius X's

liturgical improprieties

today,

still a Mass of his (only one is complete) might effectively be presented in a concert hall. All of it calls for orchestral accompaniment.

Present-day realities militate against revival of his musiq the assembling of a chorus and orchestra is difficult enough today even for the best-known choral masterpieces. But a recorded performance making known his music
to a

wide public would

establish

him

as

New World composers of the nineteenth

EL|ZAGA'S PRINTED

one of the indubitably important

century.

WORKS
late viceregal

The need for a music press was insistently felt in

As a substitute
for staff notation the Diario

Mexico.

de Mexico published in 1809 87 an article proposing music printing by means of But 1809 was cipher, too kte a date to propose any cipher scheme or return to tablature any
music press capable of executing music in the consystems of notation. ventional staff system was imperatively needed. Not the least of Elizaga's achievements was his partnership in the told founding of such a
press.

He

the story of

its

foundation in the February

2,

1826 issue of El Aguila

Mexican*:
Mariano Elfzaga has the honor to announce to the public and especiaDy to lovers of music that in partnership with Citizen Manuel Rionda he has established a music press the first and at present the only enterprise of its kind in the Republic. It is not easy to understand the difficulties and anxieties this project has cost us unless one pauses to
Citizen

more

consider just what is involved in undertaking a completely new enterprise of any kind. Without expert guidance and without even occasional advice

from an experienced individual, we have undertaken a project whose we have been able to surmount only by repeated trial and error. . . . Although we have not yet been able to achieve perfection, at least the results satisfy our expectations for a first, venture. In token of the
difficulties

publisher's interest in the furtherance of art,

we

offer our fellow citizens

an original Valse with

founded

Variations as the

first

printed

work from our recently

Elizaga composed this Valse himself.] ... have chosen a small piece in the hope an inexpensive composition reproduced on Mexican paper made here at San would circulate
press. [Citizen

We

Angel

and
later

widely,

publicize not only

work we

composer, but also provide an earnest of the plan to accomplish. ... If this advertisement of the
its

THE OPERATIC NINETEENTH CENTURY

189

pieces

founding of a press meets with a favorable reception, we plan also the establishment of a music periodical, in which we will publish keyboard and guitar pieces; in it we may include also songs and duos with

keyboard and guitar accompaniments.

best selections

We

plan certainly to include the

.

from the current European repertory. The Valse with Variations we are now announcing, and other music which will later be published, may be purchased at Escalerillas No. 1 2, the address at which
. .

the Philharmonic Society

is

presently located.

88

Elizaga's energetic efforts as a music educator can fittingly be compared with those of Lowell Mason, pioneer music educator in the United States.

Both

men

realized that any permanent success depended

upon

raising

the general level of music sensitivity in a young republic Both were intensely interested in pedagogy j both adopted their churches as foci for
their professional activities in music. Elizaga was born only six years before Mason, but died thirty years before Mason. Nevertheless their epochs of productivity overlapped, Both men contributed immensely to the advance of music in their respective countries by publishing music

textbooks. Mason's singing instructors sold thousands of copies,

used everywhere. Elizaga's two

Princifios de la

texts,
.

Elementos de Musica

and were ( 1823) and

(1835), although not the best-sellers Mason's books became, missed wide popularity only because he addressed
.
.

Armenia

a more advanced student than did Mason.

Books of a pedagogical nature lack glamor, but after surveying Elizaga's one can hardly fail to praise him unstintingly for their merits. Elizaga began his Elementos ( 1 823 ) with a preface calling attention to the musical
resources of the

young

nation.

"We have talents in our very

midst

who

ought to develop into Jommellis, Tartinis, Dusseks, and Haydns, if proper

89 But opportunities for self-development were afforded," he pointed out, he went on to observe that "unfortunately our music has sunk to a disgracefully low level, both in church and in chamber musk." He saw the standards of the late viceregal period pitched at too low a level to

inspire youth. The root of the evil as he saw it lay in bad teaching. To remedy the evils first a blow for freedom from antiquated music theories must be struck. 4 * The advance of art he felt stifled as long as the authority of outdated theorists such as Kircher continued to be invoked The day of the Guidbnian hand must end. Elfzaga's remarks on fledgling composers of his epoch make interest-

ing reading:

190

MUSIC IN MEXICO
The bad taste and the wilderness of unprofitable notes in so much of own product distresses me. Why are we unable to find Mexi.

our

cans whose works deserve comparison with those of Mozart and Beethoven? Surely the reason stems largely from our improper methods of

music instruction. Music has not been studied from a properly systematic point of view, but has been instead encrusted with a thick overlay of
unprofitable

Gothk ornaments. 41

in his

The respite from an everlasting round of daily duties at the organ bench home town and his appointment to the chapelmastership of Itur-

bide's short-lived imperial chapel gave him leisure, he said, to examine several systems of music theory then before the public. ccEy chance I came

upon a book by the Abbe D. Antonio Eximeno on the Origin, Progress,

Decadence, and Restoration of Music which utterly differed from all the others. Here at last was a book in which I encountered that which I have
always desired: a
clear,

comprehensive system, a method, a penetrating

analysis of the various different aspects of musical science." Eximeno's Del Origen y Reglas, the book to which Elfzaga referred, was of course one of the most stimulating treatments of music

theory

by any eighteenth century author, not even excepting Rameau, whom Elfzaga knew and admired. A member of the same company as Kircher, Eximeno had been forced to flee to Italy, where his book had first appeared in Italian (1774) 5 Elizaga knew the Spanish translation. In our own century Pedrell has devoted an entire book to Eximeno,42 so important does he seem even now after a long lapse of time. Eximeno was preeminently an empiric "May God in His mercy relieve us," he wrote, ''from the continued cleavage between practice and theory which defaces

sample of Eximeno's vigorous and trenchant style gathered from the following typical quotation from him: "The vain expenditure of time and effort on writing music that conforms to the theories of word-spinning 'authorities' is a catastrophe 5 all music study should be founded directly on the models of practicing musicians, not on the fancies of theorists whose favorite exercise is the concatenation of

the art of music."

may be

pre** cepts fastened in the chains of a Gothic vocabulary." Eximeno simulated Elizaga in much the same fashion Pestalozzi

stimulated Lowell Mason. Although EKzaga did not share Mason's oppoarjamtis* fc* test his educational philosophy on a grand scale, still he did

found a conservatory 4he

useful texts.

first

in the

The harmony

text,

new republic and did write two which appeared twelve years after the

THE OPERATIC NINETEENTH CENTURY

Sy

191

covers

much

the same territory a first-year college text in

harmony covers today. Dressed up in an attractive format, enlivened with examples from composers of a later day, and provided with exercises to test the student's progress at the end of each unit, the Principios could
even today serve as a useful beginning text in conventional four-part

harmony.

EIJZAGA'S SUCCESSORS

Although inaugurated amid considerable pomp and ceremony, Elizaga's 1825 conservatory lacked stable support, and therefore did not last. Several other conservatories were attempted in Mexico City before one
which succeeded in outliving violent political changes was finally founded (1866). Elizaga's most important immediate successor was Jose Antonio

Gomez, whose Academia de Musica (1839)

flourished for several years.

(1

G6mez

issued

two

didactic works,

Gramatica Razonada Musical

840)

and Instructor Filarmonico (1843), both of which were designed for immediate use with his own pupils. During 1 853 "His Most Serene Highness," General Santa Anna, conceived the plan of a government supported conservatory, and chose the famous double-bassist, Giovanni Bottesini
44 (1821-89)7 then resident in Mexico, as organizer of the faculty. Santa did not have time to consummate his national conservaAnna, however,

tory,

and only

after the

Maximilian episode did one actually come

into

being.

The conservatory founded under the auspices of a reorganized Sociedad Filarmonica Mexicana in 1866 was the first which offered free instruction.
45

The Sociedad contributed to the support of the conservatory during

two seasons, and by governmental consent the sequestrated buildings formerly belonging to the University of Mexico (founded in 1553) were used for classes. The first director of the 1866 conservatory, Agustfn Caballero, a priest, resigned after the government assumed full responsifor the support of the conservatory in 1877. In the latter year the bility name was changed to Conservatorio Nacional de Mfisica, and under this
the
first

name the conservatory has continued to

five years.

function during the last seventy-

TTie curriculum of the 1 866 conservatory -was for forty years modeled on that of Italian conservatories. Thq programs of the conservatory founded by Gomez in 1839 and the conservatory founded by the Sociedad Filarmonica in 1866 followed the same pattern operatic arias,

92

MUSIC IN MEXICO

duos, and piano transcriptions of operatic excerpts dominated all stu-

dent and faculty programs. The subjects of instruction in 1866 were: instrumentation and orsolfege, piano, strings, woodwinds, harmony, French, music history and chestration, composition, Spanish language,
of voice, history of instruments, esbiography, acoustics, physiology 46 At the first public concert given by the students in 1866 (for which there was an admission charge) selections from for r different operas
thetics.

by Verdi were performed: Nabucodonosor, Giovanna d'Arco, Macbeth, and La jorza del destino. No German music of any description was offered.
the other hand, a Sinjonia> previously unheard, by the precocious Mexican, Joaqum Beristain ( 1 8 17-39), whose untimely death at twentytwo was one of the tragic losses of the nineteenth century, was resurrected

On

and played The orchestra for the occasion was composed of students, but augmented by experienced professionals from the opera orchestra.

Any scrutiny of curricula at kter stages

during the nineteenth century,

or any look at kter student programs, leads to but one conclusion: the Mexican musical horizon between independence and the dose of the
Porfirian epoch (1911)

was narrowly confined within the world of Italian opera. Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi were the uncontested gods of nineteenth century Mexican music.

THE MANUEL GARCfA The

EPISODE

singing of opera in Italian did not begin in Mexico until after independence. Cimarosa and Paisiello were sung in Spanish during the
late viceregal period. It

remained for Manuel Garcia, himself a native

of Seville, to popularize Italian opera in Italian. Garcia, fifty-two years of age when he reached Mexico, had triumphed everywhere in Europe,

and came fresh from successes in New York 5 as an international figure he had adopted Italian exclusively. His presentation of Rossini's // barbitri created a sensation, and his Italian was accepted naturally, but when he turned to a work of his own El Abujary variously styled a tonadilla or a zarzuek in the newspapers of the period the public complained they could not understand him. In El Aguila Mexicana appeared this comment on El Abvjar (July 13, 1827)
:

Tlic number of persons who understand Italian or who are content simply to enjoy the singing and the music without knowing what is going

THE OPERATIC NINETEENTH CENTURY

on, cannot be as large in

193

Mexico

as in Paris or

London

certainly the

number is not large enough to pay the costs of grand opera here. If Senor Garcia and his family were Italians, there might be legitimate reason for
their singing in Italian, but their native

language

is

Spanish.

Italian became during the 1830*8 Despite this commonsense reproach, the only language in which opera was sung in Mexico. Beginning in 1831 the Teatro Principal, newly refurbished, housed a regular annual season of Italian opera, with Rossini dominating the bills. Filippo Galli (born Rome, 1783) was the acknowledged singing star in Mexico, and Lauro

Rossi (born Macerata, Italy, 1810) was imported to write operas suitable
for the Italian troupe.
47

The Italians naturally banded together in a clique

to the detriment of native Mexicans.

while in

Mexico, much

FOREIGN OPINION ON MUSIC IN THE YOUNG REPUBLIC

Spanish policy of exclusion discouraged foreigners from casual America during the kte colonial period. Only extraveling in Hispanic

The

ceptional individual bers of accredited teams,

scientists

such as Alexander von Humboldt, or mem-

were permitted to observe life in the colonies at first hand After independence, however, a number of observers swarmed

young republics, leaving often engaging accounts of cultural life nations they visited One of the earliest in Mexico was a Britisher, in the Mexico Bullock by name, whose Six Months' Residence and Travels
into the

appeared at
intensely in

London

in 1824. According to Bullock, musical life suffered

Mexico during the revolutionary epoch. His pejorative com-

ments ran

like these:

Mexico has but one place of dramatic

considerable size,
.

exhibition;
is

it is

[but] the orchestra

.

indifferent,

a building of and the per-

formers in general below mediocrity.

[1

During the time of Galvez

48 785-6] the Coliseo was much more splendid.

Mme. Calder<5n de k Barca, wife of the first Spanish envoy (but herself
of distinguished Scots lineage), was among the most perceptive visitors in the early years of the republic Her entree as wife of a ranking diplomat

Mexico^ an enabled her to satisfy her lively curiosity, and her Life she herself knew result Because extraordinarily informative book, was the

enough music

to play

Mozart piano sonatas her musical comments

repre-

94

MUSIC IN MEXICO

sented enlightened opinion. Music in Mexico, she said, was a sixth sense. After hearing the band at a village fiesta, she remarked, "The music was

be the case in any but a Mexican village." 49 good, which would hardly In 1841 she was struck by the large number of pianos everywhere. "In every part of Mexico, town or country, there is a piano (id cual) in every . . [and] there is evidently a great deal of musical taste." Howhouse, ever, she went on to remark: "But most of those who play are self-taught,
.

and naturally abandon it very soon, for want of encouragement or instruction."

She accounted for the high mortality rate of musical talent as "the melancholy effect produced by years of civil war and unsettled government." She admitted that the finest performances in Mexico were staged
by the Italian troupe "brought by Senor Roca to the Teatro des Gallos," but she was none too happy over the fact the same theater was used
one moment for a cock-fight and at the next for a gala performance of Lucia di Lammermoor. Her opinion of the Italian opera she heard in
at

Mexico was

distinctly enthusiastic in

Italian troupe appearing in

Peru

at the identical

comparison with the opinions on an moment of her writing

(1841).

Here are the remarks of a traveler in Peru during that year:

past a

For some years

is

operatic performances

company of Italians, settled in Lima, have given on a small scale. One of them, Signora Pantanelli,

. . . but the rest are decidedly bad. The operas are GtuUftta y Romeo, Lucia di Lammtrmoor, La Somnamperformed btday and // barlnere di StvtgKa; ... a mutilated Norma and a much

an excellent singer

curtailed Semiranude.
tion of operas.
.

Want of stage room is an obstacle to the representaThe orchestra is defective, and ought to be much

51 improved, to give satisfaction to a public passionately fond of music.

But

if

Mme.

Calderon de la Barca entertained a better opinion of the

troupe playing in Mexico than did the commentator on Peruvian opera, the repertory at both Lima and Mexico Qty consisted of the same mo-

notonously recurring items. The Italian troupes in neither city were interested in encouraging talent in the countries where they made their
livings.

Calder6n de la Barca complained that opera invaded even the saactuary ia Mexico. Concerning the Good Friday music at the Mexico

Mme.

Cky cathedral she wrote:

THE OPERATIC NINETEENTH CENTURY

As
the Miserere

195

performed in the cathedral kte in the evewith small hopes of making our way through though . . and such disthe tremendous crowd. The music began with a crash cordance of instruments and voices, such confusion worse confounded,
ning, we went there,
.

was

to be

such inharmonious harmony, never before deafened mortal ears. The very spheres seemed out of tune and rolling and crashing over each other.
I could have cried Miserere! with the loudest; and in the midst of
undrilled
perately
all

the

band was a music-master with

violin stick uplifted, rushing des-

from one to the other, in vain endeavoring to keep time, and at the clamour he himself had been instrumental in raising. frightened
.

The

noise

was

face of the Virgin

seemed

so great as to be really alarming. to look reproachfully down. 52

The calm

"the

She remarked that during an outdoor procession on Good Friday night Host moved by, and then a military band struck up an air from

Semtramide" 58 At a ceremony she later attended during which a young took the veil at the fabulously endowed Convent of the Incarnation, girl "the church was very brilliantly illuminated, and as we entered, the band M At a Mass "where was playing one of Strauss's waltzes!" only well dressed people were admitted [Santo Domingo Church], the music was beautiful, but too gay for a church. There were violins and wind instruments, and several amateur players."

The mania

for Italian opera

among

the rich and well-born in Mexico

produced these deleterious results during the nineteenth century: (i) Second-rate Italians siphoned off performance fees. (2) Conservatories
prepared everyone either to sing in opera, accompany opera, or write with Italian opera. opera, (3) All other musical types were syncretized
After surveying the baneful effects of the opera craze in Mexico Mme. Calderon de la Barca turned with a hopeful sigh of relief to the native dances of Mexico. In 1840 she noted the following types of dances:
jarabes, aforrados, enanos,
6 palomos, and zapateros.*

MEXICAN OPERA COMPOSERS OF THE MIp-CENTURY

Luis Baca (1826-55), originally from Durango, was .the first native composer of operas after independence. Neither his Leonor nor Giovanna
di Castiglia

was produced, however. Scion of a distinguished provincial

in his music study.

family,

he enjoyed exceptional advantages

He passed

96

MUSIC IN MEXICO

tuition of the Durango chapelmaster to Jose Antonio G6mez's founded conservatory in Mexico City. His parents wished him a newly more stable career than that of a musician, and sent him in 1844 to study medicine in Europe, but in Paris he established contact with Donizetti, then a visitor at the French capital, and was by Donizetti encouraged to

from the

continue in music.

of Baca's published in a sumptuous edition at Paris with a decorative cover showing the Mexico City Cathedral and (1850), beneath it a flowery dedication to Gomez (then chapelmaster), earned Baca favorable publicity at home, especially after a leading female opera
star premiered it in Paris and the critics there spoke of it favorably. Baca was but one of many during his century both in Mexico and the United States who found a quicker road to homeland fame through European successes than through any possible American exertions. Upon Baca's return to Mexico he was palpably lauded beyond his deserts, and had he lived beyond his thirtieth year his European operas would no doubt have

An Ave Maria

been granted a Mexican hearing. He died, however, before Mexican performances could be pressurized from the Italian troupe. Cenobio Paniagua (1821-82) 5T was the more fortunate Mexican who finally succeeded in having an opera of his, Catalma di Gvisa, given a

Mexican hearing. Like William Henry Fry who had the distinction of being the first United States composer to gain an opera performance, Paniagua discovered that the Italian troupe would sing his opera only on condition the libretto were in Italian. Every possible concession was made the performing whims of the Italian troupers, and Paniagua's opera therefore came dangerously near being a mere carbon copy of a Donizetti opera. Paniagua did not have Fry's personal wealth and was not able to mount his Catalina di Guisa at his own charges j its first production therefore had
to wait fourteen years after its composition. Paniagua started as a violinist in the Morelia Cathedral

where his uncle

conducted the orchestra.

When his uncle removed to Mexico City he was

taken along. The "music-master" whose direction of the cathedral orchestra so offended Mme. Calderon de la Barca, Ignado Triujeque, took
instant liking to the young player, and offered him a place in the cathedral orchestra. If the orchestra was indeed as- bad as she thought, then his years in it were valueless musically. But he made contacts with

an

sod^ famous individuals as Bottesini while playing in it. His Catalina di Gu*sa> composed in 1845, reached the boards largely because Paniagua

THE OPERATIC NINETEENTH CENTURY

his Italian colleagues in tirelessly cultivated

197

the music profession during completion. Catalinafs success was enorand Paniagua was repaid his years of waiting by a fond adulation mous, no other Mexican operatist of the nineteenth century perhaps duplicated.
the next several years after
its

Around him drew a group of young composers all hoping to share the limelight with him. His success with Catalina was not, however, duplicated when he proceeded to mount his second opera, Pietro d'Abano, in 1863. By this time he had organized his own Mexican troupe. Eager to cash in
on
his Catalina success,

he very unwisely intruded

his

own daughter

into

in his Mexican troupe. What he started as a patriotic venprincipal roles ture degenerated into a mere family matter. Paniagua's reputation also

declined when the Mexican public discovered notable similarities between

had been mounted

critics

Catalina) revived in 1863, and an Italian opera, Marcos Viscontiy which in Mexico the same year, but had been composed in 1855. Forgetting that Paniagua had composed his Catalina in 1845, the

began to

sufficiently,

call Paniagua a plagiarist. What they failed to recognize of course, was the fact that all second-rate Italian opera
itself.

tended to duplicate

With

his reputation in the capital

leave and in 1868

on the skids, Paniagua decided to removed to the small town of Cordoba. His energies

were there deflected into religious composition, but his Stele Palabras (1869), his Tobias (1870), and his kter Massfes added nothing to his reputation. His last composition was a requiem, finished a few days before
his death

on November

2, 1882.

The many gestures

of appreciation after

his passing hardly obscured the fact his had been a progressively deteriorating career after the first triumphal production of Catalina in 1 859. The
last

ter in Orizaba

production of this opera occurring in 1872 at the provincial theawas a sad anticlimax to the history of an opera that

began with the reputation of being the Mexican masterworfc of the century.

Paniagua's most important pupil was Melesio Morales (1838-1908). Like his master, Melesio Morales enjoyed for a brief hour a resounding success. His Ildegonda, produced at Mexico City in 1 866 and three years
later at Florence, Italy,

won him almost

agua received with Catalina. But

line after

as extravagant tributes as Panieverything he attempted in the operatic

Ildegonda sent his reputation tobogganing downhill, and when he died at seventy he was a musical nonentity. Once the cock of the walk, musically speaking, at the end he died as unloved and unwanted as did

igS

MUSIC IN MEXICO

General Santa Anna, another cock whose comb no one wanted to see shaken when he grew old Born in Mexico City of middleclass parents, 58 he showed musical aptitude as a child,

and composed several small

pieces

when he was

only

twelve.

He palmed off one of his own compositions as a mazurka by Thai-

berg, having learned already as an adolescent that a famous composer's work commanded respect not accorded a beginner's. When he revealed his

Mexican music public began to take serious notice of his work. Before he reached twenty, he sketched out his first big work, the
deception, the

opera Romeo y Jvlieta.

Morales after re-doing the orchestration three times, offered it to the Maretzek opera troupe, which had premiered Catalina. Unable to impress the impresario, Morales turned to the municipal government for financial
backing. After several vain promises, the municipal government
officials

halfheartedly promised their backing withdrew. Only by the slenderest thread was it finally presented at the end of January in 1863. During his frenetic search for a patron, or better, an angel, Morales found

who had

only one secure friend, the singer, Roncari. And Roncari told him he never could hope for a great success as long as he stayed in Mexico. "You

must go to Europe.
country."

A prophet
was not

is

not without honor, except in his

own
for

The European

trip

to materialize until later, but

Morales

the next several years prepared for it Ildegond* was his second opera produced in Mexico. The story of its presentation reads like a saga. An
insolent Italian impresario, Biacchi by name, refused even to consider it unless Morales personally deposited enough money to defray the entire
it to a hearing, Morales an intermediary reached Maximilian and received a guaranty through from him. On January 27, 1866, it was performed. Three months later

cost of production. Desperately eager to bring

he

left for

again the meantime accomplishing the supposedly impossible his Ildegonda had been performed at Florence (1869). The glory that supposedly

home he came

Europe, where he remained three years. When he returned as a conquering hero, because he had succeeded in

shone on Mexico because Ildegonda was successfully presented at Florence

floated over his
life

head when he returned, and during the remainder of his he fended himself surrounded by a halo. Looking back over the years,

Morales in 1907 said that "his own triumph was a great victory for Mexican art" Though undoubtedly the three performances in Florence

THE OPERATIC NINETEENTH CENTURY

into the ears of his

199

were enthusiastically received, still Morales^ dinning the press notices Mexican confreres after thirty years alienated even the

ones

who had borne him home in triumph when he first returned Even as late as 1907 Morales was still carrying dogeared copies of the

notices that had read: "In resum6, the opera of Morales was received with enthusiasm. The composer was recalled eighteen times in order to acknowl-

edge applause."
Florentines

M Morales never let the Mexican

times.

had recalled him eighteen

As he

public forget that the told his own story:

return I founded a school of composition based on the NeaAmong my students have been some who accepted my assistance gladly, but later proved themselves Judases. . . . I have taught over three hundred students during the past thirty-six them

Upon my

politan model.

years,

Ricardo Castro and Julian Carrillo. 60

among

Domingo (Tewas a one-act opera, Anita, which told a rather interesting and compact story of the famous 1 867 siege of Puebla.
atro Nacional, October 21, 1892).

hearty reception (Teatro Nadonal, November 14, 1891). Like Paniagua he became interested in founding a musical dynasty, and after heroic efforts gamed a performance for his son's opera, Colon en Santo

But after calling the roll of his "famous" pupils he concluded that like the ten lepers, only one had returned to give thanks to the physician who had healed them. Morales wrote five other operas, but only one, Cleopatra, won a

His own final

effort

MELESIO MORALES'S ONE "MEXICAN" OPERA

Anitay the libretto of which (by Enrique Golisciani) was printed in 1903," has never been produced, and yet because of its brevity and
to Morales's

meatier musical substance might yet be successfully presented. According younger colleagues, the old maestro was a Bourbon at heart

he never learned anything new, despite change, and never forgot anything. But Anita proves he lent verismo a willing ear. The instrumental
interludes may not pack the emotional punch of Puccini's, but they are by no means undistinguished. The choral music would be stirring in the best

Simon Boccanegra

fashion,

and the

extremely well written for voice.

and concerted numbers are all The high notes would give the principal
solos

singers every opportunity to tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split

200

MUSIC IN MEXICO
And in the very torrent, tempest, and whirl-

the ears of the groundlings.

wind of passion, grand pauses in the best melodramatic manner would chill
the marrow.*2

The plot centers around the eternal conflict between love and duty. The
four principal characters are Manuel, captain of a band of Mexican soldiers his sister; Rodrigo, a Mexican soldier in fighting Maximilian; Anita, love with herj and Gaston, son of the French colonel, D'Auvray. The opera, which is in one act, with two scenes, opens with a symphonic prelude,

a "sinfonia," depicting the melancholy of a deserted

battlefield at sunset

The curtain rises, discovering a well-appointed room in a Puebla mansion.

Rodrigo (baritone) enters, and calls for Captain Manuel. Battle music is heard outside the window. Anita (lyric soprano) enters, singing of the protector who once saved her and Manuel, her brother, from being mistreated by a band of ruffian insurgents during French hostilities. While
she sings of him, Gaston, wounded, knocks asking succor. Gaston (tenor), though son of the French colonel now driven in defeat, has not made

known his identity to Anita. She only recognizes him

ing the
officer
little later

for a protector wear-

uniform of the French army. Anita gives him asylum. A the Mexican soldiers return victorious from the battle against

the French, and Rodrigo boasts of having himself killed Colonel D'Auvray. Gaston, hiding in the next room, hears his boast, and indiscreetly rushes out. He is immediately seized and escorted to prison. The second scene discovers Gaston in prison, guarded by a henchman

of Manuel's.

He sings

an affecting romanza telling

vision. Anita, materializing,

his love for Anita,

and conjuring her in a brother's cloak and cap

as disguise.

comes carrying her After a declaration of undying love,

Gaston accepts the disguise. Anita assures him she can mollify her brother, Manuel. Gaston then leaves in the disguise, but hard on his
heels Rodrigo, himself in love with Anita, bursts in. Finding Anita but no Gaston, he immediately apprehends the worst, and grows insane with
jealous fury. Outside a shot
act of escaping,
is

heard. Gaston has been detected in the

and the disguise is pulled off him. Furious at learning very at last how Anita loved Gaston, Rodrigo pulls his trigger and shoots her. Manuel rushes in from the eaves and bends prostrate over her body as the curtain falls. Then trumpets blare forth the Mexican national anthem.

Duty

has conquered.
is

Gaston during his prison romanza had sung: "Glory, what

illusion,

glory?

An

a trap!

The most winsome and

inspiring realities of life are re-

THE OPERATIC NINETEENTH CENTURY

jected,

201

while everything
is

is

sacrificed to this vain illusion

of 'glory'." But

proved wrong. In the end the lesson is brought strongly home. and honor are everything. Glory Morales, having offended all the musical powers-that-be in Mexico by his lofty egotism, never succeeded b having his one opera that might have
Gaston

remained in the repertory produced. But long before he was pushed off into a corner to die unloved, the official opinion of the younger generation had been expressed by Gustavo E. Campa, a director of the Conservatorio

Nadonal. Campa, whose personal feelings Morales had ruthlessly tramwrote: pled upon,
Morales was not and could not be a revolutionary in art. Educated in a which in his epoch preserved an intransigently conservative attitude, he himself adopted the conservative attitude as a matter of principle, and
adhered to
it

school

with

all his soul.

His conservatism was the root of

his contro-

versy with the younger generation, and was the cause of those frequent violent encounters with those who professed different artistic ideals. His conservatism provoked those bitter efforts of his to denigrate every new
artistic idea.

But he attempted the

68

impossible.

And so the career of the one Mexican operatist of the century with
successfully

four

produced operas in Mexico and one successfully produced in Italy ended with a fizzle instead of a grand finale. At his peak lauded by the great Ignado Altamirano (a man whose literary stature almost
at the end won accolades from equaled Juarez's political stature), Morales and crept off into a hole where he could only sit by the wall and nobody,
tell

sad

tales.

ANGELA PERALTA: "THE MEXICAN NIGHTINGALE" (1845-83)

The most
Mexico was

spectacular performing artist perhaps ever developed in the magnificent soprano, Angela Peralta. She starred not

only in the first performances of Melesio Morales's Ildegonda (January in the first per27, 1866) and his Gino Corsim (July 14, 1877), but also formance of Aniceto Ortega's Gu&ttmoftdn (September 13, 1871). The

very least of her

roles in

activities

were, however, her creations of the leading

Mexican operas. Her parents were impoverished folk from Puebla,*4 and her musical advancement entirely resulted from her own amazing musical gifts. She

202

MUSIC IN MEXICO

now forgotten opera, Belisarius, so expertly sang a cavatina from Bellini's

when she was auditioned by the visiting German celebrity, Henriette Sonthe latter rapturously threw her arms about her and prophesied tag, that an international future for her. Tutored by Agustm Balderas, Angela

made huge strides, and was ready for a debut in // trovatore at the Gran Teatro Nadonal when she was but fifteen. So brilliant was her success that funds were given for a European study period. She went to Spam, was
dubbed "The Mexican Nightingale" straight off j then traveled on to Milan where after a short period of study she appeared in May, 1862, as Lucia in Donizetti's opera. She next sang in Somnambula at a highly successful Turin debut. She then went as far afield as Egypt, carrying all before her. Upon her return to Mexico in 1865 she was immediately taken up by the Italian impresario, Biacchi, and patronized liberally by the Maximilianists. So important was her appearance to the success of any opera she consented to play in that she was awarded a 20 percent of the
gross for every performance. After marrying a cousin, she set off on another foreign tour, in 1867, which took her to Havana, then to New York, then to Madrid, and

thence to several other capitals. Upon returning home after this particular tour she decided to form her own opera company in Mexico. She pro-

ceeded to barnstorm the entire republic, including in her repertory the following operas as mainstays: Lucia di Lammermoor, La traviata, Lur
crezia Borgia, Dinarah> La forza del destino, I furitani, Ruy Bias, Norma, Somnambula, Marta* She played Lucia according to her count, 1 66 times,

and Somnambula, 122 times. Around her was pivoted the Mexican premiere of the Verdi Requiem,
given October 12, 1877, "^ memory of three noble liberators, Juarez, Lincoln, and Thiers." She premiered her last Mexican opera the same year, Gmo Corsini, by Melesio Morales. Her last public appearance occurred at Mazatlan on the west coast of Mexico, where on August 23, 1883, she sang in II trovatore. There she contracted yellow fever and died
at the age of only thirty-eight. Playing in the orchestra accompanying her

while she was on her

{ 1868-94),

who

tour was a young violinist, Juventino Rosas was later to compose a set of waltzes that has vied with
last

the Blue Danube in international popularity Sobre las Olas. At the very hoar of her death she married a paramour who was but one of many sharing her affections after her husband's untimely death. The scandal of her free and easy private life was, however, soon
for-

THE OPERATIC NINETEENTH CENTURY

203

and only the memory of her astounding voice, her wide repertory, gotten and her indefatigable energy remained. She was not only an executant j she was a composer besides. Her Album Musical de Angela Peralta ( 1 875)
contained nineteen piano pieces, all of the salon type. The titles betray them: Loin de toiy El Deseo, Vuelta a la fatrta-, there are a schottisch, a

polka-mazurka,

1 a romanza, a valse, but no dances identifiably "Mexican.'

OTHER MEXICAN OPERA COMPOSERS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

Besides singing in the premieres of two Morales operas, Angela Peralta also took the part of the Aztec princess in Aniceto Ortega's "episodic
musical," Guatimotzin, the first performance of which was given September 25, 1871. Ortega, a gifted amateur, pursued the career of an obstetrician and in addition taught medicine at the national school of medicine.

line, his

But like Borodin, though he pursued science as a career and heart was in music.
Ortega
first

art as

side-

his

came before the public as a composer in 1 867 when two of Marcha Zaragoza and Marcha Refttblicana, climaxed a patrimarches, otic program at the Gran Teatro under auspices of the Sociedad Filarmonica. Twenty pianists sitting two at a piano joined forces with a military

band in both marches. 65 In October of the same year the Marcha Zaragoza was published with a picture of an eagle clutching victory in his talons and ae The Fifth of at the words "Cinco de Mayo." fiercely gazing upward

May was of course the day on which in 1862 General Ignacio Zaragoza had repulsed the French troops before Puebla, after which he reported to President Juarez: 'The national arms have covered themselves with
glory." The choice of the last Aztec prince for protagonist in his short opera was undoubtedly well timed. At approximately the time Ortega's opera was

of the period, was premiered, Alfredo Chavero, a leading literary light the Aztecs, Quetealcoatl: Ensayo tragico engaged in writing a tribute to

en ires actos y en verso. The salvation from the French had been achieved because a Zapotec Indian had willed victory, and a grateful Mexico looked to its Indian ancestry with renewed eyes of longing. The whole republic

was astir with resurgent Indianisnu In order to glorify Cuauhtemoc OrCuauhtemoc did not "prefer tega's librettist grossly distorted history; death to dishonor" as the opera would have us beHeve, but instead survived three years after the fall of Mexico. But no matter history or no

204
history
success.

MUSIC IN MEXICO
the opera served a patriotic purpose, and achieved an enormous
skies 5 as Luis Castillo

Ortega was lauded to the

Ledon, the

historian

of Mexican opera, described his success:

Guatimotzin created a furor j Ortega achieved a noisier, a more spontaneous, and a more complete triumph than any previous opera composer,
not even excepting Paniagua.
heaping
praises
.

upon him for

his

. . The press glorified his achievement, "creation" of a national opera, ... His

work perfectly suited the requirements of his time; utilizing as had all its predecessors Mexican operas the whole apparatus of Italian opera, . . . yet at the same time it appealed to the patriotic ardor of the audience by ro67 manticizing an Aztec theme.

Whatever small
score

flecks of technical

incompetence were discerned in the

no importance j Ortega was spared criticism his technical inadequacies would surely have caused simply because he sheltered himself under the name of being an amateur.
were
hastily

blown aside

as of

their

other opera composers who deserve at least brief mention because works achieved performance may be summarily listed: 68 Miguel Meneses (Agorante, Rey de la Nubia, July 6, 1863); Octaviano Valle

The

de Coscena, July 19, 1863) j Torres Serratos (Los dos Foscari, 11, 1863) j Leonardo Canales (Pirro da Aragon, July 12, 1864); Miguel Planas (Don Qvijote en la Ventana Encantada> May 5, 1871), and Felipe Villanueva (Keofar, July 29, 1893). The operas of Ricardo Castro (1864-1907), Ernesto Elorduy (1853-1912), and Gus{Clotilda

November

Campa ( 1 863-1 934) , properly belong with the story of the twentieth century, but since all three were direct continuators of nineteenth century operatic traditions, their works may appropriately be classified in the
same school j
all three, Castro, Elorduy, and Campa, rather than pathbreakers in a new epoch. Porfirians,

tavo E.

were

fin-de-sifccle

ASSESSMENT OF NINETEENTH CENTURY MEXICAN OPERA

Before attempting any overall assessment of their artistic merits, we may first cpunt the number of composers of operas, and the number of
operas presented. Paniagua with three, Melesio Morales with four, his son with one, and seven other operatists.of the nineteenth century with

oae

eajqh, yields

a total of ten opera composers with fifteen produced

THE OPERATIC NINETEENTH CENTURY

operas.
nition of

205

To this might be added a lyric drama of the pianist, Julio Ituarte, El Oltimo Pensamiento de Weber?* if one is willing to accept a loose defiwhat constitutes opera. Adding the fin-de-siecle composers we have for the Mexican school thirteen composers of produced works and
nineteen operas. The number of additional composers
at getting their

value of their

who wrote opera, but had no luck work produced, must undoubtedly be large. The ultimate efforts can be judged fairly perhaps only by a critic who

sympathizes with the esthetics of Italian opera. In so-called informed circles in Mexico today the nineteenth century operatists are laughed out
of court. But opera "dates" more quickly than any other type of music. Of all Verdi's own immediate contemporaries in Italy itself, not one opera

composer
listing

is still

remembered today.

the composers

whom

Requiem honoring Rossini 5 him in his commemoration project

what one
the

A convenient proof can be made by Verdi called upon to assist him in writing a of the dozen he thought worthy of assisting

Buzzola, Bazzini, Pedrotti, Cagnoni, Rica, Nini, Boucheron, Coccia, Gaspari, Platania, Petrella, and Mabellini
is so much as remembered today even by name? If in Italy, home of opera, only one composer wrote who still commands respect,

we should

active at the

hardly expect a group of a dozen or more Mexican operatists same period to be judged strictly on the lasting qualities of

their music.

Dead it may be now, but

in their

own day and time men

like

Paniagua, Melesio Morales, and Ortega, each in his own way helped solidify a cultural consciousness in the new republic without which Mexico

would have been the poorer.

Their efforts were certainly the peers of any United States operas written during the same period, and
at least they
if

we

question the taste of their music,

were malting it and far more of it (proportionately) than was made at the same time in this country. being

SALON MUSIC
of salon music published in Mexico between 1870 and was enormous. The catalogue of A* Wagner y Levien Sues., for 1900 instance, contained works by 103 nineteenth century Mexican salon composers. This firm, which eventually became the most important actually engaged in the business of printing music in Mexico, had branch houses
in Guadalajara, Puebla,

The amount

Monterrey, Veracruz, M6rida, and Tampico,

206

MUSIC IN MEXICO

during the late nineteenth century. Founded by Germans, the firm necesafter the 1910 Revolution. But this house sarily underwent reorganization
has been but one catering to the demand for salon pieces by Mexican composers.

library of the Conservatorio Nacional contains salon in manuscript, of well over three hundred nineteenth cenpieces, mostly

At present the

tury Mexican composers. The titles do not stimulate minute examination most of them sound like the pieces in Angela Peralta's 1875 Album.

were

But the mere listing of names shows how many would-be composers there in Mexico during the Porfirian epoch. They were, moreover, scat-

tered over the entire republic. In a study of music in Guadalajara, Mexico's second city, Jose G. Montes de Oca compiled a list of 45 musicians who

were active in that

tury.

city

alone during the

last

decade of the nineteenth cenpieces such as polkas,

Not

all

confined their efforts to

mere salon

mazurkas, marches, potpourris, boleros, pasodobles, meditations, and caprices although this class dominated. Some attempted 70 larger things, but for every one concerto for piano there were hundreds
valses, schottishes,

of ephemeral jottings. Justly to comprehend what was happening in Guadalajara around 1900 we should need to compare it with a town in
the United States of comparable size at the turn of the century Buffalo, New York, for instance. If there were 45 persons in Buffalo in 1900 classifiable as "composers" no history has brought together a record of them. The composer in Buffalo during the latter years of the century who
is

WPA

best

remembered today was,

71

interestingly enough,

Jaime Nuno

(1

824-

I9O8), the composer of the music for the Mexican national anthem. Where records have been assembled of would-be composers in this country
individuals such as

between 1890 and 190x3 almost invariably the names have belonged to Nuno, who had emigrated from elsewhere, Spain via

Mexico in Nuno's case. The most conspicuous success among all the salon pieces composed in Mexico during the nineteenth century was undoubtedly Rosas's Sabre las
Olas. Juventino Rosas,72 who died in July,
six,
1

894, at the age of only twenty-

composed he was only twenty-three. Why this one particular set should have

his internationally acclaimed set of waltzes in 1891

when

carried

his name around the world, while other sets, such as Amelia,

Das Pensatni-

de Maragarita, or Ilusianes Juveniles, though also published by Wagner and Levien and therefore equally accessible, should not have aroused a ripple of international interest remains an unsolved mysentas, Floras

THE OPERATIC NINETEENTH CENTURY

tery.

207

as

moreover, remains perennially popular. As recently the moving picture, "The Great Caruso," was issued by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Rosas's Sobre las Olas was made over into a song

Sobre

las Olas,

1951

when

for Dorothy Caruso (Ann Blyth) to sing in the film, with the new title, "The Loveliest Night of the Year." Rosas's own life has never been filmed, but since he lived a tempestuous 74 he one, the movie possibilities are great. A pure-blooded Otomi Indian, was born in the tiny village of Santa Cruz de Galeana in the state of Guanajuato. His father brought him to Mexico Gty before he was six, and set him to playing violin in a roaming family quartet, which consisted of father Jesus playing the harp, brother Patrodnio singing, and brother Manuel playing the guitar. This family combination broke up when Manuel was killed with a dagger thrust during a love-quarrel. Juventino then started playing the violin at San Sebastian Church where his was also the chore of bell-ringing. From bell-ringing he graduated to a first violinist's desk
in the opera orchestra

of the republic.
stricken

accompanying Angela Peralta during her last tour was with her at Mazatlan in 1883 when she was with yellow feverj although but fifteen at the time, he was a

He

mainstay of the orchestra. After her death Juventino got back to Mexico City the best way he could, and arriving in the capital with no funds, his own father now dead,

and

all

able to endure the rigors of military

other resources gone, he enlisted in the army as a bandsman. Unlife, he broke his enlistment before

his term had expired. He found refuge in a friend's house, where he turned out an enormous number of salon pieces for immediate publication.

employment as a violinist, and fell desperately in love. because of the instability of his fortunes, he took ship for Havana Rejected with a traveling zarzuela company. Soon after reaching Cuba, the company disbanded, and again he was left stranded. He fell ill, perhaps with typhoid, and died a short distance south of Havana at Batabano.
one were asked to define the particular qualities in Sobre las Olas which distinguish it from hundreds of Viennese waltzes, the task might
If

He found casual

prove

difficult.

in four eight-bar phrases, with cadences of the

Actually all five waltzes in the Sobre las Olas set are cast most conventional variety

lies

occurring at the end of each phrase. Perhaps the secret of the popularity simply in the winsomeness of the tunes. The tunes in all five of the

set

show

his fondness for

never seems gauche doing

dapping to and from the leading tonej but he it. Whatever the ultimate reason for Sobre las

208

MUSIC IN MEXICO
remembrance
as a successful competitor

Olas*s popularity, Rosas deserves

on Johann Strauss's own stamping ground. Few of the many millions who saw "The Great Caruso" realized that the most sentimental moment in the film was a song with music by a nineteenth century Otomi Indian. Because his waltzes do not sound "Indian" Mexican music historians have treated them cavalierly. But he deserves better of them. In Ruben M. Campos's El Folklore Musical de las Ctudades are printed

84 other popular salon type pieces along with Sobre las Olas. The enormous vogue of all this salon repertory in Mexico during the latter part of
the nineteenth century proves how internationally minded the townspeople were. Their polkas, mazurkas, valses, and schottisches were all international dance types. It
is

no more possible to

find a nationalist soul of the

picturesque sombrero kind in Mexican music in salon genre (during the epoch of Porfirio Diaz) than it is to find such a Mexican soul in the music of Paniagua's or Melesio Morales's operas.

PIANO VIRTUOSI DURING

THE LATTER HALF OF THE CENTURY

renowned
pianist to visit

The

first

internationally

Mexico was Henri

Herz, whose appearance occurred in 1849 the same year Vieuxtemps, the famous violinist, toured Mexico. With his ever watchful eye for publicity, Herz soon after his arrival announced in the newspapers his eagerness to compose a national anthem for Mexico, which still at that

moment lacked one. During August

of that year a committee of literary

experts invited Mexican poets to submit lyrics j the words chosen were then

put to music by Herz, but fortunately for Mexico, perhaps, his music failed to receive official endorsement. If his efforts at supplying music for
a national anthem
sion.
failed, his

piano playing at least left a lasting impres-

One who profited most by his example was Tomis Le6n (1826-93), who later became the first "professor of piano" in the 1866 Conservatorio.
At his house, in fact, the idea of founding a new national conservatory was hatched. After the triumph of Ildegonda a group of friends met at Leon's
house to congratulate Melesio Morales on his success j as Morales
told the story of that epochal meeting :
later

One evening my friends were celebrating the triumph in Leon's house. At an appropriate moment this speech was made: "Gentlemen,
.

THE OPERATIC NINETEENTH CENTURY

his

209

the triumph of our friend Morales is a great victory for Mexican art. For complete success, I congratulate the composer. . . . But in the midst

of his good fortune, we must confess we have paid dearly for the satisfaction of having overcome the animosity and avarice of a foreign impresario. In order that the same difficulties may not be repeated, I propose,

gentlemen, that we found a school where Mexican artists will have a chance to prepare themselves. . . . Only by training our own artists can we hope to create a truly elevated national art. 75

Leon then became

Beethoven.

the

first

to propagandize extensively in behalf of

He played his solo sonatas, and in conjunction

with Agustfn

Balderas gave the first performance of Beethoven's Symfhony No. 7 (in four-hand arrangement) at a Sociedad Filarmonica concert on July 27, 76 If this should seem a rather late date for Beethoven to be driving 1 867.

an entering wedge in Mexico, it may be well for us to remember that not even in Rome was the Eroica Symphony heard nor the Emperor Concerto
until the

same decade when Sgambati premiered them

at the Sala Dante*

To Leon

Aniceto Ortega dedicated his Invocation a Beethoven, Opus 2, one of the most serious Mexican piano pieces of the epoch (first performed

in 1867).

Leon

in 1871

pkyed

a Beethoven

"Gran sonata" (opus number not

designated) at the second of two concerts organized as part of the first Beethoven festival concerts in Mexico. 71 At these two festival concerts

Morales conducted first performances of the second and fifth Symphonies with an orchestra of 86 players. The Beethoven Violin Concerto and

Leonora No. 3 were

Leon's

also given first performances at these

two

concerts.

out by the Mexican firm of H, Nagel, run mostly towards the salon typej but the memories of his pupils emphasize his predilection for the weightier German composers.

own publications, brought

Jose Antonio Gomez, as has already been noted, brought out a series of bravura variations for piano using a jarabe for the theme. Leon was the second to do the same thing in an Jarabe National, published by the
firm of Bizet Hermanos. Julio Ituarte was the third to publish a series of variations on national airs in Ecos de Mexico. The progress of ninethese three Gomez's teenth century virtuostic ideals is clearly apparent in 1841 moved in Kalkbrenner's world j Ituarte's published by Nagel about 1885 in Liszt's,
78 Julio Ituarte ( 1845-1905)

was Leon's

best pupil.

He mastered the

effortThalberg-Gottschalk-Prudent vapidities current in his epoch with

210

MUSIC IN MEXICO

less case and quickly became the idol of Mexican aristocracy. Although he lacked Leon's solid interest in Beethoven and Mozart, he soon became a

more talked-of pianist simply because he catered to public taste instead of forming it. He composed a number of fantasias with such titles as these: La Temyestad ("The Tempest"), La Aurora ("The Dawn"), El Artista muere ("The Dying Artist"), Las Golondrinas ("The Swallows"). He also transcribed what was probably the first Mexican piece of program
music, Beristam's orchestral fantasy,

La Prtmavera ("The Spring").

1868 until 1885 he taught piano at the conservatory. He gained some practical experience with stage work in 1877 when he prepared the

From

choristers for the Peralta premiere of Aida.

The conductor of the orchestra

at that premiere ostentatiously did without the score during the performance. Noting the tremendous impression this feat of memory produced,

Ituarte resolved to

be the

first

Mexican

pianist to

perform everything

from memory.
After resigning his post at the conservatory to gain more time for
composition he wrote a two-act zarzuela, Sustosy Gustos, produced in 1887 with enormous success. The music for this operetta whose action has to

do with the adventures of an office worker playing truant on his pretended

was

day has unfortunately disappeared. A second zarzuela in three acts In 1897 after tours throughout Mexico and Cuba he returned to piano teaching at the conservatory. His opinions concerning
saint's

less successful.

Eaderewski's first appearances in Mexico

( 1900)

make interesting reading.

The
was

audience at Paderewski's
criticized harshly in the

failure to

slim, and he Mexican journals for his excesses, and his play the written notes and observe the written signs for expresfirst

concert

was extremely

sion. Ituarte said:

Genius does not have to submit

itself to

die ferule of mediocrity.

The

majority of pianists should recite the musk strictly adhering to the written notes and die written marks of expression. But the great artist makes his

own laws.
,

Those
.
.

critics
.

The Polish pianist must be judged as a man apart. who abuse him and deem his style of execution
calling
it

un-

pardonable

abounding

in

wrong

blurred, indistinct, strident at times, and often notes . . . are approaching his playing with the

wrong

attitude.

After It&arte the next virtuoso of distinction was Felipe VUlanueva Rosas was a pure-blooded Indian. VUlanucva's career ( 1863-93) "k

B*

THE OPERATIC NINETEENTH CENTURY

was cut short
in in
in his thirtieth year, but not before

zn

he had written a copious

amount of salon music.

A specialty of his was cross rhythms, the left hand

% while the right played in %, for instance. Several of his pieces printed
Campos's collection, El Folklore de las Ciudades, possess great charm. Ricardo Castro ( 1 864-1907) like Villanueva did not live to see the full

dying in his forty-third year. But he became probthe best piano virtuoso Mexico possessed during the century. ably
fruition of his genius,

RICARDO CASTRO: THE MOST "EUROPEIZANTE" NINETEENTH CENTURY

COMPOSER
William Berrien in discussing "Latin American Music" once spoke of Castro as the most euroferzante of the nineteenth century composers. 80
Castro undoubtedly possessed exceptional advantages for the acquiring of a Europeanized veneer. His father, a prominent man of affairs in

Durango, where Castro was born February 7, 1 864,** was elected to the Mexican Congress in 1877, and carried his family with him to the capital. The thirteen year old boy had already learned what there was to learn in Durango, and was therefore ready to study with the best teachers in the conservatory. In 1879 he began composition with Melesio Morales, and in 1 88 1 piano with Ituarte. At the Querdtaro Exposition in 1882 he won a prize and three years later he was sent to the New Orleans Cotton
the United States he Exposition to represent his republic While traveled further north, giving rentals in Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York. When he returned to Mexico he joined with Gustavo E. Campa
in a new Institute Musical, a competing conservawith the national. At the age of twenty-five he had made enough stir tory

and Felipe Villanueva

to

win favorable mention in Felipe PedrelPs Ilustracion Musical Hisfano

Mexicana, published at Barcelona. He played the Grieg Concerto at the Teatro National in a concert in
June, 1892. Sensing the lack of any chamber music tradition in Mexico

he

assisted in organizing

a new Sodedad Filarmon&a Mexican*) which

chamber concerts late in the >9O>s, He played in the Schumann Piano Quintet, the A minor Tschaikowsky Piano Trio, and in the G minor Rubinstein Piano Trio, cooperating in first performances of these particular works in Mexico. In 1 900 he won a post teaching
sponsored several notable
composition in the Conservatorio National. Morales, testy as an old eagle, venomously tried to have his former pupil ousted, bat unsuccessfully.

212

MUSIC IN MEXICO

so he could study in Europe. A further 700 pesos for was provided. In January, 1903, Castro arrived in Paris, where through his connections as a prizewinner from Mexico he secured a performance of his 'Cello Concerto on April 6. This particular concerto abounds in excellencies. The performer was M. Loevensohn, a Belgian,

On November 9, 1900, his opera Atzimba, whose libretto had to do with events during the Spanish conquest of Michoacan, was given its first performance. In 1902 the Diaz government gave him a grant in the equivalency of
500
francs a

month

travel expenses

who premiered

the

work

in Brussels shortly after giving

it

a Paris per-

formance. A copy of it is to be seen in the Fleisher Collection at the Philadelphia Free Library, and a glance at it will dispel anyone's idea Castro was still unformed as a composer when he first went to Europe.

The first movement, an allegro moderate

in

C minor, contains inspired

movement with a 'cello writing 5 the bridging of the first cadenza is a happy device. The theme varie (p. 39) which serves as a second movement modulates widely 5 the variations are in the manner of
and second
character variations such as

Schumann
in

tried in his

Etudes Symfhoniques.

The third movement, a vivo

C major (p. 79), contains a reprise of the

throbbing cantabile theme from the first movement. If there are reminiscences of Schumann or of Tschaikowsky in it, so are there reminiscences
of other composers in the Elgar and in the Dvorak 'Cello Concertos. Castro's would make a welcome addition to the eternal small round of
is brilliant without being overbearing, and treated idiomatically. Castro was especially well everywhere advised in his use of register contrasts*

'cello

works; the orchestration

the

'cello is

Two days after the 'Cello Concerto was premiered, Castro gave a piano
The newspaper reports of his Parisian perone appearing in the April 9, 1903, Le Figaro and the other in formances,
recital at

the Salle Erard.

the April 15, 1903, Le Monde Musicalf* extravagantly praised him both as a pianist and as a composer.

While he was

in Paris Castro took

some

lessons with

Eugen

d' Albert,

who had already done Mexican

music a service by playing two of Vilknueva's short pieces in his European concert programs. In May of 1904 Castro played several times in Belgium, appearing on the 1 7th in Brussels.

He gave the first performance of his Piano Concerto, Op. 22, in Antwerp
in

a concert on December 28, 1904. Since the December concert included also the 'Cello Concerto again* and in addition excerpts from Atztmtay

THE OPERATIC NINETEENTH CENTURY

Castro's three-act opera,

213

we may
i,

appeared

in the

January

M 1905, La Federation Artistique:

his

profitably quote

from the review which

The

composer gave a masterful performance of

Concerto for

Piano, a dashing and effective work. . . . The Concerto for Violoncello contains themes of profound beauty; the orchestration, attractive in the
introduction, reveals genuine mastery when the solo part begins. level of workmanship is brilliantly sustained in the andante and in the
.
. .

The

wo.

[The

effect.

The

well-contrived work with maximum 'cellist] projected this orchestra also played Castro's Marcha tarasca from the lyric
is

drama, Atzimba; the march

turesquely developed.

founded on popular Mexican themes

the

pic-

... At

from Atzimba (for soloists,

end of the conceit the closing scene mixed chorus, and orchestra) proved a deeply

moving

Castro's full worth, a experience. ... In order to appreciate of other concertos for violoncello might prove a salutary discipline; review worth above even some of the better certainly his shines out with peculiar

known

ones.

he was deeply During his European tour Castro visited Germany where He also entered into a impressed by the Bayreuth festival performances.
contract with the Leipzig firm of Friedrich Hofmeister for publication of out the Piano Concerto, both in the works. Hofmeister his

krger

brought

conventional reduction for second piano of the orchestra part, and also in full score. Later the same firm issued his second opera, La Ugende de

Rudely libretto in French. The Mexican firm of H. Nagel Sucesores published the piano score of Atwmba. Three of Castro's large works therefore

became available shortly before his premature death.

of the First Piano Concerto merits approximate those another American composer who was by fortunate enough to establish a German publishing connection during Edward MacDowell. The larger literature of the his

Of the Piano

Concerto

it

may be said that its

European sojourn,

has resulted in severer canons of criticism and Castro's piano concerto seems less worthy of being revived than does his 'Cello Concerto. today movement in The minor, allegro moderatoy allows the piano

opening

a rather pompous entry with a dialogue between a thunderous octave bass and high chords in the treble. The cantabile duet between piano and clarinet (C major) strikes a better pose. At letter 5 in the score the diminished seventh chord receives a too thorough workout. The recapitulation proceeds conventionally with the second

theme decoratively pre-

2u
sented in

MUSIC IN MEXICO
A major. As in the 'Cello Concerto, the first and second move-

ments are bridged with a cadenza; the piano cadenza, however, conspicuThe second movement, a large ternary ously lacks thematic significance. form, poises itself between a B Major andante and an A minor allegro

movement is a lively polonaise in major. Its appassionato. The last affinities lie not with Chopin but with the von Weber of the Polacca
brillante.

A grandiose at the dose of the last movement recapitulates the

first

second theme from the

movement.

Though
English

our present-day vantage point it seems the piano does too much in this concerto j the solo part too uniformly carries the musical substance. the orchestra, which is standard in size with an added flute and

From

Horn part but only two trumpets, seems always well enough treated when the piano ceases playing, its part otherwise than in interludes seems supplementary rather than complimentary. The modulations are
often as abrupt as Liszt's, and the Lisztian technique betrays itself in the difficulties are no greater than those enfiguration. But if the technical

countered in other fin-de-siecle concertos, they do prove Castro had mastered the conventional pianism of his epoch. Even reasonably well pkyed this concerto would as well split the ears of the groundlings as the next
one.

In September, 1906, Castro returned to Mexico, having in Europe readied his opera, La Legende de Rudel; at the Mexican premiere the
libretto

had to be translated

into Italian for the benefit of the everlasting

Mexico. In January, 1907, he was named director of the Conservatorio Nadonal, but unfortunately he died at the height of his
Italians in

powers in November of that same year. His death was interpreted as an occasion for national mourning, and during a three-day period all higher educational institutions observed commemorative exercises.
Despite Castro's acknowledged achievement in his own day, he is today regarded with the same polite indifference in sophisticated Mexican musi<c greeted with in advanced" circles of this of having been country. Castro, like MacDowell, now has the reputation somewhat dowdyish ; the style of both composers has now, of course, com-

cal circles that

MacDowell

is

wrote two symphonies (the pletely run out of fashion. Although Castro first finished in August, 1 883, and the second in 1 887) these are even less
frequently thought of today in Mexico than
is

MacDowelPs

First Indian

Suke

in the

United

States.

THE OPERATIC NINETEENTH CENTURY

RELIGIOUS MUSIC IN NINETEENTH CENTURY MEXICO

215

As

Mme.

Calderon de la Barca found

it,

religious music

had become

syncretized with secular music during the turbulent years just before the mid-century. The popular villandcos and motetes which continued to be written during the years of struggle

and Reform laws

with necessary

changes of title and textwould find a safe and comfortable abiding place beside the P. P. Bliss and Ira D. Sankey specialties that crowded the

popular English hymnals of the same epoch. In the popular alabados,

and motetes, published by Ruben M. Campos as representative music of their epoch, lush thirds and sixths hang with cloying monotony
villandcos,

over their tunes $ the harmonies are crushingly banal j and their most exalted moments sound like "lifts" from tenth-rate Italian operas. At midcentury when a new high altar in utterly execrable taste was installed in the metropolitan cathedral, music had catapulted to a disastrous low in the cathedral's history. But worthy musicians in priest's orders were not

completely lacking j Agustin Caballero, first director of the Conservatorio

Nadonal (1866), enjoyed the confidence and respect of all informed 84 and there were others later such as Jose G. musicians in the capital \ 85 Velazquez, trained at Ratisbon, and organist at the Shrine of the Virgin 7 of Guadalupe during the 9tfs, who were respectable musicians. Some few cathedrals continued to offer a bare pittance to musicians after
in the

the sequestration of property unsettled the revenues of the church, though main all salaries ceased. Even the Shrine of the Virgin of Guada-

lupe, which remained affluent during the

more unpropitious moments of

payments to musicians shortly

the century, radically reduced

86

its

scale of

after mid-century. the resuscitation of musical standards was Bishop RafaeLS.

The Mexican bishop most outspoken in his efforts for

Camacho of
875-95) interested himself the Queretaro School of Sacred Music guidance
( 1

Queretaro who during a twenty-year period

in reform.

Under

his

was founded with Guadalupe Velazquez as

director, in February, 1892.

The

Caecilian influences transmitted through Velazquez, who never learned to value Solesmes principles until they were forced upon him,

procured rather pale results, however. His own compositions, though not 87 operatic, reach an opposite extreme of complete colorlessness. They also
notably lack any contrapuntal vitality.

MUSIC IN MEXICO
NATIONAL AND REGIONAL DANCES

The jarabe, as we have already shown, suffered the interdict of the church during the late colonial epoch. But with independence gained, it became the most popular of the distinctive national dance types. As conventionally danced, the woman wearing a china foblana costume and the
man wearing a charro suit enacted a game of courtship. The woman, playing the coquette, alternately attracted and repelled her suitor, using small and light rapid tappings of her feet to encourage his suit and then turning away at the crucial moment Frances Toor describes the conventional ending of the jarabe thus:

At the end comes "The Dove," during which the man follows his partner as she dances around the broad brim of his sombrero, imitating the
courtship of doves.

As she

stoops to pick up the hat, he passes his right leg

over her, and they finish by facing the audience to do

"The Diana."

close of the nineteenth century,

Various regional variants of the dance were to be encountered at the and the standardization of the jarabe into

in

an urban dance has caused the true jarabe-enthusiast alarm. The traveler Mexico during recent years has usually seen a jarabe robbed of the spontaneity and freedom of the older jarabes.
It is necessary

when speaking of such Mexican dance-types as the or the huapango or the sandunga, to discriminate between the jarabe dances themselves and the dance-music that accompanies them. The
usual descriptions of these dances say little or nothing of the music, and a great deal about the costumes, the feet movements, the body positions, and the visual spectacle. The nineteenth century writers on the jarabe

were

just as

prone to omit any

specific description

of the music

8a

as are

modern writers. In 1861 a Spaniard traveling in Mexico, Don Niceto de Zamacois, wrote a long panegyric of the national dance, but even he, wordy
said nothing about the actual character of jarabe-music. apostrophized the beautiful Mexican women, said Adam would return
as

he was,

He

and eat his apple again

it

for the privilege of seeing a jarabe danced, called

a dance to enliven even the cold blood of senators, invited everyone to come hear a Mexican harpist start the jarabe, and declared it a better medicine than any yet

known

for all the

ills

of man. 90 But

amid

all his glitter-

ing adjectives, no real description of the music occurred. As with Zamacois,

THE OPERATIC NINETEENTH CENTURY

%
%

217

so with the other writers of the century. The reason writers neglected to describe the music perhaps arose from the fact there was really so or little to say about it. The music was fast, in usually, with 16 or

24 measures in each son; the son was an individual tune, and when the more sones were sung in succession. The son jarabe was danced five or
with

6 measures was divided into two parts j the first eight measures were instrumental, the last eight vocal with accompaniment Those with 24
1

consisted of three groups of eight measures, the first group instrumental, the second vocal, the third instrumental. Any technical description of the jarabes that were printed would emi The rhythms were always spirited, with phasize the following points:

an almost equal distribution of accent on all beats of the measure 2 Dotted rhythms and syncopation were frequent 5 Feminine endings were of approximately equal frequency with masculine endings (at cadences) 4 The major mode was almost invariably used 5 Tonic-dominant harmony of the

most conventional variety underlay the melodies 6 Harmonization of the melodies in thirds and sixths (especially thirds) was the rule 7 Within
each individual son no modulations were attempted 8 Simple modulations from tonic to dominant or sub-dominant were frequent between one son

and the next p Keys with only one or two accidentals at most were the rule 10 A flourish and climax at the end of the whole series of sones was usual. The printed jarabes were almost always for piano solo, but
in actual performance a combination of harp, string bass, small guitar, and flute provided the instrumental accompaniment for the dance. Bands

comprising such heterogeneous ensembles have commonly been called sones mariaches. The huapango, a dance indigenous to the hot country between Tampico

and Veracruz, and % in the

in one measure capriciously alternates rhythms between next. The rapid gait of the beats and the alternation of

accents produces an extremely agitated

and nervous dance. The word

huafango has been variously derived. Some etymologists believe it to be a corruption of the Nahuatl cuahpancocvaitl, which means a piece of
wood, ipan, meaning on or over, and coy place. Others believe it to be a corruption of Huaxtecas de Pango (= Panuco). Whatever derivation be
accepted, the dance itself
91 mestizo, not Indian. ensemble would be a violin, two large guitars, typical accompanying and a small guitar. Another rhythmic characteristic to be noted in adis

dition to the shift between

% and % would be the frequent sharp accent

MUSIC IN MEXICO on the last eighth note in the measure. A point of harmonic interest
218

is

the frequent use of interior tonic pedals. The site for a huapango ordinarily is a wooden platform. Men and women dance as couples j the men sing, the women do not. Frequently all the singing is done by one soloist
in a high falsetto.

The

nearest Spanish analogue of the huapango

would

be the fandango.

The sandunga, a dance now completely out of fashion, but once popular
and especially around Oaxaca, was a slower dance than or huapango, resembling most a dreamy waltz. This dance was a jarabe couples dance, with men and women facing each other in rows. The word
in the Isthmus

sandunga in Spanish means 'fascination, allurement, or gracefulness." The music requires no special remarks j any moderate waltz in the minor

mode

could be used for a sandunga.

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

IN

Perhaps as desirable a way as any for gaining an overall perspective of nineteenth century musical life in Mexico will be to set down a

summary

list of weaknesses

and then, by way of contrast, a summary list of

strengths.

The weaknesses were palpable: / Italian opera was the consuming passion 2 The piano, while it became a universal household instrument, was not valued for its own sake, but rather because it was a convenient maid-of-allwork 5 Chamber music hardly
existed 4

Symphonic music was unknown

outside Mexico City 5 Amateurs^ rather than professionals, dominated musical circles 6 Musk criticism of the type known in the

European

capi-

tals after

1850 never made any appearance

in

Mexico

until after the

end

of the Porfirian epoch.

counterbalancing strengths may now be listed: i The Mexican was avidly musical, in the sense that high and low professed an public overwhelming fondness for music 2 There was a large enough public ready to buy piano music even if of the salon type to sustain five M 3 As a matter of publishing houses in business principle the government
national conservatory accepted music activities as entitled to subsidy 4 free instruction was founded 5 modeled on Italian offering

The

Though

lines,

a very large number of operas were written by Mexicans 6 The prcof amateurs was desirable while opportunities for a livelihood ponderancy in serious music remained as scarce as they were during the century 7 Musk was regarded as a worthy vocation even among the classes,
highest

THE OPERATIC NINETEENTH CENTURY

219

which was not true in the United States 8 Though beginning with the out along ubiquitous Italians in the saddle, gradually they were pushed
with other foreigners, so that Mexicans themselves might occupy such as directorships of conservatories, conductorships of prestigious posts
orchestras,

and

so on.

Weighing the weaknesses and then the strengths we feel justified in As calling the century one of significant advance, musically speaking.
all

diverse as were the different colorful political leaders of the century, they shared one trait in common a belief that music was important enough
in national life to merit

yet arrived at this cardinal principle*

government support The United States has not A study of the careers of Santa Anna,

Maximilian, and Porfirio Diaz, to name only three diverse political shows that even at critical moments in their adfigures of the century,
ministrations they supported
activities.
'

even

if

very poorly

professional music

Fairly to judge the century one should compare Mexico with other Latin countries of the same epochj as was pointed out in relation to the dates when first performances of Beethoven symphonies occurred, even

in such a favored location as

Rome, his works began to be performed only

five years or so before their first orchestral presentation in Mexico City. Finally one ought also to remember that however welcome Diaz made

the foreign monarchs of finance, during his regime considerable progress was made in establishing the vital principle that Mexican musical op-

when United
schools,

portunities legitimately belonged to Mexicans States conservatories vied with each other in bidding for

themselves.

At a time

and other regional music foreign directors, the Conservatorio Nadonal,

engaged Mexicans
exclusively.

By 1900 Mexicans had

decided

For worse one might say, looking at the caliber of some of the music performed and composed. But in the minds of many Mexicans today, this "worse" stage was necessary in order that a "better" one might finally arrive.
to dominate their

own

musical life for better or for worse.

NOTES
I.

Alejo Carpeatier, La music* *n Cuba (Mexko: Foodo de Coltnn 1946), pp. 65-71.

i.

Juan Bauriita Plaza,

"Mwic in Caracas during tfe Cokmial

Perkxl,

Quarterly, April, 194.3, p. 212.

3.

Gtullermo Fariong, Mustcos Arg**ti*os, jx 170.

220
4. Jose* Ignacio

MUSIC IN MEXICO
Perdomo Escobar, Historia de la Musica en Columbia (Bogota: . , 1945)> p 33- The printing, however, was to have
.

Biblioteca Popular . been done in Spain.

5.

The
in

New

Coliseo Nuevo, opened in 1753, was actually the fourth theater erected Spain. See Enrique de Olavarria y Ferrari, Resena Histdrica del Teatro en

Mexico (Mexico: Imprenta "La Europea," 1895), I, 28-9. During the nineteenth century the Coliseo Nuevo, after refurbishing, became known as the Teatro de Mexico or the Teatro Principal. Late viceregal opera was produced in this
playhouse.
6.

Mary Neal Hamilton, Music

of Illinois Press, 1937), p. 20. Gilbert Chase, however, has referred to

in Eighteenth Century Spain (Urbana: University La Sefaa sin

Amorm genuine opera (Musical Quarterly, July, 1939, p. 300)

; whether or not it was sung throughout or interspersed with spoken dialogue cannot perhaps now be definitely known since the music has long disappeared. At its inception an aristocratic entertainment, the zarzuela became during the eighteenth century dis-

7.

tinctly middle-class entertainment. tonadillas, see Hamilton, of. cit. y pp. 4.79, 5 370. 8. other types of musical skit that were popular in the late viceregal theaters

On Two

9.

were the loa (a prologue partly sung and partly spoken), and the entrernes burlesque interlude between acts). Diario de Mexico (I, 100), October 25, 1805.

(a

10. Ibid. (I, 236),

11. Ibid. (I, 264), 12. Ibid. (I,

the story of Siana y Silvio see the Diario> 18, 1806. In an Arcadian setting a lovesick shepherd courted a coy shepherdess; she stoutly resisted him, however, until they both were overtaken

November 25, 1805. December 2, 1805. 264), December 2, 1805. For

November
by storm.

storm over, she remained in his arms for a happy ending. It seems December, 1805, presentation one of Medina's daughters played the shepherd, and the other the shepherdess. 1 3. Medina's obituary appeared in the Diario y November 1 8, 1 806. 14. Luciano Corte"s was primer galan of the Compania del Coliseo Nuevo j the memthat in the

The

bers of the troupe with their respective functions are listed in Olavarria

Ferrari,

o?.
1

*.,!,

177.

de M&xico, April 14, 1816. 18165 in this issue the salaries of sixteen orchestral players are given "para que el publico se entere de los costos de csta empresa." 17. The disturbed political situation in 1816 contributed to the ruin of the Coliseo, 1 8. The Gaceta Extraordinaria del Gobierno de Mexico, November 4, 1817, carried notice of a march by Corral dedicated to Apodaca in the most servile terms.
15. Diario
6. Ibid.y April zi y

See Olavarria y Ferrari,

I,

192-3.

io> Criedam's "grande 6pera en tres actos titulada El Solitario, cuyo heroico argumento esta sacado de conocida historia de Carlos el Temerario" was

December
I,

2,

k performed 1824, and repeated later in the same month. See Olavarria y Ferrari,
^

215-6.

20. Diario

de Mexico^ October 24, 1807.

THE OPERATIC NINETEENTH CENTURY

21. Ibid.,

221

December 16, 1806. November 18, 1806. 23. Gazeta de Mexico, July 2, 1793.
22. lbti.>
24. Ibid., October 21, 1796.

25. Ibid., September 12, 1786. 26. Saldivar, of. tit., p. 193. 27. Ibid.) p. 194 (Gazeta de Mexico, XII, 200). 28. On the Cuban contradanza, see Carpentier, of.
29. Guitar

tit.,

pp.

96107.

melody in numerical cipher; piano accompaniment added. 30. Haydn's Seven Last Words long enjoyed tremendous popularity in Spain; in his own piano arrangement (Op. 49) it became a favorite with amateurs. De Falla's

first appearance in public was as a performer of this piano version. 31. Diario de Mexico, October 24, 1805. "Andres Madrid, blind, will insert native tunes in the playing rolls of Spanish musical clock*."

32. Saldivar, of.

tit., p.

270.

33. Ibid., p. 269.

34. Ibid., p. 276.

35. "Conspiracion de Valladolid de 1813," Boletin del

ArcMoo General de

la

Naci6n, July-August-September, 1932,

36.

p.

472.

Jose biographical details in this section are derived from Jesus (X Romero, Mariano Elizaga (Mexico: Ediciones del Palacio de Bellas Artes, 1934)*

The

37. Diario de Mexico, July 3, 38. Reprinted in Romero, of.

1809
tit.,

(article

by Renato de Mosvos).
.
.

pp. 106-7.
.

39. Jose* Mariano Elizaga, Elementos de Music*

(Mexico: Imprenta del Su-

premo Gobierno en
40. Ibid., p.
vi.

Palacio,

1823), p.

hr.

41. "Gothic" was a favorite word of execration with Eximeno also. 42. Felipe Pedrell, P. Antonio Eximeno (Madrid: Union Musical Espanola, 1920).

Duda de D. Antonio Eximeno sobre El Ensayo Fundamental (Madrid: Imp. Real, 1797), p. 21. 44. Romero, of. tit., p. 142. 45. Romero, "Historia del Conservatorio," Nuestra Musica, July, 1946, p. 176.
43. Antonio Eximeno,
.

46. Ibid., p. 175.

Milan Conservatory, Mexican career see Luis Castillo Ledon, "Los Mexicanos Autores de Operas," Anales del Museo National de Arqueologia, Historia y Etnologfa, 1910, p. 327. 48. Bullock, pp. 169-170. 49. Mme. Calderon de la Barca, Life in Mexico (Everyman Edition), p. 354.
47. Rossi,
after his return

who

home became

director of the

arrived in

Mexico

in January, 1836. For his

50. Ibid., p. 338.

51. J. J. von Tschndi, Travels in Peru

(New

York: Wiley

& Putnam,

1847), pp.

59-60. Tschudi (p. 71) remarked

of music.

all

the ladies of

Lima "are

want of

The

Most of them play the piano-forte or the guitar, and instruction neither their playing nor their singing i* above mediocrity." curse of mediocre instruction lay over Mexico and Pern alike.

passionately fond also sing; bat for

222
52.

MUSIC IN MEXICO
Mme.
Calderon de
la Barca, p. 139.

53. Ibid, y ?. 137.

54. 7&V., p. 198. 55. Ibid., p. 286.
56. Ibid., p. 156.

57. For biographical details, see

Manuel G.

Revilla,

"Cenobio Paniagua," Revista

reff.,

Musical Mexicana, II (1942), 17* #> *<> 2 ff -> 2l6 > 2 34> 251-2. M. Altamirano, "D. Melesio Morales," 58. For biographical details see Ignacio III (i943>> "> fL, 35 ff., 63 ff., no printed in Revisit Musical Mexicana,
iSoff., 206-7, 228
ff.

59. Melesio Morales, Resena que

60.

only significant figure Gustavo E. Campa, but Morales called him a Judas also. 6 1. Anita, words only, published at Mexico City, Tipografia de "El Tiempo." 62. The vocal score with piano reduction of the orchestra is now in the possession of G. Baqueiro Foster. I am much indebted to him for his kind permission to study
this

The

Leyo a sus Amigos (Mexico, 1907), p. 18. unmentioned in Morales's catalogue of students was

and other

inaccessible scores in his private collection.

63. Gustavo E. Campa, Criticas Musicales (Paris, I9ll)> P- 33 2 64. For a convenient summary of biographical details see Otto Mayer-Serra's
"Peralta," in his encyclopedia, Musica 65. Olavarria y Ferrari, III, 16.

article,

y Musicos It Latino-America.

66. Facsimile opposite p.

140 in Mayer-Serra, Panorama de la Musica Mexi~ (Mexico: El Colegio de Mexico, 1941). 67. Castillo Ledon, of. cit., p. 340. 68. This list is supplied by Romero in "La 6pera en Mexico," La 6fera en Yucatan (Mexico: Ediciones "Guion de America," I94?)> PP- 5 2-3cana
.
.

69. Olavarria
70. Jose*

y Ferrari, HI, 56-7. G. Montes de Oca in "Retratos Existentes en la Biblioteca Publica de la Ciadad de Guadalajara," 1924 (typewritten essay deposited at the Biblioteca Benjamin Franklin, Mexico, D.F.), lists a Concerto for Piano and Orchestra by Juan A. Aguilar, a "Seven Last Words" by Abel Loreto, and a Himno Guadalufano

by Tiburcio Saucedo, as examples of the "meatier" compositions by Guadalajara composers in the pre-World War I epoch. 71. Jesus Galindo y Villa, "El Himno Nacional Mexicano," Andes lei Museo
Naciottal de Argueologia, Historia y Etnografia, 1927, p. 75. 72. Consult the article "Rosas" in Musica y Musicos de Latino-America for a convenient summary of biographical details.

73. These pieces are preserved in the Conservatorio Nacional Library. 74. Ruben M. Campos, El Folklore f&usical de las Ciudades (Mexico: Secretaria

de Educacion Publica, 1930),

75. Melesio Morales, Resena
.

p. 183.
.

p. 13.

Dr. Duran was the orator of the occa-

***.
76. Olavarria j Ferrari, III, also recorded. Ortega) 77. Ibid^ III, IOO-I,
1

1.

four-hand performance of the Pastoral (with

THE OPERATIC NINETEENTH CENTURY

78. For
Ituarte's

223

biography see
II,

Manuel G.
1

Revilla,

"D. Julio

Ituarte," Revista

Musical Mexicana,

83

ff.,

13

ff.

79. Ibid., p. 115. 80. William Berrien, "Latin

ture

American Music," Concerning Latin American CulYork: Columbia University Press, 1940), p. 157. Berrien thought Castro's "Europeanization" was a shallow veneer.

(New

81. For biographical information concerning Castro see Romero,

Durango en

la

Evolucion Musical de Mexico (Mexico: Ediciones "Gui6n de America," 1949),

pp. 25-30. 82. Quoted in Gustavo E.
83. Ibid., p. 348.
84. Guillermo
Prieto,

Campa,

Criticas Musicales, p.

340 and

p. 345.

Memories de Mis Tiemfos (Mexico: Libreria

C.

Bouret, 1906), I, 101. Prieto echoed the standing as musician.

85. Ezequiel de la canay I, 88. 86.
Isla,

common

opinion concerning Caballero's

"El Padre

J.

Guadalupe Velazquez," Revista Musical Mexiviolinists,

The

basilica orchestra in

1835 included 8

clarinetists,

flautist,

bassoonist, timpanist, and unspecified numbers of trumpeters, 'cellists, and string bassists; see Colegiata de Guadalupe: Directorio 'para el gobierno de los ministros de orquesta a^robado y mandado observer for el muy Uustre cabildo de esta insigne

When

Colegiata de S. M. de Guadahtfe (Mexico: Grabado de la Guadalupana, 1835). this "lush" organization was in danger of extinction the musicians banded

together in a Caecilian Philharmonic Society (1845), attempting to control prices by musicians' union methods. For the activities of this musicians' syndicate or-

XIX , December 3 and 4, 1845. Unfortunately the musicians succeeded only in worsening their economic plight, especially as far as church employment went. 87. An uninteresting and pallid Ave Maria is reproduced in Revista Musical Mexiganized by Jose Maria Bustamente see El Siglo
cana>
I,

845

also

88. Frances TOOT,

an equally correct but dull Ave Moris Stellay p. 86. "Mexican Folk Dances," Renascent Mexico (New York: Covici-

Friede, I935)>P- I**89. Antonio Garcia Cubas,

s.a,,

n.d.), pp. 210-1,

El Libro de Mis Recuerdos (Mexico: Editorial Patria and elsewhere, does print the tunes of various jarabes, but

without offering any analysis. 90. Gabriel Saldivar, El Jarabe: Baile Popular Mexicano (Mexico: Talleres Grificos

de
91.

la

Nacion, 1937), p.

2.

Geronimo Baqueiro

Foster^

"El Huapango," Revista Musical Mexican*

(1942), I74-8392. Baqueiro F., "Aportacion Musical de Mexico para formaci6n de la Biblioteca Americana de Caracas: 1882-3,** Revista Musical Mexicans II (1942), 28. In

addition to Rivera hijo y Cia, H. Nagel Suceaores, Wagner y Levien, and D. Carlos Godard, there was another firm, Bizet Hnos., making the five. This list of Mexican piano pieces and songs with piano accompaniment, reaching a total of 391 items, reveals the high concentration of publishing activity during the
early years of Porfirio Diaz's presidency (the so-called *Torfirian" period).

FULFILLMENT DURING THE

TWENTIETH CENTURY

THE LAST PORFIRIAN 1 DECADE (l9OI-I9Il)

Thoroughly drastic changes overtook every phase of Mexican political, social, and cultural life after the expulsion of the eighty-one-year-old President Porfirio Diaz in 191 1. The Mexican historian of our own time,
because of these drastic changes, tends to see everything anterior to 191 1 as ancien regime. The music of the latter Porfirian years, like the painting

nowadays brushed aside as pompous, dowdy, and Composers, moreover, who attracted President Diaz's favorable attention or who received prizes at the hands of his lieutenants, have all been sentenced to obloquy by the succeeding generaarchitecture,
is

and

insufferably inflated.

tion of revolutionary composers for the crime of having won his approval. Late Porfirian opera has, in particular, supplied an easy target for

revolutionary attack.

have

all

The operas of Castro, Campa, Elorduy, and others, been lumped together as "simply entertainment for the effete who
ruled Mexico during Diaz's later

capitalist classes, largely foreign,

years."

it

Doubtless Gustavo E. Caxnpa's 1901 opera Le Roi Poete dealing as life of a fifteenth century poet-king, Nezahualcoyotl of Tezcuco does now seem mawkish because of the way it sugar-coated and

does with the

glamorized the Aztec past* The libretto, in French because Campa adored French music and because no angers were supposed to have wanted to sing so commonplace a language as Spanish, seems a. strange anomaly.

And doubtless Ricardo Castro's La Lcgende de Rudel, also with a French

libretto,

but sung at the Teatro Arbeu in Mexico City during October,

DURING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

affair.

125

1906, in Italian, seems nowadays to have been a too unutterably precious

"LA L&GENDE DE RUDELn *

By what right, one asks, should a Mexican opera have concerned itself with a twelfth century Provengal troubadour, Rudel? According to the opera, Rudel, already bound in spirit to a distant ideal of perfect womanhood, nevertheless plighted his faith to a French maiden. As Henri Brody (Castro's librettist) wove the story, Rudel after deserting the hapless Sgolaine then took ship for the East. En route, however, the

Almighty invoked a

terrible storm,

and the ship was

like to

have foun-

dered because of his presence aboard. Less grateful than Jonah, Rudel when cast ashore blasphemed the Eternal Providence. He, however, was
picked up and carried into the presence of that paragon of beauty, the Countess of Tripoli. In her presence he sang a golden-throated swan's demise, and forthwith died at her feet. She then summoned her attendants
to apostrophize in choral

song his departing spirit. Castro abandoned act divisions and accepted divisions into opera episodes instead. Each episode then was subdivided into scenes $ the first episode (two scenes) was laid in France, the second (three scenes) aboard
In
this

and the third (seven scenes) in Tripoli. Rudel's part was written for tenor, Segolaine's for soprano, the countess's for contralto, the ship's pilot's for baritone, the pilgrim's for baritone, and the messenger's for high
ship,

baritone.

Three

countess's

choruses, one of pilgrims, one of sailors, women, also were called for in the score.

and one of -the

Before writing off "La Legende de Rudel, however, amply as a period piece, one might well for the sake of historical perspective compare it
with a famous American opera premiered the same year Frederick S. Converse's attractive but outmoded The Pipe of Desire, first given at Boston on January 31, 1906, and then later heard in New York. This
well known, had the honor of being the first by an American produced at the Metropolitan. Even though it received this recognition, however, it cannot be said that a careful scene-by-scene comparison of the
opera, as
is

Converse with the Castro opera reveals the

first

as in

any noticeable way

superior to the second. On the contrary, a careful inspection of the two reveals that Castro had quite as much to say musically as Converse, and

was technically prepared to say it.

226

MUSIC IN MEXICO
La Legende to Don Jos6 Ives Limantour, who was supposed to have given the country

Because Castro dedicated

Dfaz's minister of finance,

away to foreign financiers, and because moreover Castro was patronized by the "cientificos" a hated political group Castro's reputation plummeted when a new political party came into power. But even if not again produced after Diaz fell from power, La Le genie deserves a better judgment than has sometimes been given it. Moments such as S6golaine>s loveduet with Rudel, or the storm scene with its thunderings and lightnings, or the languorous orientale, are flavorful music in the same way SaintSaens's Fifth Piano Concerto with
its

trip to the

Nile

is

flavorful

music

Even if dated, such music has the virtue of typifying an

CAMPA'S INDICTMENT OF

era.

THE

MASSES

audiences.

Campa and Castro by no means appealed to the generality of Mexican They were both distinctly aware of their limited audiences. Campa was moreover so unwise as to set down on paper his unkind opinion

of what he was pleased to call the brute Mexican herd. When later the revolution broke, he could not be forgiven for his open-mouthed disdain

of the commoners of Mexico. In one of his more forthright essays he wrote

as follows concerning the

Mexican

public-at-large:

a conscientious artist I am obliged to defer and bow before the opinions and the almighty caprice of a heterogeneous mass of people, a mass unequally educated, and many with dubious cultural backgrounds
If as

of people which
.
. .

is

called "the public"

We talk in high-sounding terms of our appreciation of the

.

then I protest volubly.

classics

of Haydn, of Mozart, . us;

*

. .

bat his works are never performed amongst who has however never won the approval of Mexi-

speak of Beethoven, ... but know his symphonies only in the poor four-hand reductions that circulate here; . . . we know nothing of Brahms.

can audiences;

... we

I do not blame anyone for this ignorance; but Ido find in this ignorance of truly great masterpieces support for my contention that the publk cannot competently decide oh the merits of the great masterpieces. . . .

The public, in die

broadest sense, is after all not the friend of high art in Mexico, and cannot pretend to be. Opera costs three pesos, sometimes four or five. But bullfights cost five to ten pesos, and a box at a bullfight

eighty pesos, and days before our bullfights the public in huge numbers

DURING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

lines

^^^
the

up Mexican

to

buy

scats.

Do

they for operas?

is

hardly.

What

public really likes

bullfights.

Campa,

director of the Conservatorio

it

Nadonal

at the time

he wrote

published along with several other essays on Mexican music life at the safe distance of Paris (1911), but if he unfavorably criticized the Mexican "public" for preferring bullfights to operas the
this indictment,

Mexican public reciprocated

foreign music fads.

in disliking

him

as a puffed-up follower of

JULIAN CARRILLO (1875

It
is

customary in discussing Mexican composers to speak of Melesio

Morales as the "paladin" of the Italian school of composition of Gustavo E. Campa as the "paladin" of the French school, and of Julian Carrillo as the "paladin" of the German school. Although Carrillo was by no means the first Mexican to write symphonies he was the first to win performances of a symphony of his in Germany, and the first to undertake an extensive period of training in a German conservatory.

He was born in San Luis Potosi, and early demonstrated talent for the
At twenty he enrolled in the Conservatorio Nadonal in the capital, and studied harmony with Morales. His progress was so rapid in violinplaying that President Diaz in admiration for his gifts presented him in 1 899 with an Amati and nominated him to a prize for foreign study. The same year Carrillo traveled to Germany and enrolled at the Leipzig
violin.

Conservatory; he studied composition with Jadassohn and conducting with Hans Sitt, and pkyed under Nikisch in the Gewandhaus orchestra.
After completing the Leipzig course in 1902 he transferred to Ghent Conservatory, where after another two years he won a prize in violin
playing.

was first conwas twenty-seven when his Symphony No. i in ceived and performed (Leipzig), and it may therefore be classed as a mature work. In it, Canillo demonstrated a gift for broad, sonorous
orchestral writing in the German romantic vein. As a historical note, Carrillo later appended to the score this bit of fact: "This symphony was the

He

written by a Mexican composer that gained a performance in Germany} a German orchestra conducted by a Mexican Indian pkyed it.*
first

A synopsis of thematic material

follows:

228

MUSIC IN MEXICO
1

No.

/,

}*/!

ljjiir

fif

tk*

Ite

r-

iff ff.f f ^

uj

|f

E=i=

UJ

UJiiUj

tlf

DURING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Dedicated to President Diaz, Carrillo's
astically
J.
first

229
enthusi-

symphony was
in

approved performance Meneses's baton, July 2, 1 905. Immediately after the Mexican premiere of his first symphony Carrillo set to work on a second, which awaited

at its inaugural

Mexico under Carlos

1912, however, for its first hearing. The second was cast in C major 5 after a long slow introduction, longer than that of his first symphony, the allegro started with this theme:

The

year before introducing his second symphony Carrillo was chosen the Mexican delegate to the International Music Congress, and attended sessions at Rome and London. Upon his return he occupied for a time a
central position in

Mexican musical

life.

Conductor of what was called a

Beethoven orchestra, he was in the same kind of advantageous limelight which later surrounded Chavez* Like Chavez he was able to go to New York and there to divulge his own music, though he did not conduct as
prestigious orchestras as
States.

Chavez was later invited to conduct in the United

During the 1916-17 season, however, Carrillo was sufficiently active in and about New York to spread his name in the metropolitan
dailies.

In 1922 he wrote his

first five

pieces in a

new

atonal style calling for

musical style, Carrillo called his first piece in microtones, "Prelude to Columbus." Canillo's name for cc his microtone system has been Sonido Trecey which means thirteenth

microtones. Signaling the advent of a

new

sound."
is

The

significance of Carrillo's

name

for his

new microtone

style

in the easily explained: twelve chromatic intervals divided the octave

23o

MUSIC IN MEXICO

old system, but in his new system of smaller divisions, "in-between" notes

must be inserted into the conventional chromatic scale. Any "in-between" note inserted between successive notes in the twelve-note chromatic scale
is

a "thirteenth" sound.
Alois

Hence the term, Sonido

Trace.

poser

Haba in Czechoslovakia has been another twentieth century comwho has interested himself in microtones; but since Carrillo feels
he does not wish to be spoken of
in fact dates the inception of his interest in the

he pioneered before Haba, and

in microtones as early as 1895,

same breath with Haba. The notation of microtones, in particular, Carrillo feels to have been a fresh discovery of his own. He has honestly considered himself an original inventor of a new system of music notation, a system of notation by numbers instead of notes on a five-line staff. His system of number notation works like this: the note C is represented by the numeral 0; C % or b by the numeral 8; by 165 D J or E 1) by 24$ E by 325 F by 405 F J or G [> by 485 and so forth on up

the chromatic, scale. In-between pitches are represented by in-between numerals. Carrillo feels that for practical purposes "sixteenth of tones" represent the ultimate refinement in pitch distinction. The> different octaves in which a particular note may be heard are in Carrillo's system indicated by a system of dashes above, below, or through the numeral red line drawn horizontally used to designate the note in question.

page in Carrillo's system represents middle C. As anyone familiar with organ tablatures already knows, the system of using numerals to designate notes is a very old idea 5 Cabezon and Correa
across the

de Arauxo used

it.

What

is

new about

Carrillo's idea is the potentiality

his system affords for writing "in-between" pitches.

He

feels that the

modern development of electronic instruments, where pitches differing by only a single vibration can if desired be produced, opens up new musical vistas. As yet no electronic instrument producing "in-between"
pitches (except the theremin) has been widely exploited. But in time, Carrillo has felt, the electronic manufacturers will commercially produce

instruments capable of sounding middle C at 256 vibrations per second, a sharper C only a cent of a tone higher, another two cents higher, and so
on.

When this development occurs,

he

feels his

system of numeral nota-

tion will prove indispensable. Carrillo has elaborately expounded his ideas

on notation in a Teoria

Logic*, published by

Mexico regard

his

him in a handsome private edition. His disciples in discoveries with much the same reverence that Schill-

DURING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

in the inger's disciples
rillo's

231

United States regard the Schillinger system. Car"Sonido 13" music has, moreover, not gone completely unperformed. In 1931 Leopold Stokowski interested himself sufficiently in
"Sonido 13" music to program Carrillo's Preludio a Colon-, again in 1951 Stokowski returned to Carrillo's music, giving a first performance

of Hortzontes in Pittsburgh on November 30. Later in the same season he played Horizontes in Baltimore and Washington also; Carrillo came to Washington to acknowledge applause at the latter performance.
to the writing of music in fractional tones, not puristically eschewed other more conventional types of Carrillo has at the Free Public Library in composition. In the Fleisher Collection

While devoting himself

Penumbras: Philadelphia are deposited scores of Carrillo's tone-poem Xochimiko ( 1935). Penumbras En el Paseo de la Reforma ( 1930), and ("Half-shadows along the Reforma boulevard") depicts in impressionist

manner a twilight stroll along Mexico City's most famous boulevard An English horn accompanied by muted strings laced with harp and celeste
ambulatory theme. Xochimilco picturizes the famous sees while visiting Mexico. Instead of the floating gardens every tourist whole-tone scale cliches so rampant in impressionist music, Carrillo builds his own arbitrary scales in both these pieces. In XoMrmlco he exploits a
filigree

discloses the

seven-note scale with two augmented seconds. The first theme employs a the second theme C-sharp minor scale, but with a flatted fifth degree;
flatted fifth degree. unlike many composers, has had time to devote himself to Carrillo, various successful business enterprises, and therefore has not been reduced

employs an F-minor scale, but also with a

to shameful penury in old age. In the 1920*8

he was able to relinquish

his Conservatorio Nacional teaching connection without financial detrihas also been able to offer his children exceptional ment to himself.

He

educational advantages.

His daughter has been a keyboard exponent of and has traveled to Europe twice with her father certain microtone pieces in order to play his works at various international music congresses.

MANUEL

M. PONCE (1882-1948)

Ponce, internationally renowned as the composer of the song, EstrelUtay

like Carrillo also

grew

is

compositions were unlike Orpheus. Ponce's growth was perhaps a more organic growth

to maturity during the Porfirian epoch. His early as unlike his later ones as Stravinsky's UQiseau de Feu

232

MUSIC IN MEXICO
Carrillo's,

than

and unlike the

latter,

he attempted no overthrow of

con-

ventional notation procedures. Since his death in 1948, the Mexican public has increasingly taken Ponce to heart, and at present his "little star" (Estrellita means "little

grown into a great one, so that he now shines perhaps as the Mexican music before Chavez. Honoring his memory, a major room for chamber concerts in the Mexico City National Palace of Fine Arts has been renamed Sala Manuel M. Ponce. Ponce's works, moreover,
star") has
star of

continue to receive posthumous publication. In the second quarterly issue of Nuestra M6$icay 1950 series, Dr. Jesfis Romero, eminent musicographer, devoted almost forty pages to a documentary record of the maestro's
of every document was furtherthe article to Ponce's widow, Senora Clema more checked by submitting M. de Ponce, for any necessary corrections. From an. inspection of the
private and public
life.

The authenticity

data assembled by Dr. Romero we can peer into the inner circumstances of Ponce's lifej the following summary is an attempt at abridging

Romero's forty-page

article.

Ponce's father, Felipe de Jesus Ponce, had been a Maximilianist, and therefore was in temporary exile from his home city when his famous-to-be
son, a twelfth child,

was born

at Fresnillo, Zacatccas,

December

8,

1882.

family was able to return to Aguascalia town some three hundred miles northwest of the capital, which entes, for Ponce, despite his later international wanderings, always remained "home." At the age of nine the child composed his first piece, La Marcha del Saramfion ("The March of Measles"), written during an attack of
the childhood disease. At ten he started singing in a boy choir at San Diego Church in Aguascalientes^ where his brother (the third child) was priest.

The following year, however, the

At thirteen he became assistant organist, and at fifteen organist in the same church. At eighteen he came to Mexico City and spent a year studying at
the,Conservatorio.Nadional, but was dissatisfied with the instruction he received. He returned to Aguascalientes, and at twenty began teaching
solftge in the local conservatory ("academy of music"). The principal event in 1903 was a December concert in his home town during which he performed various Bagatelles he had written before a group of visiting

notables from the capital.

At twenty-two he began his wider wanderings. He played in 1904 in Guadalajara, San Luis Potosi, and St Louis, Missouri j and then took ship at New York in November of that year bound for Europe. When in Italy

DURING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

he applied to Marco Enrico Bossi for
ing: to-date in
tuition,

233

but Bossi refused him, say-

would have been up830 but not in 1 905. You have talent but have been improperly trained." Ponce then studied with Luigi Torchi in the Liceo Musicale at Bologna. After a year in Italy he went on to Germany, and in 1906 pkyed
style
is

"Your
1

too old-fashioned 5 your music

the Bach
Berlin.

D major Partita in a June

who
delighted in

18 recital at the Beethoven Hall in

to return to

At the end of 1906 he was ready

friends

Mexico j but

his

German

German

folk-song insisted

he waste no

further time in bringing to light the folk-music treasures of Mexico, urging him not too exclusively to devote himself to the "European
classics."

he set up a private studio, but in July, 1908, a temporary teaching position in the Conservatorio was Nadonal at Mexico City. During 1 909 he toured with the Saloma Quartet,
Back
in Aguascalientes
fill

called to

alternating his piano solos with their string quartets, or cooperating in

number as the Dvorak Quintet In January, 1910, he founded a piano studio in Mexico City. Among his first pupils was Carlos Chavez, who was eleven in 1 9 10. Chavez studied piano four years with Ponce, and preserved a filial affection for him throughout life. Ponce pioneered in
such a
teaching Debussy in Mexico, and the first all-Debussy program was given by Ponce's pupils on June 24, 1912. Chavez, now thirteen, opened the

program with Claw de lune. The first large work of Ponce was his Piano Concerto, which he premiered on July 7, 1912, at the opening concert of the Qrquesta Beethoven
series in the

Teatro Arbeu, Julian Carrillo conducting.

Two

days later

at an all-Ponce concert in the same Teatro

Arbeu the concerto was repeated with Ponce again at the piano, and Carrillo conducting. During 1912 and '13 Ponce was busy composing his inimitable amciones mexicanas; Marchita el Alma appeared in December, 1913, and the group from which
is

Estrellita

extracted in February, 1914.

tried his

During these revolutionary

years Ponce

hand not only

at folk-song arrangements, but also

at essays in behalf of a native

folk-musk development In one essay he

wrote:

Our

salons

welcomed only foreign music

in 1910, such as Italianate

operatic arias transcribed for piano. Their doors remained closed to the cattcion mexicana until at last revolutionary cannon resolutely in the north announced the imminent destruction of the old order. . . .

romanzas and

Amid

the

smoke and blood of

battle

were born the

stirring revolutionary

234

MUSIC IN MEXICO

songs soon to be carried throughout the length and breadth of the land.

AdcKtay Valentma, and La Cucoracha y were typical revolutionary songs soon popularized throughout the republic. Nationalism captured music at last. Old songs, almost forgotten, but truly reflecting the national spirit,

were revived, and new melodies for new corridos were composed. Singers traveling about through the republic spread far and wide the new nationalist

its

song; everywhere the idea gained impetus that the republic should have own musical art faithfully mirroring its own soul. 4
in

Ponce went to Cuba

March, 1915, and remained there

until June,

1917; occasional interruptions included a trip to gave an Aeolian Hall recital of his own works on

New York

where he

usually occurs in New York when a previously a program of original works, scant attention was paid Ponce's Aeolian Hall concert. For one or another reasons Ponce in later life regretted his

March 27, 1916. As unknown person attempts

United

States associations.

His Aeolian program occurred

in

March, and

the next June (1916) he offered his services to the Mexican consul in Havana at the time partial mobilization was effected (in consequence of the Columbus, New Mexico, incident). He was not accepted for duty,

however, because it was felt his artistic services were potentially more valuable than his military services. He visited his Aguascalientes home at the end of 1916, and definitely moved back to Mexico in July, 1917,

when he established

his own studio ("Academia Beethoven") in Mexico In September, 1917, he married Clema Maurel in the Church of Qty. Our Lady of Lourdes. In December he conducted the Orquesta Sinf6nica

Nadonal, The next year he brought out his piano and orchestra Balada Mexican*. In 1919 he edited (at first in association with Ruben M. Campos) twelve numbers of the Revista Musical de Mexico.

Ponce

in 1925

in the Conservatorio

was named "Professor de perfecdonamiento de piano" Nadonal, but soon after his nomination he set out for

another extended European trip. He avidly interested himself in the latest trends abroad and settled in Paris where he consulted regularly

with Paul Dukas.

sions

Marc Pincherle has

written charmingly of the impres-

on his numerous friends in the French capital during the seven years Ponce remained there before returning to Mexico. During this second extended European tripPonce's first having been made, as we saw, during 1905-7 his musical style became immeasurably more contrapuntal and his rhythms tauter. When he returned to Mexico in
Ponce
left

DURING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

1932 he came as an established European
celebrity.

235

He was

immediately

named an
strikingly

interim Director of the Conservatorio Nadonal, and the sheaf orchestral compositions he brought back from his European sojourn of

advanced

his musical reputation in the

home

country.

On

1934, Stokowski played a symphonic triptych, C&apultepec, in Carnegie Hall, New York, after having premiered it four days earlier in Philadelphia. In 1939 Chavez revived Ponce's 1912 Piano Concerto.

November 20,

at

In 1941 Ponce visited South America for the first time, and was feted Montevideo and Santiago de Chile. At Montevideo Ponce conducted

the

performance of a newly composed work, his Concierto del Svr. After another one of the many hiatuses that marked Ponce's association
first

with the Conservatorio Nacional he resumed teaching there in 1942. On August 20, 1943, his masterly Violin Concerto was premiered under

Chavez's baton with Henry Szering fulfilling the soloist's role. Again in 1943 Ponce withdrew from the Conservatorio Nadonal and occupied the
chair of folklore in the rival Escuela Universitaria

(July 4) Chavez presented a Ponce

festival concert at the

de Musica. In 1947 Pakdo de

Bellas Artes, with the famous Spanish guitarrist, Andr6s Segovia, interpreting Ponce's Concierto del Sur. On April 24, 1948, Ponce at the

age of

sixty-five

died from uremic poisoning.

The most important of his orchestral works were Chapdtefec, Suite en esttto antiguo, Poema ele^aco> Ferial (divertimento), and Cantos y
Danzas de los Antiguos Mexicanos. For solo instrument with orchestra he wrote a piano and a violin concerto. His published works, issued by seven houses, included over 150 separate works. His publishers were

Boungiovanni (Bologna), Giralt

y Anselmo Lopez (Havana), Wagner y Levien, Enrique Munguia, and Otto y Arzoz (these three of Mexico Qty), Schott (Mainz), and Senart (Paris). He had a unique ability to speak directly to the masses, and yet also

to speak,

when he

so desired, in * sophisticated idiom appealing to the

most advanced musical mind Accused by Bossi in 1905 of writing in an 1830 style, Ponce in the 1930*$ was an avant-garde. He was able to change with the times. His conversion to newer ways of thinking was, moreover,
sincerely felt,

and unlike others whose modernisms, were an unconvincing as urgently in his later style as in his earlier. The comof his change in style may be gauged from the following expleteness cerpts. The first is his 1912 manner; the second is his 1943 manner:
veneer, he spoke

236

MUSIC IN MEXICO
Concertojor

DURING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

It

237

should be understood that the orchestral integument in the Violin is composed of highly dissonant contrapuntal lines, whereas c that in the Piano Concerto is composed of lush <Rachmaninoffian" chords.
Concerto

Not only did Ponce show an extraordinary ability to enlarge his musical
vocabulary, but also he shifted his "subject-matter." In his 1938 Musica Yaqui (the second of his Instantaneas Mexicanas) he affixed a pentatonic

melody of Yaqui origin over a spare bass with an aural result so diverse from that of his mestizo canciones mexicanas that no one unacquainted with the amazing growth of Ponce would believe it possible the composer
of Estrellita could so have changed his stance. Ponce insisted the melodies

given below were original Yaqui music:

Yaaui

ttfusic

But
Yaqui

life,

his handling of Indian materials in this particular "snapshot" of and also in such a number as the Danse des widens m&dcams

(premiered under Revueltas's baton, October 13, 1933), showed imaginative insight few other transcribers of Indian music have yet brought to the treatment of non-Western foik-music

CARLOS CHAVEZ

( 1 899

Chavez, deservedly the best known of Mexican musicians, combines a A conductor, a composer, a pianist, a truly amazing range of abilities. musical scholar of rare ability, an executive director of a national bureau

23*

MUSIC IN MEXICO
he has distinguished himself in every department of endeavor
to a musician. 5

of fine arts

open His two principal teachers during adolescence were Ponce and Pedro Luis Ogazon. The latter was a devotee of the Virgil Clavier method, and if from Ponce Chavez gained a romantic warmth, from Ogazon he acquired a wholly admirable precision of finger technique. Because he started at the age of twelve with Ponce and continued with so superior a peda-

gogue as Ogazon, Chavez was spared the necessity of unlearning what he gained during the crucial years of adolescence.

He began to publish

in his early twenties. Still in print are such early

songs as Ecstasy (strongly reminiscent of

Henri Duparc), and

his ar-

rangements of various songs of the 1910 revolution (including La Cucaracha). The words for Ecstasy derive from Victor Hugo's 1828 Les
Orientates ; the general thought of Hugo's poem is the glory of God and the firmament showeth forth

"The heavens declare

His handiwork," and
headed

Chavez, who dedicated

the

his song-setting to his sister, Estefania,

poem with a quotation from the Apocalypse

in

of St. John.

In 1921, the year

works, began
his erstwhile pupil,

to appear in print,

which Paginas Sencillas, Cuatro Valsas> and other Ponce wrote an interesting appraisal of
in the Revista of the

which he published

Union

Filar-

m6nka de Mexico. Ponce, unlike certain other teachers, never succumbed

to petty fears of his former pupil's success, but on the contrary welcomed his progress with a cheer. In his 1921 article Ponce referred to his pupil as Carlos

Chavez Ramirez, the latter name being that of Chavez's mother, which in accordance with common practice in Mexico was used concurrently with his father's:

Carlos Chavez Ramirez

is

a rare example of

ability

conjoined with

industry . . . and he entirely eschews the "dolce far niente" attitude so dear to many of us here. . . . The first thing one notices in his coinpositions
is

a desire to be original, which by

all rights

he should be.

Who

does not wish to be original nowadays? Debussy with his intensely personal mannerisms indubitably fascinates our young composers whose aspirations go far beyond a mere imitation of the classics and romantics. ... Is the

Debussy
imitator?

reflection so strong in

We

do not believe

so.

Chivez Ramirez that one can call him an ... There are obviously certain pro-

cedures in his music characteristic of the composer of PelUas^ but beneath tfcem there is discernible a latent streak of romanticism and a lyric strain

DURING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

that the
cacies

239
intri-

immoderate use of dissonances and the

.
.

persistent

rhythmic

cannot hide,

Carlos Chavez Ramirez

is

ance of being older

of being a serious

very young, although he gives the appearman, in fact, and a trifle on the

melancholy side. He has talent, and must be watched. The question is: since he shows influences of Schumann and Chopin, and yet on the other

hand of modernism with its sparkling novelties and exoticisms also, will he choose the one or the other path that of the romanticists or that of the
modernists? Here
the
is

difficult question,

and the answering of

.

it

involves

whole future of the young composer*

The same year during which several sheaves of songs and piano works were published (by Wagner and Levien, with G. Schirmer affiliation),
Chavez with the encouragement and
blessing of the dynamic Secretary of Public Education, Jos6 Vasconcelos, set about writing El Fuego Nv&uo

"The
finished

New
it

Fire"

which was to be a Mexican

ballet.

When

he had

Chavez with score under arm and a recommendation from

Vasconcelos set about persuading Julian Carrillo to give it a trial reading with his Orquesta Sinfonica. For one reason or another, Carrillo balked
at giving the young composer a chance to hear his score. This rebuff was not lightly forgotten by Chavez. Later when he was in a similar position of orchestral authority he tried to set a pattern of receptivity to new

But Carrillo perhaps was busy with other matters at the moment and did not realize he was rejecting the work of a genius, In 1922 Chavez married Otilia Ortiz, a woman of the most extraordiout on a trip to nary musical perceptivity. Soon after marrying, he set visited the principal contiNew York, and then went to Europe where he nental centers. Ignaz Friedman, aboard the vessel on which Chavez sailed, took an interest in him and helped him secure publication of his Second Piano Sonata with the German firm, Bote and Bock. Upon his return from
scores.

Europe he stayed two years in New York, where he made invaluable music contacts. Meanwhile J. J. Tablada, writer for El Unvoersaly Mexico he would not be City newspaper, reported Chavez's musical activities so
completely forgotten at home.

During 1925-6 Chavez was a theater organist in the Teatro dimpia at Mexico City. He impressed the orchestra men who cooperated with him in supplying background music for films, and later when a rift between acfidemicos and jazzistes in the musicians* union orchestra de-

240

MUSIC IN MEXICO

veloped, his Teatro Olimpla colleagues were strong backers of his candidacy for the post of conductor. Only he, they felt, could supply strong enough musical leadership to overcome the bickering between "academic"

and "jazzist"
as

factions in the union orchestra. In the fall of 1928 Chavez a youth of twenty-nine stepped into the conductorship of the Sindicato de Filarmonicos orchestra, and during the next twenty years this orchestra

from modest beginnings grew to be one of the most important World.

in the

New

strength of Chavez's leadership resided not only in his inherent musicality, but perhaps equally in his sound business sense and in his flair
for "creating" news. As an example of his superb ability to capitalize upon the newsworthy, the story is told of his second concert with the musicians' union orchestra during his first season as conductor. At that concert he programmed a suite which in October, 1928, still had the ap-

The

peal of an exciting novelty John Alden Carpenter's Skyscraper Suite. Great was the indignation that so strident and mechanistic a work should

have intruded

itself into

a Mexican orchestral concert. During the

re-

mainder of the month, the newspapers were filled with animated criticisms.
In a few weeks the excitement ran
cussion "gave

him

fortuitously

itself out, but meantime the lively disand unexpectedly the opportunity for

which he had vainly fought throughout

his

youth

that

is,

to be suddenly

projected into the limelight of public interest." Otto Mayer-Serra, who has chronicled Chavez's life, remarks further of this incident that "with
his extraordinary political instinct, and with the courage of a fighter" Chavez knew how to turn this Teatro Iris incident, and other later incidents of the same kind, into maximum advantage. Later in the same first season, Chavez again programmed the Skyscraper Suitey but this

time "by popular request." Needless to say, all the publicity of the first hearing stimulated interest in a second hearing j and the house was
full.

orchestra.

Chavez's business sense was of paramount value in the building of the He knew from the start how to converse with government

officials, with prominent diplomats, and with financiers. Although the national conservatory had been supported by government stipend since the administration of Juarez, none of the various orchestras playing in the national capital had been so subsidized. Chavez succeeded in building

the first stable orchestra in Mexico in large measure because he knew how to win government as well as private support for the enterprise. He

DURING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

from the very start showed
of
his disposition to

241

make his orchestra a national

institution; unlike other conductors, he played all the orchestral works

young Mexican composers he could lay hands on. He furthermore artists ample opportunities to be heard. gave Mexican performing His appointment as Director of the Conservatorio Nadonal followed to the orchestral conductorship. From Deshortly upon his appointment until March, 1933, and again for eight months during cember, 1928, and in that educational 1934, he occupied the conservatory directorship, the utmost for a renascence of national art. As an himself to post exerted educator as well as in the role of conductor, his energy was a dominant
characteristic.

Meanwhile Chavez kept himself

the United States.

abreast every
5

The

International Composers Guild

new development in b New York

remarked upon began including his works. At first Paul Rosenfeld Chavez's music "lightly recalling not only French impressionism but German romanticism as well." Ponce in 1921 had remarked on the same double strain of influence. Rosenfeld in his 1928 By Way of Art went on to speak of Chavez's El Fuego Niuvothe music of which Carrillo would
not play as "the very early, still very dainty and Debussian forerunner of Los Cuatro Soles" But Chavez had composed El Fuego Nvevo before abroad anywhere, and when he returned to Mexico after each

traveling of his many United States trips, he always returned with a better underand fail of musical temperature. Paul standing of the international rise

Rosenfeld as

Chavez conducted the New is not a Mexican so much York Philharmonic, American composer." But steadily Chavez proceeded to emas a North Aztec in himselfthe Indian in his heritage phasize more and more the
late as 1936, the year before
still

could say: "Chavez

with a resultant strengthening of international sentiment in behalf of his music. It is significant that his most "Indian" composition, the Sinjot&a India, was composed not in Mexico, but in the United States. His command of the English language, his intimate acquaintance with

the musical great of this nation, and especially with vanguardist comfor the achievements of the United posers, his oft-expressed appreciation
all

States-^11 these assets have been of inestimable advantage to him. So armoment of a buddently a friend of United States music that in the very of the thending orchestral career he was willing to risk a. performance Suite, he has never lacked warm friends from revolutionary Skyscraper
that

moment

in the cities of skyscrapers.

Because United States visitors in

242

MUSIC IN MEXICO
felt

Mexico have
throughout

him

to be

<c

truly a kindred spirit," he has continued

tributes.

his career to
<c

draw American

big-league" performance of a Chavez work in this country occurred March 31, 1932, when Leopold Stokowski conducted Chavez's
first

The

ballet with designs

The

New

by Diego Rivera, York Timesy John Martin

JP.

Discussing the premiere in

stressed the next

day that

J>.

("Horse-power") entirely lacked plot, and added "It perhaps seems less vital today than it did in 1926, when the composer first conceived
also of the music as being "endlessly contrapuntal," and that machinery dances had already "been done to death." complained But regardless of the somewhat captious comments made concerning the

it"

He spoke

name had been brought to the attention of the influential Eastern public, and thus an auspicious beginning had been made. The publicity before Chivez's first appearance in New York as orchestra conductor stressed his friendship with Diego Rivera, and his
music, Chavez's
desire to
as

do for music what Rivera had done for painting. His services an educator were also stressed. In the report of an interview (New
1 6,

York Times, January

has been "in a sad

1936) he was quoted as saying Mexican music

time he

to about a decade ago" that is until about the took over the reins of the Conservatorio NacionaL In his

way up

New

publicity Chavez around 1936 also began to talk lengthily about Indian music Aztec music he said for publication "was a very strong music imperative contemplative at times, but not romantic and never plaintive. It was music characteristic of a stoic, combative race." Exactly the "strong," "imperative" note was that which Chavez's music was intended

York

evoked the memory of a glorious past Smfoma de Antigona, an elevenminute one-movement piece which today stands as one of the twin pillars upholding Chavez's reputation as a composer, the Inquirer critic called it
to sound, as
it

At

the Philadelphia premiere of the

"too astringent to be intriguing," but asserted "it has definite character."

On April

10, 1936,

Olin Downes heard Chdvez in his Boston debut with

the Boston Orchestra. Downes remarked that Stravinsky had undoubtedly

been "useful" to Chavez. Downes compared the musk with "savage wood carvings," and said the music was "racial." This report of a racial quality
was, of course, extremely welcome. As Chavez's debut with the New York Philharmonic came closer, his activities in Mexico drew more and more attention. One writer noted "a
fifth

of the audience was made up of Americans"

when Chavez conducted

DURING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

in

243

that

Mexico City. New York Timts readers learned on November 8, 1936, "Mexican music has been, until recently, without creative impulse." On February u, 1937, occurred at long last the great event that had

been so long heralded: Chavez's debut with the Philharmonic. Downes

unqualifiedly praised his conducting. "So far as euphony and technical finish are concerned," Downes said, "the orchestra surpassed any ac-

complishment since the days of Toscanini." The Dafhnis and Chloe performance was called superior to anything in its line attempted that season in New York. But the Sinfoma de Antigona was less warmly received.

the work does not impress as

ful,

At a second hearing . "The music has a certain bareness. much as it did in Boston last April 10. Power.

The

elemental things in it seem impeded rather than aided in expression." second week of Chavez's appearances brought similar notices.

Again it was agreed his handling of Debussy and Ravel was magnificent. But in his review, Downes (who was followed by the other critics) devoted only minimal attention to a work which assuredly deserved more than the one slim paragraph out of a total of twelve paragraphs in the
review. The Sinfonia India received its New York premiere that second week of Chivez's appearances, but Downes thought it comparatively unimportant, and relegated it to the last of his twelve-paragraphed review. He praised it as "redolent of the soil," but said it "would profitably be
cut in certain places." The Sinjoma India is a twelve-minute composition. Downes also spoke of its "harshness of harmonic setting and barbaric rhythms," but the adjective barbaric was, of course, an open sesame to

avant-garde approval.

Again

in

1942 when Dmitri Mkropoulos conducted the

New York

premiere of Chavez's Piano Concerto (Eugene List, soloist), the music was called "powerful, primitive, and barbaric" Noel Straus said, "Indian
music harking back to a remote past obviously forms the basic material of the composition." He also wrote of the "unrelieved, acute dissonances in every measure" hammered out with an insistence that "might be called

an obsession."

He

pressed "by its brash outbursts of sound, primeval in effect." During the latter years of the war Chivez received frequent tributes from composers in such allied nations as Britain and Russia. But during
those

was consistently cacophonous, but was imelemental strength and originality."* He noted "strange,
decided
it

same years he began

to hear louder

and louder

protests

from musiforce of

cians in his

own

nation calling

him a "muskal

dictator."

The

*44

MUSIC IN MEXICO
him
Mexico that he had
to relinquish his conductorship of the so painstakingly built

these protests finally caused great Orquesta Sinfonica de

tion

over a space of twenty-odd years. On March u, 1949, Chavez's resignawas regretfully accepted by the civil association charged with backing the orchestra. At the moment of his resignation, however, Mexican music

continued did not entirely lose his dynamic and driving leadership. as Chief of the Department of Fine Arts, a government bureau charged

He

with the fomenting of

all artistic activities in

Mexico.

In March, 1951, he returned to the podium in Mexico City and was clamorously greeted. After a magisterial performance of the Beethoven Ninth Symphony the public accorded him an ovation. When he resigned
in 1949, he stepped aside so that younger men might have an opportunity to make their mark. It has always been his intention to promote Mexican

music, and not simply that segment of it represented by himself. By reof two years, he allowed any other linquishing authority for a space

contenders to enter the

sented himself, his

however, none of equal stature preservices upon his return to the podium were doubly
field. Since,

welcomed.

CHAVEZ'S MUSICAL STYLE

It is possible to generalize concerning a particular epoch in Chavez's creative career, but not perhaps concerning the whole of it. His early

may, if one wishes, be discarded as "juvenilia" but since there is so large a quantity of these pieces written at around the age of twenty, to discard them all tremendously reduces the catalogue of his works. If they
pieces

membered

are dismissed because they seem derivative, it should nevertheless be rethat his "juvenilia" are peculiarly Mexican in. that they were

written before he traveled abroad.

The pieces written during his first years abroad bear abstract titles such as "Polygons," "Hexagons," "36," "Energy." In the catalogue of his mature works it is possible to draw a distinction between "extramural

To the former class belong his works and the two or three orchestral works which are now titles, internationally known (especially the Sinfonia de Antigona and the Sith fota India). To the latter class belong such works as Obertura Reptblicana aad Llamadas; these latter evince his interest in the political questions, and often give the impression of being "made-to-order" music.
works" and 'intramural works."
with abstract

DURING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

HS

In his mature style Chavez wrote linear music. His melodies have for the most part been predominantly been diatonic $ and they have
melodies on what would correspond to white notes of the piano. Only Chavez could have written twenty pages of piano preludes without a
other than those that occur in the scale of C. As far as rhythms single note are concerned, his pieces set a certain basic unit and stick to it. If the basic
unit is

an eighth, running eighths will continue throughout the entire piece section of a piece. If the basic unit is sixteenths, running sixteenths will or

continue throughout the entire piece or section of a piece. His rhythms thus exhibit the kind of incessant drive which one finds in Bach's Bran-

denburg Concertos, for

or quarter flow may uninterrupted flow But the incessant flow of baroque rhythms of Chavez's most dissonant compositions.

uninterrupted eighth, or sixteenth, handled such quite conceivably be handled as Bach from voice to voice. by transferring the movement
instance.
is

The

a recognizable trait in

many

heavy battery of he customarily includes. Whenever his scores call for inpercussion he usually provides digenous instruments, such as teponaztlis, however,
distinctive feature of his instrumentation is the

a cued-in part for modern analogues, such as the xylophone in the case of the teponaztli. Although the percussion adds shimmer and brilliancy, his orchestral palette also includes bright brass and woodwind thrusts.

and the most unthinkable effect in strings are rarely treated divisiy Chavez orchestration would be the voluptuous languor of a divisi chord from such a composition as R. Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on a Theme from standardized of Thomas Tallis. Chavez's most incisive departure
His

custom in the treatment of the string choir

is his constantly independent of the string basses. The basses, as a matter of fact, are often treatment treated as melody-producing instruments that have no need of 'cello re-

inforcement in order to sing in warm,

in order, generalization

human

tones.

Were

a further

we might

offer

fewer challenges

say that Chavez's string parts seem to far as notes are concerned-^than do either his as

woodwind or

brass parts.

A very extended search

order to find passages demanding the digital

Strauss tone-poems exact. Since Chavez alone among
States publisher

would be necessary in dexterity that any of the

Mexican composers has found a United for an important segment of his creative of his piano and also of his orchestral style can easily output, analysis be undertaken independently by any interested person. The added availG. Schirmer

MUSIC IN MEXICO
POCO
LENTO,
J

- 69

MEMO
13/nfe

LENTO, J- 76

POCO

LENTO,
^-v

- 69
^

^-,-ri

M/rJ*

13

fe

cedendo

4
pochiss.

\a \l

M
!jS

so

From
Inc.

Sinfoaia It Antigona by Carlos Chivez. Copyright 1948 by G. Schirmer,

permission.

U?ed by

DURING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

riten.

247

f f f f ,f f f f .f ff f f .f ff f f

Vk.

24 8

MUSIC IN MEXICO

two fundamental orchestral works the two an arm-chair analyst an easy opportunity with the scores gives open before him to dissect the works. In order to assist the reader in this exercise, an analysis of the first of these two symphonies is offered below.
the ability of records for
sinfonfas

The Smfoma de Antigona, written at Mexico City in 1933, is a onemovement symphony. Though its structure was not dictated by any stereotyped conception of "sonata-allegro" form, the overall form of the movement
may
best be understood as

duction.

The

a modified sonata-allegro preceded by a slow introcalmo introduction explores two themes, the first of which is

repeated seven times by the first bassoon; this laconic three-note theme is then transferred successively to the first harp and to the first violins, the latter play-

ing it four times at their extreme upper limit (in what of the piano).

would be the top octave

The

second theme in the introduction

it

is

allotted first to English

Horn and

Viola in unison :

begins with a drop of a fourth.

r
These two themes, one chromatic and the other disjunctly diatonic, are heard in combination first at letter I and then again at letter j. Transcribed below in
short score
is

the passage beginning three bars before letter 5.

-' =
r

=
r r

-r r r r
r
r

r r r

r r

TTT

DURING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

249

The first group may be thought of as comprising the whole section in time beginning at letter 6 and closing at p. An oboe melody so constructed as to emphasize the recurring skip of a fourth is the leading theme in this temfo
moderate section
tit**
:

The

Seven bars of transition lead into the second group commencing at letter 10. hecklephone doubled at the octave by a piccolo enunciates the following melody, which because it again emphasizes skips of a fourth bears a certain
family likeness to the oboe melody heard at letter 6.

from 16 to 18 may be thought of as a closing group, and be regarded as fulfilling the function of a development section, 27 may reaching its sonorous climax two bars before letter 27. At 27 occurs a short recapitulation of the thematic material heard in the first group, but with changed
section lasting

The

1 8 to

instrumentation so that what was heard as an oboe melody at letter 6 now is transferred to Violins I and II and Viola in a three-octave doubling. The coda

extends from letter 52 to the end.

The movement
sinfonfa

is

was conceived, Chavez was concurrently creating

obviously a highly concentrated one. At the time the incidental music for

Jean Cocteau's "contraction" of the Sophocles drama, Antigone. Although incidental music and sinfonfa were independently gestated, nevertheless there
of general mood in the two. Ultimately it might therefore be said that the highly concentrated energy and tautness of the Cocteau "contraction" of the drama found its way into

was a considerable sharing of thematic material and

Chavez's "Antigone symphony."

Chavez has in this sinfonfa reconstructed the Greek drama may be briefly listed: (i) He has selected as a prevailing tonality the two E-octave species known in Greek theory as dorian and hypodorian, these two being the octave species whose ethos would, according to the definitions of Plato* best express the Antigone's two opposing calls of duty. (2) The E-octave species with an ft| (Greek dorian) has been used for

The

musical means whereby

mood

of the

thematic material expressing one kind of duty

that of obligation to the gods;

2 5o

MUSIC IN MEXICO

the other E-octave species using fj (Greek hypodorian) has been used for thethat of obligation to the state. matic material expressing the other type of duty Were a programme worked out for the sinfonia the introduction with its

(3)

pitting of fj

and

ft]

against the e-fundamental could be construed as a weighing

of both kinds of duty conjointly, religious and civic; the first group as the appeal of conscience, the second group as the at first coaxing and finally brutal call of civic duty; and the recapitulation and coda as Antigone's appeal again to
conscience as the only safe guide. (4) The sections in the E-f \\ octave-species (Greek dorian), which bear construction as Antigone's meditation on her duty
to the gods (conscience), are cast in as that favored in such hymns as the

rhythm, quintuple meter being known

authentic Delphic

two

Hymns

preserved

from Greek

antiquity.

psychological conflict of the kind Antigone faced can therefore without too gross a distortion be read in the musical symbols Chavez has selected. At the time he was composing this work he was already engrossed in the problems

of Aztec music.
istics

With more

positive information available

on the character-

of

Greek music than Aztec, he

set himself the task of reconstruction.

Again he returned to another essay in the re-creation of a "Greek mood" in his 1947 suite, "The Daughter of Colchis." In this latter work, although he
did not literally transcribe, nevertheless conspicuous likenesses can be discerned between two of Chavez's themes and two surviving Greek fragments. If it is impossible to say how systematically Chivez has studied Aristoxenos or Aristeides it is at least certain he has more successfully than any composer of our

time essayed in the Sinfonia de Antigona and tion of Greek themes.

La Hija de Colqtude a reconstruc-

Chavez's essential greatness is not, however, to be measured simply in terms of his success in evoking the Greek past, the Indian past, or any other
emphatically a composer of our time, and when he has explored antique themes his purpose has always been that of adding to present-day musical resources rather than that of divorcing himself from

past

He

is

the immediately contemporary. In order properly to evalue his contribution to twentieth century music it is moreover necessary to examine his whole output. His Concerto for Piano and Orchestra as revealed in

Claudio Arrau's interpretation

is

one of the two or three most vital of

our epochj his Concerto for Four Horns is another strangely powerful workj his Second String Quartet as pkyed by the Roth Quartet is
scarcely
less impressive

than Bart6k's Second. Judged in totality, then, Chivez's creative achievement is seen not only as a Mexican achievement of the

DURING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

very
first

151

rank, but also as an achievement not behind any thus far

brought to the attention of the public by

any

New World composer.

SILVESTRE REVUELTAS (1899-1940)

in a

Revueltas was the product of a small-town environment. He was born town of three thousand inhabitants some hundred miles northwest of

Durango, and spent his childhood there. Almost before he could talk a was tucked under his chin. The father owned a store, but was by no means affluent. Report has it that when he was seven Silvestre orviolin

among his own playmates, who were paid in lumps from father Revueltas's store. At the age of fourteen Revueltas of candy went from Durango to Mexico City, where he studied violin with the distinguished artist, Jose Rocabruna, and composition with Rafael J.
ganized an orchestra
Tello.
until 1918 he studied at St Edward College, a school in Texas. He there acquired fluency in English and proceeded Austin, thence to Chicago, enrolling in Chicago Musical College under Sametini

From 1916

in composition. After two years he interrupted studies for an extended Mexican visit, but returned in 1922 his Chicago to finish the four-year course of study. During his second Chicago period

in violin

and Borowsfci

he made distinguished headway as a violinist under Vaskv Kochanski's and Otokar SevSk's tuition. During the 1924 and 1925 seasons he was therefore sufficiently perfected a performer to cooperate on equal terms

unknown European works

years.

with Carlos Chavez, the pair giving notable first performances of hitherto in the Mexican capital during those two

The years 1926 and '28 were spent at San Antonio, Texas, and Mobile,
Alabama, in which
chestra conductor.
cities

Revueltas served as theater violinist and orcalled

Chavez

sub-director of the Orquesta Sinf6nica

this capacity

him back to Mexico in 1929 to become de Mexico. After five years in

at the Conservatorio

Revueltas added a teaching responsibility (in chamber music) NadonaL Meanwhile with Chavez's encouragement

first

he began to compose a series of lastingly important orchestral works. The of these was a muskal picturization of the well-known resort town,

Cucrnavaca, with the title, Cuauhn&kuac (1930). Successive works followed with such titles as "Corners" ( 1930) , "Windows" ( 193 1 ) , "Penny-

252

MUSIC IN MEXICO

Banks" (1932), "Bright Colors" (1932), "Plains" (1934), all of which were only suggestive aids for untitles, according to Revueltas himself,
title as

1933 piece bore the enigmatic title SxRadio; with this with several others, Revueltas intended nothing very profound. 7 SxRadio meant simply "eight minutes of radio music," and was a piece
tutored listeners.

commissioned for radio performance lasting exactly that length of time. In 1935 Revueltas wrote music for a famous film, Redes; much of his
creative energy during the final five years of his life

was consumed
in the

in

writing movie music, some of which Prokofieffs movie music is.

is

strikingly

good

same way

Revueltas like

many another

financially straitened

overburdened himself with a plethora of

activities in his

Mexican musician mature years.

He tried to teach at the conservatory, direct the students' orchestra there, conduct a loose organization known as the Orquesta Sinf onica Nadonal, compose film music, assist Chavez in the OSM, act as secretary for

LEAR

(League of Revolutionary Artists and Writers), besides doing some violin playing from time to time. All this busy round of activity was not

made

easier

by

his devotion to the interests of the Spanish Loyalists j in

1937-8 he

visited Spain, appearing as conductor of his

own works

at

Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia. The

instead of resting

strain told

on

his health,

and

he simply pushed himself more

fiercely.

Revueltas died

prematurely, with infinite loss to Mexican music, October 5, 1940. At the moment of his death he was engaged on a ballet, La Coronela ("The
Colonel's Wife")
chestrated
it.
5

Bias Galindo finished

it,

and Candelario Hufzar

or-

Perhaps the most frequently pkyed piece of his in this country has been his symphonic poem, Janitzio, in which he pictorialized the resort island in the middle of Lake Patzcuaro at Teatro (premiered by the

OSM

Hidalgo, Revueltas conducting, December 8, 1933). gift for melody Revueltas possessed was perhaps his

The

astounding

greatest single asset.

His melodies are instinct with life, vibrant with energy. Unlike Chavez, Revueltas never self-denyingly reduced his melodic material to an allprevailing diatonicism. Aaron Copland compared Revueltas's spontaneity with Schubert's, 8 and remarked that "he tunes which
composes organically are almost indistinguishable from the original folk material itself' original folk material being mestizo melody of the kind heard
assimilation of the prevailing popular styles enabled

the

everywhere

along the highways and byways of Mexico. His spontaneity and his easy

him

to achieve in

DURING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

his picturization of such resorts as
thenticity.
.
.

*53

Cuernavaca and Janitzio peculiar au-

Copland rightly said its flavor ness.

He

Revueltas's
Violin

commended Revueltas>s music for its gaiety, its wistrulreminded him of highly spiced Mexican food. Toccata for is that of a gaudy fiesta. From the typical mood
initial violin

and Small Orchestra, the

passage

is

extracted below

Revueltas knew as an example of the intense rhythmic energy which to infuse into even his single lines.

how

Toccata f* fie/in

But he could

also be as tender as a nurse for a sick child.

His Cancion de

Cuna with text by the famous Spanish poet, Garcia Lorca, breathes peace, its tears speaks of profound things. The Homenaje serenity, and through
a Garcia Lorca for small orchestra
of wistful beauty. ( 1935) is a miracle Revueltas was not only authentically Mexican^ he was one of the musical seers of our generation.

CANDELARIO HUfZAR (l888

* )

in a small provinical town: in his Hufcar, like Revueltas, originated in the state of Zacatecas. Son of a blacksmith, he assisted his case, Jerez the f father at the forge. But he resented the necessity of exactly ollowing

paternal trade, to a silversmith.

and while still in early adolescence apprenticed himself At seventeen he commenced study of the alto saxhorn and band. A year later he moved to Zacatecas so he could joined the village combine study of the horn with silversmithing. At nineteen he married a hometown girl from Jerez. How with no money, family responsibilities,

254

MUSIC IN MEXICO

and the background of modest beginnings which was his, he could have later achieved such preeminence that he was called Mexico's best orchestrator

of thirty) he at

and teacher of orchestration is a marvel. In 1918 (at the age last got to Mexico City, there to enroll in Gustavo E.

Campa's composition class. Ten years later after spending the intervening time as a bandsman, he became a hornist under Chavez. The contact with
Chavez, like a catalyst, finally brought to pass a chemical reaction that resulted in Hufzar's series of four symphonies, his tone-poem Pueblerinasy

and

his string quartet.

himself in his symphonies was the integration of pentatonic Indian material within the larger framework of the classical sonata form. His only two works in which he avoided the

The typical problem Huizar posed

problem of the classical sonata were his two symphonic poems, (1929) and Surco (1935). Certain pentatonic themes, such as Imageries the principal ones in the first movement of Symphony No. 4 (1942), were literal quotations from Cora and Huichol melodies j but in Oxformalistic
paniztli (1936), despite the Aztecan
facture.
title,

the melodies were of synthetic

respect because he triumphed over seemingly odds. Starting with no advantages, he showed what a Mexican insuperable pulling himself up by his own bootstraps could do. Pueblerinas ("Village

Huizar has won hearty

Girls"), a fresh-sounding noisy piece composed in 1931, seems to be the piece of his which will continue to be pkyed oftenest, but his Fourth

Symphony
BLAS

is

a greater work.

GAUNDO (l9!0

10
)

Like Huizar, Galindo was late in arriving at a music vocation. Moreover he too came from a provincial town, whose musical atmosphere he

His father^ a prosperous merchant, lost the revolutionary disturbances attendant upon {he heavily during long struggles initiated by Madero. The state of Jalisco was like other parts
later categorized as viceregal.

of Mexico torn by strife

all through the early 'twenties, and Bias, quitting school in his natal village of San Gabriel, Jalisco, took to the mountains, where he lived a wandering life as a guerrillist. With a gun slung under

one arm and a guitar under the other, he was welcome in any band of Indian fighters. His sympathies were, of course, with his own people, since he himself is a full-blooded HuichoL

DURING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

music rudiments.

255

At nineteen he returned home, and began his first systematic study of The San Gabriel village priest invited him to play the

church organ, which he started doing, finding his way over the keys, however, entirely by ear. He also started pkying a clarinet in the village

band when he was twenty, and because of his native musical aptitude was soon given an opportunity to conduct it. Within about a year's time he
learned to read music.
1931, he left home with the vague idea of studying a lawyer at Mexico City. He hoped that as a lawyer he could work to be for social justice. But when he reached the capital, almost penniless, he

One day in May,

to hear Revueltas conduct a nationalist composition at a servatorio rehearsal, and decided music should be his life work.

happened
rolled,

Conen-

He

and beginning at the bottom studied twelve years,

at last graduat-

ing with the highest certificate offered by the conservatory, "Maestro en composicion" awarded him in December, 1944. He was fortunate in
arriving at a moment when conservatory, and therefore
lage.

Chavez was in the act of regenerating the came immediately under the master's tute-

Chavez in his

directly, without requiring

celebrated class in "musical creation" taught composition long preliminary studies in the conventional

propaedeutics, harmony and counterpoint. Chavez's method started the students with melody-creation. Simple melodies were succeeded by com-

plex melodies j diatonic by twelve-tone melodies. Instrumentalists were

procured to play the single-line melodies, so students might immediately hear their creations. Composition thus became a unitary experience, with
the fundaments of instrumentation proceeding bilaterally with melodycreation. After extensive experience in writing and hearing melodies sung

and played, the students then proceeded to multiple-voice creation. The linear concept was thus paramount from the start, rather than the vertical which conventional harmony induces. Two melodies were combined, with
instrumentalists or singers realizing at sight the students' creations. Then three melodies were combined, and later four. Never was the practical

subordinated to any merely theoretical concept of music creation. Although counterpoint was thus taught, no recourse was had to conventional

Fuxian

principles. Believing that all music creation should be relevant to the present, Ch&vez never had recourse to disciplines which only prepared students to write in a dead style.

Galindo,

when he himself came

to be

head of the conservatory,

re-

256

MUSIC IN MEXICO
all that

membered

Chavez had imparted. Under Chavez's own dynamic

including besides Galindo,
),

leadership, a group of several composers

Daniel Ayala
personality, his
strated.

(1908

Contreras, and others

Moncayo (1912 ), Salvador developed vigorously. Whether without his own method would work as well yet remains to be demonrest,

Jose Pablo

Much

have achieved

also stems

of the renown Galindo, Ayala, Moncayo, and the from the fact Chavez as director of the

OSM

welcomed their endeavors and programmed them repeatedly long after they had ceased being his personal pupils. Bias Galindo became acquainted with international renown entirely
through the efforts of his mentor. When preparing his Museum of Modern Art concerts Chavez invited Galindo to prepare an orchestral
synthesis of several popular songs j the resultant Sones Mariachi, made up of the "thirds-ian" music sung and pkyed by strolling bands re-set for

symphony

orchestra, put Galindo's

name

in the

Columbia Record

cata-

good offices resulted in Galindo's appointment to summer scholarships at Tanglewood, where he studied with Copland and secured a commission from the Koussevitzky Foundation. A succession of desirable events in Mexico was also procured through Chavez's interest
Galindo's 1944-5 Cinco Preludios (piano) were published in 1946 by Ediciones Mexicanas de Musica. This was but the first of several issues

logue. Later Chavez's

by the same press. Galindo was also elevated to the directorship of the Conservatorio only four years after receiving the certificate, "Maestro en composici6n." Each new work of Galindo in the meantime has been

pkyed either at
hearing in

the Condertos de los Lunes, or by the

OSM,

or given a
interested

some other auspicious forum. As would be but natural, Galindo has shown influences. Any

observer can detect likenesses between Galindo's Preludes (Ediciones Mexicanas) and Chavez's Preludes (G. Schirmer). The insistence

upon

white notes, white notes, and nothing but white notes in Galindo's Prelude No. i cannot but remind us of the same insistence in Chavez's Prelude No. i. On the whole, however, Galindo is nowhere near Chavez in as-

had grown to maturity during an epoch when Herod had already been out-Heroded, and nothing the younger men could do would sound more outre than what their predecessors had done* Wisely, because he could not hope to be more daring than the nihilists of the
tringency. Galindo
'twenties,

Galindo has contented himself with a

less acrid

style than

would have been

internationally acceptable a decade earlier.

DURING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

He has demonstrated an almost French
Both
his Sonata fara violin

257

concern for precision of form.

y fiano (1945) and Sonata fara violoncello y pano (1948) are major works in his catalogue, and both are highly polished structurally. The 'Cello Sonata (dedicated to the memory of Natalie
Koussevitzky)

may

procedures. There are three movements

here be briefly analyzed as a working model of his in this ten-minute work, labeled:

I Allegro, II Lento, III Allegro vivace.

The

tonics in each of the three

movements

fall

fifth; that is

back progressively in the circle of fifths to the lower to say, the first movement has for its tonic, the second

(governed by a phrygian cadence) has

for
its

for

its tonic,

the third has

tonic.

The
first,

first

movement deploys
first

its first

and second

subjects

interestingly; at the recapitulation everything goes by reverse

the second

subject

comes

the

second.

Whereas the

'cello

had the second

with the

subject in the exposition, at the recapitulation the piano has it; similarly first subject at the recapitulation roles of the 'cello and piano

are reversed.

The
same
style,

facets of Galindo's style

which shine in

this 'Cello Sonata are the

facets

which shine in
i

his other works. Listing the features of his

is

we note

rhythmic vivacity

secured by frequent interpolation of

figures

which run counter to the meter, as for instance

JJJ JT1

in

%,
*

JH3 JT5

P3 in

% JT]
%

JT3

J"!

m %> ako
'

fe

y the

interpolation

occasional measures of
scale-step as

more

2 Melodies proceed twice as often by of fourths, fifths, sevenths, ninths, are used by skip; skips often than skips of thirds, sixths. 3 Novel melodic lines are free.

and %.

quently created by distorting simple scale passages;

g.

(atUtUrft)

4 Within a given section, accidentals occur extremely rarely, and chromaticisms almost never. 5 Pan-diatonic harmony prevails. 6 and rather

Abrupt remote changes of key-signature occur, such as from four sharps to three flats, or four flats to no accidentals. 7 Parallelisms of sevenths, fifths, and

258

MUSIC IN MEXICO

seconds occur as freely as parallelisms of thirds. 8 Level planes of emothe rule. tion, with terraced changes in mood, are
Certain features in Galindo's music do seem Mexican

enough j anyone

has seen the terraced farms in the high mountainous regions of Mexico will find the abrupt changes of signature, the abrupt changes of mood in the music, and the abrupt changes of pace in the rhythmic flow,
little

who

reminiscent of the step-like cultivated hillsides. But there is. in reality that is obviously regional in most of Galindo's music. It is therefore

to be anticipated that his might otherwise receive.

music will not draw to

itself

the attention

it

The

curio shop to attract listeners, shire Festival, August 17, 1942), but his 1942 Piano Concerto

Sones Mariachi sounded enough like a as did also Arroyos (premiered at the Berk-

and

his

1945 Noctwno for orchestra sounded no distinctly regional notes. His is a vital message even in his most abstract moments, however, and it is much
to be
his violin

hoped that recitalists in this country will discover his piano preludes, and his 'cello sonatas.

EL GRUPO DE LOS CUATRO

U
filling

During 1935, while Galindo was

a temporary music teaching

post at a rural normal school (state of Hidalgo), one of his former fellowclassmates from the conservatory urged him to return to the capital and help stage a composition concert. Salvador Contreras was the initiator of
''the group of and Ayala, present Moncayo, a program showing what the four of them had done since Chavez had stopped teaching his class in "music-creation" (which all four had attended together). The uniting of their forces in a .November, 1935, concert at the Teatro Orientation proved a happy idea 5 a newspaper critic

what soon came

to be called

El Grufo ie

los

Cuatro

four." Contreras suggested that he, Galindo,

fathered the phrase Grwpodelos Cuatro> and the four found attention as a

group which might have been denied them had they sought individual
recognition.

of all students of music history.

cert in

The Russian Five and the French Six were groups fresh in the memory Why not a Mexican Four? The first con-

which they consciously appealed to the public as "the Four" occurred ia 'May, 1936. The idea of "the Four" grew apace. Pictures of the four together were widely distributed for The idea
publicity purposes.

tbat from such a group

would come the music of the future was further

DURING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

259

advanced in newspaper and magazine articles. Nicolas Slonimsky in his Music of Latin America (published in 1945) introduced English readers to "the Four/' and in various other publications in the United States
during the subsequent decade the group was referred to as an earnest of Mexico's musical renascence.
Ayala, oldest of the group,
is

a Yucatecan.

He often has called himself

an autodidact. In 1938 he published an astounding article in which he announced Mexico had no authentic teachers of conducting or performance. For his denial of any personal indebtednesses to teachers and for his
sweeping condemnation of the music teaching profession in Mexico he was not thanked. Soon after publishing this article he removed to Morelia j
after

Having

two or three years there he returned home to Merida, Yucatan. at last arrived home, he came into his own. He was appointed

director of the M6rida Conservatory, conductor of the M6rida Orchestra, and conductor of the Yucatecan Band. During 1940 he visited Dallas, Texas, where he conducted an orchestra. His impressions of the United States were kter crystallized in a symphonic poem entitled "My Trip to the United States/' premiered at Merida in 1947. Ayala's musical style is eclectic. At one moment he re-echoes the strains he played during his several years as violinist in a cabaret orchestra.

.At another he evokes the primitive Maya past, using only pentatonic scales. His better known works are Tribu ("Tribe"), premiered by Chavez

with the Orquesta Sinfonica de M&tico October

1 8, 1 935 5 Paisafe ("Landan orchestral suite in three parts written in 19355 Panoramas de scape"), Mexico, an orchestral suite in three parts ("Sonora," "Veracruz," "Yuca-

tan") written in 19363 Los Yaquis y Los Seris, two suites employing Indian percussion instruments ( 1 93 8) j and El ombre Maya, a ballet suite.

and the Yucatecan Regional patriotism strongly developed wishes his region to shine musically. Ayala since his return home has therefore been enthusiastically supported.
is

in Yucatan,

Contreras, like Ayala, has been diverted from his single-minded devotion to composition. His 1940 Musica fara Orquesta Stnj6mcay a twelveminute piece, was premiered by Chavezj the also played the first

OSM

performance of Contreras^ Suite (1947). His other principal works include: a String Quartet, a Violin and 'Cello Sonata, and Obertwra en

jonna de danza.
Jos6 Pablo Moncayo, born in Guadalajara, has distinguished himself as conductor, pianist, and composer. His catalogue of original works in-

i6o

MUSIC IN MEXICO

dudes Tres fiezas fara pano solo (published by Edidones Mexicanas de Musica), a 1944 Sinfonietta, a 1947 triptych for symphonic orchestra

Homenaje a Cervantes ("Tribute to Cervantes"), a Huafango, and music for a one-act opera, in three scenes, La Mvlata de
entitled Tres fiezas, an

Cordoba (1948).
story of the mulatto enchantress who lived shortly before independence in Cordoba, the half-way town between Puebla and Veracruz,

The

has taken on almost the quality of the legendary in Mexican story-telling. Because she lived alone, had no visible sources of income, and yet never
lacked for anything and was in fact even able out of her largesse to supply the wants of the poor, she earned the reputation of being a sorceress. She was haled before the tribunal of the Inquisition at Mexico City, but

never admitted her

guilt.

When

the

Holy

Office

pronounced she was in

league with the devil, she eluded their condign punishment. She mysteriously vanished like a puff of smoke, leaving behind only a cryptic word on her cell-wall. This legend supplied the two librettists, Agustfn

Lazo and Xavier

utilized

by Bias Galindoj

Villaurrutia, with material first for a ballet-scenario, later they re-worked the material into a one-act

12 opera libretto for Moncayo's use. Moncayo's creative output has not been as profuse as many of his friends

had

anticipated

when he

first

began to

write.

The

obvious reason

is

the

multiplicity of other money-making activities in which he has of necessity engaged. His problem, like that of most other Mexican composers of
this century, has

been that
is

.of

the free-lance. His piece most frequently

Hvafangoy without doubt one of the most brilliant in the entire Mexican repertory. If he can somehow find time to add other
compositions of similar pith to his catalogue, his promise will be justified.

played, the

But up to the present he seems destined to be like Dukas a one-piece composer with all repeat performances listing the same title.
18
)

LUIS SANDI

1905

At the same 1948

festival

during which Moncayo's one-act opera was

presented, another one-act opera entitled Carlota was produced. Music for the latter was written by Luis Sandi, who at the time he wrote it was Music Chief within the Department of Fine Arts, a government bureau.

(He resigned this post in the fall of

have thus been dial
in character

1951.) His services to Mexican music he has been a creator and at the same

DURING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

time a coordinator of educational
activities in

161

the republic

His

success in

proved by his ability to do two such diverse things in the same year as finish an opera and simultaneously complete a new edition of a music history school text.
is

doing both

As an educator he deserves unstinted praise. He has prepared not one but a series of graded texts for teaching music history and theory. These texts emphasize the role Mexico has pkyed in the history of the art. Secondary students using his texts have learned the names of Mexico's
chief musicians not only of the embalmed past but also of dynamic present. In his Introduction al Estudio de la Musica, 1948 edition, Sandi presented music theory and history as a synchronized study. It is his belief

that "appreciation" courses for secondary students should teach the rudi-

ments of music theory first. The first eight units in his 29-unit text deal with what we usually in the United States call "fundamentals of theory."
tenth and eleventh units deal with pre-Columbian music in Mexico and Peru respectively. The last two units deal with colonial and republican

The

music in Mexico.

An analysis of the music examples in Sandi's texts proves illuminating. Side by side with excerpts from Bach, Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Mussorgsky, are contemporary examples from Revueltas and Stravinsky.

Mexican corrido shares a place with the sequence, Victimae PascAali. Marckita el Alma, the cancion memcana published in Ponce's arrangement
during 1913, appears side by side with an Alfonso the Wise canfiga. The obvious advantages of Sandi's treatment are many: students do not find the music of their own country neglected ; students do not find their own
national music branded as essentially inferior 5 students cover the whole sweep of Mexican music history, devoting as much attention to the present

era as they do to past centuries. It has long been known by educators in the United States that American

composers are slighted in music appreciation courses. At least theoretically,

Sandi's distribution has

much

to

commend

it

to authors this side of the

Rio Grande. His other educational theories deserve mention. He believes strongly all primary and secondary emphasis should be placed on singing,
not playing of instruments. Elementary emphasis on instruments, he feels, may yield good results in a country such as the United States where
schools can rent or lend instruments to children, but Mexico is not able to render school children such free or near-free services involving ex-

pensive outlays yet. -He strongly hopes to decentralize music advantages

262

MUSIC IN MEXICO

so that children in outlying districts will share those children now possess only at Mexico City. He points to the number of important modern comin remote towns and villages as one reason posers who have originated

Mexico must spread its advantages,

as
as

since talent has a

way of springing up
in

everywhere, not just in the Federal District.

He believes

stimulating

much

and secondary students original composition among elementary and to this end has organized frequent school contests for possible,
at the capital the

creative work.

Coro fie Madrigalistas> a choral a cappella music. This society has won accolades group singing principally of praise for its singing of Guerrero and Victoria, but true to his convictions
In 1938 he organized
concerning living music, he has conducted his singers in equally telling performances of such modern Mexican works as Rafael J. Tello's short

requiem, Pequena Misa Funebre* Sandi's madrigalists are without doubt one of the foremost a cappella organizations in Latin America today.

His own compositions include a Concertino fara Flauta y orquesta> a

La Hoja de Plata Suite

("Silverplate Suite"),

None for small

orchestra,

and Feria ("The Fair") for orchestra with additional Indian instruments. His was the arrangement of Yaqui Music Chavez played in his May,
1940, concerts in

New York.

MIGUEL BERNAL JIMENEZ (l9!0

studied in what
in Morelia.

Bernal Jimenez sang in the Morelia Cathedral choir as a child, and is now the Escuela Superior Ofidal de Musica Sagrada

The founder
until

of that school, Jose

M.

Villasenor, divined
his trip to

BernaPs

potentialities in Catholic music,

and sponsored

Rome.

1928 1933 Bernal studied at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred where he became a polished organist and an expert in Gregorian Music, music. In 1936 Bernal was appointed director of the Morelia school where

From

he himself had started. His compositions since his return home have reflected the local scene. His Michoacdn, a symphonic suite written in 1940, contains three movements, Alborada ( Daybreak"), Canrion, and Corrida. Scored for large
C

orchestra (eleven woodwind players, four trumpeters, harp and piano, in addition to other standard components), this suite shows Bernal a complete master of orchestration. His melodies, prevailingly diatonic, are With draped oftenest in a resplendent gown of chromatic

harmony.

DURING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

263

Respighian opulence the Alborada in the Michoacan Suite develops a final fortissimo climax in an A major section marked "Grandioso." The Cancontains a throbbing melody sung by all the strings, except basses 5 woodwind repartee accompanying this lush melody adds suitable shimmer to the total sound. The Corrida explores a combination of %'s and %'s. Three variations on the corrido theme are followed by a fugue

d6n

the

and measures). During the fugue exposition use of accented "wrong notes" in the counterpoints, of doubled a liberal leading tones, of fifths on successive beats in two-part passages, exhibit
(also with alternating

Bernal in one of his rare, wryly humorous, veins. After a fugue development a la Weinberger, Bernal pushes forward to a frenetic climax. At the

very end of the whole affair, the orchestral players are instructed to shout, "Viva Michoacan!"
his

In 1941 BernaPs Noche en Morelia ("Night in Morelia") added to growing reputation as a composer. Chavez's playing of this "night-

piece" in an Orquesta Sinfonica de Mexico concert provided an occasion for rapturous applause. On September 12, 1941, BernaPs opera, Tata

Vasco y which dealt with the Vasco de Quiroga, first bishop of Michoacan, was premiered at Moreliaj immediately there was agitation for its presentation at the Palado de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. Plans for its
presentation in the capital were at the last moment frustrated, however, since it was felt the opera might stir religious conflict. Unlike Verdi, who

could change the locale of Rigoletto so as not to offend the Austrians, Bernal could not change the locale of Tata Vasco. The presentation of Noche en Morelia soon after the Tata Vasco incident showed, however,

Chavez was friendly enough to Bernal's non-religious music. BernaPs Tata Vasco , despite the difference in religious tradition from which it springs, shows certain striking similarities to another religious
that

opera of our time, Vaughan Williams's The Pilgrim's Progress, first presented in 1951. Both are essentially pageants j in both great crowds of people are handled with the result that choral singing pkys a dominant

The plot interest in both lags, possibly because mundane interests such as the love of man and woman, or the desire to achieve power, are eliminated. The principal characters seem more symbolic than actual in
role.

both: the bishop,

shown

as a great friend

and protector of the Indians,

seems superpersonal because of his virtue; the pilgrim because exclusively concerned with spiritual interests seems also to live always in a transcendent world

264

MUSIC IN MEXICO

composers'

In both, musical fragments several centuries old are blended with the own material. Vaughan Williams used the hymn tune,

chant for analogous pur"York," and Bernal fragments of Gregorian The extraneous fragments Vaughan Williams used were, however, poses. into the total score than were those Bernal used The better
integrated
eclecticism of the latter's style offends

though others consider

it

many who have heard his opera, dramatically justifiable. The Tarascans sing neo-

Indian melodies, the clergy Gregorian chant, and the conquistadores romances. Even if the music sounds "pasted together," the close juxtaposiadmitted a useful means of inducing tention of styles must be
sion in

opposed an otherwise

static score.

BernaPs ballet, Tjmgambato, also with a religious theme> was presented at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in August, 1943. The ballet-plot has to do with the Virgin's displeasure at the constant internecine warfare of the
Spanish conquering population during the seventeenth century. Bernal does not see "Indianism" as Mexico's only musical salvation. In a 1941 article he asked rhetorically: "Must we elevate to a dogma every-

He went on to say thing done by indigenous and mestizo music?" that popular art, simply because intuitive, was not therefore beyond im14

provement. At heart he would seem to favor the Pedro de Gante approach to the Indian, the attitude of noblesse oblige. During the 1945-6 season he toured the United States as organist. In June, 1948, Tata Vasco reduced to oratorio form was presented at Madrid
15 The Spanish Orquesta during a visit sponsored by the Franco regime. Nacional played several of his pieces during the same month. The Spanish

newspapers gave him much favorable publicity, and though his visit was not comparable with that of Revueltas's 1937-8 visit in a political sense, it nevertheless could be said that no Mexican since Revueltas had been
so feted in the Spanish capital.

SCHOLA CANTORUMJ NUESTRA MtfsiCAj M&CICO EN EL ARTE

only his reports on conservatories in eighteenth century Mexico and on orchestral music in his native Morelia, but also his editorship of the monthly magazine,

BernaPs

services to musical scholarship include not

Schola Cantorum. His intention in this monthly

scholarly.

is

twofold, practical and

He

prints historical

documents pertaining to sacred music in

Hispanic America, and at the same time includes practical suggestions

DURING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

what neglected

265

for present-day choirmasters throughout Latin America. Though somein United States libraries, the magazine in nearly every issue contains at least one article of lasting worth.

Another music periodical which from time

to

time has included

articles

of extraordinary value is the quarterly published at Mexico City under Rodolfo Halffter's editorship entitled Nuestra Musica. typical issue

of this latter magazine includes one article having to do with the history of music in Mexico, a second with music today in Mexico, a third having

do with music in another Latin American republic, and a fourth dealing with music in the United States or Europe. The editorial board includes Jesus Bal y Gay, Carlos Chavez, Bias GaKndo, J. Pablo Moncayo, Adolfo Salazar, and Luis Sandi. Mexico en el Arte, a periodical devoted to the several fine arts in Mexico (published by the Departamento de Bellas Artes), almost invariably includes one article on Mexican music. Both
to

these latter magazines are handsomely produced.

OTHER COMPOSERS

The vitality of modern Mexican music is perhaps nowhere better illustrated than in the profusion of composers with sufficient merit to
win mention
as Jos6 F. in such reference

Latin America.

And

it is

manuals as Slonimsky's 1945 Music of probably true that where one such composer

as Stokowski, or Iturbi, or Slonimsky, ten other

Vasquez has engaged the attention of a visiting celebrity such Mexican composers have

failed to make such contacts, and therefore are not listed in any catalogue of names. Vasquez, for instance, showed his piano concerto to Iturbi, who wrote across the face of the score: impression of this work is a very

"My

favorable onej the balance between piano and orchestra seems especially well handled. I add my note of personal admiration for Mr. Vasquez."

But others have not had the good fortune of personal contact with
Iturbi.

The

Fleisher Collection in the Free Public Library of Philadelphia

contains thousands of pages of twentieth century Mexican orchestral works. Most of these were obtained in photographic reproduction by

Slonimsky during his "fishing expedition" in Latin American musical waters. Lincoln Igou made this contemporary Mexican orchestral music in the Fleisher Collection the subject of his Ph. D. dissertation offered in 1946 to Northwestern University at Evanston with the title, "Contem-

266

MUSIC IN MEXICO

porary Symphonic Activity in Mexico." Even after writing over 400 pages of analyses Dr. Igou did not, however, feel he had exhaustively investigated the Mexican scores in the Fleisher Collection. If after his lengthy coverage he did not exhaust the resources of the Fleisher Collection,

which

is

at best a representative rather than a

complete gathering of

modern Mexican scores, he could not have treated the whole of the contemporary Mexican symphonic repertory without extending his dissertation to several volumes. That which he did investigate was of sufficient magnitude to convince him the modern Mexican repertory is one of the
most considerable national repertories of our time.

POPULAR MUSIC IN MEXICO TODAY

The symphonic repertory because of its greater artistic pretension naturally attracts the attention of scholars. But the "commercial" music nature produced in Mexico today, though by its deserves
very
ephemeral,
at least passing attention. Certainly today in

Mexico the broad populace

knows the music of Agustfn Lara, Mexico's Irving Berlin, far better than the music of any symphonic composer thus far named in this chapter. Lara, born at Tlacotalpan in the state of Veracruz in 1900, has made
tremendous sums of money from
married to Mexico's
his

Hedy Lamarr j he has drawn

commercial songs. He has been full houses night after

night when he has left off radio work for awhile in order to act in playsj he has achieved renown throughout the entire Latin world with his
records.

"Stardust") famous. Nothing peculiarly Mexican is to be encountered in these commercial songs. Cuban, Argentinian, and Brazilian rhythmic elements intenneshj the cosmopolitan musical atmosphere guarantees these "hits"
is

Alberto Domfnguez's Frenesi ("Madness"), Consuelo Velasquez's Sesame Mucho ("Kiss Me a Lot"), and Lara's Coda Noche un Amor ("Love Every Night") have made their composers internationally famous, in the same sense that Hoagy Carmichael (composer of

wider audiences than the mere Republic of Mexico could ever provide 17 Lara, Dominguez, Prado, or Velasquez. The words are often extremely

and love, kisses, the moon above, flowers, and love again, are the topks treated. The music adheres to the basic tonic-dominant patterns, and the melodies are rarely individualized.
suggestive,

DURING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

FOREIGN CONTRIBUTORS TO MEXICAN MUSICAL LIFE

267

United

Just as the various waves of European unrest have brought to the States certain distinguished scholars and composers during recent

years, so

sonalities to

waves of unrest in Europe have brought notable musical perMexico. Chiefly these immigrants in Mexico have come from
stages in our recital of events

Spam. At various
Bal y Gayj Bal y
at

we have mentioned

Jestis

Cambridge

Gay through the intermediacy of Professor J. B. Trend University made certain English connections before com-

He is a composer, musicologist, and music critic His Serenade for Strings, published by Ediciones Mexicanas, has frequently been pkyed by the Orquesta Sinfonica de Mexico. His own music, like
ing to Mexico.

formally impeccable. His melodic lines are always beautifully contrived, and though never lush his string writing is and Bal y always smoothly sonorous. Arthur Foote's Suite for Strings in Serenade are compositions with similar virtues. Gay's
his scholarly writing,
is

Rodolfo Halffter, not perhaps as well known in Spain as was his brother,
Ernesto, nevertheless occupied a position in the forefront of Spanish
life.

He has been editor of the Ediciones Mexicanas de Musica, editor-in-chief

of Nuestra Miisicay and yet has found time to continue an active career as composer since arriving in Mexico. Adolfo Salazar, one of the most distinguished

musk

historians of our epoch, has

been music

critic

for

Novedades, a
can residency.

daily,

and has continued a fecund scholar during

his

Mexi-

proportion of foreigners contributing to Mexican music life is distinctly smaller than the proportion contributing to United States music life. Each person who has come to Mexico has been handled as an individual, and the guiding principle has been: no one shall be invited whose presence here will displace a Mexican. Persons who have come have uniformly been expected to cooperate rather than dominate, and

The

immigrants without prior knowledge of the language have been rigorously excluded

OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE

Despite the presence of a minute number of immigrant musicians, it nevertheless obvious that the achievements of the century have been

is

268

MUSIC IN MEXICO

the doing not of these immigrants but of the Mexicans themselves. With a population vastly inferior in numbers to that of the United States

something less than a sixth Mexican creative accomplishment has yef kept pace with that of her more populous northern neighbor. If during our generation she cannot boast of Stravinsky, Schoenberg, and Hindemith as new-found "Mexicans," at least her indigenous school can at every point be compared favorably with the American indigenous school.

Her achievement of the immediate past is, moreover, the best guaranty of
her continued progress.

CONCLUSION

Mexico

is

a land with a dynamic, living music.

But the reconstruction

of the past makes it ever clearer that Mexico not only now, but through the long sweep of four centuries has been a country whose total musical
contribution places her in the forefront of Western Hemisphere republics. As more and more documents bearing on Mexico's musical history come
to light, her neighbors on either side can confidently anticipate ever securer reason to congratulate her on the achievement of the past, as well as the promise of the future.

NOTES
1.

2.

Porfirio Diaz, from whose first name the adjective Porfirian is taken, ruled Mexico from 1876-191 1. Nominally he was president. La Legende de Rudel: Poeme lyrique en trois forties, Op. 27 Friedrich

(Leipzig:

Hofmeister, 1906), was Castro's second opera, the Drama lirico en tres Actos (Mexico: Nagel, Sues.,
notices for

first

having been Ateimba:

1900).

The Mexican

La Legend* were not uniformly

press

favorable. In

Musicales, pp. 311-2) it was, however, Castro's another Mexican lyric work so replete with poetic sentiment, depth of feeling, so competently written, and so continuously inspired," Campa asserted.
3.

Campa's opinion (Criticas best work. "I do not know

4.

Gustavo E. Campa, of. cit., pp. 1704. Manuel M. Ponce, Nuevos Escritos Musicales (Mexico:
p. 25.

Editorial Stylo, 1948),

5.

complete ChaVez bibliography was published by the Pan American Union Series, No. 10) in 1944: Carlos Chavez: Catalog of his Works, with a Preface by Herbert Weinstock. In dealing with ChaVez's career we have had

(Music

recourse to certain supplementary materials such

as-

Chavez:
35

Una Monografia
ff.,

Critica," Revista Musical

*% 61

and 75

Otto Mayer-Serra's "Carlos MexUana I (1042), c ff., "

.

ff.

DURING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

269

A classified catalogue of Chvez's composition will be found in the 1944 Pan American Union brochure, pp. i-io. To this 1944 list may be added the following compositions: PUBLISHER PLACE AND DATE TITLE MEDIUM OR MS DATE OF
PUBLICATION
194-3

Concerto de Vivaldi

Orchestra

MS MS
MS
Ediciones Mexican as

en Sol menor

1943-4

Cuarteto Doble, Ballet Wind and for "The Daughter of String

Mexico
1946 Mexico
1951

de Musica
Ediciones Mexicanas

de Musica

MS MS
Ediciones Mexicanas

Mexico
^949

de Musica

MS MS

6. For a bibliography of Revueltas's works and for additional musical analysis of his style see O. Mayer-Serra, "Silvestre Revueltas and Musical Nationalism in
7. Nicolas

Mexico," Musical Quarterly, April, 1941. Slonimsky in Music of Latin America (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 194.5), p. 249, says the title means that eight performers are required for rendition
of it Both interpretations of the
title

have been advanced, but in neither case

is

the significance of the tide profound.

8.

9.

A. Copland, "Mexican Composer," Near York Times, May 9, 1937. For complete biography see Bias Galindo, "C. Huizar," Nuestra Musica, May, 1946 (bibliography of his works appears on p. 64).
el Arte,

10.

For further biographical details see Francisco Agea, "Bias Galindo," Mexico en November, 1948 (bibliography of his works on last four unnumbered For a detailed study
see B. Galindo, "Compositores de
J

pages),
11.

mi Generacion," Nuestra

Musica, April, 1948.

12.

Complete text of libretto in Me&co en el Arte, August, 1948. The significance La Mulata is discussed in Luis Herrera de la Fuente, "La 6pera de Bellas Artes," Mexico en el Arte, September, 1948.
of

2 7o

MUSIC IN MEXICO
For a more extended survey of Sandi's works
see C,

13.

Chavez, "Luis Sandi,"

Nutstra
14.
15.
1 6.

MuAca

July, 1949.

0. Mayer-Serra, "Tata Vasco,"

Cmmwwcd)

September 12, 1941, p. 487,

p, 90*

Schoh Ctmtorm (Morelia, Michoadm), June, 1948,

Slonimsky in his chapter, "Mexico/' of* #/.,
listed

twenty-eight contemporary
those

Mexican composers
he
listed

whom

he thought worthy of biographical treatment, Of

not selected for extended

but whose

worb we have

analysis the follow-

ing three are perhaps the most important:

Eduardo Hernandez Moncada

(1899), conductor and composer;

Carlos Jimenez

Mabarak

(c.

1912),

pianist

and composer; and Jose Rolon (1883-1945),

symphonic composer.

The names

of the nine others listed in his book were Rafael

Adame (1906),
Mariscal

Alfonso de Elias

(1902),
Estanislao

Juan B. Fuentes

(1869), J uan 1*6*

(1899), Mejia
aca

(1882),

Miguel C. Meza
and Jos

(1903),

Pedro Mich),

(1897),

Arnulfo Miramontes

(1882),
new

Pomar (1880

Time
is a

has yet to prove the worth of all Slonimsky listed, but at least their profusion

happy augury. Since his survey other

talents

have

appeared in Mexico, among

them Jose Yves Limantour,

orchestra,

brilliant

organizer and conductor of the Jalapa

and Jesus Ferrer, promising young composer,

The new

composer
la

who

excited

perhaps the most attention during 1952 was Luis

Herrera de

Fuente, a talent who, like Chavez, combines rare conducting ability

instinct.

with true creative

After visiting Mexico in the autumn of 1952, Luigi

DaUapiccola, famous Italian composer, stated that the number of promising creative
talents in
visited.

Mexico today exceeds

that in most

European nations which he has

17.

0. Mayer-Sena, El Estodo

Pwmtt
p. 22.

It

Mum M

Mtxico (Washington:

Pan American Union, 1946),

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Since information on music in Mexico

useful to
list

We

is at present widely dispersed, it has seemed below certain sources which contain only passing references to music. have chosen to list such works because we have ourselves repeatedly quarried

from books and articles which at first glance seemed highly unlikely ground over which to prospect. Gilbert Chase in the section on "Mexico," pp. 157201, of his A Guide to Latin American Music (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1945) amassed
rich metal

almost six hundred titles of articles and books dealing with music in Mexico. His bibliography included titles of works in Spanish, English, French, German, and Portuguese; the usefulness of his list was further enhanced by the brief annotations

he supplied. Because of the easy

it,

availability of his

list,

we have

chosen not to

except insofar as it contains titles of works which have been found helpful in the writing of our own book. But we have listed a large numpositively ber of titles not given in his bibliography. Our additions fall within the two followduplicate

ing classes: works published since 1945; or works with unpromising tides which Chase did not examine, but which have proved unexpectedly useful. Nearly all titles in our bibliography represent works from which we have actually quoted either
in our text or notes.

Titles of musical compositions have been excluded. In

1947 the Conservatorio

Nacional at Mexico City issued a 35-page checklist of Mexican compositions shelved in its library. It has been found impracticable to reprint that list here, but the conservatory librarian is prepared to supply it upon payment of a fee. Additional lists of Mexican compositions may be obtained from the following representative music
publishers: A. Wagner of M&tico, D.F.

y Levien

Sues.,

and Ediciones Mexicanas de Musica, both

Abreu G6mez, E. Sor Juana

Monografias
Bibliograficas,

Ms

de la Cruz: Bibliografia y BibUoteca (M&dco:

1934). Acosta, Jose de. Historia Natural y Moral de las Indias (Seville: Imp. en casa de luan de Leon, 1590). Reprinted by The Hakluyt Society, 1880, in English, tjansla.tion.

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Agea, Francisco. "Bias Galindo," Mexico en el Arte, November, 1948. . Orquesta Sinjdnica de Mexico: Notes, 1936 (I, V), 1937 (II, VII, X, XI), 1938 (VI), 1939 (V, X), 1942 (III, IV, V, VII, VIII, IX, XII, XIII).
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torical

"The

Slave

Trade

in

Mexico," Hispanic American His-

Review, August, 1944. Alcazar Molina, Cayetano. Los Virreinatos en el Sigh

XVIII

(Barcelona-Buenos

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s.a.,
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Aires: Salvat editores,

M.

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(Mexico:

"D. Melesio Morales," Revista Musical Mexicana, Jan.

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7,

Feb. 7, Mar. 7,

and

May

Andrade, Vicente de P. Ensayo bibliografico mexicano del siglo XVII (Mexico: Imp. del Museo Nacional, 1899). Angles, Higinio. La Musica en la Corte de Carlos
de Musicologia, 1944).
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Baker, Theodor.

de La Plata (Montevideo: Imp. Uruguaya, s.a., 1941). Vber die Musik der Nordamerikanischen Wilden' (Leipzig:
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Breit-

Baqueiro Foster, Ger6nimo. "Aportaci6n musical de M&rico para la formacion de la biblioteca americana de Caracas, 1882-1883," Revista Musical Mexicana^ July
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"El

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Barwick, Steven. "Sacred Vocal Polyphony in Early Colonial Mexico," Harvard

University PAJ): Diss., 1949. Basalenque, Diego. Historia de la provincia . . . de Michoacdn, del orden de NJ*<S. Agustin (M6nco: Tip. Barbedillo y comp., 1886).
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"Music in Caracas during the Colonial Period," Musical QuarHispano Americana Setentrional (Ame.
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terly, April, 1943. Beristain y Souza, Jose Mariano. Biblioteca

cameca: Colegio Catolico, 1883).

Bennodez Plata, Cristobal de la Gavidia, 1946).

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Michoacana de San Nicolas, 1939). er . "La Musica en Valladolid de Michoacan" Nuestra Musica, 3 Trimestre,
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de FAm&rique-centrale (Paris: Arthur Bertrand, 1857). Bret6n Fontecilla, Cecilia. "Una obra musical de Fray Juan Navarro," Schola Cantorum, August, 1942. Brinton, Daniel G. Ancient Nahuatl Poetry (Philadelphia, 1887).
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INDEX

Names and places are

tents.

indexed.

For a summary of topfcs see

the table of con-

Abreu Gomez, E., 169 Abujary Elf tonadflla by Garcia, 192

accordatura
of colonial
vihutla

Mexico City chapelmaster, 84, 88-89, I0 5

Alarcon, see Ruiz de Alarcon

de

mono (1740), 162

Acosta, Jose de, 16-17 Adame, Rafael (1906
),

Album Musical de Angela Perdie

(1875), 203

270

Alcala de Henares, 161

Alcantara, 104

Ade&a (1910
234
Aeschylus, 43

Revolutionary song),

Aldana, Jose Maria

148,

(i 1810),
J 7 6>

2,

ISS^S?*

*7$>

I 8(>-

Aeterna Christi munera (Palestrina), 101

aforrado, 195
Aguascalientes,

182

alemanda (allemande), 162 Alencastre Norona y Sflva, Fernando

de, 34* viceroy, 150, 173 Altamirano, Ignado, 201

232-234 Agudo, Simon, 95 AgiMa Mexican*y El, 1 8 8, 192 Agirilar, Juan A., 222
Aguirre, Sebastian de, 162

Ambrose, St,

1 68

Anchieta, Juan de, 82

Angles, Higinio, 169

Agurto y Loaysa, Joseph de, I7th century Mexico City chapelmaster, 142

Amiay

opera by

M.

Morales, 199,

200-201

An&goney 249
Antiphonario Dominical, 79

Aiday 210
alabados,

165 Alamo, Lazaro

Antiphonarium (1589), 8l
del,

i6th century

Apodaca, Juan de, viceroy, 183

75

284

MUSIC IN MEXICO
balona de bailar, 162

Arauco domado (l59&)> 7 Arenzana, Manuel, Puebla chapelmaster, 173-174

areytos (areitos), 25

Bal y Gay, Jesus, 166, 265, 267 bamba, 45

Bancroft Library, The, 34
bandore, 148

Aristode, 177

Aristoxenus, 27, 250 Ark of the Covenant,

Baqueiro Foster, G., 41-42, 222

132

Barbiere
174

di

Siviglia,

II

(Paisiello),

Arrau, Claudio, 250 Arroyo de la Cuesta, Felipe, 34, 62

Bar tier e
Bardi,

....
di

ShngUa y

II (Rossini),

194

Arte Mexicana (1595), 36 Arte Trtpharia, El (1550), 87 Attaignant, Pierre, 102

Attila,

Barcelona, 140

Bartok, Bela,

Count Giovanni, 45 250

28

Barwick, Steven, Dr., 98-99, 104,

Atzcapotzalco, 93

127
Basalenque, Diego de, 125, 135, 137,

AtxMnbay opera by Castro, 212-213 Augsburg pianos sold at Veracruz (1794), 1 80

Augustine, St., 168 Augustinian order in Mexico, musical
contributions

168
Bassado, Arnaldo de, 53
bassoon(s), 68, 148

Beethoven, 5, 178, 190, 209, 226

made

by, 72, 85,

BeUsanus (Bellini), 202

Bellini,

131
auto sacramental, 58

Vincenzo, 202
1

Bemasconi, Antonio,
(Palestrina),

74

Ave Regina coelorum

101
ayacachtli
tle,

Benavides, Paula, 141

Benevoli, Orazio

[ah-yah-cahch'-dee] , rat-

Beristain,

Joaqufn

(1605-1672), 126 (1817-1839),

9-10, 13, 137 Ayala, Daniel (1908

192, 210
),

7,

256,

259
Ayesteran, Lauro, 168

ayod [ah-yohd'], rasp, 9 Aztec (s) (see also ayacachtli, huehued, Nahuad, omitzicahuastli,
teponazdi,
pitzaffi),

Berlin, Irving, 266 Bermudez, Pedro (fl. 1605), 102, 104, 122-124, 159 Bermudez Plata, Cristobal, 166

tepuzquiquizdi,

tla-

Bermudo, Juan, 83, 87, 125 Bernal Francesy romance, 1 74 Bernal Jimenez, Miguel (1910
135, 262-264
Berrien, William, 21
Biacchi, 198,
1

),

1-36,41, 93, 101

Aztecan (Nahuad) hymns, 119-122

Baca, Luis (1826-1855), 195-196

202
(Madrid), 90 {Mexico City),

Biblioteca Nacional Bibh'oteca Nacional

Bach,;. S., in, 117, 154, 261 bafles del pais, 174, 183 Balbuena, Bernardo de, 70 Agustm, 202

Bliss,

74, 80, 162 P. P., 215

bolero,

176

INDEX
Bonampak, Booke of
Borda,
Jose*

285

9,

12
Prater

Common
de
la,

noted.

Camacho, Rafael S., Bishop, 215 Campa, Gustavo E. (1863-1934),

5,

The, 133
135
Borowski, Felix, 251 Giovanni (1821-1889),
191, 196
Boturini Benaduc(c)i, Lorenzo, 16,

201, 204, 211, 224, 226,

254
campanile, 148

Bottesini,

Canales,

Campos, Ruben M., 208, 215 Leonardo (Pirro

de

Arag6n)

204

32
Brahms, 226 branle, 162
Brethren of the

Common
del

Life,

Breve

Noticia

Canto

53 Llano

(1548), 164 Candonero de Upala (1556), 138, 1 66

Cantor

Canctonero de Palacio, 82 Canchnero de Romances

(1725), 102 Breve y mas compendiosa doctnna

en Idoma Mexicano, lo,

34,36
canto de organo, 177 canto figurado, 177 cantos en idioma guinea, 162
cantus figuratus (1585), 118

0539)>7<>
Broad wood
pianos,

178

"broken music," 93

Buenos Aires:
Archivo General de
la

Nacion

at,

Caputo, Sertorio, 150

Caracas, 172, 223

62
Bullock, William, 193 Burgoa, Francisco de, 137

Cardenas, Josefa, 174 Cardenas, Llzaro, Mexican president

carillon,

Burney, Charles, 158

burro (dance), 162

(1934-1938), 44 148

Bustamente,

Jose

Maria

(1777-

Carlota, opera by Sandi,

260

1861), 223
Caballero, Agustin, 191, 215
Cabanillas, Juan (1644-1712), 154 Cabezon, Antonio de (1510-1566),

Caro, Juan, 53, 83

Carpenter, John Alden,
Carrasco, Jose

240 Maria (1781-1845),

186
Carreno, Cayetano, 172
Carrillo,

83, 158, 161, 230 Cabrera, Miguel, 160

Julian

(1875

),

199,

227-231, 233, 239

Cartagena (Columbia), 172

Cacalomacan, 100

Cafa Mass (Morales), 49

cacique,

Cartagena (Spain), 178

Castaneda, Daniel, 8,
Castile,
Castillo,
Castillo,
1 1

88

Cddiz Cathedral, 180 Calderon de la Barca, Mme., 193194, 196, 215 Calixtinus Codex, 82
Calmecac, 24

94
Andres, 174-175 Ledon, Luis, 204

Castro, Ricardo

(1864-1907), 199,

204, 211-214, 224-226

286
Castro, Vicente, 176

MUSIC IN MEXICO
Cocteau, Jean, 249
di Gutsa, opera

CataKna
196

by Paniagua,

Codex

Florentinus, 10

Coliseo Nuevo, 173, 175, 193,

St., vfllancicos in

220

Catharine,

honor of

Colon en Santo Domingo, 199

(1691), 139
Celaya, 160

Compan,

Charles,

94
157,

Cerone, Pedro (1566-1625), 141,

conga, 140 Conservatorio

Nacional,

191-

169
Cervantes Saavedra, 95 Cervantes de Salazar, Francisco, 87-

192, 206, 215, 219, 227, 231-

232, 234-235, 241-242 Constitudones del arfobispado

90,99
chaconne, 94-95

(1556), 75> 159

Constitutions

of

the

Papal

Choir

Charlemagne, 165
Charles
Charles II of Spain, 144 (I of Spain), 52-54, 58,

contradanza, 178-179, 183 Contreras, Salvador (1912 ), 256,

charro

64,82,85-88,94, 122, 173 suit, 216

258-259
convent music schools, 158-159 Copland, Aaron, 165, 252-253, 256
coplas, 139,

Chase, Gilbert, 132 Chavero, Alfredo, 203

165

Chavez, Carlos (1899

46,
94,

), I, 6,

44,

Cora

Indians,

41

229, 232-233,

235,

coranta (courante), 162

Corelli,

Arcangelo

(1653-1713),

Chiapas, 9, 43 chicahuazdi [chee-cah-wahss'-tlee], 5

163
cornett(s), 65, 68, 91

Coronado, Juan, 142

Corral, Manuel, 175

Chihuahua, 37-38
china poblana costume, 216
chirimfa(s), 5, 56, 65, 148

Correa

Chopin, 214 1581-1663), 161, 230 Chris tus resurgent Mass (Palestrina)^ corrido, 140, 162-163, ^5, I0i Cortes, Hernando, 4, 26, 5 1, 56, 69, Cimarosa, Domenico (1749-1801), 93, 159, 160
i?4> *9 2 Circumdederunt me, 57, 89 citara, 162
dttern, 148
clarion (s), 65,

&

Correa, Juan, 148 de Arauxo,

Francisco

(c.

CortSs, Luciano,
cotillon,

174

162

Council of Trent, .74

Cresson, H. T., 11
Cristdani, Esteban,

148

175
?.
S.

Clavijero, Francisco, 3,

32
Morales, 199

Cromca de

la

Orden de N.
ballet

Clement VII, Pope, 94

Clea<patray opera by

Agustin, 6l

M,

Cuatro .Solesy Losy

I

by Chavez,

Coates, Henry, 113

INDEX
cuauhtlapitzalli

287
173,

Cuauhtemoc, 203-204 [kwow-dah-peetsah'-yee], 137

Diarly de Mexico^

175-178,

188
Diaz, Porfirio

(1830-1915), 208,

Cue, 4
cuecuecheuycatl

212, 219, 224, 227

[kway-kway-chay-

Diaz

del Castillo, Bernal, conquista-

wee'-cahtl], tickle dance, 95 cuicatl for [kwee'-cahd], glyph

dor, 3-4, 25, 52, 92-93,

163

Dinorahy 202
Discurso sobre la musica (1807), 177

music, 13

cuiraxezaqua [kwee-rah-hay-sah'kah], Tarascan flute, 8

cumbees o cantos negros, 162

Czerny, Carl (1791-1857), 185

Dominguez, Alberto, 266 Dominguez, Francisco, 7, 43 Don GatOy romance, 164

Dos
Dallapiccola, Luigi,

Donizetti, Gaetano, 192, 196 Rtbales en Amory Los, 174

270

Dallo y Lana, Miguel Mateo, 1 7th century Puebla chapelmaster,

Downes, Olin, 242-243 drums (see also huehuetl and dapanhuehuetl), 68 Duarte y Davik, Manuel, 177
Dukas, Paul, 234
dulcimer, 94
dulzainas, 6 1, 65

126

Danza a

Centeotl, 1-2

Dafhnis and Chloe, 243 Davalos, Didacus Lopez, 131

David, King, 132 Daza, Esteban (fl. 1576), 83
Debussy, 238, 243
decima, 165 Declaracion de instrumentos (1555),
87, 125

Duran, Diego (i537~ I 588), 4, 10,

1

7>

28,

32,34,95

Durango, 36, 100, 195, 211 piano manufacture at (1793), 177 Dussek, 189 Dvorak, 185, 212, 233
Echave, Beltasar, 148 Ecos de Mexico (Ituarte), 209 Ediciones Mexicanas de Musica, 256
Eitner, Robert, 132 Elementos de Musica (1823), 187,

Ddgadmay

romance, 164 Delgado, Manuel, 176 Delphic hymns, 43 De musica tibri septem (1577), 34> 164 Denkmaler der Tonkunst Bayern,

189
Elias,

103

Alfonso de (1902

),

270

Denkmaler der Tonkunst

reichy

in Osier-

Elgar, Edward, 212

Elizaga,

103

Jose

Mariano

(1786-

Denner,

Nuremberg

flute-maker,

177 Densmore, Frances, 41

1842), 135, 185, 187-191 El Maestro (i535)> 83, 94

Elorduy,

Ernesto

(1853-1912),

Des Pres, Josquin, 52, 173 Deudsche Messe} 133

,204
enano (dance type), 195

288

MUSIC IN MEXICO
folias espanolas, folias italianas,

Enrfquez de Almanza, Martin, 4th viceroy, 66

ensalada,

162
las

140

ensaladflla,

140
de,

162 Folklore Musical de 208

Foote, Arthur, 267

Ciudades^ Ely

entremes, 220
Escobar, Pedro

82

Forza del

destino.

La, 192, 202

(d.

Eslava, Miguel Hilarion, 83

frances (dance), 162

Espinar (Spain), 105

Espinosa, Antonio de,
printer, 77,

Franco, Hernando
i6th century

1585), 33,

85, 102-122, l66

Franklin, Benjamin, 177

79-80, 134

Espinosa, Aurelio, 164

Esteva, Gufllermo A., 136, 169

Estrada, Jesus, 97, 104, 150, 167,

Friedman, Ignaz, 239 frottola, 122

Fructos del Castillo, 103
Fry, William

170
Estrelfaa (Ponce), 233,

Henry (1813-1864),
ballet,

237 estribfllo (vfllancico), 139 Exacta Descrtpcion de la Magnifica Corte Mexicana (1768), 153 Eximeno y Pujades, Antonio (17291808), 125, 190

196 Fuego Nuevo, El,

239

Fuenllana, Miguel de (fl. 1554), 83 Fuentes, Juan B. (1869 ), 270

Furlong, Gufllermo, 168

Extrangero y Ely 174

Gabrieli,

Giovanni

(1557-1612),
), 7,

fa bordon (1585),

118

126
Galindo, Bias (1910

Facultad Orgamca (1626), 161

Falco, Felix, 178
Falla,

254-258

gallarda (galliard), 162

Manuel

de,

221

Galli, Filippo,

193

fandango, 162 Felipe de Jesus, San, 157 Fernandez de Oviedo, Gonzalo, 10,

Gallop, Rodney, 30, Galpin, F. W., 8

43
(1706-1785),

Galuppi,

Baldassare

99
Ferrer, Jesus, Fetis, F. J., 8

155

270
45

Galvez, Bernardo de, 48th viceroy,

193
Garcia,

Fiesta del Peyote,

fifes,

Manuel (1775-1832), 192-

65

figured bass, 143

Filosofo Burlado, Ely 174 First Mexican Provincial

193 Garcia Icazbalceta, Joaqufn, 75 Garcia Lorca, 253

Council

flageolets,

(i555)>65, 74 22
265

Gardano, Antonio, 85, 102 Ga%eta de Mexico, 154, 177, 186

Gebrauchsmusik, 86

Fleisher Collection, 212, 231,

Genin, Auguste, 50
oy

flute(s),4,

11,65*68,91-92

romance, 164

INDEX
Ghent, 52 Gia fit m'ebbe cara (Palestrina), 101

289
49, 82, 83, 85, 86, 105, 106, 116, 117, 158

Gmo

Guerrero, Raul, 7

Corsiniy opera by

M.

Morales,

201, 202

Guido d'Arezzo, 177 guitar, 162

Haba, Alois (1893 )> 2 3 Rodolfo (1900

Giovanna d'A rco (Verdi), 192

Giovanna
Giulietta e

di Castiglia, opera by Luis

Baca, 195

Halffter,

),

Romeo

265,

(Vaccai), 194

267
Handel, 173 Hannas, Ruth, 169
harp, 91, 94,

Glorias de Queretaro > 137

Gluck,

80

G6mara,

Golisdani, Enrique, 200 see Lopez de Gomara

148
180, 189, 226

Haydn>
191,

2, 176,

Gombert, Nicolas, 52, 82

Gomez, Jose Antonio,

185,

196, 209 Gomez de Orozco, Federico, 78 Gottschalk, Louis Moreau, 209

143-144 Hernandez, Mateo, 43 Hernandez, Pedro, i6th

Helvidius,

century

composer, 103

Hernandez Moncada, Eduardo

Graduate Donwncaley 70, 77-80

Grafton, Richard, 80

(1899), 7^70
la Fuente, Luis, 270 Herrera y Ogazon, Alba, 5-6 Herz, Henri (1806-1888), 208

Herrera de

Gramatica Razonada Musical

(1840), 191 Granada, 74

Hidalgo y

Costilla,

Miguel (1753-

Grandeza Mexicana (1604), 70 Great Caruso , The, film, 208 Gregory I, Pope, 168
Gregory XIII, Pope, 33 Grieg, 185, 211
Griffes, Charles T.,

1811), 186 Hija de C6lquide>

Historia

Lay 250
Indias

Hindemith, Paul, 86, 268

de

las

de

Nueva

44

Esfana (Duran), 28 Historic de los Indios (Motolinia),

54-55
Hiftorut Eclesiastica Indiana
eta),

Grijalva,

Juan

de,

61

Guadalajara, 60, 100, 122, 137, 154,

(Mendi-

187, 206 Guadalajara Cathedral:

choir singers in, 80 choral archive at, 102

29
las

Hlstona General de

Cosas de

Nueva Espana (Sahagun), 23

Bistoria General de las Indtas

organ (1730) Guanajuato, 207

installed in,

153

(Oviedo), 10
Hofmeister, Friedrich, 213

Guatemala, 105, 177 Guatomotziny opera by Ortega, 201,

L'komme armey 35
Honduras r 93

203-204
Guerrero, Francisco

(1527-1599),

176 Horse Power (HJP.), 242

Horcasitas, pianist,

290
hours, singing of, 71

MUSIC IN MEXICO
Italian

augmented
Julio

sixth,

Bermudez's

huapango, 45, 217

use of (1610),
Ituarte,

124
185,

Hu&pango (Moncayo), 260

Huarte, Ana Maria, 187 huehuetJ [wa^-wayd], 8-9, 12-13,

(1845-1905),

205, 209-210
Iturbi, Jose,

265
187

30-32 Huelgasy El Codex Musical de

8, 21, 26,

Iturbide, Agustin, emperor,

las>

82
j^cara,

Hugo,

Victor,

238

140
67
183-185, 195, 209,

Huichflobos [Huitzilopochtli],
Huicholes, music
of,

Jalisco, 36, 39,

36, 39-41, 44-

jarabe(s), 45,

45> 254
Huitzilopochtli

216-217
[wee-tseel-oh-poach'jarabe,

pan de (1789), 184

dee], Aztec war-god, 3-4, 32,

jarabe (xarabe), pan de

(1796), 184

93
Hufzar,
Candelario

jarabe gatuno, 184

(1888

),

7,

Jarabe Nacional, 209 Javanese music,

1 1

44, 254-256

Humboldt, Alexander von, 193

hurdy-gurdy (vihuela de rueda), 165
Idea de una Nueva Historia General
(Boturini Benaduci), 32

Jerome,

St.,

170

Jerusalem, Ignacio, 155 Jewell, Edward, 2

Jime'nez, Miguel Bernal, see Bernal

Igou, Lincoln, Professor, 265-266

Iguiniz,

Jimenez, Miguel Jimenez Mabarak, Carlos (191 2

.

),

Juan

B.,

168

270
Jommelli, Nicola (1714-1774),

Udephonsus, 143, 148

Ildegonda,
opera

by

M.

Morales,
jota,

155,

80, 189

197-198, 201, 208

tiling,

162

Carl-Heinz,

in

Inquisition
Institute

Espanol

(1802), 184 de Musicologia,

Juana Ines de la Cruz, Sor, 102, 127, I37-I38> 169 Juanas, Antonio (d. 1817), 155
Juarez, Benito

161
Instructor Filarmomco (1843), I 9 I instrumentalists in Charles Vs chapel,

(18061872), 201,

202, 240
Juarez, Luis, 148 Julian Choir, 112

65
instrumentalists
in

establishments, 65, 68, 84,

Mexican chapel 91-

Kalkbrenner,

F.

W. M.

(1784-

93
International Composers* Guild, 241 In the Garden, hymn, 165 Iriarte, Tomas de (1750-1791),

1849), 209 Kelemen, Pal, 154

Kircher,

Athanasius

(1602-1680),

189
KochansJd, Vaslav, 25 1
Koussevitzky,

177
Isidore of Seville,

168

256-257

INDEX
La
La La
batalla

291
tury Mexico City chapelmaster,

de Roncewalles, romance,

165
cucaracha (1910 Revolutionary
song), 234
esfosa mfiel, romance, 164

104,113,157
Lorente, Andres, 142

Lorenzana, Frandsco Antonio, Archbishop, 98, 1 02,

1

66

Lamas, Jose, 172 Landa, Diego de (1524-1579), 16, 27 Lara, Agustin (1900 ), 266 La Rue, Pierre de, 52, 1 11, 1 13 Las Casas, Bartolome de, 17, 19, 66,

Loreto, Abel, 222 Louis XIV, 144

Lucia

& Lammermoory

194, 2O2

Lucrezta Borgia, 202

Lumholtz, Carl, 36-38, 43-44 Luna, Bartolom de, 91

lute(s), 61,

96
Lassus,

92-93

Orlandus,

86,

91,

ill,

Luther, Martin, 133

112
Lateran Choir, St. John, 112 Lateran Magnificats, 116

Legende de Rudel, Lay opera by Castro, 213-214, 225-226 Leon, Tomas (1826-1893), 208209

Macbeth ( Verdi), 192 MacDowell, Edward, 44, 213-214 Madrid, 69

Madrigal Choir (University of Southern California), 127
Magnificats (Neo-Hispanic),

no-

L A., Professor, 142, 169 Leonory opera by Luis Baca, 195

Leonard,
Levitical singers, 18

118
Malinalco tlapanhuehuetl, 13

Liber Usua&> 73
Library of Congress, 8 1 libros de facistol, 80
Lienas, Juan de (i6th century
poser), 103, 166 Lima, 69, 122

Mambruy romance, 164 Mannheim influence, 176

Manual* Sacramentorum
com(1

560) ,

74,77 Manualf secundum tfsum Almae Ecclestae

Mexicanae (1568), 77

Limantour, Jose Ives (father), 226 Limantour, Jose Yves (son), 270
Lincoln, 202
List,

Manzo, Luigi, 149 Marbeck (Merbecke), John, 133 Marcha RepubKcana (Ortega), 203 March* Zaragoza (Ortega), 203
Marchsto
el

Eugene, 243

Alma

(Ponce), 233, 261

Liszt, 209,
loa,

214

Mariana, 95
Manazellermessey 2

220

Lobo, Alfonso (1555-1610?), 102 Lobo, Duarte (1540-1643), in

marimba, 177
Mariscal, Juan

Leon (1899

),

270

Lope de Vega, 95, 173 Lopez de Gomara, Francisco (15111566), 25, 28

Lopez y
Capflla, Francisco, l?th cen-

Marin, Nicolas, 143 marine trumpet, 148

Marino, Giambattista, 95 Marta> 2O2

292

MUSIC IN MEXICO
140, 142-143* *48, 150, 153-

Martin, John, 242 Mason, Lowell (1792-1872), 189190

Matias, Juan, 135, 159 Matthaus-Passion (Schutz), 127-

154, 161, 186, 194, 196

Mexico City organ (1735), 1 53^54 Meza, Miguel C. (1003 ), 270 Michaca, Pedro (1897 )> 2 7
Michal, 132

129

Matthew
130

Passion, St. (Padilla), 127-

Michoacan, 67, 80, 84, 89-90, 130, 134, 212, 262

Mflan, Luis
Miller,
(fl.

Maximilian (1832-1867), emperor,

191, 200, 219

Adan

1535), 83, 94 (piano manufacturer at

Maya(s), 8-9, 28, 259

Mayer-Serra, Otto, 176, 240 Mazahua melodies, 2

Mexico

City,

1790-95), 178

mazurka, 208
Medina, Luis (1751-1806), 174
Mejfa, Estanislao (1882 Mendelssohn, 261
),

Mille regrete Mass (Morales), 49 minuete (minuet), 162, 183 Minuet with Variations (Aldana),

173-

178, 180-182 Miramontes, Arnulfo (1882

),

270

270
Missa Gothica seu Mozarabica, 102

M6ndez

Plancarte, Alfonso,

144

MissaU

Romanum

Mendieta,

Geronimo

de

(1525-

1604), 16-17, 29-31, 34, 67,

Mitjana y 166

(1561), 75-77 Gordon, Rafael, 133,

80

Mitropoulos, Dmitri, 243

),

Mendoza, Vicente T. (1894

8,

7-

Mixtecs, 9

41-42, 163
Pidal,

Molina,

Alonso

de

(1515-1585),

Ramon, 164 Meneses, Carlos J., 229 Meneses, Miguel (Agorantey Rey de la Nubia), 204
Merida, 100-101, 259

Menendez

17, 22,

26

Monarquia Indiana (Torquemada),

I5> 32, 67 Moncayo, Pablo (1912 ), 7, 256, 259, 265 inonochord, 92 Montano, Tomas, dean of Mexico

Metodo de Citara (1650), 162

Metro-Gold wyn-Mayer, 207 Mexico City {see also Tenochtidart),
59> 69,
71, 84-87,

91,

101-

102, 122, 133, 136, 140-141,

Cathedral, 150 Montanos, Francisco de 142, 168

(fl.

1587),

H9> '53> 155* 158/160, 176, 178, 184, 187, 191-193, 196,
207,
224,

231-233,

235,

Monte, Philippe de (1522-1603), in, 113 Montes de Oca, Jose G., 206

239, 243-244, 254-255, 262,

Montezuma
52
,

II

(14661520), 32,

265 Mexico City Cathedral, 58-59, 84^ 1* 101, 104-107, 118,

Montufar, Alonso

de, Archbishop, 63, 66, 74-75, 85, 90-91

Morales, Cristobal de
35,

INDEX (1500-1553), Nay arit-exfedition.

88-90,

293
Die, 41

82-84,

86,

105-

106, 116-117, 158 Morales, Melesio ( 1 83 8-1 908 ) ,

Nazarre, Jose (organ-builder), 153 Nebra, Jos6 (d. 1768), 130

Negroes

in colonial

Mexico, musical
by, 96, 140-

197, 204-205, 208-209, 211 Moratflla, Francisco, 168

contributions

made

141, 162

Morelia (formerly Valladolid), 135,

158, 184, 187, 196
Morelia,
choral
archive
at,

Neumes

in

Newberry
101-

Library,

Mexican books, 75, 134 80

New

Orleans, 21 1

IO2
Morelos, Jose Maria (1765-1815),
1

Nezahualcoyotl, 18, 224

Nolasco, Peter, vfllandcos in honor
of,

86
de

139-140

morisca (dance), 162 Motolinfa, Toribio Benavente

Norma, 194, 2O2 Nova, Manuel de, 106

Nuestra Mustca,
1

(1490-1569), 15-17, 34, 54, 56, 5> 66 Motu Proprio (1903), 1 88

19, 28,

66

Nueva Galida, 89 Nuno, Jaime (1824-1908), 206

Oaxaca, 100, 135, 143, 150, 218
oboes, 68, 92,

Mouton, Jean (1475-1522), 52 Moya y Contreras, Pedro de, Archbishop, 85, 91, 106 Mozarabic rite, 166 Mozart, Leopold, 186
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 180,

Oaxaca Cathedral, 137, 159 94

134

Ocharte, Pedro de, printer, 77-80,

I3p, octava rima, 29

La Midata de Cordoba^

opera by

Moncayo, 260 Munguia, Dolores, diva, 174

Ogaz6n, Pedro Luis, 238 Olmedo, Bartolome de, 52 Olmos, Andres de, Fray, 31
omitzicahxiasdi [oh-mee-tsee-cah-

Munoz de Castro, Pedro, 151 Museum of Modern Art (New York

City),
I,

wahss'-dee], 4, 10, 137

de, 70 Onate, Juan de, 164 Orden que debe observarse en el coro

155

Ona, Pedro

MuAca

Azteca,

La (Chavez),

Mussorgsky, 261

(1560), 8 5

Nabucco (Verdi), 192

Ordmanum
2 9>

Nahuad (Aztecan), 22-23, 2 7, 31, 33"36,44,53 Nahuad hymns, 119-122

Narvaez, Luis de
Navarro,
(fl.

(1556), 72-75 organ (s), 63, 68, 93, 148, 153, 170,

1538), 83
102*

178 Ortgen y Reglas de (1776), 190

orlos,

la

Musica, Del

Juan

(Gaditanus),

61

Orquesta Sinfonica de Mexico, 244,

Navarro, Juan (Hispalensis), 132
252, 267

294

MUSIC IN MEXICO
34>35>5*>53>58, 62,83, 264
Pefialosa, Francisco,

Ortega, Aniceto (1823-1875), 2OI,

203, 205
Ortiz, Diego, 83 Ortiz, teacher of dancing and viol-

82

pentatonic series in Aztec music, 6

Peralta,

Angela (1845-1883), 201-

OSM,

playing, 93 see Orquesta

Sinfonica

de

Peralta,

203, 206, 210 Bernardo de, 104, 113, 126

Mexico
Osuna, 87
Otomi(es),
9,

P6rez,

Manuel (Mexico City organ

43

Ovando, Juan de, 60, 85 Oviedo, see Fernandez de Oviedo

Oxfaniztli,

1796), 178 Perez de Rivas, 62 Perez Gordfllo, Diego, 84

builder,

Prez Materano, Juan (Cartagena

chapelmaster, 1554), 172

44

Peruvian music, 161

Pablos, Juan, printer, 74, 77 Paderewski, 210 Padflla, Juan de (d. 1673), 35, 104,
Pestalozzi,
Philip II,

190

65-66, 79, 86-87,

in

9>

38

126-130, 157, 159, 166

padovanas,
Paisiello,

82 manufacture piano
Philip the Fair,

Mexico, 177-

94
Giovanni

178

(1741-1816),

174, 192 Palafox y Mendoza, Juan de, Archbishop,

pianos in Mexico in 1841, Pietro d'AbanOy opera by

194
Paniagua,

197
Pincherle,

125-126

Marc, 234
(fl.

Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da, 86,

Pindar, 177
Pisador,

101, III-II2

Diego

1552), 83

palomo (dance type), 195 panami (dance), 162

Pius V, Pope, 75,

79

panhuehued [pahn-way'-waytl], 12 Paniagua, Cenobio (1821-1882),

196, 198, 204-205, 208

Placeres,

PiusX, Pope, 1 88 Mariano (Durango organ

builder,

1800), 178

Placido, Francisco,

Don, 93
89
la

Papago music, 41
Paraguay Reductions, 20, 133 Paraleja, Alonso de, 60
Partenope,

plainchant, 64, 84,

Planas, Miguel

(Don Qwjote en

Ventana Encantada), 204

Polaca (Soto Carrfllo?), 178, 182-

Lay opera by Zumaya, 149

162

pasacalle (passacaglia),

paso de fantasia, 162

paspied (passepied),

polka,

183 208

162

polonaise, 176,

183
),

Passionano (1572), 77-79

polytonality in Indian music, 7

pavana (pavane), 94, 162

Pedrell, Felipe

(1841-1922), 190,

Pomar, Jose (1880 Ponce, Alonso, 17, 86

precentor), 184

270

211
Pedro de Gante (l48o-i572) > 19,

Ponce, Joaquin (Morelia Cathedral

INDEX
Ponce,

295

Manuel M. (1882-1948),

Quetzalcoatl: Ensayo Tragico^ 203

231-238, 241, 261

169 Marcellus Mass, 107 Pope in 1680 (Mexico City), population
Pope, Isabel,

Quevedo

Villegas,

95

Quod

a nobis (buU of Pius

V), 75

160
population
porto
in

Rabanus Maurus, 168 Ramirez de Fuenleal,

Bishop, 63

Sebastian,

1790, 160

rico (dance),

141

Ramos, Antonio
162

(organist),

84

portorrico

de

los negros,

Ramos

de Pareja, Bartolome" ( 1440-

portuguesa,

162
Ravel, Maurice, 243

Powhatan, 44
Praetorius, Michael,

91
^

Preuss, K. T., 41 la Armonia y Melodia Principios de (x*35), 187, 189 Prokofieff, Serge, 5, 252

Ray, AUce, 35, 127, 168 rebeck (s), 65, 148

villancicos Recoptlacion de sonetos y

Psalmodia

Christiana

(1583)*

23,

(1560), 138 Regtas y ordenanzas del Coro (Puebla, 1649), I2^

Rojas, Mariano, 12 1 Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, 28

33> 35 Psalterium

Amphonarium phonanum) Sanctorale (1584)?

8l

(Anti-

Relation historiada de

las

Exequias

Psalterium

secundum usum sancte

ecclesie

Funerales (1600), 90 Relacion y description (Puebla,

Romane
publishers in

consuetudinem

1649),
Revueltas,

2 5' I2 6

(1564), 85
igth century Mexico,

Revillagigedo, 5ist viceroy,

Sflvestre

186

(1899-1940),

223
Puebla, 86, 122, 136, 201 choral archive at, 82, 91, IOI-IO2

Ribera Florez, Dionysio de,

rigaudon, 162

90

Puebla Cathedral, 80, 153, 158, 174,

Rinaldo, 173

178
puertorrico

Rincon, Antonio del, 35

de la

Puebk

(dance),

162
Pujol, Juan, 130

of Rincon, Juan Diego de, bishop Michoacan, 77, 130

Rionda, Manuel, 188

Rivera, Diego, 7, 46, 242
Robles,

/ puritan*, 2O2 Pythagoras, 27

Quatuor
I3 r >

Passiones
I

(1604),

IO2,

33-*34
(Pales-

Juan de, 137 Rocamora, Victorio, 174 Rodeheaver, Homerj 165 Rodil, Antonio, 168
102 Rogier, Philip,
Rolon, Jose

Quern dicunt homines Mass

Rodngo,El (1708), 149

trina), 101 Queretaro, 137, I59> 2II > 2I 5

(1883-1945)^70

2 98

MUSIC IN MEXICO
I

Taubman, Howard,

wayd]
12, 13?
dapitzalli

(see also

huehued),

4,

Teatro Arbeu, 224, 233 Teatro des Gallos, 1 94 Teatro Iris, 240 Teatro Olimpia, 240
tecomopfloa (see teponazdi), 24

[dah-peet-sah'-yee] , 4, 8,

II
dapitzaualizdi [dah-peet-sow-wahlee'-sdee],

song sung by a so-

Tecto, Juan de, 52

tecuicatflizdi

prano, 27 Tlaxcala, 56, 78, 88-89 Tobias y oratorio by Paniagua, 197

'

[teh-kwee-kah-tee-lee'sdee], song addressed to another

person, 27

tecuicuiqueualiztli

[teh-kwee-kwee-

tocotin, 137, 141, 169 Toledo, 69, 74, 82

kay-wah-lee'-sdee] , song sung

to insult someone,
tecuiqueualiztli

27

Archbishop of, 29 Cathedral at, 122

[teh-kwee-kay-wah-

Toluca Museum, 13
tonadflla, 174,

lee'-sdee], song

sung to compli-

176

ment someone, 27 Tello, Rafael J., 262

Tenochtidan [Teh-noach-teet-

toncontfn, see tocotin

Torquemada, Juan de (1564-1624),

15-17^32,67,80,134
Torre, Francisco de
Torres,
Jose
de,
la,

Iahn'],28,37,52,86,i07 Teoria Logica, 230

Teotihuacan [Tay-oh-tee-wahkahn'], 31

82
to

chapelmaster
(fl.

Philip

of Spain

1703),

Tepehuane

tribe,

38

teponazdi [teh-poh-nah'-sdee] , 5, 9,

127, 133 Torres, Jos de, Mexico City chapelmaster (fl. 1732), 133, 153-

13,18,21,26,30-32,137
Tepozdan, 30
tepuzquiquizdi [teh-poo-skee-kee'sdee],4, II
terceto,

154
Torres Serratos (Los dos Foscan),

204
Toscanini, Arturo,

243

29

Tozzer, A. M., 27
Trawrta,

Terradeflas,

Domingo (1713I750> 155

Lay 2O2
1

Trent, Samuel, 163

Tresguerras, Francisco,
Tristezas

Texcuco (or Texcoco), 18, 88-89 Tezcadipoca, Aztec deity, 31, 93 Thalberg, Sigismund (1812-1871), 198, 209 Thiers, 202 Third Mexican Provincial Council
(1585),

60
(Morales),

me matan Mass

49
Triujeque, Ignado, 196

trombone (s) (see

also sackbut), 91,

148
Trovatore,
//,

n8
74
/-

202

Thompson, Randall, 165

TitusiHaie (Pennsylvania),

Trujfllo, Alonso de, 105-106

dapanhuehued [tlah-pahn-way

trumpet (s)^ 65, 68, 91, 148 Tschaikowsky, 211-212

INDEX
Tudor Church Music, 103 Tumulo Imperial (1560), 87-88
tun, 8
Victoria,

299

Juan

de

(Mexico
de

City

chapelmaster, 1570), 85, 105

Victoria,

Tomas

Luis
1

(1548-

tunkul, 8

Two

Sketches
(Griffes),

for

String

Quartet

1611), 82, 102, Vieuxtemps, Henri (1820-1881),

06

44
as chicahuastli),

208
4
vihuela(s) de arco, 61 vihuela de mano, 162
vihuela de rueda, 165

tzicahuastli

(same

ule,

25

tfltimo Pensantiento
lyric

de Weber, El,

vfflancico(s), 57, 68, 84, 97,

138,

drama by

149,215
Villancicos

Ituarte,

205

University of Mexico (founded

(Osuna, 1551), 138

Felipe

Vfllanueva,

1533)^7, I37 I55 i9i Unknown Mexico (1902), 36

5

(1862-1893),

204, 210, 211

violin,
viols,

148

Valdes Codex, 100

Valencia, Martin de,

65, 68, 148 Virgin of Guadalupe, 93, 157,

215
de,

54

Vizarron

Eguiarreta,

Juan

Valentino

(1910 Revolutionary song}, 234

1

Archbishop and

37th viceroy,

153

Valladolid (Michoacan), see Morelia

Vallados, Matheo,
Valle, Octaviano

7th century

Wagner, Henry

R.,

78

Oaxaca chapelmaster, 137

(Clottlde de Cos-

Wagner y

Levien, music publishers,

cena) y 204 valona (see balona), 162

Valse with Variations (1826), 188

205, 223, 235 Weber, Carl Maria von, 214 Weinstock, Herbert, 15

Valton, Ernflio, 98

Whitchurch, Edward, 80 Williams, R. Vaughan, 245, 263-

Vasco de Quiroga, first bishop of Michoacan, 90, 263

Vasconcelos,
Jose*,

264
Xico, 30

239
),

Vasquez, Jose F. (1895

265

Ximenez de

Cisneros, Cardinal,

69

V&quez, Juan (i6th century), 138 Velasco, Luis de, 2nd viceroy, 88 Velasquez, Consuelo, 266
Velazquez, Jose* G., 2 1 5 Venegas de Henestrosa,
Luis
(fl.

XochtpiHi-Mactttlxockitl

(Chavez) [Soh-chee-pee'-yec Mah-kweelgod of music

soh'-cheed], 1-2
Xochipflli-Macuilxochitl,

and dancing, 13
Xochitl, Aztec festival,

32

Veracruz, 52
Verdi, 192, 205, 263 Veytecuflhuid, Aztec festival,

Xolod, 31

24

30 Xtoks (Maya ribbon dance), 42-43

Xolotla,

JOO

MUSIC IN MEXICO
City canon), 58-59, 84

Xuarez, Juan (i6th century Mexico

zambra (Moorish dance), 26 Zamora, 168

Zapata, EmQiano, 140

Yaquj(s),2,4i,43 Yaqui Music (Ponce), 237 Yaqui Music (Sandi), 1-2, 262
Yaqtds y Los
Seris,

zapatero (dance type), 195

Zapotecs, 9

zarabanda, see sarabande

Los, 259

Zaragoza, Ignado, 203

Yucatan (see

also

Mayas, Merida),

zarambeques, 162
zarzuela(s), 173, 207
Zipoli,

27-28, 259
yumari, Tarahumara dance, 38

Domenico, 133, 168

de, first bishop of

Yurchenko, Henrietta, 45 Yuste, 59, 88

zocalo, 107, 178

Zumarraga, Juan
Mexico,
1 6,

58-59, 67, 84
(fl,

Zaapeche, 135
zacatan, 9

Zumaya, Manuel
City

1720), Mexico chapelmaster and opera

Zacatecas, 36, 100,

160

composer, 102, 104, 133, 143,

Zamacois, Niceto de, Don, 216

158-159