Spatial Imaginaries and Performance of the Villancico de Negro

Abstract

Abstract:

This essay is a reflection on the performance of the villancico de negro in an early modern Ibero-American context as well as on the musical subgenre's contested meaning in present-day concert programs. The first part examines the coro, a privileged space within a viceregal cathedral where ecclesiastical ritual devotion enacted a collective sensorial experience. This was a site where male choristers embodied the performance of villancicos through voice, taking on stock theatrical characters on the margins of empire. The second part explores the villancico de negro "Vengan, que lo plegona la negla," scored for two tiple singers and instrumental accompaniment, which is preserved in a manuscript dated 1704 from the archive of the Bogotá Cathedral. Here, I offer a close reading of the text's construction of Black women's voices and bodies as they participate in the narration and action of a Christmas play. The final section briefly looks at the discourses of silencing in the performance of villancicos de negro in the United States today. This reflection is informed by my experience as a scholar and performer of early modern Iberian and Ibero-American repertoires.