During the 16^th and 17^th centuries Spain and Portugal were more powerful than at any time in their history. The conquest of Central and South America had brought rich rewards. Exploitation of the natural resources from the Americas, along with profit from the goods and commodities produced by subjugated indigenous labor, made these imperial countries immensely wealthy; this wealth helped to support much of the official musical activity of both church and state. Music flourished in the monasteries, cathedrals, and court chapels of the Iberian Peninsula during this prosperous era. At home, an intimate relationship existed between the religious institutions of Spain and the Papal establishment, with the result that many of the most talented musicians settled in Italy to study with Italian masters and to further their careers. Their music reflects the styles and techniques learned while living abroad, with their countrymen learning from them in turn. The most widely recognized masters of Iberian sacred music in the 16^th and early 17^th centuries were Francisco Guerrero, Tomás Luis de Victoria, and Cristóbal de Morales.

An important musical and social development in 17^th-century Spain and Portugal was the introduction of the villancico into religious services during the Christmas period and on certain major feast days. Originally a secular song form, the villancico had existed for more than a hundred years, but in an attempt to connect more fully and meaningfully with the faithful, new villancicos were composed with religious texts appropriate to the season. Francisco Guerrero (1528-1599) was among the many great composers to embrace the villancico. The thirty-one villancicos of his Canciones y villanescas espirituales, published in 1589, are considered by many to be little masterworks. The late 16^th-century villancico has much in common with the French chanson in its free use of imitative polyphony alternating with homophonic passages of great rhythmic vitality. In their complexity and craftsmanship, the villancicos of Pedro Rimonte (1565-1627) are very much on a par with those of Guerrero, and they display the same stylistic features.

Sacred music flourished in Portugal, though on a smaller scale than in Spain. The most famous Portuguese composer of the time was Duarte Lobo (1565-1646), who served as choirmaster of Lisbon Cathedral. He composed a fine set of Christmas responsories in the polychoral style that quickly became prevalent in Iberia after its transplantation from Italy in the early 17^th century. His setting for double choir of O magnum mysterium is a fine example. A much less well-known composer of this period is the Spaniard Cristóbal Galán (c1630-1684), who worked at the convent of the Descalzas Reales in Madrid (the same institution for which Victoria worked at the end of his life). His extraordinary motet for double choir Ave sanctissima Maria lies in the stratosphere, so high are the ranges of the upper parts.

In the spectacular mountaintop monastery of Montserrat, outside Barcelona, the choirmaster Joan Cererols (1618-1676) composed music for the monastery choir. He is known today chiefly for a single villancico, the beautiful marizápalos Serafín que con dulce armonía. The marizápalos was a song with a special harmonic pattern that often served as a framework for improvisation, like the Italian folia or romanesca, and a specific melody became associated with it, which Cererols certainly adopted.

The desire of the church to make tangible emotional connections with the faithful was especially strong in the Americas, where conversion of the populace to Catholicism was ongoing. Many native people blended the central elements of Catholic belief with their indigenous customs, and the villancicos composed in the New World reflected this trend. Perhaps the most enthusiastic composers of these works were the choirmasters and organists working in the cathedrals of New Spain. Men such as Gaspar Fernandes in Mexico and Juan de Araujo in Bolivia produced some of the most lively and interesting villancicos, some featuring a blend of local dialects, among them the indigenous Quechua language of the Incan civilization. The oldest example of printed polyphony in the Americas is the processional hymn to the Virgin Mary Hanacpachap cusscuinnin, from 1631, which is found in an instruction manual for Spanish priests and is written in Quechua. It is a very poignant piece, its text and mood capturing something of the great suffering and devastation inflicted upon the indigenous people of the Americas, who perished in vast numbers at the hands of their colonial masters.

During the 18^th century the villancico underwent the same stylistic changes as other genres of the pre-classic period. Accompaniments of two violins and basso continuo were common, and in the hands of exponents like Padre Antonio Soler some villancicos even began to resemble scenes in an opera buffa, but always with an overlying sacred theme. Soler (1729-1783) was a priest and composer at Royal Court of El Escorial, where he produced a voluminous output of villancicos and, like Domenico Scarlatti, keyboard sonatas. He clearly had a terrific sense of humor, as you will soon discover.