North American Christmas music (music from the United States and Canada) is representative of multiple influences: folk songs, the rough and ready works of the “primitive” composers known as the First New England School, Appalachian shape-note music (embodied in the Southern Harmony collection), a look back at European musical traditions, and imaginative settings by contemporary American composers and arrangers.
William Billings is regarded as the first American choral composer; although he had some minor formal musical education, he was mostly self-taught. His work fell into obscurity shortly after his death, but in the latter part of the twentieth century a Billings revival occurred, and a sumptuous, complete scholarly edition of his works was published. His works are now commonly sung by American choral groups, particularly performers of early music. In addition, the recent spread of Sacred Harp music has acquainted many more people with Billings's music: several of his compositions are among the more frequently sung works of the Sacred Harp canon.
Daniel Read was an American composer of the First New England School and one of the primary figures in early American classical music. Many of his works were fuguing tunes: they begin with all voices singing together (with a melody usually based on a Protestant hymn), come to a stop, and continue with each voice entering one at a time.
The Southern Harmony, and Musical Companion is a shape-note hymn and tune book compiled by William Walker, first published in 1835. The roots of Southern Harmony singing, like the Sacred Harp, are found in the American colonial era, when singing schools convened to provide instruction in choral singing, especially for use in church services. This practice remained popular with Baptists in the South long after it fell from use in other regions.
In the mid nineteenth century, music was often upheld as a harmonizing influence in the growing and polyglot cities of American. Choral singing was promoted as a form of music accessible to amateurs from all walks of life. Glees were a popular style sung in that era; they feature texts that were convivial, fraternal, idyllic, tender, philosophical, or even occasionally dramatic.
“The Huron Carol” is derived from the Jesuit missionary Jean de Brébeuf's original song and text, which utilizes Huron religious concepts. In the English version, Jesus is born in a "lodge of broken bark" and wrapped in a "robe of rabbit skin." He is surrounded by hunters instead of shepherds, and the Magi are portrayed as "chiefs from afar," who bring him "fox and beaver pelts" instead of the more familiar gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The English translation also uses a traditional Algonquian name, Gitchi Manitou, for God.
Healy Willan was an Anglo-Canadian organist and composer. He is represented by his “Hodie” which marries a unique and beautiful combination of styles: both an homage to the sacred music of five centuries ago and a reflection of the innovations of the Romantic/post-Romantic period in which he lived.
Healey Willan
Our own Paul Flight has made a number of arrangements of carols from various sources. We present here his settings of “People Look East,” “Away in a Manger,” and “In Dulci Jubilo.”
William Cutter is Director of Choral Programs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he is conductor of the M.I.T. Concert Choir and the Chamber Chorus. “Little Lamb” is his setting of the well-known William Blake poem.
We are especially pleased to present “The Christ Child Lay in Mary’s Lap” (poem by G. K. Chesterton), written especially for the California Bach Society by N. Lincoln Hanks, who currently directs the composition program at Pepperdine University in Malibu. He also directs the Pickford Ensemble, Pepperdine's premiere new music ensemble.
The most unique and characteristic Christmas musical form from Latin America is the lively and earthy villancico. The composers who wrote villancicos also composed stately, traditional cathedral music in Latin (they were well-trained in the European traditions of their time). However, villancicos are in the vernacular and were generally used during the afternoon service of Matins. We see great variety in the handling of texts, which are in Spanish, in pseudo-African and Amerindian dialects, and occasionally in Portuguese. Villancicos incorporate lively and vigorous dance rhythms.
Lima Cathedral, Peru
Juan de Araujo was born in Villafranca, Spain. By 1670 he was nominated maestro di cappella of Lima Cathedral in Peru. In the following years he travelled to Panama and most probably to Guatemala. On his return to Peru, he was hired as maestro de capilla of Cuzco Cathedral, and in 1680 of Sucre Cathedral in Upper Peru (now Bolivia), where he stayed until his death. During his long tenure (1680- 1712) as chapelmaster at Sucre Cathedral, Juan de Araujo wrote a Jácara a 8 for Ignatius of Loyola.
Gaspar Fernandes was a Portuguese-Mexican composer and organist active in the cathedrals of Santiago de Guatemala (present-day Antigua, Guatemala) and Puebla de los Ángeles, New Spain (present-day Puebla, Mexico).
During his Puebla tenure, rather than focusing on the composition of liturgical music in Latin, he contributed a sizable amount of vernacular villancicos for Matins. One of these villancicos, "Xicochi," is notable for its use of Nahuatl, the language of the indigenous Nahua people. The music departs from 16th century counterpoint and reflects the new Baroque search for textual expression.
Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla was a Spanish-Mexican composer of the Renaissance period. He was born in Málaga, Spain, but moved to Puebla, Mexico, in 1620. At that time New Spain was a viceroyalty of Spain, which included present-day Mexico, Guatemala, the Philippines, and other parts of Central America and the Caribbean. Padilla was appointed maestro de capilla of Puebla Cathedral in 1628. Puebla de Los Ángeles, Mexico, was then a bigger religious center than Mexico City itself. The majority of his vast output (over 700 pieces survive) include sacred motets, often for double choir, in the Renaissance style or stile antico, as well as sacred villancicos.
Juan García de Zéspedes was a Mexican composer, singer, viol player, and teacher. He is thought to have been born in Puebla, Mexico. As a boy he was a soprano in the choir at Puebla Cathedral in 1630 under Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla. In 1664 he succeeded maestro Padilla in an interim capacity. The position became permanent in 1670. Although censured by the cathedral chapter more than once over disagreements as to his duties, he had a long career ended by his paralysis late in life. He died in Puebla.
- Patricia Jennerjohn