Domingo 29.10.2023
15:46
By Lilia Sofía Vieri
Knowing the musical activity during the Argentine colonial period has become difficult because there is little documentation in this regard. However, different quotes found in documents found allow us to understand the predominant role that musical activity had at the time, although it is not possible for us to know exactly what music was performed in the chapels or heard at banquets, in theatrical performances or in the privacy of the home, since no sheet music has been found and there is still no news of local music composers.
The development of secular music between the 16th and 18th centuries occurred mainly under the influence of Hispanic culture and was reduced to the music that was made for great celebrations, martial music, and domestic music, intended for entertainment. the celebration or expression of feelings.
Traditional celebrations
The celebrations that stand out here are those that took place on the occasion of civic festivals or religious commemorations, those that took place in the streets, homes or in taverns, with music and entertainment. For obvious reasons, the most easily accessible news is that of public festivals, sometimes described in great detail by citizens proud of the pageantry and magnificence of these celebrations. During the reign of Philip V (1700-1746), “Santa Fe was discharged with the tribute of the sisa that contributed to the yerba of Paraguay”, a favor that Santa Fe obtained in January 1717. The Cabildo ordered the realization of ” solemn masses and luminaries for the health and good services of the monarchy” and entrusts Antonio Fuentes del Arco with the writing of a Loa in thanksgiving for this fact. The representation, set for September 30 of that year in the main square,“to celebrate the Patron Saint, Saint Jerome, and give thanks to the king for the exemption from taxes that weighed on the city”
, was postponed due to a storm that threatened the city gates. So the Loa would have been performed on the first Sunday in October, according to José Rafael López Rosas in his study on the subject.
La Loa was a short dramatic piece with plot and action, in which music, dance and allegory were inevitable elements. Its purpose was to praise the high lord in whose homage it was offered and served as an introduction to long-term theatrical works. It was frequently performed in the Spanish colonies in the chapter plaza, in private residences or in schools established by the Jesuits. The most notable fact in this Santa Fe case, and this is stated by José Luis Trenti Rocamora, is that this Loa“It is the first known Argentine theater piece, and it is also the first written or copied in Argentina that is preserved with its full text.”. The importance of the work is also determined for two other reasons: because “its author is a figure of interest” and because “The composition provides information about a Santa Fe festival.
“.
In baroque style
Antonio Fuentes del Arco sings in baroque style to the Paraná River, its birds and its beauty, developing, meanwhile, the central theme of gratitude to King Don Felipe. The complete text has been published with the original spelling in the Boletín de Estudios de Teatro (1946, year IV, volume IV, No. 15), and was recently published by the Center for Hispano-American Studies in Revista América 31 (2022) with a transcription of the original and comments by the architect Luis María Calvo. Three knights and music take part in the Loa, evidently with singers, who are likely, as was customary, to have been hidden. The singers intervene at a certain moment as if they were a character and their appearance is constant, although excessively brief.
The coronations of the kings that were held in the city with bullfights, theatrical performances and a game of rods were also a cause for celebration, with the central square also being the main space for the celebrations. In 1759, on the occasion of the coronation of Charles III, Francisco Antonio de Vera Mujica described the festivities in a report that he sent to Governor Pedro de Cevallos:
“(…) With everything thus arranged for the royal celebration on the said day, November 26, the festive harmonious roar of bells and gunshots began at noon, in which at the same time high metal voices clamored the reasons for sonorous rejoicing. Bugles also sounded , shawms, and other musical instruments; the shout and harmony of our joy being greater in every voice: in which the spirits of the entire town were so overflowing that a young man leaving his house into the street, as if it were midnight, in At noon, he began, with guitar in hand, to sing this hacara (…) After the acclamation of the royal lieutenant, the contest was reciprocated with repeated, joyful and vigorous cheers, accompanied by salutes from all the militias, from the coup of several companies of musical instruments and of the general ringing of the bells of all the churches, and of the Te Deum Laudamus, which in the church of the Company of Jesus, whose main door faces the said main square, was sung at the same time by its chapel of beautiful music, which did not fail to make a special echo, and to cause particular harmony”.
Military and domestic music
Military music in colonial America was played by plain trumpets, fifes, drums, and war drums. Trumpets and drums had their peculiar sounds, established in the Military Ordinances printed in Madrid in 1728. For example: “call”, “on horseback”, “reveille”, “on the march”, “mass”, etc. It will be a long time before this military music gives rise to music bands whose purpose transcends the mere organizational aspect of the militia.
Regarding the domestic sphere, the guitar, songs and carols, dances and parties were surely fundamental elements in the construction of daily life in the Santa Fe houses of Spaniards who tried to reproduce Europe in America. However, the musical influence of non-European cultures and ethnicities was already beginning to substantially transform the Spanish tradition.
Already in the 17th century, to distract leisure at social gatherings, the harp, the flute, the vihuela and also the harpsichord began to be played. The gavotte, the paspié and the fandango occupy a prominent place in the repertoire of colonial dances. The people adopted the guitar that was strummed to accompany their songs and through which, progressively and especially in areas where the Spanish had contact with indigenous, African or mestizo workers, musical practices with a national seal were built.
2023-10-30 00:48:35
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