Música Temprana is an ensemble based in the
Netherlands which specializes in music of the 17th and 18th centuries
from the New World. It has made several discs with sacred and secular
music. This time it has turned to the music which is included in an
important manuscript, the Codex Trujillo del Perú which was compiled
between 1780 and 1790 by the Spanish bishop Baltasar Jaime Martínez
Compañón. He was born in 1737 and was sent to Peru at
the age of 31. In 1779 he was appointed bishop of Trujillo. In the first
half of the next decade he paid visits to the towns and villages of
his diocese. These resulted in nine volumes of pictures and tables about
a wide range of subjects, from archaeology to textiles and ceramics.
It is a kind of documentation of the state of society at the time with
the purpose of informing the Spanish court.
The codex includes 20 pieces of music, all of which have been recorded
here. They bear witness to the cultural variety, reflected by the various
forms and the use of the languages which were spoken at that time. What
we have here is not so much 'classical music' but rather traditional
music which is not that far away from the kind sung and played in Latin
America in our time.
Three forms are represented. In the 18th century the
tonada was
used in Spain to describe a vocal piece with a text in metrical verse.
It had its origin in the theatre but also developed into an independent
genre. In Peru it was adapted by African slaves and Indians to their
own traditions. The lyrics show a wide variety of subjects which are
a mirror of society. Many texts includes words and expressions with
a double meaning. Sometimes the exact meaning of a word is impossible
to establish; the
Tonada del Chimo is not translated in the booklet
because it is in Mochica, a language which is considered extinct.
Many
tonadas are dancing songs; their titles give the indication
para baylar cantando: "sung while dancing". That explains their
pronounced rhythms and lively character. The manuscript includes several
dances without a text, the so-called
bayles. The third form is
the
cachua, a native pre-Hispanic form of a circle dance which
still exists in parts of Peru. Originally it had strong erotic connotations,
but - as is so characteristic of the music of the New World - it is
also used with different content. Here we find two
cachuas with
spiritual content, celebrating the birth of Jesus. The mixture of secular
and sacred failed to find approval in ecclesiastical circles. An edict
of 1754, quoted by Adrián Rodríguez Van der Spoel in his
liner-notes, says it all: "We hereby command (...) all musicians and
instrumentalists to abstain, in churches, (...) from playing sonatas,
minuets and other pieces of local traditional music. They may only be
played in theatres and in profane festivities". It is unlikely this
edict had much effect.
In recent times a considerable number of discs with music from the New
World have been released. Often we hear a mixture of Spanish and traditional
elements. In this recording we probably come closer to the purely traditional
music of the indigenous people of Latin America than in any other. The
manuscript from which the pieces are taken is of great historical and
musical importance. Van der Spoel has made a special study of this codex
and has included the results of his research in a book which will be
published in 2013; on the last page of the booklet you will find more
information about that. This disc is the musical illustration of his
study, and its significance cannot be overstated. The ensemble uses
a mixture of baroque instruments, such as recorder, violin and harp,
but also a battery of traditional instruments some of which may still
be played in Latin America. This music shows strong similarities with
the music still played in Latin America or - more generally - Latin
cultures. This aspect is also respected in the performances, but the
artists have avoided any exaggeration. They are well aware that after
all this is music of the past and cannot be played as if it was written
yesterday.
This disc is a model of intelligent, but also passionate music-making.
Not only lovers of Latin American early music, but also those who have
an interest in folk music will enjoy it.
Johan van Veen
http://www.musica-dei-donum.org
https://twitter.com/johanvanveen
