Piffaro presents Eagle & Empire: Music of Colonial Mexico

Mexico had a lively musical life in the 16th and 17th centuries, much of it based in religious music. Knowing that Mexicans loved music and dancing, European colonizers brought their compositions and instruments to “train” the Indigenous population. But skilled Mexican musicians and craftsmen soon began to reproduce and adapt these imports, creating instruments of exceptional quality and merging them with native sounds.

Seeking a musical fusion

Exploring this period, Piffaro and artistic director Priscilla Herreid delved into sonic differences that began when colonialism arrived, and their extensive research and recreation of (often missing) scores created an aural picture of the era’s vibrant music. Both instrumental and sung works illustrated this musical fusion, with some vocal works in Spanish or Latin and some in the native language of Nahuatl.

There was a bounty of sacred polyphony, and some of these multi-part works were adapted here as solos. To vocally span styles and cultures, Piffaro selected a cadre of exceptional singers: sopranos Estelí Gomez and Nell Snaidas, mezzo Cecilia Duarte, bass-baritone Andrew Padgett, and tenor Jonatan Alvarado. All were adept (and virtuosic) in the European-based literature, but they also sang the Nahuatl texts with ease and encompassing verve. Alvarado, a noted expert in this musical period, often also played the guitar.

The Americas' earliest secular music?

As always, the six Piffaro members (Priscilla Herreid, Grant Herreid, Héloïse Degrugillier, Greg Ingles, Sian Ricketts, and Erik Schmalz) played multiple shawms, dulcians, and sackbuts from their stable, augmented by four guests: guitarists Daniel Swenberg and Dani Zanuttini-Frank, wind player Ben Matus, and percussionist Danny Mallon.

The concert’s 25 vocal and instrumental works were arranged in eight titled sections. Introducción featured four works starting with Pavanas, an elegant instrumental piece (c.1650) for guitar, lute, and cittern, a lute-like instrument strung with wire that has a harpsichord sound. This work was from Sebastián de Aguirre’s Método de cítara (“cittern method book”), a compendium whose relatively ordinary title belies its extraordinary contents, possibly the earliest notated secular music in the Americas.

Guerrero, Rimonte, and Aztec ancestry

Liturgical and musical practices of Seville’s cathedral, where Francisco Guerrero (1528-1599) was maestro de capilla (music master), were models for the new cathedrals in the Americas, and thus Guerrero’s music was regularly imported by Spanish priests. Highlights of the next section, Lulling and Dancing, were two works dedicated to the Christ Child. Guerrero’s gentle Niño Dios d’amor herido, beautifully sung by Alvarado, was accompanied by Grant on the vihuela, a small Spanish instrument fretted like a guitar but tuned like a lute. Xikochi, a lullaby in Nahuatl, was introduced by a reverent musical interlude and sung by Padgett and all three women.

The third section, Fleeing and Following, had three madrigal-like works by Guerrero and Pedro Rimonte (1565-1627) arranged both polyphonically and for solo singers. And Section Four, La Çarabanda, featured two of Grant’s (many) reconstructed and arranged pieces. Priscilla’s excellent program notes stated that the çarabanda, a lively dance that eventually transformed into the stately 18th-century French sarabande, probably originated in Latin America.

One of the concert’s loveliest portions was the fifth section, Ancient Ancestry. It opened with a tocotin, a dance form that blended 17th-century Aztec and Christian concepts. This text was from El Divino Narciso (1689) by noted Mexican poet and nun Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (d.1695). Only the words of her texts survive, but Piffaro’s reconstruction utilized Aguirre’s music. Involving the entire company, this work featured Mallon’s mesmerizing rhythms on an Aztec log drum. Especially in this literature, the varied percussion instruments—including maracas and that exceptional singing Aztec drum—were played by Mallon with an ease and grace that made the sounds of that time and place come alive.

Saving the Nahuatl language

In the 16th century, the study and writing of Nahuatl became widespread, and it was eventually decreed the official language of New Spain. But in the 18th century, this and all Indigenous languages were banned throughout the Spanish Empire. Today, a strong cohort is working to document and revive this endangered language, and Wonders are Told (the next section) featured works in both Spanish and Nahuatl. Piffaro worked with fluent speakers Brujo de la Mancha and Daniel Chico, who created modern spellings and coached singers on pronunciation, and Nahuatl’s rich linguistic sonorities enhanced two lovely works: Dios Itlatonantsin (“Our venerable Mother”) and Sankta Maria, both by 16th-century Mexican composer Hernando Francisco.

Death, life, and the dance

The concert concluded with two evocative sections: From Death to Life and A Serene Night. The first featured documented works from Mexico City’s funeral service for the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (d.1558), five selections with both Latin and Nahuatl texts. And the concert ended with only one work, the exceptionally beautiful Serenisima una noche (“A night most serene”). This 11-verse villancico by Fray Jerónimo González de Mendoza (fl.1633-1661) is an extended Christmas tale of villagers who put on a charming masquerade for the Christ Child. It featured the entire company alternating instrumental interludes with sung stanzas and the repeated refrain ande el baile: “on with the dance!”

New musical sleuthing

A concert like this involves a massive amount of musicological sleuthing. Compared to European Renaissance musicology, few experts have studied 16th-century Latin American or Mexican music. But explorations are now unearthing new sources, and some of those discoveries are a result of Piffaro’s diligent searches.

Eagle & Empire was filled with works equal in musical intention and compositional artistry to more familiar European tropes. These texts that winningly mingle devotion, new-world traditions, and wry humor were soulfully and beautifully presented by the guest artists and played with the ensemble’s usual virtuosity. The concert ended on a bright, upbeat note, but it’s well to remember the colonial burden carried by those who made the instruments and played this music. Eagle & Empire has thoughtfully and engagingly brought the rich complexity of these merged cultures into the 21st century.