Sor Juana's Villancicos: Context, gender, and genre

Western Folklore, Fall 2001 by Underberg, Natalie

Between approximately 1676 and 1692 Sor Juana published either at Mexico City or at Puebla (later performed there and in other churches in Mexico), the following villancico sets which I list below by theme and date (the order of the feasts is presented in alphabetical order and the sets within each feast are listed in chronological order):

Assumption 1676, 1677, 1679, 1681, 1685, 1686, 1690

Christmas 1678, 1680, 1689

Conception 1676, 1689

St. Catherine 1691

St. Joseph 1690

St. Peter Apostle 1677, 1680, 1683, 1684, 1690, 1691, 1692

St. Peter Nolasco 1677

(Stevenson 1974:5).

George Tavard (1991) also lists two sets not included in Stevenson's list above: St. Hermengild and Joseph of Egypt, both composed at an unknown date. There exists some doubt concerning the authenticity of certain of these sets. According to Tavard (1991), the sets certainly composed by Sor Juana herself are: St. Peter Apostle 1677, 1683; St. Peter Nolasco, 1677; St. Joseph, 1690; St. Catherine 1691; and St. Hermengild and Joseph of Egypt (uncertain date). Those that Mendez Plancarte (in Juana Ines de la Cruz 1951) calls "attributable" and that Tavard argues are "probably authentic," are: Assumption, 1676, 1679, 1685, 1690; Conception, 1676, 1689; and St. Peter Apostle, 1680, 1684, 1690, 1691, 1692. Finally, three more sets on the Assumption (1677, 1681, and 1686), also labeled "attributable" by Mendez Plancarte (in Juana Ines de la Cruz 1951), may or may not be authentic, according to Tavard.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE VILLANCICO

Villancicos are an "old form of Spanish lyric, made for song and dance and related to the ballads of other European languages" (Georgina Sabit de Rivers 1982 paraphrased in Tavard 1991:10). It is important to keep in mind that this genre was, as Juan Diaz Rengifo phrased it, "solamente se compone para ser cantado" ["solely composed in order to be sung"] (Diaz Rengifo 1759 cited in St. Amour 1940:2; my translation from the Spanish). Villancicos can have many different forms; often, though, they were composed of an envoy (estribillo) and a number of stanzas (coplas), which sometimes ended with an identical final line (SabAt de Rivers 1982 paraphrased in Tavard 1991:10). During the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, the term villancico referred to a popular form "echo [ing] folkish strains" (Stevenson 1974: ix) that came to be imitated both by courtly and religious poets. Sr. Mary Paulina St. Amour (1940) notes that the formal or cultivated use of villancicos likely began in the middle of the fifteenth century. At this time also emerged the first recorded religious villancicos, building upon popular models. The first of these religious villancicos formed part of a Christmas play. The villancico was in fact something of a relatively common song form in the early drama of Spain. From the sixteenth century on, the number of dramatic performances in churches decreased, leading at the same time to an increased use of the villancico in the liturgy. St. Amour writes: "There is evidence, too, of the use of the villancicos alternately with the various acts of a play given in the church .... Hence the hypothesis is offered, that the villancico was first introduced into religious service as a part of the sacred drama, so that it became familiar to the people as an element of official worship. Then, when the drama was removed, the villancico remained" (St. Amour 1940:118-119). Poets such as the Maestro D. Manuel de Leon Manchante (Juana Ines de la Cruz 1951) composed villancicos that served as models for Sor Juana's later work, including such elements as multilingual speech patterns.