“Del mar del alma” Music and Poetry in Colonial Bogotá (17th-18th Centuries) – Musica Ficta – Arion 68789, 68:31 [Distr. by Allegro] ****:
This album focuses on the variety of villancicos and other song types from the emerging proximity of Bogotá from the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries. Influences at that time in the area were legion, and the sphere of authority for the city was questionable as it was not a seaport, and had few major rivers. But it slowly became the principal city in the area of Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia, and when in 1564 an Archdiocese was established there, its star rose significantly, and as a consequence of the major new liturgical demands for music and the greater populace, it became a city with vast musical resources.
Most of the music here has the Nativity celebrations as its main theme, not uncommon for this type of music. The editors have taken great pains to reexamine much of what was done before, with its accretions and provincial additions, to get as close as possible to the original musical forms. The result is a disc of no little interest to those with more than a passing take on this period, and for the more general listener it is quite an eye-opener and will provide a surprising amount of pleasure—the music is very affecting and of great intrinsic content.
Sound is terrific, and performances are top notch. For the casual listener as well as the more serious devotee.
TrackList:
Fr. Bartolomeu de Olagué: Variedades da Xácara de primero tono, for clavichord
Spanish Traditional: Morenas, gitanas, villancico
Anonymous, Spanish: Aquella hermosa nube, song (attrib. Maestro Loayza)
Gaspar Sanz: Folías, for guitar (from Instrucción de música sobre la guitarra española, Book 2)
José Marín: Corazón que en prisión, song
Juan Hidalgo: Sólo es querer, song
Bolivian Traditional: Anaustia, folk song
Anonymous: Xacaras por primer tono (Spanish Urban Baile)
Juan Hidalgo: Monarcas generosos, villancico
Manuel Blasco de Nebra: Ventecillo
Bolivian Traditional: Alto mis gitanas, folksong
Anonymous, Spanish: Tiento de lleno in tone 2, for organ
Manuel Blasco de Nebra: Versos (5) al órgano en duo, para chirimías
Salvador Romero: Lamentatio, for vocal ensemble (Lectio 3 of the "Jueves Santo")
Francisco de Santiago: Que se ausenta, villancico
Santiago de Murcia: El Amor
Francisco de Santiago: Tírale flechas, villancico
Anonymous, Guatemalan: Acorranaternum, song
José Cascante: Qué dulcemente que cantra (Xácara), song
— Steven Ritter
