he story of music and culture in the Spanish American colonies is the story of an

encounter between two worlds, the results of which exist today in the cultural
fabric of the Americas. Spain conquered the indigenous societies of South and
Central America both swiftly and fiercely. Columbus landed in 1492; the conquest
took place throughout the second and third decades of the 16th century.

Early Franciscan missionaries turned their attention to the spiritual needs of

their adopted home. The Flemish friar Pedro de Gante wrote King Philip II a lengthy
letter urging the use of music as an indispensable tool in the process of
conversion, since it was so important in native life. Juan de Zumarraga, the first
bishop of Mexico, approved this willingness to adapt to local custom. The Indians
were taught Spanish polyphony and plainsong as well as recorders, shawms, and
trumpets, even as the missionaries learned native dialects and encouraged dancing
and the use of vernacular in church rituals.

From all accounts, the Indians had an extraordinary aptitude for learning to play
and sing the music of the Europeans, as well as a talent for composition and
instrument construction. While music always had been an integral part of Native
American religious, social and political ceremonies, polyphony was unknown prior to
contact with Europeans, as were stringed instruments. By the mid-sixteenth century
there was a such an overabundance of native church musicians that officials were
forced to limit their number.

The degree to which the Spanish absorbed Indian cultures must surely astound North
Americans today. Where, in the English colonies, did the Indians ever play oboes,
compose European-style music, make recorders and violins, guitars and harps? When
did English missionaries ever compose music in native languages? Can we even
imagine walking into a church in Massachusetts or Virginia and seeing the choir
loft filled with Algonquins or Shawnees? Nevertheless, these were the ways in which
the Spanish created a cultural synthesis in South and Central America, as well as
in California, New Mexico, Texas and Florida.

In this recording, HESPERUS has provided a rough cross-section of music from the
Spanish Old and New Worlds. The gentle Recercada of Diego Ortiz is an example of
the Spanish improvisatory tradition. En un Portaleio is an excerpt of a romanza, a
long strophic narrative. Vesame y abra�ame, Gentil dama and Cuc� are all
villancicos, the most popular musical form of Renaissance Spain.

The villancico was enormously popular in the New World as well, where Spanish,
French, Italian and Franco-Flemish music was heard in large cathedrals and remote
village churches alike. Un ciego, Tararc�, Ay c�mo flecha, and Turulu neglo were
all written by Spaniards in Mexico and Peru. The New World villancicos betray the
ethnic complexity and vitality of the population. Negrillos or negritos imitate the
dialects, musical traditions, and rhythms of the large number of blacks in the
Spanish Americas. Salazar, a Spanish composer residing in Mexico, in Tarar� sets a
text stating, �I am Anton, the little boy black from birth�� The rhythms of the
blacks come to life in the negrito Turulu neglo.

A distant echo of the music that the Spanish heard upon first contact with the
Indians exists in our Inca flute tune. The haunting melody was transcribed by the
soloist from a twentieth-century field recording from the town of Apurimac, high in
the Andes.

Hanacpachap cussicuinin was published by Juan Perez de Bocanegra in his Ritual

Formulario e institucion de curas (Lima, 1631). It has the distinction of not only
being written in Quechua, the language of the Incas, but also is the first piece of
vocal polyphony known to be published in the New World. Another example of the
encounter between Spanish and Indian cultures is the collection of simple songs by
the Canichanas Indians of the San Pedro Pueblo in Bolivia. Written in 1790, these
songs honor the Spanish monarchs Carlos IV and Mar�a Lusia de Borb�n, and the n