Sacred Choral Music and Ritual Dance on the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro: 1598-1821
11th Annual John Donald Robb, Jr. Memorial Concert

Sunday 24 November 2024
FREE family-friendly community event
2pm round table 3pm concert
UNM Keller Hall

This is a non-ticketed event, general seating, first come, first served
Free street meter parking Sundays. Convenient paid parking available at UNM Cornell Parking Structure

Tentative Schedule

Visit the John Donald Robb information table and meet members of the Robb Trust Board in the Keller Hall lobby.

2pm  Preconcert round table (45 minutes)
* Sacred Choral Music: Dr. Javier Marín-López
* Ritual Dance: Dr. Enrique Lamadrid
* Facilitator: Dr. Ana Alonso-Minutti
Break
​3pm  Concert (100 minutes)
* Sacred Choral Music: UNM Concert Choir Música Antigua de Albuquerque
Break
* Robb Award presentation: Michael Mauldin, composer
* Ritual Dance: Matachines de la Merced del Cañón de Carnué

Co-Curator Statement

During Spanish colonial times, the church was the patron of the visual, musical, and dramatic arts. The Counter-Reformation generously financed artists and composers to lend their talents to inspire Catholics with the spectacles of their faith. Sacred music echoed daily, resonating from the great stone cathedrals of New Spain to the humble adobe churches of New Mexico. During the great Pueblo Revolt of 1680, churches and sacred art were destroyed in the northlands, along with all traces of the repertory of sacred music. However, evidence found along the Camino Real shows that music played a daily, vibrant role in the liturgical calendar, spanning from Advent to Pentecost. It flourished particularly during Christmas and Holy Week seasons, as well as in Marian feasts and celebrations of particular saints like St. Francis or Santiago. UNM Concert Chorus and Música Antigua de Albuquerque draw from the music of the Camino Real from Mexico City north, as well as from the 18th century California missions.

The calendar also featured seasonal autos sacramentales or sacramental plays, especially the Pastorela or Christmas shepherd’s plays and La Pasión, the Passion of the Christ. Numerous other plays celebrated everything from Adam and Eve to the Virgin of Guadalupe. All had their own distinctive music that offered a reprieve from the solemnity of the Mass. Sixty days after Easter, Corpus Christi provided an opportunity for even more celebration. Villancicos or carols were sung in Spanish and Native languages. On such special occasions, costumed dancers appeared in the Tocotín, a ritual dance of Mexican origin. Its cousin, the Matachines dance, dramatizes the spiritual Conquest of Mexico and celebrates the emergence of a new Indo-Hispano culture. It was performed in and out of church from Mexico City to Santa Fe, spilling onto plazas and streets. The sones that still accompany the masked dance in New Mexico are the most ancient instrumental music in the land. Our program honors dancers and musicians from La Merced del Cañón de Carnué, the land grant in the mountains east of Albuquerque, especially since John Donald Robb visited there and recorded the songs on many occasions.

~ Dr. Javier Marín-López, Sacred Choral Music Curator
~ Dr. Enrique Lamadrid, Ritual Dance Curator

About

The annual Música del Corazón concert is a showcase of the living legacy of John Donald Robb. He carefully recorded and transcribed more than 3,000 Hispano folk songs throughout New Mexico, the Southwest, Mexico, and Spain. Like romantic and modernist composers before him, he looked to the songs of everyday folk to inspire and inform his own compositions and scholarship. He also provided a living record to us, the musicians, scholars, and teachers of the future. Over the past decade, we have marveled at the persistence and genius of traditional music as it recalls the past, adapts to the present, and shapes the future. Robb’s extensive field recordings are archived at UNM’s Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections.

Sponsors

UNM John Donald Robb Musical Trust
UNM College of Fine Arts
UNM Music
UNM Chicana and Chicano Studies
UNM Latin & Iberian Institute
UNM Spanish & Portuguese Department