Cantemos al Alba: Origins of Songs, Sounds, and Liturgical Drama of Hispanic New Mexico (review)

Book Reviews Jesús F. de la Teja, Editor Cantemos al Alba: Origins of Songs, Sounds, and Liturgical Drama of Hhpanic New Mexico. By Tomás Lozano, translated by Rima Montoya, foreword by Anthony Cárdenas. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2007. Pp. 752. Illustrations , notes, bibliography, index, 2 music CDs. ISBN 978-0-8263-3874-7. $100.00, cloth.) This well-illustrated, bilingual volume byTomás Lozano, a folklorist and professional musician originally from Spain, traces the roots of Hispanic New Mexican music, dance, and drama. The author set out to locate the origins and historical character of Spanish folk traditions in modern New Mexico by tracing music, dance, and drama from Europe to Mexico, to the northern Spanish frontier. In doing so, he compares current practice with historic manuscripts, and finds the roots ofmany performances in medieval Europe. Lozano also emphasizes that the significance ofHispanic music has been largely underappreciated in larger studies of the folklore and music of the United States. Two compact discs provide helpful musical examples ofthe music discussed in die volume; most tracks were recorded within the past ten years in New Mexico. The volume may be grouped into three major sections. The first eight chapters concern liturgical drama and dance drama, with texts (in Spanish and Latin) and music following concise introductions. Portions of the scripts of plays depicting die biblical stories of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and the betrothal ofJoseph are included, most reproduced from nineteenth-century Spanish sources. Next, European, then New Mexican forms of die nativity story, ranging in date from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century contain different views of the shepherds' visitation by the angels and the adoration of the wise men. In chapters six tiirough eight, Lozano focuses on the Morosy Cristianos and matachín dances, providing die history of these forms which reenact die triumph of good (Christianity) over evil. The second section, chapters nine dirough eleven, concerns romances, games, and liturgical music—some used for recreation, and others used as part of the education programs of die seventeendi and eighteenth-century Franciscan missions . Lozano's juxtaposition of romances from Renaissance Spain, Spanish oral tradition, Sephardic tradition, and New Mexican oral histories is fascinating, and it provides fruitful ground for further research. His conclusion about music in the Franciscan missions of New Mexico could well be extended to die eighteenthcentury missions ofTexas. Despite the lack ofextant musical manuscripts from these 444Southwestern Historical QuarterlyApril missions, Lozano believes that documentation ofthe musical skills ofthe friars and Indians indicates that such manuscripts may have been produced as part ofthe rich liturgical music of die missions. The final six chapters cover instruments with European origins, from church bells and percussion instruments, to woodwinds, organs, and animal bells. Some, such as the chirimía, a double-reed aerophone, were brought by die Muslim conquerors to Spain in the Middle Ages, then used in processions and liturgical music. The instruments in this section were widely used throughout Hispanic New Mexico, and Lozano locates them in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century documents. The text is well illustrated, with drawings and paintings from the Renaissance and colonial New Mexico paired with modern photographs. For readers interested in the music of Spanish Texas, this section will provide valuable information. Overall, the volume is a rich collection ofmaterial related to Hispanic folk traditions in New Mexico, and lay persons, musicians, and performers will appreciate the background it provides. Lozano hints at the wider implications and importance ofthe traditions he documents, and historians and anthropologists will likely build upon his work to further investigate the functions of diese traditions within New Mexican communities. University ofArkansas at Little RockKristin Dutcher Mann Native American Life-History Narratives: Cobnial and Postcolonial Navajo Ethnography. By Susan Berry Brill de Ramírez. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2007. Pp. 288. Notes, works cited, index. ISBN 978-0-8263-3897-6. $34-95. cloth.) One has to wade through a lot of postmodern jargon and speculation to get to the basic thesis of this book: that a reader needs to take a critical stance when reading an "as told to" autobiography of an indigenous person, especially when the story...