12/25/2025
Merry Christmas and Feliz Navidad to all who celebrate!
As a small end-of-the-year gift, we’ll be sharing some of our favorite Iberian and Latin American music for Christmas and Día de Reyes (Epiphany) between now and Jan. 6. Links are below and in the comments. The algorithms aren't giving us too much engagement; the more often you like a post, the more often you will get our messages in your feed, so hit the like button!
Image: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, La Navidad (ca. 1665–1670, detail), The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGa-GUTn6V8
Cristóbal de Morales was the first Spanish composer of the Renaissance to become internationally famous. He was born in Seville around 1500, and he eventually held prestigious positions in Naples and Rome, making it as far as the papal choir. We also have evidence that he job-hopped, and records give us an idea of why: Apparently he was pretty arrogant and difficult to work with. He knew he was good and wasn’t scared to tell people that! But even if he was kind of a jerk, we have to admit that his music is quite beautiful.
One of his most striking motets is a three-voice setting of the text Puer natus est nobis (Unto us a child is born), published in 1543. If you listen closely, you can hear the first five or six notes of the Gregorian chant in all three of the voices as each enters. This was pretty common back then: composers would often include recognizable bits of Gregorian chant to satisfy church officials who sometimes complained that the choral music that was increasingly replacing chant was too sensuous.
