singular style of the region. The baileshad an unusual melodic struc-
ture and the players had unique methods of bowing and tuning their
instruments. Other bailes, such as indita(little Indian girl) and vaquero
(cowboy), were only found in New Mexico. The rhythms and
melodies of the inditahad definite Puebloan influences. Its themes,
which ranged from love to tragedy, almost always featured dramatic
interactions between Spanish and Native Americans. Similarly, the
Matachinesdance drama was an allegorical representation of the meet-
ing of European and Native American cultures. Its European
melodies, played on violin and guitar, were coupled with the use of
insistent repetition, which came from the Native American tradition.
In addition to the bailes,waltzes—the Waltz of the Days and the
Waltz of the Immanuels—were also performed to celebrate New
Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Groups of revelers went singing from
house to house throughout the night to bring in the New Year. In New
Mexico, January 1 is the Feast of Immanuel so the singers visited the
houses of people named Manuel or Manuela. Many songs were sung
on these visits but especially popular were the coplas,or improvised
couplets, composed on the spot to honor or poke fun of the person
being visited.
Like in the New Year’s celebration, music was central to many social
rituals in colonial New Mexico. In the Rio Grand region, weddings
were performed in song in a folk ceremony called “The Delivery of
the Newlyweds.” The community would gather to sanction the new
couple and “deliver” them in song to each other and to their respec-
tive families. The verses of the song, played to a lively waltz, were
improvised, but followed a familiar pattern. The first verses spoke
about marriage in general. These were followed by serious and
humorous verses offering practical advice to the couple. Then all the
guests filed past to bless the couple and concluding verses were sung
to honor specific individuals such as the best man. At the wedding
dance, la marchawas performed. In this triumphal march, couples
formed into single files of men and women. After dancing in concen-
tric circles, the men and women lined up opposite one another with
their hands joined overhead to form a tunnel of love from which the
new couple was the last to emerge.
By the turn of the twentieth century, styles were evolving and musi-
cal forms popular in previous eras were giving way to new tastes. The
ancient romance ballads were replaced by newer forms that featured
more local and contemporary events. The extraordinary inditawas no
longer performed and the canción, or popular song, had begun its rise.
However, many of the wedding traditions of the colonial era are still(25)
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