Galician-Portuguese Parallel Songs Explained
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ScribdTranslationsGalician-Portuguese Parallel Songs Explained
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ScribdTranslationsThe paralleled song
It is characteristic of the ancient popular Galician-Portuguese lyric. It consists of stanzas made up of
couplets -or in quatrains, if the hemistichs are turned into verses- followed by a refrain. The
stanzas usually come in groups of two, so that the second of each pair is a repetition of the
first, without more variations than those required by the change of rhyme. It is also common that the
the second verses of each pair of stanzas serve as the first in the following pair; to this
chaining was referred to as leixeprén or lexa-prende (equivalent to 'leave and take'). The
The parallel song was probably sung by two voices or alternating choirs. Although less than
In the Northwest, it was also used in Castilian poetry until the 16th century. Let this be an example of this
beautiful Galician dawn by Nuno Fernandes Torneol (13th century):
Lift up, friend, who sleeps in the cold mornings;
All the birds of the world spoke of love.
... I send you!
Get up, friend, you who sleep through the cold mornings;
All the birds of the world sang of love.
Leda, I'm coming!
All the birds of the world spoke of love.
Of my love and of yours I was thinking.
Let me go!
All the birds of the world sang of love.
Of my love and yours they were mentioning.
…...............Leda, I'm coming!
The zajal or carol
The zajal was born in Muslim Spain, from where it spread to other countries of the Islamic world.
to Christian Spain, to France, and to Italy. In Castile, it received the name villancico or villancete,
alluding to its popular character, and served as a preferred form for the primitive traditional lyric. It consists of
a chorus and a series of stanzas in which the last line rhymes with the chorus,
announcing the total or partial repetition of this. The chorus consists of two or three verses; the type
simplest stanza has three monorhyme verses (changes) and the fourth (return) rhymes with the
chorus; but there are many other combinations, some very complicated. Although it is mastered
consonance, in the most popular examples it is not uncommon to find assonant verses.
Zéjel or carol of the simplest type:
Chorus.....A....You are a child and have love;
...What will you do when you grow up?
Moves....B....Well, in your nativity
..............B....the charity burns you,
In your manly age
Turn..........A....who will suffer such heat?
Chorus.....A....You are a child and you have love;
What will you do when you grow up?
Brother Íñigo de Mendoza
Chorus.....X....Three little Moors make me fall in love
….................a.... in Jaén:
A...Axa, Fatima, and Marién.
Moving.....B....Three lovely dark-skinned girls
They were going to pick olives.
…................B....y found them caught
Return..........to....in Jaén:
Chorus.....A....Axa and Fátima and Marién.
ANONYMOUS (c. 1520)
Christmas carol with hemistichs converted into verses:
I see the sheep
on the shores of the sea;
I don't see the pastor
ah... that makes me ponder.
I see the sheep
d.....riverbanks;
c.....do not see my desire
Oh sweet love of mine.
I look around
a.....from the cool pine grove:
I don't see the pastor
To... that makes me ponder.
JUAN DE TIMONEDA
While the popularity of the zájel or villancico was maintained, it often served choral singing: a
the soloist sang the verses, and at the end of each turn, the chorus, alerted by the rhyme, sang
the refrain. When in the 16th and 17th centuries the villancico, displaced by the seguidilla, began to lose
land in popular song, was preserved in the lyrics of cultured poets; many little verses of
Góngora, Lope de Vega or Quevedo perfectly fit their structure.