Villancicos, tonos del Niño y otras músicas ecuatorianas de culto al nacimiento de Cristo

Abstract

Villancicos, chanzonetas, cachuas, chigualos, tonos del Niño cuencanos and tonos del Niño riobambeños, are reviewed in this article as genres and musical pieces with their own aesthetics and contexts, developed in Ecuador as a product of the intricate relations of musical power between Western, indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian cultures; therefore, the general objective is to consider each genre or musical piece dedicated to the cult of the birth of Jesus Christ, as a specific semiotic sound element and not as part of a set of pieces, product of variations of Western music. The selected methodology to obtain the objective uses ethnographic, musicological, historical, diachronic and synchronous and semiotic research techniques, resulting in the identification of singular musical elements of great transcultural richness in each genre, in the same way, they have been recognized meanings of complex diversity, as well as unequal, racist and sexist sociocultural realities, but also codes of other knowledge. The discussion and conclusions offer references so that each investigated musical genre is recognized as autonomous with its own sound and aesthetic construction.