Customer Reviews

Merry Navidad!: Christmas Carols in Spanish and English/Villancicos en espanol e ingles

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I gave this book four stars because the title and description may lead people to expect a collection of carol words with music. Otherwise, I feel that it is a perfect introduction to Christmas as it is celebrated in Spanish-speaking countries (Spain and Latin America). Unlike other books on the subject which restrict their coverage to Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean, Merry Navidad has villancicos from Peru, Chile and Argentina, as well as countries to the north. The illustrations are adorable. I specially like the drawings in the margins, which really add to the content.

For people who expect a carol collection like the American carol books they are used to, a collection of villancicos can be a problem. I grew up in Chile myself, and villancicos were a major part of my family's Christmas celebration. They were sung by three generations of my family on Christmas Eve, accompanied by guitar, drums, and other musical instruments. Even though we knew dozens of villancicos, we didn't learn a single one from a musical score. They were either learned directly from someone else or from a recording. I believe this is normal throughout Latin America and the result is that, unlike American carols, villancicos have not yet become standardized. Even when the same words are used, they will sound quite different from one part of the hispanic world to another, because they are sung to different tunes and have different refrains. May be this is why the authors decided not to restrict themselves to one tune per song, and left it up to the readers to supply the music.
I am sure there is a need for a book of villancicos with piano accompaniment and maybe choral settings. I just hope it won't mark the end of the villancico as an oral tradition, in all its variety.

The focus of this book is not musical interpretation but acknowledging and synthesizing the complexity of the eclectic nationalities that fall under the generalized North American term "Hispanic." An introduction and nine brief holiday descriptions create a rich cultural context for nineteen poetic verses.

Merry Navidad makes a thoughtful gift for families steeped in the merging Spanish/English speaking world, promoting cultural awareness and understanding in a linguistically inclusive format. Whether your child speaks Spanish, English, or learning both simultaneously, this book validates the importance of linguistic heritage and honors the emotional tie that we have both to language and holiday traditions.

My anticipations dashed, I wonder about the rest of you. Would you expect this book to contain singable songs? I did. It has page after page of lyrics. This reminds me of the time I attempted to buy cymbals on e-bay and a single metal disc arrived. Querying the seller about how he happened to describe the item as "cymbals, " he replied (in what seemed as best I could guess from his writing style) with a combination of incredulity, annoyance and contempt: "Of course it's just one cymbal! What would you need two for?" He hadn't heard of "singular and "plural" (I asked). Or John Philip Sousa, it seems. Similarly, Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy seem unfamiliar with the convention of considering "Crhistman Carols" and "Villancicos" to mean words with music. Merry Navidad was designed to look like a song book, and, really, I think it ought to be one. There are in fact six songs (with melody, no piano notation) tacked at the end of the book after sixty pages of introductory material and lyric after lyric. Then too, Suni Paz, the "musical consultant," is I believe a genuinely first rate authority on Central and South American folk music. To the good, as far as this goes-- as in not far enough. (Actually, including the six melodies perplexed me further-- why include six? Why include any?) Though pretty, and I suppose cheerfully intended, the book is, according to me at any rate, both deceptive and next to useless, unless of course what you want is what you'll get.