Wallis Giunta - Canción de cuna para dormir a un negrito (Cinco canciones negras)

Wallis Giunta, mezzo soprano - www.wallisgiunta.com
Philip Mayers, piano
“Canción de cuna para dormir a un negrito” (Montsalvatge/Pereda Valdés)

In context, this is an art song about a mother and her young Black child within the system of slavery and colonial oppression that existed in late 19th c. Latin America, with poetry and music written by two White men.

This lullaby interprets the Afro-Cuban experience in the 19th c. and addresses themes of slavery and racial identity, with a text written by Uruguayan poet Ildefonso Pereda Valdés (1899-1996). A White, Hispanic professor of African-American literature, Pereda Valdés was also a prolific author himself, fostering the study and dissemination of Afro-Uruguayan culture and traditions, and serving as an ambassador for writers of African descent. His text here paints the picture of a small boy being sung to sleep by his mother (likely a slave herself), who acknowledges his mixed-racial background, and his future prospects within the Spanish colonial society they are both oppressed by.

The text translated from Spanish to English:
“Lullay, lullay, lullay, so small, little black boy who does not want to sleep. Coconut head, coffee bean, with pretty freckles, and wide eyes like two windows that look out to sea. Close your little eyes, frightened little Black boy; the white devil will no longer eat you up. You are no longer a slave! And if you sleep soundly, the master of the house promises to buy a suit with buttons to make you a “groom.” Lullay, lullay, lullay, sleep, little Black boy, coconut head, coffee bean.”

For a person of Black and White mixed race in colonial Latin America, their position in society was complicated, but provided an opportunity to escape slavery (officially abolished by Spanish royal decree on October 7, 1886).

“A caste system existed in Spanish America that revered pure “White blood” and automatically granted Whites full citizenship privileges. Next in the hierarchy were those of mixed blood, who could earn citizenship rights if they proved to have White blood even in a small percentage…the institution of slavery in Spanish America required White men to take on paternal roles of their mixed-race children” (Alice Henderson “Identity in Cinco Canciones Negras (1945) by Xavier Montsalvatge”)

The White, Catalan composer, Xavier Montsalvatge (1912-2002), used this piece and the 5-song cycle it evolved into (Cinco canciones negras) to interpret the suppressed voices of Spanish colonial minorities. Montsalvatge wrote this shortly after fleeing his homeland of Catalonia and living as a refugee in France during the occupation of Spain by Franco and the nationalist party.

Recorded: Sydney Opera House, Australia, December 2019
Recording Engineer: Joel Stillone - www.stillonemedia.com
Audio/Video Editing: Wallis Giunta