villancicon.

1822 J. B. White Lett. from Spain ix. 327 The music..was..used in a species of dramatic interludes in the vulgar tongue, which were sung, not acted, at certain intervals of the service. These pieces had the name of Villancicos, from Villano, a Clown, shepherds and shepherdesses being the interlocutors in these pastorals.

1849 G. Ticknor Hist. Spanish Lit. I. xxiii. 440 The ‘Villancicos’ that follow—songs in the old Spanish measure with a refrain and occasionally short verses broken in—are more agreeable, and sometimes are not without merit.

1876 J. Stainer & W. A. Barrett Dict. Musical Terms 446/2 Villancico (Sp.), a species of song of two or more stanzas, each containing seven lines, belonging to the poetry of the 15th century, which, like the madrigal, is of an epigrammatic form—formerly very popular in Spain... Those motets which are sung during high mass on Christmas-eve are always called Villancicos.

1937 M. N. Hamilton Music in 18th Cent. Spain 5 In Eslava there were references to villancicos, which during the eighteenth century seemed to be the routine accomplishment of every chapel master.

1959 Collins' Mus. Encycl. 701/1 Villancico... (1) A type of song..current in Spain in the late 15th and 16th cent. It is characterized by the fact that it begins with a refrain, which is subsequently repeated after each verse... (2) In the 17th and 18th cent. a cantata for soli and chorus with instrumental accompaniment, frequently on the subject of Christmas. (3) In modern Spanish a Christmas carol.

1968 New Oxf. Hist. Music IV. iv. 135 In earlier times courtly love had been a favourite theme for villancicos... In the later fifteenth century a more popular tone invaded villancicos... The increasing number of religious villancicos found in the sixteenth century points towards the transformation of the form in the seventeenth century into an extended sacred cantata.

1980 Early Mus. Gaz. Jan. 16/1 The three papers are:..Manuel Carlos de Brito on ‘A little-known collection of Portuguese Baroque Villancicos and Romances’; [etc.].