In Spain and Latin America, Christmas is not nearly as important as Epiphany, or Los Tres Reyes, the holiday of Three Kings Day. Los Tres Reyes falls on January 6 and is the big day of gifts for children in Hispanic cultures. If you count the twelve days of Christmas, this holiday falls on the twelfth day.
Various customs have arisen around the world to help celebrate the occasion. For example, Puerto Rican children put a box with freshly cut grass in a box under their beds on the evening of the fifth of January. The idea behind this sweet custom is that the wise men’s horses (there being no camels in Puerto Rico) will have something to eat on their long journey. This is the Puerto Rican equivalent of the custom in the USA of leaving cookies for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.
The town of Juana Díaz (near the southern coastal city of Ponce) holds Puerto Rico’s largest, oldest, and most famous festival for this holiday, with a tradition spanning more than 130 years. Juana Díaz even has a museum in honor of this important Puerto Rican tradition, the first one in the world dedicated to this history.
We will dive into this Puerto Rican tradition for one of our songs, “De Tierra Lejana Venimos” (“From a Far-Off Land”), from Sounds Good Choir’s Fall 2024 session. The identity of the tune’s composer is lost to us. Linda Powell (who conducts our Oak Park/River Forest choir and selects repertoire with me), and I really like this arrangement by Sondra Tucker, an experienced choral-music composer from Texas. Sondra Tucker also has an extensive catalog of arrangements for handbell choir.
Essentially, the lyrics are in the voice of the three kings, who are serenading the star in the east from the Christmas story, giving thanks to the star for guiding them to the infant Jesus. The refrain reads as follows:
Oh brillante estrella que anuncias la aurora,
O brilliant star that announces the heavens,
no nos falte nunca tu luz bienhechora.
may we never lack your beneficial light.
Gloria en las alturas al Hijo de Dios;
Glory in the highest to the Son of God;
gloria en las alturas y en la tierra amor.
Glory in the highest, and love on earth.
The idea of the three kings singing to the star is similar to that in our English-language carol, “We Three Kings” (thanks to Sandy for reminding me of that parallel narrative voice). I especially like the phrase, “en la tierra amor,” which replaces the more familiar wish for “peace on earth” with “love on earth.” We could use more of both of these right now in our world, but if I had to pick one, I’d go for love.
We’ll be singing the four verses in English and the four-line refrain above in Spanish (with lots of coaching, including a spoken demo from yours truly on our YouTube channel and website). Thanks to our executive director, Anne Schankin, for her help with improving my Spanish pronunciation.
To get you better acquainted with this lovely tune:
- Here’s the publisher demo for the version by Sondra Tucker, which we’ll be doing (our practice tracks are currently in production).
- Here’s a zippy vocal-jazz rendition by the German a cappella quintet, Calmus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql-Hm6C_ULA
In addition to the sweet tradition of leaving food for the horses, there’s also the much rowdier tradition in Puerto Rico for this holiday—the parranda, a raucous procession from house to house (starting around 10 pm) where people wake up the residents and demand food and libations.
Back in Sounds Good Choir’s early years, we did my version of the carol that stems from the parranda, a rollicking tune called “Si no me dan de beber lloro” (“If you don’t give me anything to drink, I’ll cry”). I learned about both of these Puerto Rican carols from my longtime friend and colleague, Dr. Benjamin Rivera, an accomplished choral conductor whose serves as assistant conductor of the Chicago Symphony Chorus and has prepared choirs for the Grant Park Music Festival and the St. Louis Symphony Chorus. He also is the music director at Chicago’s Church of the Ascension and chorus director/conductor of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic. After Benjamin pointed me to these two songs about ten years ago, I first arranged them for Chicago a cappella to perform them in concert; it was fun to adapt my a cappella version for our choirs by adding a piano part and a somewhat goofy English translation.
Happy listening, and enjoy this wonderful tune for our upcoming program!
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