Misa Campesina Nicaragüense

Kyrie from the Misa Campesina
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Kyrie from the Misa Campesina

Today I’m playing another piece from the Misa Campesina, the Kyrie. Like the other parts of the Misa Campesina, this song combines the normal parts of the mass with ideas of liberation theology which can be seen from the lyrics:

Cristo, Cristo Jesús,
identifícate con nosotros
Christ, Christ Jesus,
identify with us
Señor, Señor mi diós,
identifícate con nosotros
Lord, Lord my God,
identify with us
Cristo, Cristo Jesús, solidarízate
Christ, Christ Jesus, build solidarity
No con la clase opresora
que exprime y devora la comunidad
Not with the opressors
who squeeze and devour the community
Sino con el oprimido,
con el pueblo mío sediento de paz
Rather with the oppressed,
with my people, thirsting for peace

I hope you enjoy another piece from the Misa Campesina. Here are two other versions of this song: a more traditional one and a pop version which was the version I first heard. Both are quite different from my piano version!

My Misa Campesina recordings can be found here. To hear all of my June songs, click here. If it’s your first time on the site, find out more about why I’m trying to record a piano tune every day here.

Canto de Entrada (Misa Campesina)
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Canto de Entrada (Misa Campesina)

A couple of weeks ago I played the Canto de Meditación from the Misa Campesina Nicaragüense, and I’m returning to this Nicaraguan folk mass today to play the Canto de Entrada, the entrance song. This song came to mind in particular this week when we were recording an episode of Coffee Break Spanish and talking about the use of the pronoun vos which is used in some parts of Latin America (including Nicaragua) instead of tú. Vos has its own conjugation, and this varies from country to country, but the one irregular verb in the vos form is vos sos  – “you are” – from the verb ser, which in standard Spanish would be tú eres. The song begins, vos sos el Dios de los pobres – “you are the God of the poor”. It goes on:

el Dios humano y sencillo
the human and simple God;
el Dios que suda en la calle
     the God who sweats in the street;
el Dios de rostro curtido
     the God of the weathered face.
Por eso es que te hablo yo
     that’s why I talk to you
así como habla mi pueblo
     just as how my village speaks;
porque sos el Dios obrero
     because you are the worker God,
el Cristo trabajador
     the hard working Christ.

I hope you enjoy this piece from the Misa Campesina. If you’re looking for an original performance from the Hermanos Mejía Godoy, here’s a version from a concert in Managua in 2010.

Canto de Meditación (Misa Campesina)
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Canto de Meditación (Misa Campesina)

Today’s song is the Canto de Meditación from Carlos Mejía Godoy’s Misa Campesina Nicaragüense. Perhaps not the most well known tune I’ve played, but this song and in fact the whole of the Misa Campesina is a personal favourite.  I was introduced to the Misa Campesina while studying Latin American music with Mike González at Glasgow University and ended up doing a special study on it as part of my degree.

The Misa Campesina combined Nicaraguan folk music with liberation theology and was composed in the artistic community of Solentiname in the southern end of Lake Nicaragua. Given the non-conformist lyrics the mass was quickly banned by the church in Nicaragua. However it grew in popularity as it was used at clandestine celebrations which spread through the country.

This particular song’s lyrics include the following lines:

Before the day breaks
the birds of the mountains
give us their melodies,
their guises and zenzontes.
The sonorous pecking
of a carpenter is heard
who is constructing his house
in the top of a tree,
and a sparrow jumps
from one branch to another, nearby.

Just like these little birds,
today I sing to you, Lord,
and ask you to unite us
in strength and in love.
I praise you a thousand times
because you were also a rebel,
fighting night and day
against the injustice of humanity.

If you’re interested, here’s a video of the original complete with Spanish lyrics to sing along.