ABSTRACT
The first systematic and comprehensive analysis of the structure and form of the villancico was the classic study by Antonio Sánchez Romeralo [1969]. However, this was limited to the poetico-musical genre as it developed in the 15th and 16th centuries. Yet it was undoubtedly in the 17th century that the villancico experienced greatest structural and formal diversity and complexity, as Joseph Vicéns pointed out in the new section dedicated to the villancico’s various formal possibilities he added to his 1703 edition of Rengifo’s Arte poética:
Following the general rules for villancicos, it would seem appropriate to draw attention to some singularities that may advance the subject further; thus it must be assumed that some villancicos consist of an introduction, refrain and verses, others only of refrain and verses, others of introduction, refrain and recitative, others of refrain and recitative, others only of recitative, and others only of verses. 1
