Colonial Music: The bassoon

In earlier posts * we have drawn attention to the portrayal of musicians and musical instruments in colonial art, primarily in paintings and murals.
   In this post we focus on one unusual instrument that occasionally features in these portrayals: the early bassoon, known in colonial times as the bajón or bajoncillo.

This portable wind instrument was employed in procession and in church music, often to echo vocal parts in polyphonic arrangements. Here we illustrate examples of such portrayals, some in the Michoacan region and elsewhere:

Nurio

Nurio
Perhaps the most sophisticated portrayal is that in the under choir at Nurio in the Sierra Tarasca of western Michoacan, thought to be the work of an accomplished Mexico City painter circa 1700, where a series of eight mural panels shows angels playing traditional colonial church instruments. These include the strings on the south wall: harp, guitar, mandolin and viol; and wind instruments on the north wall with an organ, bajon, sackbut and a chirimia or shawm.

Cocucho

Cocucho
The portrait at nearby Cocucho is more folkloric in style, probably dating a half century or so later. As at Nurio, the murals line the under choir with wind and strings appearing on the north and south walls in turn. Here the musicians are dressed as archangels, lending greater authority.
The Bassoonist is accompanied again by a chirimia and a horn.

Tabi

Tabí
This recently restored portrayal of an angelic bajonista is found in the elevated camarín of the church in Yucatan and may also date from the mid to late 1700s.  It is also popular in style and is accompanied by a chirimia and singing angels. Painted to accompany serenades to the venerated Virgin of Tabí.

Tabi

 

San Gabriel Azteca
This portrayal of a bajonista appears with other celestial angelic players in the baptistry ceiling of this church in Hidalgo State.

San Agustín, Querétaro
Our last example is one of a group of statues atop the drum supporting the dome of this monastic church in the city of Querétaro. Although damaged, it again portrays an archangel playing what appears to be a bassoon. Other musicians include viol and mandolin players.

There may be other portrayals of bajonistas in Mexican colonial art, and we welcome any intelligence as to their whereabouts.
* Ziracuaretiro; Jaracuaro; Tizatlan; Naranja; Pomacuarán; 

text © 2019 Richard D. Perry

images © by the author and Niccolo Brooker