Ríu Ríu Chíu, also known as Ríu Chíu, is a Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

 villancico

Villancico

The villancico was a common poetic and musical form of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America popular from the late 15th to 18th centuries. With the decline in popularity of the villancicos in the 20th century, the term became reduced to mean merely "Christmas carol"...

 that has attained some contemporary fame as a Christmas carol

Christmas carol

A Christmas carol is a carol whose lyrics are on the theme of Christmas or the winter season in general and which are traditionally sung in the period before Christmas.-History:...

.

Sources

The villancico is attributed by some sources to Mateo Flecha

Mateo Flecha

Mateo Flecha was a composer born in Catalonia, in the region of Prades. He is sometimes known as "El Viejo" to distinguish him from his nephew, Mateo Flecha "El Joven" , also a composer of madrigals...

 the Elder, who died in 1553; it has also been described as anonymous

Anonymity

Anonymity is derived from the Greek word ἀνωνυμία, anonymia, meaning "without a name" or "namelessness". In colloquial use, anonymity typically refers to the state of an individual's personal identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown.There are many reasons why a...

. The song also bears a strong resemblance to another villancico, Falalanlera, by Bartolomeu Càrceres, a Catalan

Catalonia

Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...

 composer. It is known from a single source, the Cancionero de Upsala

Cancionero de Upsala

The is the title commonly given to a volume of mostly anonymous Spanish music printed in Venice in 1556 and actually titled Villancicos de diuersos Autores, a dos, y a tres, y a quatro, y ya a cinco bozes...Venetiis, Apud Hieronymum Scotum, MDLVI...

, published in 1556 in Venice; a unique copy is preserved at the library of the University of Uppsala. The song appears as the fortieth song of that collection. Daniel R. Melamed described the song as "redoutable", and mentions it as a contender for the best known piece of Renaissance music

Renaissance music

Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance. Defining the beginning of the musical era is difficult, given that its defining characteristics were adopted only gradually; musicologists have placed its beginnings from as early as 1300 to as late as the 1470s.Literally meaning...

.

The nonsense syllables ríu ríu chíu are meant to represent the song of a nightingale

Nightingale

The Nightingale , also known as Rufous and Common Nightingale, is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher, Muscicapidae...

.

Themes

The basic theme of the song is the nativity of Christ and the Immaculate Conception

Immaculate Conception

The Immaculate Conception of Mary is a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, according to which the Virgin Mary was conceived without any stain of original sin. It is one of the four dogmata in Roman Catholic Mariology...

. The refrain which gives the villancico its title goes:


Ríu, ríu, chíu, la guarda ribera
Dios guardó del lobo a nuestra cordera

"Ríu, ríu, chíu, the river guards her (referring to the "Lamb"); God kept the wolf away from Our Lamb

Lamb of God

The title Lamb of God appears in the Gospel of John, with the exclamation of John the Baptist: "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" in John 1:29 when he sees Jesus....

."

The Immaculate Conception is mentioned in the lyrics:

El lobo rabioso la quiso morder
Más Dios Poderoso la supo defender
Quísola hacer que no pudiese pecar
Ni aun original esta virgen no tuviera.

"The raging wolf sought to bite her, but God Almighty knew to defend her; He chose to make her so that she could not sin; no original sin

Original sin

Original sin is, according to a Christian theological doctrine, humanity's state of sin resulting from the Fall of Man. This condition has been characterized in many ways, ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt, referred...

 was found in that virgin."

The song also mentions themes of the Incarnation

Incarnation

Incarnation literally means embodied in flesh or taking on flesh. It refers to the conception and birth of a sentient creature who is the material manifestation of an entity, god or force whose original nature is immaterial....

 and Christmas

Christmas

Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...

:


Éste que es nascido es el Gran Monarca
Cristo Patriarca de carne vestido
Ha nos redimido con se hacer chiquito
Aunque era infinito finito se hiciera.

"This one that is born is the Great King, Christ the Patriarch clothed in flesh. He redeemed us when He made himself small, though He was Infinite He would make himself finite."

Yo vi mil Garzones que andavan cantando
Por aqui volando haciendo mil sones
Diciendo a gascones Gloria sea en el Cielo
Y paz en el suelo pues Jesús nasciera.

"I saw a thousand boys (angels) go singing, here making a thousand voices while flying, telling the shepherds of glory in the heavens, and peace to the world since Jesus has been born"

Performances

Classical and early music

Early music

Early music is generally understood as comprising all music from the earliest times up to the Renaissance. However, today this term has come to include "any music for which a historically appropriate style of performance must be reconstructed on the basis of surviving scores, treatises,...

 performers of the song include the Boston Camerata

Boston Camerata

The Boston Camerata is an early music ensemble based in Boston, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1954 by Narcissa Williamson, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, as an adjunct to that museum's musical instrument collection....

 and the Oxford Camerata. The song has crossed over to popular performance, and appears on Christmas themed collections, including David Archuleta

David Archuleta

David Archuleta, is a former United States Air Force Airman of Okinawan stationary troops and is currently an American male kickboxer.-Biography:...

's Christmas from the Heart, Sixpence None the Richer

Sixpence None the Richer

Sixpence None the Richer is an American rock/pop band that formed in New Braunfels, Texas, eventually settling in Nashville, Tennessee. They are best known for their songs "Kiss Me" and "Breathe Your Name" and their covers of "Don't Dream It's Over" and "There She Goes". The name of the band is...

's The Dawn of Grace

The Dawn of Grace

The Dawn of Grace is a Christmas album by the alternative rock/indie pop band Sixpence None the Richer. It was released on October 14, 2008...

, and an instrumental version on Bradley Joseph

Bradley Joseph

Bradley Joseph is an American composer, arranger, and producer of contemporary instrumental music. His compositions include works for orchestra, quartet, and solo piano, while his musical style ranges from "quietly pensive mood music to a rich orchestration of classical depth and breadth".Active...

's Christmas Around the World album. In 1967 The Monkees

The Monkees

The Monkees are an American pop rock group. Assembled in Los Angeles in 1966 by Robert "Bob" Rafelson and Bert Schneider for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966 to 1968, the musical acting quartet was composed of Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork,...

 performed the song live on a Christmas episode of their TV series

The Monkees (TV series)

The Monkees is an American situation comedy that aired on NBC from September 1966 to March 1968. The series follows the adventures of four young men trying to make a name for themselves as rock 'n roll singers. The show introduced a number of innovative new-wave film techniques to series...

, "The Monkees' Christmas Show". A studio version was released on subsiquent compiliation albums.