villancico, genre of Spanish song, most prevalent in the Renaissance but found also in earlier and later periods. It is a poetic and musical form and was sung with or without accompanying instruments. Originally a folk song, frequently with a devotional song or love poem as text, it developed into an art music genre.
The villancico consisted of two parts, beginning with the refrain, or estribillo, which alternates with the stanza, or copla. The copla has two parts, the mudanza and the vuelta. The vuelta rhymes with the last line of the mudanza but is sung to the melody of the estribillo. This overlap of poetic and musical form is characteristic of the villancico.
The villancico repertory of the late 15th–early 16th centuries is found in several cancioneros, or song collections. The pieces were in three or four voice parts, the musical texture being either homophonic (chordal) or contrapuntal. An important composer was Juan del Encina. Around 1500, settings of villancicos as solo songs accompanied by vihuela, a guitar-shaped lute, appeared, some in Portuguese as well as Spanish. Composers included some of the great masters of the vihuela, such as Luis Milán and Miguel de Fuenllana.
The villancico of the 17th century has a sacred text, often for Christmas. The estribillo, elaborately written in four-part polyphony, alternates with coplas, short, simple, four-line songs with organ accompaniment. Other instruments are frequently included. In the 18th century this form expanded into a dramatic cantata with arias and choruses. In the 20th century the use of the term is restricted to the Spanish Christmas carol.