Lavaba la blanca niña (La vuelta del marido)

This is a fragment of a romance based on the theme of “the husband’s return” (Armistead 1978: topic I1) that used to be sung on the day when the wool was washed. It depicts a scene of an encounter near a water stream (in ballads, water is a common symbol for love and fertility): a woman, washing and crying, meets a passing knight who, at the end of the romance, reveals himself as her husband. In the dialogue that unfolds, while he is still in disguise, he tests her fidelity during his absence. The choice of this romance for this occasion is clear for two reasons: the situation of washing depicted in it and the validation of marital fidelity as a core social value. This romance, as many others, is sung in concatenation; while two musical phrases are repeated many times in an AB/AB/AB pattern, the second line of each verse is always repeated as the first line of the next strophe in an AB/ BC/CD/DE scheme. The lengthening of the song’s performance by this pattern of repetition fits the time-consuming task of washing and drying the wool.