Leonardo Waisman, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba & CONICET, Argentina
Simón Bolívar Chair, University of Cambridge
Why did Indians sing?
The appropriation of European musical practices by South-American natives in the Jesuit missions
The role of music in the process of “spiritual conquest” of the natives of the Paraguay province was paramount. Why did this transplanted European practice take such healthy roots? Through close reading of Jesuit sources, we look at local cultures and at circumstances of their encounter with the European Other for forces that channelled the reception and later appropriation of the colonizer’s music; we provide suggestions and partial hypotheses meant to illuminate this process and the later fortune (until the 21st Century) of the repertoire in Indian hands and voices.
Followed by wine reception to welcome all new students, staff and friends of CLAS
ALL WELCOME
