Incantare and the Mirandola Ensemble present Musical Landscapes Across the Americas, a program of music from the Spanish Americas and beyond. With Florida as its starting point, this concert expands to Spanish territories throughout the Americas, including sonorous polyphony, upbeat villancicos, and stately dances from Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, and the Iberian Peninsula.
In Spanish Florida, as in other parts of the Spanish Americas, western music was taught as part of a conversion method. Europeans were shocked and scandalized by indigenous music, which celebrated cultural practices—such as the veneration of women and unashamed eroticism—that threatened European hierarchies. Polyphony had no such presumption, and it was used as a tool to draw indigenous tribes away from their native religions, albeit with varied success. On the other hand, it was sometimes welcomed into indigenous musical culture, where it was adopted and honed alongside traditional musical practices.
Whether for good or bad--probably both--the Catholic missions of the New World were a fulcrum for cultural change. In them, the Iberian priests introduced polyphony that used western modes and intervals in note-against-note lines in praise of the Catholic god. Music manuscript collections and western musical instruments were sent to the Americas on ships. In the missions, indigenous communities learned to sing, play, and compose music in the European style. This cultural blending extended throughout the Americas. Today, it is a deeply ingrained musical tradition in these lands.
Musical Landscapes Across the Americas presents a small slice of this music, featuring works by Guerrero, Rimonte, Encina, Franco, and many others. While some of the composers presented on this program never stepped foot in the Americas, their music is representative of that which would have been performed here. Click for
here for the program and
here for the program notes.
This event will be held as part of the American Musicological Society’s Many Musics of America Project.