Music and Urban Society in Colonial Latin America

The Spanish colonial project in Latin America from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries was distinctly urban in focus. The impact of the written word on this process was explored in ngel Rama's seminal book The Lettered City, and much has been written by historians of art and architecture on its visible manifestations, yet the articulation of sound, urban geography and colonial power - 'the resounding city' - has been passed over in virtual silence. This collection of essays by leading scholars examines the role of music in Spanish colonial urbanism in the New World and explores the urban soundscape and music profession as spheres of social contact, conflict, and negotiation. The contributors demonstrate the role of music as a vital constituent part of the colonial city, as Rama did for writing, and therefore illustrate how musicology may illuminate and take its place in the broader field of Latin American urban history.

Author: Geoffrey Baker
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 02/12/2010
Pages: 392
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 2.05lbs
Size: 9.80h x 6.90w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9780521766869

About the Author
Baker, Geoffrey: - Geoffrey Baker is a Senior Lecturer in the music department, Royal Holloway, University of London. He has published Imposing Harmony: Music and Society in Colonial Cuzco (2008) and his essays on music in colonial Peru have appeared in Early Music, the Latin American Music Review, Il Saggiatore Musicale and Revista Andina. His research also encompasses Cuban popular music and music education in Cuba and Venezuela.Knighton, Tess: - Tess Knighton is a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, and is Editor of the Boydell Press's Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Music series. Her research interests focus on music and culture in early modern Spain, Portugal and the New World and she has taught and published widely in these fields. Recent publications include Devotional Music in the Iberian World, 1450-1800, coedited with Alvaro Torrente, which won the 2008 Robert Stevenson Award.