Indian Music to Celebrate Christmas in Moxo Jesuit Reductions, Bolivia

Abstract

The subject of Indian music and Indian influence on baroque music from the former Jesuit Reductions in South America needs new studies, and what has been said on this matter up to now by musicologists and ethnomusicologists needs revision. The finding of almost 13,000 pages of baroque music from the Chiquito and Moxo Reductions in Bolivia gives us new opportunity to clarify Native American’s attitude toward music introduced in the missions by the missionaries and to illustrate their influence on music created or written anew in the missions by the missionaries and local musicians. In the context of music for Christmas celebration a serious of arguments are discussed to clarify the presence of “Indian” components in the baroque music from America, as well as coexistence of autochthonous and “new music” in the missions.