Review: Los libros de polifonía de la Catedral de México: Estudio y catálogo crítico, by Javier Marín López; Los papeles para Euterpe: La música en la Ciudad de México desde la historia cultural, siglo XIX, edited by Laura Suárez de la Torre; Carlos Chávez and His World, edited by Leonora Saavedra

Abstract

Los libros de polifonia de la Catedral de Mexico: Estudio y catalogo critico , by Javier Marin Lopez. 2 vols. Jaen: Servicio de Publicaciones, Universidad de Jaen; Madrid: Sociedad Espanola de Musicologia, 2012. xxiii, 1278 pp. Los papeles para Euterpe: La musica en la Ciudad de Mexico desde la historia cultural, siglo XIX , edited by Laura Suarez de la Torre. Mexico City: Instituto de Investigaciones Dr. Jose Luis Mora, Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia, 2014. 490 pp. Carlos Chavez and His World , edited by Leonora Saavedra. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015. xx, 360 pp. The three outstanding books on Mexican music under review here investigate many different musical repertoires, composers, performers, time periods, historical events, cultural practices, and political developments related to music over the five centuries from the mid-sixteenth century through the 1970s. Many of the changes that Mexico and her people experienced in that time are reflected in numerous ways in these books. All three volumes significantly enhance our understanding of the history of Mexican music and of music in Mexico, and present important new information and interpretations. Since the emphasis is primarily on art music repertoires, indigenous and mestizo folk and popular traditions—which are very significant—are included when they interact and coincide with the main topics covered. Scholars from Mexico, the United States, and Spain contributed to these publications. All three books will spark new performances of these musical repertoires, and increased interest in their histories. In Los libros de polifonia de la Catedral de Mexico: Estudio y catalogo critico , Spanish musicologist Javier Marin Lopez's magnificent two-volume study and thematic catalog of the early music composed and performed at Mexico City Cathedral, the author indexes in great detail all 563 multipartite Latin-texted works by twenty-one different composers preserved in the twenty-two large bound Mexico City polyphonic choirbooks that date from between 1584 and 1781. Marin also includes musical incipits for all …