Ester Nelly Abuter Ananías - Fachbereich Philosophie und ...

Chad Gasta ( Iowa State University, World Languages and Cultures, Ames, u sa )
Travelogues and Eye-Witness Testimony : Illuminating Indigenous Musical
Cultural Spaces for a European Readership
Recent archival discoveries in Bolivia have illuminated two of the New World’s fi rst
operas, San Ignacio de Loyola ( 1717-1726 ) by the Italian Jesuit composer Domenico
Zipoli, and San Francisco Xavier by an unknown composer who lived among the
Jesuits. Th ese operas are cultural and ideological forces exemplifying the European
artistic and philosophical change from the Baroque to the Enlightenment and
illuminating the activity in Jesuit missions. And since they were conceived, played,
sung, and staged by Indians in the shadow of the Jesuits, music and performance
can be viewed as cross-cultural ideological tools in the process of evangelization.
As a result of these links, European style sacred musical pieces were passed from
generation to generation, and prized over other works, and they even outlasted the
groups that created them. Th e stories of Indian musical accomplishments made
their way back to Europe as travel missives to family and friends, reports to the
Jesuits’ headquarters in Rome, and personal diary accounts. Sometimes the stories
were anecdotal, such as how young boys perfected certain instruments, but other
reports substantiated the success of music in the evangelization process to a skeptical
European readership. Indeed, popular stories widely circulated in European courts
describing extraordinarily talented Indian musicians who were said to be bett er than
their European counterparts. Other eye-witness accounts testifi ed to the Indians’
astonishing musical genius to play even the most diffi cult pieces. Th ese reports
bolstered the evangelization eff orts and popularized and legitimized the eff orts of the
Jesuits to Europeans.
Email gasta@iastate.edu
Section Travels Between Europe and Latin America ( 15th through 21st centuries )
Panel 22
Date July 28
Time 16 :45
Location l 116