Trans : Transcultural Music Review = Revista Transcultural de Música, 2020
Las investigaciones musicales en Centroamérica varían en su rigor metodológico, a menudo presenta... more Las investigaciones musicales en Centroamérica varían en su rigor metodológico, a menudo presentando un sesgo nacionalista que se ha visto reforzado en los marcos disciplinarios de la musicología histórica y la etnomusicología. Con base en dos ejemplos vinculados a estos campos de estudio —música colonial en Costa Rica y música indígena en Guatemala— el presente ensayo ofrece una reflexión sobre las contribuciones complementarias de la musicología y la etnomusicología a construcciones de nacionalismos que a menudo pasan por alto aspectos importantes de prácticas musicales e ignoran fenómenos que no se prestan a narrativas nacionalistas. Considerando la reciente vigencia de los modelos musicológicos y etnomusicológicos en el istmo, este ensayo también contempla el potencial centroamericano para aportar importantes entendimientos a temas musicales desde perspectivas transnacionales y multidisciplinarias, y propone acercamientos con campos que exploran otros fenómenos acústicos como los estudios sónicos y la lingüÍstica. - Studies of Central American music vary in their methodological rigor, and often show a nationalistic bias that has been strengthened through the disciplinary frameworks of historical musicology and ethnomusicology. Based on two examples related to these fields of study —colonial music in Costa Rica and indigenous music in Guatemala— the following essay reflects on the complementary musicological and ethnomusicological contributions to constructions of nationalisms that often overlook important aspects of musical practices and ignore phenomena that do not fit nationalistic narratives. Considering the recent importance of the musicological and ethnomusicological frameworks on the isthmus, the essay also contemplates the Central American potential to contribute important insights on musical topics from transnational and multidisciplinary perspectives, proposing interactions with fields that explore other acoustical phenomena such as sound studies and linguistics
Advocates for music curricula reform call for programs of study that better address the concerns ... more Advocates for music curricula reform call for programs of study that better address the concerns of professional musicians, engage the musical traditions of local communities, increase global awareness, and advance social justice. While global approaches to music history studies can address these goals, finding ways to broaden the scope of music history courses beyond the Western canon while also fulfilling curricular expectations that require knowledge of the canon is a challenge for many instructors. When considering how to expand courses to meet the goals above, I propose instructors prioritize the needs of the students and communities their institutions serve. In this article, I share my experience teaching music history at a large Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in the United States. I employ a transatlantic perspective to broaden the historical context in which the canonic repertoires of Western Europe developed and include a wider diversity of musical practices, all while highlighting content relevant to the backgrounds and aspirations of local students. This article presents examples from graduate and undergraduate courses initially designed to survey the music of Western Europe as part of a traditional conservatory-style curriculum. My recent iterations of these courses explore intersections of European musical traditions with music in the Western Hemisphere to advance the aforementioned goals of curricular reform in an environment where completely redesigning the music history sequence is not a practical option at present.
This article uses concepts of Occidentalism and the musical analysis of a funerary responsory by ... more This article uses concepts of Occidentalism and the musical analysis of a funerary responsory by nineteenth-century Guatemalan composer Benedicto Sáenz (1807-1857) to examine possible reasons why music from nineteenth-century Latin America remains relatively neglected in the region and beyond, unlike the better explored repertoires from colonial times and from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Based on Latin American postcolonial notions of Occidentalism as the construction of the Western Hemisphere by Western Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and analysis of Sáenzs responsory Libera Me within the context of changing political, social, and musical trends in nineteenth-century Guatemala, I argue that nineteenth-century music in Latin America reflects local struggles to engage with two competing models of European modernity: the “first modernity” of the Spanish colonial empire and the “second modernity” of the Enlightenment, Liberalism, and the French Revolution. Responding to influences from both modernities, Libera Me expresses local European habiti that do not fit Orientalist narratives of Latin American Otherness or nationalist narratives of local distinctiveness which have influenced the musical historiography in the region.
In this dissertation I explore musical importations in early twentieth-century Guatemala, particu... more In this dissertation I explore musical importations in early twentieth-century Guatemala, particularly the fox trot, and their relationship to notions of cosmopolitanism, race, and national identity. Although Guatemalans may boast that the son is their national music—a genre often associated with local indigenous traditions—examination of the national marimba repertoire reveals that its most predominant styles derive from foreign music and dances that circulated transnationally in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Such a realization raises questions about the role of indigeneity in national discourse. I argue that Ladinos (non-indigenous or mixed Guatemalans) imported the fox trot and other musical forms to construct a national identity predicated on racialized notions of modernity and cosmopolitanism. The fox trot, a dance derived from African-American ragtime traditions, enjoyed worldwide popularity for nearly two decades due in part to its ability to mediate constructs of whiteness and blackness that fit presentist ideas of modernity: blackness represented a primitive alterity while whiteness evoked a modern and civilized society. Analyses of racial discourse among Ladinos and its implications for the national instrument (chapter 2), the stylistic features of Guatemalan national repertoire (chapter 3), and the subjects that locally-composed fox trots reference through titles, cover art, and musical styles (chapters 4 and 5) demonstrate that many elements of the fox trot, along with their connotations of modernity and race, resonated with the cosmopolitan sensibilities of Ladinos. Their preference for international as opposed to local forms suggest a fundamental ambivalence towards indigeneity and its centrality to national culture.
In the recent volume Nineteenth-Century Choral Music edited by Donna M. Di Grazia (2013), the Cen... more In the recent volume Nineteenth-Century Choral Music edited by Donna M. Di Grazia (2013), the Central American repertoire occupies three brief paragraphs while individual European composers such as Mendelssohn and Berlioz take several chapters. Walter Clark explains that historical events such as the Napoleonic wars in Europe and independence movements in the New World contributed to the loss of much of the choral music from Iberia and Latin America. Postcolonial theories further posit that historiographical silences manifest power dynamics inherent in the construction of historical narratives. Accordingly, the neglect of scholarship and performance of Guatemalan 19th-century choral music surpasses archival lacunae; it reflects ideological trends in the 19th-century that undermined the value of such music, and represents the present-day orientation of performance and scholarship. Based on analysis of the unpublished parts of the funerary responsory Libera Me for choir and orchestra by Benedicto Sáenz (Sr.? 1780-1831), I explore reasons why 19th-century choral music from Guatemala remains obscure. Relating the stylistic elements of the Libera Me to sociopolitical changes in Guatemala (independence and liberalism), changing notions of music as art, and postcolonial critiques of music scholarship, I argue that although Guatemalan 19th-century sacred music does not fit the exoticist conceptions of the past or nationalist ideologies of the 20th century, it still constitutes a musical legacy that can enrich our understanding of the trajectories and transformations European repertoires in the Americas.
In this dissertation I explore musical importations in early twentieth-century Guatemala, particu... more In this dissertation I explore musical importations in early twentieth-century Guatemala, particularly the fox trot, and their relationship to notions of cosmopolitanism, race, and national identity. Although Guatemalans may boast that the son is their national music—a genre often associated with local indigenous traditions—examination of the national marimba repertoire reveals that its most predominant styles derive from foreign music and dances that circulated transnationally in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Such a realization raises questions about the role of indigeneity in national discourse. I argue that Ladinos (non-indigenous or mixed Guatemalans) imported the fox trot and other musical forms to construct a national identity predicated on racialized notions of modernity and cosmopolitanism. The fox trot, a dance derived from African-American ragtime traditions, enjoyed worldwide popularity for nearly two decades due in part to its ability to mediate constructs of whiteness and blackness that fit presentist ideas of modernity: blackness represented a primitive alterity while whiteness evoked a modern and civilized society. Analyses of racial discourse among Ladinos and its implications for the national instrument (chapter 2), the stylistic features of Guatemalan national repertoire (chapter 3), and the subjects that locally-composed fox trots reference through titles, cover art, and musical styles (chapters 4 and 5) demonstrate that many elements of the fox trot, along with their connotations of modernity and race, resonated with the cosmopolitan sensibilities of Ladinos. Their preference for international as opposed to local forms suggest a fundamental ambivalence towards indigeneity and its centrality to national culture.
In studies of music and nationalism in Latin America, the process of appropriating indigenous cul... more In studies of music and nationalism in Latin America, the process of appropriating indigenous cultural practices as emblems of the nation, known as indigenismo, constitutes a dominant narrative. Nevertheless, works by Thomas Turino and others suggest that we should also consider the less explored concept of cosmopolitanism as a significant component of national identity. In this paper, I seek to contribute to the emergent engagement with cosmopolitanism by examining the fox trot in Guatemala, a genre that marimba ensembles perform to this day along with folkloric and classical musical traditions. By examining the place of the fox trot in the marimba repertory, I argue that the ladino (non-indigenous) appropriation of the marimba should not be read only as a step in the deployment of indigenismo, but also as an example of the cosmopolitan dimension of Guatemalan national identity. Based on recent archival findings, I first highlight possible meanings of fox trots among Guatemalan ladinos in the early 20th century. I then illustrate the incorporation of the fox trot in the marimba repertory with the well-documented case of the Hurtado brothers’s marimba ensemble. Reflecting on the Hurtado’s professional trajectory, I highlight how cosmopolitan and nationalist discourses intersect through marimba musical repertories and practices. Finally, using cases from ethnographic research, I suggest that cosmopolitan concerns remain present among ladino marimba players today, and address some implications of this form of nationalist discourse.
Tanto en el noratlántico como en Centroamérica, los estudios musicales permanecen al margen de di... more Tanto en el noratlántico como en Centroamérica, los estudios musicales permanecen al margen de discusiones académicas a pesar de la riqueza hermenéutica, semiótica, estética y cultural de los medios musicales. Además, los enfoques teóricos y metodológicos que la musicología y la etnomusicología han importado de legados colonialistas agravan la posición de estudios musicales centroamericanos dentro de los cánones académicos locales e internacionales. En este trabajo propongo diagnosticar la causa de la posición marginal de la música y de los estudios musicales centroamericanos, estudiando la problemática de representación de la música guatemalteca en el ámbito académico. Sostengo que la academia noratlántica le ha prestado muy poca atención a la investigación musical en Guatemala debido a las prioridades epistemológicas tradicionales de la musicología y la etnomusicología. También sostengo que los estudios musicales se encuentran en una posición ventajosa que les permite la exploración de campos transdisciplinarios. Con el fin de llevar a cabo este diagnóstico y proponer soluciones tentativas, (1) comparto mi experiencia personal en los Estados Unidos, la cual me ha permitido evaluar el trabajo “musicológico” de Guatemala y su relación con la academia estadounidense, (2) examino la representación de la producción musical guatemalteca en estudios extranjeros resaltando los límites de las disciplinas musicológicas convencionales, y (3) concluyo reflexionando acerca del potencial aporte transdisciplinario que podría resultar de esta marginalización.
Latin American Music Review, Volume 37, Number 2, Fall/Winter 2016, pp. 253-256 (Review).
Publis... more Latin American Music Review, Volume 37, Number 2, Fall/Winter 2016, pp. 253-256 (Review).
Trans : Transcultural Music Review = Revista Transcultural de Música, 2020
Las investigaciones musicales en Centroamérica varían en su rigor metodológico, a menudo presenta... more Las investigaciones musicales en Centroamérica varían en su rigor metodológico, a menudo presentando un sesgo nacionalista que se ha visto reforzado en los marcos disciplinarios de la musicología histórica y la etnomusicología. Con base en dos ejemplos vinculados a estos campos de estudio —música colonial en Costa Rica y música indígena en Guatemala— el presente ensayo ofrece una reflexión sobre las contribuciones complementarias de la musicología y la etnomusicología a construcciones de nacionalismos que a menudo pasan por alto aspectos importantes de prácticas musicales e ignoran fenómenos que no se prestan a narrativas nacionalistas. Considerando la reciente vigencia de los modelos musicológicos y etnomusicológicos en el istmo, este ensayo también contempla el potencial centroamericano para aportar importantes entendimientos a temas musicales desde perspectivas transnacionales y multidisciplinarias, y propone acercamientos con campos que exploran otros fenómenos acústicos como los estudios sónicos y la lingüÍstica. - Studies of Central American music vary in their methodological rigor, and often show a nationalistic bias that has been strengthened through the disciplinary frameworks of historical musicology and ethnomusicology. Based on two examples related to these fields of study —colonial music in Costa Rica and indigenous music in Guatemala— the following essay reflects on the complementary musicological and ethnomusicological contributions to constructions of nationalisms that often overlook important aspects of musical practices and ignore phenomena that do not fit nationalistic narratives. Considering the recent importance of the musicological and ethnomusicological frameworks on the isthmus, the essay also contemplates the Central American potential to contribute important insights on musical topics from transnational and multidisciplinary perspectives, proposing interactions with fields that explore other acoustical phenomena such as sound studies and linguistics
Advocates for music curricula reform call for programs of study that better address the concerns ... more Advocates for music curricula reform call for programs of study that better address the concerns of professional musicians, engage the musical traditions of local communities, increase global awareness, and advance social justice. While global approaches to music history studies can address these goals, finding ways to broaden the scope of music history courses beyond the Western canon while also fulfilling curricular expectations that require knowledge of the canon is a challenge for many instructors. When considering how to expand courses to meet the goals above, I propose instructors prioritize the needs of the students and communities their institutions serve. In this article, I share my experience teaching music history at a large Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in the United States. I employ a transatlantic perspective to broaden the historical context in which the canonic repertoires of Western Europe developed and include a wider diversity of musical practices, all while highlighting content relevant to the backgrounds and aspirations of local students. This article presents examples from graduate and undergraduate courses initially designed to survey the music of Western Europe as part of a traditional conservatory-style curriculum. My recent iterations of these courses explore intersections of European musical traditions with music in the Western Hemisphere to advance the aforementioned goals of curricular reform in an environment where completely redesigning the music history sequence is not a practical option at present.
This article uses concepts of Occidentalism and the musical analysis of a funerary responsory by ... more This article uses concepts of Occidentalism and the musical analysis of a funerary responsory by nineteenth-century Guatemalan composer Benedicto Sáenz (1807-1857) to examine possible reasons why music from nineteenth-century Latin America remains relatively neglected in the region and beyond, unlike the better explored repertoires from colonial times and from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Based on Latin American postcolonial notions of Occidentalism as the construction of the Western Hemisphere by Western Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and analysis of Sáenzs responsory Libera Me within the context of changing political, social, and musical trends in nineteenth-century Guatemala, I argue that nineteenth-century music in Latin America reflects local struggles to engage with two competing models of European modernity: the “first modernity” of the Spanish colonial empire and the “second modernity” of the Enlightenment, Liberalism, and the French Revolution. Responding to influences from both modernities, Libera Me expresses local European habiti that do not fit Orientalist narratives of Latin American Otherness or nationalist narratives of local distinctiveness which have influenced the musical historiography in the region.
In this dissertation I explore musical importations in early twentieth-century Guatemala, particu... more In this dissertation I explore musical importations in early twentieth-century Guatemala, particularly the fox trot, and their relationship to notions of cosmopolitanism, race, and national identity. Although Guatemalans may boast that the son is their national music—a genre often associated with local indigenous traditions—examination of the national marimba repertoire reveals that its most predominant styles derive from foreign music and dances that circulated transnationally in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Such a realization raises questions about the role of indigeneity in national discourse. I argue that Ladinos (non-indigenous or mixed Guatemalans) imported the fox trot and other musical forms to construct a national identity predicated on racialized notions of modernity and cosmopolitanism. The fox trot, a dance derived from African-American ragtime traditions, enjoyed worldwide popularity for nearly two decades due in part to its ability to mediate constructs of whiteness and blackness that fit presentist ideas of modernity: blackness represented a primitive alterity while whiteness evoked a modern and civilized society. Analyses of racial discourse among Ladinos and its implications for the national instrument (chapter 2), the stylistic features of Guatemalan national repertoire (chapter 3), and the subjects that locally-composed fox trots reference through titles, cover art, and musical styles (chapters 4 and 5) demonstrate that many elements of the fox trot, along with their connotations of modernity and race, resonated with the cosmopolitan sensibilities of Ladinos. Their preference for international as opposed to local forms suggest a fundamental ambivalence towards indigeneity and its centrality to national culture.
In the recent volume Nineteenth-Century Choral Music edited by Donna M. Di Grazia (2013), the Cen... more In the recent volume Nineteenth-Century Choral Music edited by Donna M. Di Grazia (2013), the Central American repertoire occupies three brief paragraphs while individual European composers such as Mendelssohn and Berlioz take several chapters. Walter Clark explains that historical events such as the Napoleonic wars in Europe and independence movements in the New World contributed to the loss of much of the choral music from Iberia and Latin America. Postcolonial theories further posit that historiographical silences manifest power dynamics inherent in the construction of historical narratives. Accordingly, the neglect of scholarship and performance of Guatemalan 19th-century choral music surpasses archival lacunae; it reflects ideological trends in the 19th-century that undermined the value of such music, and represents the present-day orientation of performance and scholarship. Based on analysis of the unpublished parts of the funerary responsory Libera Me for choir and orchestra by Benedicto Sáenz (Sr.? 1780-1831), I explore reasons why 19th-century choral music from Guatemala remains obscure. Relating the stylistic elements of the Libera Me to sociopolitical changes in Guatemala (independence and liberalism), changing notions of music as art, and postcolonial critiques of music scholarship, I argue that although Guatemalan 19th-century sacred music does not fit the exoticist conceptions of the past or nationalist ideologies of the 20th century, it still constitutes a musical legacy that can enrich our understanding of the trajectories and transformations European repertoires in the Americas.
In this dissertation I explore musical importations in early twentieth-century Guatemala, particu... more In this dissertation I explore musical importations in early twentieth-century Guatemala, particularly the fox trot, and their relationship to notions of cosmopolitanism, race, and national identity. Although Guatemalans may boast that the son is their national music—a genre often associated with local indigenous traditions—examination of the national marimba repertoire reveals that its most predominant styles derive from foreign music and dances that circulated transnationally in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Such a realization raises questions about the role of indigeneity in national discourse. I argue that Ladinos (non-indigenous or mixed Guatemalans) imported the fox trot and other musical forms to construct a national identity predicated on racialized notions of modernity and cosmopolitanism. The fox trot, a dance derived from African-American ragtime traditions, enjoyed worldwide popularity for nearly two decades due in part to its ability to mediate constructs of whiteness and blackness that fit presentist ideas of modernity: blackness represented a primitive alterity while whiteness evoked a modern and civilized society. Analyses of racial discourse among Ladinos and its implications for the national instrument (chapter 2), the stylistic features of Guatemalan national repertoire (chapter 3), and the subjects that locally-composed fox trots reference through titles, cover art, and musical styles (chapters 4 and 5) demonstrate that many elements of the fox trot, along with their connotations of modernity and race, resonated with the cosmopolitan sensibilities of Ladinos. Their preference for international as opposed to local forms suggest a fundamental ambivalence towards indigeneity and its centrality to national culture.
In studies of music and nationalism in Latin America, the process of appropriating indigenous cul... more In studies of music and nationalism in Latin America, the process of appropriating indigenous cultural practices as emblems of the nation, known as indigenismo, constitutes a dominant narrative. Nevertheless, works by Thomas Turino and others suggest that we should also consider the less explored concept of cosmopolitanism as a significant component of national identity. In this paper, I seek to contribute to the emergent engagement with cosmopolitanism by examining the fox trot in Guatemala, a genre that marimba ensembles perform to this day along with folkloric and classical musical traditions. By examining the place of the fox trot in the marimba repertory, I argue that the ladino (non-indigenous) appropriation of the marimba should not be read only as a step in the deployment of indigenismo, but also as an example of the cosmopolitan dimension of Guatemalan national identity. Based on recent archival findings, I first highlight possible meanings of fox trots among Guatemalan ladinos in the early 20th century. I then illustrate the incorporation of the fox trot in the marimba repertory with the well-documented case of the Hurtado brothers’s marimba ensemble. Reflecting on the Hurtado’s professional trajectory, I highlight how cosmopolitan and nationalist discourses intersect through marimba musical repertories and practices. Finally, using cases from ethnographic research, I suggest that cosmopolitan concerns remain present among ladino marimba players today, and address some implications of this form of nationalist discourse.
Tanto en el noratlántico como en Centroamérica, los estudios musicales permanecen al margen de di... more Tanto en el noratlántico como en Centroamérica, los estudios musicales permanecen al margen de discusiones académicas a pesar de la riqueza hermenéutica, semiótica, estética y cultural de los medios musicales. Además, los enfoques teóricos y metodológicos que la musicología y la etnomusicología han importado de legados colonialistas agravan la posición de estudios musicales centroamericanos dentro de los cánones académicos locales e internacionales. En este trabajo propongo diagnosticar la causa de la posición marginal de la música y de los estudios musicales centroamericanos, estudiando la problemática de representación de la música guatemalteca en el ámbito académico. Sostengo que la academia noratlántica le ha prestado muy poca atención a la investigación musical en Guatemala debido a las prioridades epistemológicas tradicionales de la musicología y la etnomusicología. También sostengo que los estudios musicales se encuentran en una posición ventajosa que les permite la exploración de campos transdisciplinarios. Con el fin de llevar a cabo este diagnóstico y proponer soluciones tentativas, (1) comparto mi experiencia personal en los Estados Unidos, la cual me ha permitido evaluar el trabajo “musicológico” de Guatemala y su relación con la academia estadounidense, (2) examino la representación de la producción musical guatemalteca en estudios extranjeros resaltando los límites de las disciplinas musicológicas convencionales, y (3) concluyo reflexionando acerca del potencial aporte transdisciplinario que podría resultar de esta marginalización.
Latin American Music Review, Volume 37, Number 2, Fall/Winter 2016, pp. 253-256 (Review).
Publis... more Latin American Music Review, Volume 37, Number 2, Fall/Winter 2016, pp. 253-256 (Review).
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Papers by Andres R Amado
19th-century choral music surpasses archival lacunae; it reflects ideological trends in the 19th-century that
undermined the value of such music, and represents the present-day orientation of performance and scholarship.
Based on analysis of the unpublished parts of the funerary responsory Libera Me for choir and orchestra by
Benedicto Sáenz (Sr.? 1780-1831), I explore reasons why 19th-century choral music from Guatemala remains
obscure. Relating the stylistic elements of the Libera Me to sociopolitical changes in Guatemala (independence and liberalism), changing notions of music as art, and postcolonial critiques of music scholarship, I argue that although Guatemalan 19th-century sacred music does not fit the exoticist conceptions of the past or nationalist ideologies of the 20th century, it still constitutes a musical legacy that can enrich our understanding of the trajectories and transformations European repertoires in the Americas.
Book Reviews by Andres R Amado
Published by University of Texas Press.
19th-century choral music surpasses archival lacunae; it reflects ideological trends in the 19th-century that
undermined the value of such music, and represents the present-day orientation of performance and scholarship.
Based on analysis of the unpublished parts of the funerary responsory Libera Me for choir and orchestra by
Benedicto Sáenz (Sr.? 1780-1831), I explore reasons why 19th-century choral music from Guatemala remains
obscure. Relating the stylistic elements of the Libera Me to sociopolitical changes in Guatemala (independence and liberalism), changing notions of music as art, and postcolonial critiques of music scholarship, I argue that although Guatemalan 19th-century sacred music does not fit the exoticist conceptions of the past or nationalist ideologies of the 20th century, it still constitutes a musical legacy that can enrich our understanding of the trajectories and transformations European repertoires in the Americas.
Published by University of Texas Press.