The Circulation of Instrumental Music Between Old and New Worlds: New Evidence From Sources Preserved in Mexico City and Lima

Abstract

This article deals with the circulation of instrumental music between Spain and the New World at the end of the eighteenth century, focusing on Madrid, Mexico City and Lima as main urban centres. By analysing archival documents preserved in these cities, I intend to show that the baroque guitar music composed and copied in Madrid was also intended to be a commercial concern in Latin America (particularly in Mexico City and Lima), and that its cultivation in the New World lasted for a long time, even through to the beginning of the nineteenth century, thus coexisting with music by Johann Christian Bach, Boccherini, Cannabich, Haydn and other ‘modern’ composers. These assertions are reinforced through an examination of two musical manuscripts copied in Lima around 1800, which also shows some of the changes undergone by the repertory during its complex process of reception. I conclude by suggesting that, in the light of all this, a linear and evolutionary view of music history, according to which new repertories replace older ones, should be reconsidered.

La circulación y el comercio de música en el Virreinato del Perú (1773-1821)

“…Por un lado, existen ya estudios que aportan información de interés sobre su música en la época virreinal. Algunos aparecieron varias décadas atrás, como los de Robert Stevenson (1959), Andrés Sas (1971Sas ( -1972 y Juan Carlos Estenssoro (1989), mientras que otros son más recientes e incluyen aportes de Gembero (2016) y Javier Marín (2019), así como trabajos de mi autoría (Vera, 2015). Pero, al mismo tiempo, la información disponible no deja de ser escasa si se piensa que Lima era sede de un virreinato y que este abarcó, durante la mayor parte de la colonia, casi toda Sudamérica y Panamá.…”