This work is an exploration of how national and cultural identity have been shaped through various forms of musical expression throughout Latin America. The essays in this volume include perspectives from Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba, El Salvador, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, and Bolivia. Chronological timeframes tend to focus on the early to middle twentieth century, with the last few chapters generally incorporating more recent decades. A small sample of musical topics discussed within nationalistic contexts includes tensions between tango and folk music in Argentina; struggles for regional representation from Rio de Janeiro-based models of samba in northeastern Brazil; and revolutionary music and the emerging role of radio in the shaping of national identity through popular music in Mexico. This interdisciplinary volume draws from the perspectives of history, ethnomusicology, anthropology, and musicology, and performance, film, and museum studies.
Throughout the volume, Latin American national identity is presented as having generally developed in the first two decades of the twentieth century, based (to different extents) on a mixture of indigenous, African, and European cultural frameworks. In one chapter, Ketty Wong advocates that for nationalism to be expressed through music, it “should be studied as a category that examines the reception and intention of people” (129), as opposed to focusing solely on folk music as a source of inspiration for art music compositions. She extends this definition to include “a series of collective and individual attitudes toward a set of cultural values perceived as embodying images of the nation” (146). Moreover, the resulting discourse surrounding these concepts can also help to shape nationalistic ideals.
Although the individual chapters collectively address the development of musical nationalism within the broader Latin American and Caribbean region, perhaps the addition of more clearly formulated questions and a brief concluding chapter could help to identify specific local and transnational similarities, and the ways in which notions of musical identity can change over time, either within a single country or throughout the broader region. Another approach might incorporate a contextual discussion that builds on the Latin American popular and art music surveys published several decades ago by Gerard Behague and Nicolas Slonimsky, which could help to more clearly position the comprehensive analysis and discussion contained within these chapters.
The introduction to the volume presents a compelling discussion of religious missions throughout Spanish America, providing an exciting framework for analysis and discussion in various countries, but that concept is not pursued later in the collection. Musical instruments could be another area that is expanded to provide a focus on national identity, in addition to the discussion of the marimba in Guatemala and the bandoneón in Argentina. This focus could help to uncover different ways in which national identity can be instilled through unique or commonly shared musical instruments throughout the region.
More careful attention could be paid to particular summaries in the general introduction. For example, the 1922 Brazilian Modern Art Week is identified in Spanish as La Semana de Arte Moderno (20), whereas the Portuguese A Semana de Arte Moderna would more appropriately reflect its country's emerging cultural significance. Moreover, the description of this movement oversimplifies it as a union of “Brazilian literature and music” (20) between Mário de Andrade and Heitor Villa-Lobos, but identifies De Andrade only as a novelist, without paying attention to his interdisciplinary work as a musicologist, folklorist, and poet, or to Villa-Lobos's close association with Brazilian popular music composers and poets. The reprinted historical Afro-Cuban musical contribution by Alejo Carpentier (1947) might be replaced with a more recent study or scholar who could connect more directly to the other works explored in this book.
The several intriguing contributions to this collected volume combine to present a variety of angles and perspectives regarding the development of musical nationalism in Latin America, and should provide an engaging and informative experience for students and scholars alike. The collection could allow for more comprehensive research on the topic throughout the greater region.
