LAII Events
Creole Politics and Visual Culture in Baroque Mexico: Francisco López Capillas and a Transatlantic Music Manuscript
Description
Copied in Mexico City in the third quarter of the 17th century and sent to Spain at an unknown time, the manuscript Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, M.2428 occupies a unique position in the universe of polyphony choirbooks produced in the New World. In addition to its status as a clearly ordered anthology with works by a single composer, Mexican-born Francisco López Capillas (1614-74), the most outstanding feature of this book is the quantity, quality, and artistic originality of its initials. The iconographic charge of these initials articulates a political agenda with implications beyond the music itself. Using the notion of cultural artifact and applying a multi-dimensional analysis, in this presentation Dr. Marín-López explores the discourses that emerge when interpreting the book as an act of symbolic communication of Creole agency.
Dr. Javier Marín-López is Full Professor of Musicology at the University of Jaén, Spain, and Artistic Director of the Early Music Festival of Úbeda y Baeza (FeMAUB). His scholarship focuses on Latin American and Spanish musical culture from the 16th to 19th centuries. For more info, visit: www.javiermarinlopez.com/.