The Latin American centennial celebrations of independence (ca.1909-1925) constituted a key moment in the consolidation of national symbols and emblems, while also producing a renewed focus on transnational affinities that generated a series of discourses about continental unity. At the same time, a boom in archaeological explorations, within a general climate of scientific positivism provided Latin Americans with new information about their "grandiose" former civilizations, such as the Inca and the Aztec, which some argued were comparable to ancient Greek and Egyptian cultures. These discourses were at first political, before transitioning to the cultural sphere. As a result, artists and particularly musicians began to move away from European techniques and themes, to produce a distinctive and self-consciously Latin American art. In Inca Music Reimagined author Vera Wolkowicz explores Inca discourses in particular as a source for the creation of "national" and "continental" art music during the first decades of the twentieth century, concentrating on operas by composers from Peru, Ecuador and Argentina. To understand this process, Wolkowicz analyzes early twentieth-century writings on Inca music and its origins and describes how certain composers transposed "Inca" techniques into their own works, and how this music was perceived by local audiences. Ultimately, she argues that the turn to Inca culture and music in the hopes of constructing a sense of national unity could only succeed within particular intellectual circles, and that the idea that the inspiration of the Inca could produce a "music of America" would remain utopian.

About the Author
Vera Wolkowicz holds a PhD in Music from the University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on Latin American musical nationalisms during the first decades of the twentieth century, and Italian opera in mid-nineteenth-century Buenos Aires. She has been recently awarded an H2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship at the Centre de Recherches sur les Arts et le Langage, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. She is the author of Musica de America. Estudio preliminar y edicion critica (2012) and has co-edited the unpublished scores of Argentine composer Carlos Guastavino (1912-2000).

Reviews
This is a groundbreaking book about music nationalism and the utopia of the Inca imaginary in Latin America. Based on a comprehensive field and archival research in countries such as Peru, Ecuador and Argentina, the author explores the processes of construction of national identities through the creation of a nationalist art music during the first three decades of the twentieth century. This brilliantly written and highly organized book will capture the attention not only of musicologists, but also of anyone interested in the processes of nation building in Latin America and elsewhere. * Raul R. Romero, author of Debating the Past: Music, Memory and Identity in the Andes *
Wolkowicz's book is remarkable, insightful, and original in its approach to examining the transnational circulation of discourses on Inca music. The understanding of national histories and the depth and breadth of the investigation are impressive! * Ketty Wong, Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology, University of Kansas *
Inca Music Reimagined explores how Latin American musicians brought ideas of Incan music into their twentieth-century modernist compositions...the project is an engaging one, and a much-needed contribution to the field of historical music studies. The book makes one think about Latin America as an imaginary, and the ways in which musical experimentation might draw on imaginaries in new, inventive ways. * Jessica Sequeira, Modern Language Review *


Awards
Winner of Winner, Robert M. Stevenson Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Iberian and Latin American Music, American Musicological Society.



Book Information
ISBN 9780197548943
Author Vera Wolkowicz
Format Hardback
Page Count 272
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 522g
Dimensions(mm) 150mm * 229mm * 25mm