This impressive tome is the result of a conference of the same name that took place in December 2017. The event commemorated the 500th anniversary of the year that Hernando Cortés set foot on what would be called Mexico (1517) as well as the 100th anniversary of the issuing of the Mexican Constitution (in 1917). The edited collection's 30 essays are related by a shared focus on evaluating aspects of musical life in Mexico as compared to that in Spain, Italy, Germany, and elsewhere in Europe.
As editor, Javier Marín-López introduces the book with a history of retrospectives in Mexicanist musicological literature, highlighting a few more recent examples. He positions this edited collection within that context but notes its differences—for example, that, while covering a large period, it does not try to encompass every facet of Mexican music. The book moves in reverse chronological order: the first section treats the...
