CHANTS OF CONQUEST
It was the New World cultures with the greatest wealth -- and with the
greatest strength to resist the forces of conquest, that ambivalent
process -- that provoked European invaders to the greatest effort in
matters of architecture and musical indoctrination. When the peoples to
be subjugated possessed the strength, wisdom, or industry to build a
Tenochtitlan (as in Mexico), or to plan a fortress like Ollanta (as in
Peru), the mason and cantor sprang into action as soon as the men of war
had fulfilled their mission. Once the battle of bodies had ended, the
struggle over signs began. The cross has to be raised above the Aztec
teocali; over every demolished temple, a church. Liturgies of great pomp
were devised to eclipse the splendor of finely wrought idols. Against
songs and traditions that could still foster a dangerous spirit of
rebellion, the spiritual force of golden legends and Christian antiphonal
chant were marshaled. In brave and prosperous lands, the conquest built
bell towers high against the horizon and set its choruses to singing. But
in gentler lands, whose inhabitants readily accepted the authority of a
king unknown only the day before, the newcomers did not have to work so
hard. As a result, the artistic and musical productions of the sixteenth
century were of very poor quality, especially in countries whose mytho-
poetic heritage did not pose a threat to the Europeans.
[From Alejo Carpentier's "La musica en Cuba" (1946), as translated by
Alan West-Duran in "Music in Cuba" (University of Minnesota, 2000) and
excerpted in "Transition" 81/82, pp. 172-230; posted on BYZANS-L on
4/23/00]
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