Event programme

Music from the Bolivian missions, produced by Indians after the expulsion of the Jesuits.

“...In all these towns the sound of my organs can be heard already. I made all kind of musical instruments and taught the Indians to play them. Not a single day passes without the sound of songs in our churches... and I sing, I play the organ, the zither, the flute, the trumpet, the psalter, and the lyre, in high and low mode. All these musical art forms, which I ignored partially, I can practice now and teach them to the children of the natives. Your Reverence would enjoy observing here how children together with their parents are able to sing well and with a firm beat, they play the zither, lyre and the organ and dance with precise movements and rhythm, that they might compete with the Europeans themselves….” (Fr. Martin Schmid, letter, 1744)

Musical archives in South America are full of scores from the “Jesuit period” (which came to an end in 1767, when the Society of Jesus was expelled from the whole Spanish Kingdom, including its colonies). Those archives contain lots of music sheets brought from Europe to the colonies by the missionaries, whose aim was not only to preach or to educate in Christianity, but also to “civilize” the Indians through musical practise, according to European ideas of the late Renaissance. Although the idea of the Spanish conquerors and authorities was to remove all the cultural identity of the Indians, the Jesuit fathers decided to keep some fundamental elements, such as their language, some musical instrument, and dances. Most of the musical works in the archives are incomplete: many sheets and musical sections are missing or are simply illegible. In the eagerness to play all that music saved in early archives, both musicologists and musicians have worked to fill in the missing parts, sometimes composing entire sections of the pieces, or directly rewriting what is preserved, because “the music is not as good as it should”. Some of those scores are original works, composed by the missionaries, or perhaps by the Indians, to be sung and played in the missions. Others are anonymous arrangements of pieces written by well-known composers (Corelli, Vivaldi, Locatelli, etc.) or by anonymous local musicians. Most of these arrangements are simplifications of the original pieces to make them easier to be sung or played by the musicians of those missions. One of the most renowned Jesuit missionaries was Martin Schmid (Baar, 1694 / Luzern, 1772), a multifaceted cultured person, who loved the Indians as they loved him. He built temples and music schools, making instruments and composing music. Every village had an organ, many violins, basses, harpsichords, harps, trumpets, shawms, etc. His goal was to teach and bring Christianity to the natives through art and music. His musical legacy survives until our days, and it is part of a living culture. With Capilla del Sol, we research on that music, trying to find “authenticity” in our concerts, according to the rules of the historically informed performance. Our aim is to recreate the use of music in the missions both in and outside the church.

Jesuit Legacy in the Bolivian Jungle: A Love of Baroque Music (Nicholas Casey, The New York Times, 8.5.2018)