The islands of Chiloé, in southern Chile, have developed a distinct culture over several centuries, blending indigenous traditions and Spanish settler heritage to create a vibrant pattern of folklore, music, dance, and related creative practices. This cultural heritage has become an important aspect of the islands’ identity and is key to their successful marketing as a tourist destination. However, these elements exist in tension with new developments, most particularly the introduction of salmon aquaculture, which has disrupted traditional livelihood patterns and polluted the region’s marine environment. This volume analyzes the development of the islands’ distinct culture with a particular focus on music and dance. Key topics include the relation of tradition and modernity, the impact of tourism on cultural practice, and the relationship between social activism and music culture. The authors complement this focus with a discussion of their own creative engagements with the region through the production of the music album Viaje a Chiloé (2018) and through the work of the audiovisual ensemble The Moviolas (in 2015–2018).

Memories of Earth and Sea recounts the history of more than two dozen islands clustered along the Patagonian flank of South America. Settled over the centuries by nomadic seafarers, indigenous farmers, and Spanish explorers, southern Chile’s Archipelago of Chiloé remained until recently a rural outpost resistant to cultural pressures from the mainland. Islanders developed a way of life heavily dependent on marine resources, native crops like the potato, and the cooperative labor practice known as the minga. Staring in the 1980s, Chiloé was thrust into the global economy when major companies moved into the region to extract wild stocks of fish and to grow salmon and shellfish for export. The archipelago’s economy shifted abruptly from one of subsistence farming and fishing to wage labor in export industries. Local knowledge, traditions, memories, and identities similarly shifted, with young islanders expressing a more critical view of the rural past than their elders. This book highlights the region’s unique past, emphasizing the generational tensions, disconnects, and continuities of the last half century. Drawing on interviews, field observations, and historical documents, Anton Daughters brings to life one of South America’s most culturally distinct regions.

The Encyclopedia's coverage ranges from the Bahamas to Tierra del Fuego and from Baja California to Uruguay as it describes the extraordinarily rich and varied music of people from all the countries south of the Rio Grande river.

Existe la historia oficial de un país, y la "otra" historia que jóvenes investigadores y eruditos tales como Julio Pinto Vallejos y Carlos Ruiz Rodríguez han ido revelando en sus trabajos, creando un balance más justo en el recuento de los hechos que ha vivido la nación chilena. Juan Daniel Brito no es un historiador, sin embargo en conversaciones con escritores y periodistas de su país, llega a la conclusión de que la recopilación de testimonios de "sus mayores," y familiares le abrían una nueva perspectiva acerca de su origen, y al hecho de pertenecer a una primera generación de hijos de campesinos del sur o de mineros del norte que llegaron a Santiago en la década de los años 30, ' y que con esfuerzo y sacrificios fueron parte del proceso de expansión demográfica de Santiago hacia sus cuatro puntos cardinales. Son estos "exiliados" del sur y del norte quienes fundan las "poblaciones," cuya historia se tiene aún que narrar.

Over the past three decades, applied ethnomusicology has emerged as a major force in working with music, culture and communities worldwide, generating a wealth of new approaches and practices. Explicitly or implicitly, these often question the traditional role of the music researcher as merely an objective observer; they invite taking greater responsibility and deeper engagement with the people we work with. Highlighting an exciting diversity of local practices with global implications, this volume illustrates how to work of contemporary ethnomusicologists intersects with major issues such as social justice, education, representation, and intangible cultural heritage. With contributions from six different continents, the fourteen chapters in this volume constitute an important step in the international dialogue in scope, methods and goals of ethnomusicology in the 21st century.

"Through the close analysis of musical performance and tradition, the scholarly contributiors to Island Songs provide a global review of how island songs, their lyrics, and their singers engage with the challenges of modernity, migration, and social change uncovering common patterns despite the diversity and local character of their subjects"--Page 4 of cover.

A monumental study of musical practices in 18th century Santiago de Chile, and the only English-language monograph about Chilean colonial music, A Sweet Penance of Music offers a comprehensive view of musicians within the city and their links with other Latin American urban centers in the wider colonial system. Author Alejandro Vera, recent winner of the International Casa de las Américas Musicology Prize for the Spanish edition of his monograph, provides a fascinating account of the quotidian cultural and social significance of music in varying physical spheres - from cathedrals, convents, and monasteries, to private houses and public spaces. He brings to life a city long neglected in the shadow of other colonial centers of economic power, asserting the importance of duality in the period and its music - particularly centering one nun harpist's conception of music as "sweet penance." Drawing from historical documents and musical scores of the period, A Sweet Penance of Music breaks new ground, laying the foundation for a revisionist approach to the study of music in the colonial Americas.