Music from the South American Missions

During the period of Spanish colonial rule in South America from the 16th through the 19th centuries, music played a key role in the process of conquest and evangelization. The vast collections of Renaissance and Baroque music found in Bolivia that comprise the Chiquitos and Moxos archives, and the Codex Martínez Compañón found in Perú, attest to the rich musical life of the Jesuit and Franciscan missions in colonial South America.