pieter hellendaal (1721–1799)‘CAMBRIDGE’ SONATAS Johannes Pramsohler (violin) / Gulrim Choï (cello) / Philippe Grisvard (harpsichord) Audax adx13720, 2020: one disc, 69 minutes

Abstract

sociocultural context. These strengths notwithstanding, I think the book also exhibits some problems that are worth noting, even if they may be unavoidable in a work of this scope. One is the apparent disparity in structure and focus between the second block and the other two blocks. Undoubtedly, this derives from the different times at which they were written, and could be interpreted positively as a reflection of the musical diversity of the entire period under review, as well as a means for the author to ‘free himself from a totalizing and absolutist treatment’ (see Marín’s review, already cited, ). Even so, at times, one has the impression of reading more than one book. Another aspect that gives cause for reservation is the disparity in dealing with the various dimensions of musical life. Some of them – the emphasis on author–work pairing, the lack of attention to oral music and plainsong – could be explained by the scant previous research on these topics. But other omissions are more difficult to explain. Perhaps the most striking is the brevity of the section dedicated to Latin polyphony at the end of the second block (–), despite its prestige at that time and the fact that there is a large corpus of polyphonic sources from the seventeenth century preserved throughout colonial Latin America. Likewise, it seems dubious to consider the nunneries only or mostly inhabited by Spanish women as the most successful example of the colonial project, since such a project involved integrating Indigenous people, albeit in a subaltern condition. Of course, these possible problems do not overshadow the undoubted virtues and importance of this book for all those interested in the music of the colonial period. It is to be hoped that Una historia de la música colonial hispanoamericanawill be reissued several times, and perhaps translated into English, given the interest in this subject in the English-speaking world. This would offer the opportunity to fill in some gaps and further enrich this already impressive text with new materials that, for whatever reason, may not have been included in this version.