De México a la Asunción: preámbulos musicales y misionales a las prácticas jesuítico-guaraníes

Abstract

The use of music as a missionary tool assumed its classical countenance starting in 1609, in the Jesuit reductions among the Guarani. Even at its inception, this use already had a lengthy pre-history. Two episodes in particular, Pedro de Gante’s work in Mexico and Juan Gabriel Lezcano’s contribution in Asuncion (Paraguay), when considered from the point of view of European settlers, show that the components of the Jesuit-Guarani practice already existed in the sixteenth century. These episodes thus disclose an Occidental branch of the genealogy of Paraguayan mission music.