Intrigas e questoes: Vinganca de familia e tramas sociais no sertao de Pernambuco

unstudied, unpublished, and unperformed until quite recently, with printed editions and recordings of this music beginning to appear. Music in Ibero-America to 1850 is an impressive marshaling of information in the grand tradition of positivistic musicology, a volume with the same sort of encyclopedic intent as, for example, Music in the Renaissance by Gustave Reese, something that has been out of fashion for some years with musicologists, as they have turned their attention to “new” musicology—applying models from literary theory, feminist theory, queer theory, and have turned away from documents and sources. Mendoza de Arce commands an extensive bibliography, predominantly in Spanish and Portuguese, with no obvious gaps. His presentation of the material is packed with information, so much so that the prose perhaps serves better as reference than as narrative. The author divides the volume first chronologically (1492–1700; 1700–1800; 1800–1850), next by type of music (sacred, secular, public music, chamber music, etc.) and finally geographically (note to Brazilianists: Brazil comes last, but not least, and the author clearly notes when Brazilian musical history differs from more general practice, and why). This being the case, it might have been more effective to have presented the text visually with the sort of headings that stand behind it conceptually, to make explicit what is implicit in the structure, so that the user could more quickly access the information desired. The author, though long resident in the United States, is not a native speaker of English, and this is evident on many occasions in his prose. This is a problem that could have been rectified easily by a diligent copy-editor but, unfortunately, it was not, so there are patent errors of vocabulary stemming from Spanish (e.g., grade, rather in degree in describing the steps of a musical scale) as well as subtler infelicities of style. Scarecrow ought to have corrected these before giving this important work to the public. Another minor desideratum is a discography of the music discussed. Nevertheless, Mendoza de Arce has made an important contribution in presenting in English so much information that was hitherto inaccessible to those who do not read Spanish and Portuguese, and indeed this book is indispensable for those interested in the musical history of the Western hemisphere. The history and culture of Latin America is of increasing interest in the US. Literary scholars know the wealth and richness of this culture. It is important to realize that there are musical riches here as well, which are only beginning to be explored.