Violn: Mediating Musical Style and Devotional Practice in 21st-Century Cuba [Paperback]

An exploration of the viol?n, an unknown form of religious music worship that incorporates Western instruments and repertoire.This groundbreaking study is the first to explore the viol?n ceremony in detail. It is for students, scholars, and general readers interested in ethnomusicology, Latin American history, Black studies, religious studies, and cultural anthropology.This groundbreaking study is the first to explore the viol?n ceremony in detail. It is for students, scholars, and general readers interested in ethnomusicology, Latin American history, Black studies, religious studies, and cultural anthropology.Afrodescendant religious music in the Caribbean and Latin America typically foregrounds drumming and centuries-old songs of praise to spirit deities. In recent years, a new form of worship, known as a viol?n or toque de viol?n, which features the violin alongside the guitar, electronic piano, and/or other instruments commonly associated with popular music, has gained popularity in Cuba. Violines can be understood as loosely defined spaces for performance that developed in a context of cultural oppression and dominance. They can be viewed as a concession to Eurocentric and secular tastes, or as a blackening/creolizing of those same practices, or both. They express religious faith in pluralistic ways, incorporating repertoire from various Black religions alongside influences from folk Catholicism, and classical, commercial, and folkloric music. Drawing from an encyclopedic knowledge of Cuban music, ethnographic work, and interviews, Robin D. Moore's groundbreaking book is the first to explore the compelling viol?n ceremony in detail.List of figures; Acknowledgments; Glossary; Preface; 1. Introduction; 2. Situating violines; 3. Spiritism and Violines Espirituales; 4. Violines a Och?n and Orisha Praise; 5. Performance dynamics in Toques de Viol?n; 6. Violines abroad; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.In Viol?n, Robin Moore, the leading scholarly authority on Cuban l£5