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Musical Ritual in Mexico City: From the Aztec to NAFTA MARK PEDELTY University of Texas Press, Austin, TX, 2004 352 pp.
In this book, Mark Pedelty uses a combination of historical and ethnographic research techniques to show the importance of musical ritual in Mexico City. The work consists of sets of paired chapters chronologically arranged to trace the development of musical ritual in the city through the ages. The first chapter of each set historically addresses musical ritual and its cultural context from a given time period, and the following chapter ethnographically shows the present-day "resonance" of the traditions described in the prior chapter. By using ethnographic examples gleaned from many years of fieldwork, Pedelty shows how musical rituals are transformed as they are carried over into the present. Analysis regarding the importance of musical ritual as well as the specific rituals mentioned in the text is interspersed throughout.
After the introduction, the first set of chapters ("The Mexica: 1325-1521") addresses Tenochtitlan and Mesoamerican resonance; the next pair ("New Spain: 1521-1821") deals with colonial Mexico and its present influence. The following sets of paired chapters cover "The New Nation: 1821-1910" and "The Revolution: 19101921." In the section of the book called "Modern Mexico: 1921-1968," bolero and aanzón, classical nationalism, and ranchera-all from the post-revolutionary era-are each described from the past to the present in the predictable two-chapter sets. To round out the volume, Pedelty discusses "Popular Music Today" in "Contemporary Mexico: 1968-2002," touching upon current genres such as rock, pop, musica grupera (banda, norteno, and tropical), and nueva cancion. He ends with a chapter called "Conclusion," in which he shows how all of the musical rituals from the past and present come together simultaneously-as happens in real life-and were reflected in the inauguration ceremony of President Vicente Fox. He also...