Off the Press: Immaculate Sounds: The Musical Lives of Nuns in New Spain
IN PERSON
Lilly Endowment Curator of Art and Religion Patrick A. Polk will moderate a talk by Professor Cesar Favila about his latest publication, Immaculate Sounds: The Musical Lives of Nuns in New Spain. The lecture will take place in the exhibition Descanse en Paz: Memorial Paintings from 19th-Century Mexico, where Mexican monja coronado (“crowned nun”) portraits are on view.
Professor Cesar Favila’s work resides at the intersection of music, religion, gender, and race; and often examines how the sacred and the profane animate beliefs about salvation. He is currently researching the penitential songs called saetas through the lens of sound and voice studies. His book, Immaculate Sounds: The Musical Lives of Nuns in New Spain, is the recipient of the 2024 Best First Book Award from GEMELA and is available through open access. It weaves traditional methods in historical musicology with arguments from the history of religion and art, literary studies, and critical theory to argue that women were elevated as co-redeemers when they became nuns.
This program is co-sponsored by The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.
Image: Artist unknown (Mexico), Retrato (portrait) of M. R. M. (Most Reverend Mother) Sor (Sister) M.a Monica del Corazon de Jesus, Ra. del Conbento de la Concepcion de Oaxaca, 19th century; paint, canvas, wood, metal; Fowler Museum at UCLA, X87.7A; Gift of Dorothy M. Cordry in memory of Donald B. Cordry
