Music and the Poetics of Production in the Bolivian Andes

Book excerpt: Music and the Poetics of Production in the Bolivian Andes is a musical ethnography of a Quechua speaking community of northern Potosí, in the Bolivian Andes. Through rich and evocative ethnography, the book delves into the powerful meanings ascribed to sound; charts unfamiliar aesthetic territories; suggests how modernity can contribute to indigeneity; and reveals remarkable musical perspectives on llama husbandry and potato cultivation. As we follow the lives, shifting fortunes and musical year of this, in many ways, fragile community, a seasonally shifting array of musical instruments, genres, dances and tunings are introduced. The book is accompanied by an audio CD, photographs, musical transcriptions and explanatory diagrams.