Incantare and The Mirandola Ensemble present Musical Landscapes Across the Americas, a program of music from the Spanish Americas and beyond. With Florida as its starting point, this concert expands to Spanish territories throughout the Americas, including sonorous polyphony, upbeat villancicos, and stately dances from Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, and the Iberian Peninsula.

In Spanish Florida, as in other parts of the Spanish Americas, western music was taught as part of a conversion method. Europeans were shocked and scandalized by indigenous music, which celebrated cultural practices—such as the veneration of women and unashamed eroticism—that threatened European hierarchies. Polyphony had no such presumption, and it was used as a tool to draw indigenous tribes away from their native religions, albeit with varied success. On the other hand, it was sometimes welcomed into indigenous musical culture, where it was adopted and honed alongside traditional musical practices.

The Catholic missions of the New World were a fulcrum for cultural change. In them, the Iberian priests introduced polyphony, an “ordered” music that used western modes and intervals in note-against-note lines in praised of the Catholic god. Music manuscript collections and western musical instruments were sent to the Americas on ships. In the missions, indigenous communities learned to sing, play, and compose music in the European style. This cultural blending extended throughout the Americas. Today, it is a deeply ingrained musical tradition in these lands.

Musical Landscapes Across the Americas presents a small slice of this music with Florida as its starting point, featuring works by Guerrero, Rimonte, Encina, Franco, and many others. While some of the composers presented on this program never stepped foot in the Americas, their music is representative of that which would have been performed here.

This event is presented as part of the 2025 AMS-SMT Joint Annual Meeting.