Julio Mendívil: The Music of Cajamarca, Peru

CAJAMARCA, PERU: We Westerners tend to value feats of architecture more than the human activities they were so carefully erected to provide for. Take Peru, for example. We consider the ruins of Machu Picchu as evidence of Incan cultural superiority. But what about the celebrations of the people who carved those stones – carved them so precisely, that in comparison, modern European masonry still looks childish? With that in mind, Professor Julio Mendívil, Chair of Ethnomusicology at University of Vienna, will take us to Peru’s northern Cajamarca region. There, three distinct cultural elements - the Amazonian Chuncho, Incan and Spanish - form a musical tradition that is as modern as it is ancient. One such music is the “Dance of the Chunchos”, which, at once, celebrates the Chunchos having fought off every Incan attempt at invasion, the Catholic celebration of the Virgin Mary and the Spanish expulsion of the Moors from Iberia. Yes, we will see impressive architecture, and yes, we feel the power of the human spirit transcending time and space. Come welcome Professor Mendívil to Vienna Live!