Off the Press: Immaculate Sounds: The Musical Lives of Nuns in New Spain

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 , 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, , 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.
Image credit: Artist unknown (Mexico), En el ano de 1886 en el mes de Marzo, se hizo este Retrato de la M. R. M. Sor M.a Monica del Corazon de Jesus, Ra. del Conbento de la Concepcion de Oaxaca en su hedad de setenta y tres anos, 19th century; Paint, canvas, wood, metal, wine; Fowler Museum at UCLA, X87.7A; Gift of Dorothy M. Cordry in memory of Donald B. Cordry.

Host or Publisher Fowler Museum at UCLA