Review of Hispanic Folk Music of New Mexico and the Southwest: A Self-Portrait of a People By John Donald Robb

Abstract

Who says that nobody publishes texts anymore? The University of New Mexico Press in this year of 2014 has released two impressive collections documenting the remarkable trove of traditional Hispanic song conserved, principally, in the towns and villages of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. New Mexican Folk Music, compiled by Cipriano Frederico Vigil, and Hispanic Folk Music of New Mexico and the Southwest, compiled by John Donald Robb, cover much the same repertoire and many of the same musical genres, even coinciding on a few specific songs, but their perspectives are complementary, and paired together, they provide a comprehensive account of the florid vernacular traditions they take as their object. The publication of these two anthologies underscores the value of making field collections available to the reading public.