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The musical compositions created between the 16th and 18th centuries in various American countries represent an essential part of the varied facets of the history of the New World culture: religious and secular, civil and political, academic and popular, vocal and instrumental, mystical and dramatic. The compositions are extensions of the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical styles. They reflect the development and projection of many aesthetic, stylistic, technical and ideological tendencies that took place in centers for music (cathedrals, convents, schools, theatres, "theatrical courtyards", aristocratic residences, public squares and places of entertainment) as well as in different environments of colonial society. They are the reflection of the various cultures (Indigenous, European, African) that coexisted in the New World. For three centuries, they mixed and created a new culture that is neither entirely Western, Hispanic nor purely American.
The archive contains sheet music, choir books, polyphonic books, codex and manuscripts, which provide evidence of the roots of much of today's American music. The compositions speak to the talent and imagination of outstanding musicians, such as Hernando Franco, Antonio Rodríguez de Mata, Gaspar Fernandes, Juan de Araujo, Durán de la Mota, Gutierre Fernández Hidalgo, Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco, Antonio de Salazar, Manuel de Sumaya and Ignacio Jerusalem, among others. Musicologists from Latin America, Europe, the United States and Canada have studied and used these musical works.
In Lima: Research has determined that the oldest opera in the Americas is "La púrpura de la rosa" ("The Blood of the Rose"), by Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco (chapel master of the Cathedral of Lima, 1676-1728) with text by Pedro Calderón de la Barca: a unique example of Hispanic baroque music from the 17th century, during the Viceroyalty, in whose palace it premiered on December 19, 1701.
In Mexico: "El Cancionero Musical" de Gaspar Fernandes is a 284 - page book composed by the chapel master of Portuguese origin who worked in the cathedrals of Guatemala and Puebla. The songbook from the period 1609-1616 contains almost 300 polyphonic compositions in vernacular languages, some in Latin, most of religious nature. This valuable volume represents the most complete collection of songs and carols in the Ibero-American world at the dawn of the 17th century.
In Bolivia: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648-1695) was the most famous poet of New Spain. Her texts were used for matins carols, set to music by two composers in the Spanish-American territories. In the Audience of Charcas, both Juan de Araujo (1646-1712), chapel master of the Cathedral of La Plata, and Antonio Durán de la Mota (deceased 1723), who worked in the same position in Potosí, used her poems to write carols which, following the Spanish-American tradition of inserting popular songs into the liturgical service, attest to the poetess's renown. Four carols by Araujo and three by Durán de la Mota make up a sample of the peak of Bolivia's rich colonial musical culture.
In Colombia: At the same level is the music of Tomás Luis de Victoria and that of Gutierre Fernández Hidalgo, considered among the best polyphonic works of the 16th century in South America. Large parts of the compositions are gathered in a choir book dated 1584, including Psalms and Magnificats in ecclesiastical tones. It is one of the oldest choir books in South America (Colombia) and reflects the repertoire of the century of evangelization. Fernández Hidalgo is considered one of the most refined composers, on par with his contemporaries in Spain, Italy, France and Germany. Gutierre Fernández Hidalgo had been a chapel master in Cuzco, Quito, Bogotá and in Charcas.