South American hymnody

Introduction While there is a substantial amount of writing produced on religion and theology in South America, there is surprisingly almost nothing written concerning hymnody and its development. Information about the history of South American hymnody is scarce. Some of the accounts are conflicting, and they are not organized in any formal way. A more complete survey of current and historical South American hymnody and singing would require individual articles on each South American country in its diversity and complexity. Nevertheless it is possible, and necessary, to point out some aspects of and patterns in the formation and development of a flowering South American hymnody, and to...