ABSTRACT
Given Gerard Béhague’s strong support of research involving performance ethnography, it may strike some as odd to begin a volume dedicated to his influence with a historically oriented essay. Yet such a conclusion would be misguided. Béhague’s interests always included history, initially with studies of eighteenthcentury modinhas [a lyrical salon music form], Baroque classical repertoire from Minas Gerais, biographies of particular Brazilian composers, and of course his influential history of Latin American music published in 1979.1 Even after 1980, as Béhague’s work became increasingly informed by ethnographic method and an interest in contemporary popular music, he retained a strong interest in Latin American historiography.2
