System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Accompanied by 4 recitals, recorded Apr. 19, 1999, Sept. 26, 2002, and Apr. 25, 2003. Includes bibliographical references (p. 49-50).

This document addresses the cultural and significance of the battle villancico, El más augusto campeón, and its historical, social, and musical contexts within the villancico genre of the Latin American Baroque. This study focuses on the villancico, El más augusto campeón, and explores the possible origins of the text and its relevance to the political and social structure of Cuzco's San Antonio Abad Seminary. Other areas of investigation are the musical analysis of the score and performance practice issues that surface when making choices as a conductor. Considering the seminal position villancicos held in the catechization of the Incans, in part due to their popular nature, the study of a representative example of this significant genre lends further insight into how important the villancico was to the ordinary and feast services of Peruvian (and, by association, Latin American) churches. While within the villancico's textual and musical structure one reads the obvious reflection of peninsular Spanish Catholic culture, its application to the criollo subculture carries an even more striking relevance.