the music of Dulce shouldn't 'work'. The harmony, even judged by baroque/renaissance notions of correctness, is clumsy, and the melody is too dependent on the third. There is no reason to suppose that Fr Piotr Nawrot's transcription is not faithful to the original. Yet it does work, and I think it has a simple beauty that (to me) is the expression of a perfect faith.
I am troubled, when I find myself rejoicing at the rediscovery of this music, by an awareness of how it came to exist. The conquistadores were not all Jesuits. Colonialism is always ugly, and the suppression of indigenous cultures and religions and the ruthless extermination of entire peoples in Central and South America was a crime against humanity that should be on all our consciences still.
However, we can only deal with what is, not what should have been. Well, that's my excuse, anyway.
For the sound of music still played and sung today in Chiquitanía, try these (for example - there are more out there):
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