Description
Elisabeth Waldo is a fascinating, little known figure in mid 20th century music. Born and raised within a musical family in the state of Washington, she was briefly the first violinist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, before moving to Mexico City and becoming deeply invested in the study of pre-Columbian music and instruments, leading to extensive work as an ethnomusicologist. At the suggestion of Diego Rivera, with whom she formed a friendship based on a shared interest in these sounds, she developed her own system of hieroglyphic musical notation for working with pre-Columbian instruments, designed to teach others how to play them. It is this deep investment and study of Latin American music – ancient and contemporary – that lays at the foundation of Maracatú, her debut LP, released in 1959.
