I read most of a book by Samuel Llano, Whose Spain? It's about ideas of Spanish music in France during the early part of the 20th century. It is a good book, though overspecialized even for me. French intellectuals used Spain and Spanish music to propagandize against Germany or in favor of Catholicism. The "noble savage" trope rears its head frequently. Falla is a key figure, the subject of 2 of the 6 main chapters. There's not too much attention to the music itself. It's all about the meanings the music acquires. I did like the idea of "folkloric capital," a phrase I'm going to borrow. The main scholarly tropes in his work are "negotiation" and "anxiety." I'm grateful for the book because it provides deep background for something that is significant: the strong cultural alliance between French and Spanish music.
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I'm reminded of an observation that (I think) you made on your blog long ago about the role of anxiety in "cultural studies" of popular culture: the anxiety that is so often diagnosed as perhaps an expression of the scholars anxiety about whether the material they are considering is even worthy of their attention (or something like that).
I might have said that, I'd have to go back and check, but I would not say that now. I don't believe that scholars use the anxiety trope "anxiously." In fact, I think there's a bit of complacency there. Other people are anxious, or defensive, or phobic, but not us! Ascribing anxiety to a collective unconscious is almost too comfortable a move.
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