Music played a fundamental role in the Jesuit missions of Paraguay. This was due both to the traditional importance the Jesuits attributed to music in spreading the faith and to their extensive knowledge of it. Nearly all Jesuits had at least basic musical training, and some were accomplished composers and instrumentalists.

Moreover, the local populations, the Chiquitanos, Guaycurú, and Guaraní, showed a particular fascination and appreciation for European music. The first groups of Indigenous people were drawn to the missionaries by listening to sacred songs and the sounds of musical instruments. Later, it was the converted and educated Indigenous people themselves who sang and played music to attract other Indigenous from the forest.

In the reducciones (Jesuit settlements), the missionaries initially taught a few young natives sacred songs in Spanish, which they would then perform along the village streets. Over time, the Jesuits realized that the natives preferred songs in their own language, as the charm of European melodies was enhanced by the understanding of the lyrics. Consequently, the missionaries began composing hymns in Guaraní, and some Indigenous people even started writing their own.

Musical performances were held mainly on Sundays, during religious processions or festivities such as Easter and Christmas, usually in the church or the square in front of it. Among the Indigenous population, becoming a chorister, instrumentalist, or choir director was a highly desired career. Having a child who was a musician was a great source of pride, as it often opened the door to positions within village governance. For this reason, musical education was primarily offered to the sons of caciques and tribal chiefs.

Some reducciones even had workshops where violins, flutes, and cellos were crafted. Ludovico Antonio Muratori recounts that, upon hearing the evening Ave Maria, young Indigenous children would spontaneously sing sacred prayers. He also tells of a Spanish bishop who, while visiting a mission in Uruguay, was so impressed by the skill of a young cellist accompanying the choir that he asked the boy to perform a solo.

Jesuit musicians came not only from Spain but also from Belgium, France, and the German-speaking world. In the early 1700s, for instance, the Tyrolean Jesuit Anton Sepp, an expert concert performer and polyphonist, sought to recreate a “Tyrolean Christmas” for the natives by setting up a Nativity scene and translating a traditional Tyrolean carol into Guaraní.