Latin American music
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Latin American music, sometimes simply called Latin music, includes the music of many countries and comes in many varieties, from the simple, rural conjunto music of northern Mexico to the sophisticated habanera of Cuba, from the symphonies of Heitor Villa-Lobos to the simple and moving Andean flute. Music has played an important part in Latin America's turbulent recent history, for example the nueva canción movement. Latin music is very diverse, with the only truly unifying thread being the use of the Spanish language, or the Portuguese language, in Brazil.
Latin America can be divided into several musical areas. Andean music, for example, includes the countries of western South America, typically Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile and Venezuela; Central American music includes El Salvador, Belize, Nicaragua, Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, and Costa Rica. Caribbean music includes many Spanish and French-speaking islands in the Caribbean Sea, including Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Martinique and Guadeloupe, though the Francophone islands are mistakenly not usually considered Latin even though they derive from Latin heritages just as their Spanish and Portuguese cousins. Brazil perhaps constitutes its own musical area, both because of its large size and incredible diversity as well as its unique history as a Portuguese colony. Although Spain isn't a part of Latin America, Spanish music (and Portuguese music) and Latin American music strongly cross-fertilized each other, but Latin music also absorbed influences from English and American music, and particularly, African music.
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[edit] Characteristics
There are many diverse styles of Latin music some of which constitute Afro-American musical traditions, meaning that elements of European, African and indigenous music are fused. In the past, various authors have suggested extreme positions like Latin music being bereft of African influence, or being purely African with no European or indigenous elements, but it is now generally accepted that Latin music is inherently syncretic. Specifically, Spanish song forms, African rhythms and European harmony are major parts of tropical Latin music, as are the more modern genres such as rock, heavy-metal, punk, ska, hip hop, jazz, reggae and R&B.
The Spanish décima song form, in which there are ten lines of eight syllables each, was the basis for many styles of Latin American song. The African influence is, however, central to Latin music, and is the basis for the Cuban rumba, the puertorican bomba and plena, the Colombian cumbia, the Brazilian samba, the Ecuadorian bomba and marimba music, or the Peruvian Festejo, Landó, Negroide, Socabón, Son de los Diablos, and Zamacueca, among other styles. African musical elements are most prevalent in the religious music of the multifarious syncretic traditions, like Brazilian candomblé and Cuban santería.
Syncopation, a musical technique in which weak beats are accented instead of strong ones, is a major characteristic of Latin music. The African emphasis on rhythm is also important in Latin music, and is expressed through the primacy given to percussion instruments. The call-and-response song style which is common in Africa, is also found in Latin American; in this style of song, two or more elements respond to each other, musically or lyrically, one at a time. Author Bruno Nettl also cites as essentially African characteristics of Latin music the central position of instrumental music, the importance of improvisation and the "tendency to use a variety of tone colors... especially harsh, throaty singing".
Those African musical techniques that were similar to European techniques were kept in Latin America, while the more dissimilar elements abandoned; in addition, the most specialized aspects of African music, such as polyrhythms, remain a part of Latin music, while the less central aspects of African music, like scale and form, have been replaced by European features. Some elements of African music, most commonly the emphasis on rhythm, have been suggested as having a biological basis, though this is no longer generally accepted among scholars and has been refuted by several studies. Bruno Nettl instead suggests that African techniques were retained because music played a central role in daily life and because African music was "in several ways more complex and more highly developed in Africa than in the Indian and Western folk cultures".
[edit] Indigenous music
Very little can be known for sure about music in what is now Latin America prior to the arrival of Europeans. Though there are extremely isolated peoples in the Amazon Basin and elsewhere that have had little contact with Europeans or Africans, Latin music is almost entirely a synthesis of European, African and indigenous elements. The advanced civilizations of the pre-contact era included the Mayan, Aztec and Incan empires. These cultures had well-developed musical institutions that were "reduced to simpler levels and styles through the annihilation or reduction of the ruling classes, and through the introduction of Christianity".[citation needed]
The ancient Meso-American civilizations of the Maya and Aztec peoples played instruments including the tlapitzalli (a flute), teponatzli, a log drum, the conch-shell trumpet, various rattles and rasps and the huehuetl, a kettle drum. The earliest written accounts by Spanish colonizers indicate that Aztec music was entirely religious in nature, and was performed by professional musicians; some instruments were considered holy, and thus mistakes made by performers were punished as being possibly offensive to the gods.
Pictorial representations indicate that ensemble performance was common. Similar instruments were also found among the Incas of South America, who played in addition a wide variety of ocarinas and panpipes. The tuning of panpipes found in Peru has similarities to instruments played in the Pacific islands, leading some scholars to believe in contact between South American and the Oceanic cultures.
Indian Music in the andean countries of Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia tends to have the prominent use of flutelike and wind instruments usually made from wood and canes as well as animal bones and wings. The rhythm is usually kept with drums made out of wood and animal skins with simple rhythmic patterns of varying tempos. This is usually accompanied with rattlelike sounding instruments made out of animal claws, smalls stones or seeds. String instruments of European and Mediterranean origin have influenced local adaptations such as the Bolivian charango or the Ecuadorian mandolina. Genres in andean music are many within each country depending on region and Indian community and ethicity within them. In Ecuador there is sanjuanitos and capishkas. In Peru there is Huaynos and in Bolivia there is Tinkus, chuntuquis and morenadas.
[edit] Origins
The arrival of the Spanish and their music heralded the beginning of Latin American music. At the time, parts of Spain and Portugal were controlled by the Moors of North Africa, who tolerated many ethnic groups. These peoples, like the Roma, Jews and Spanish Christians, each had their own styles of music, as did the Moors, that contributed to the early evolution of Latin music. Many Moorish instruments were adopted in Spain, for example, and the North African nasal, high-pitched singing style and frequent use of improvisation also spread to the all the peoples of Iberia, as did the Roma vocal trill that characterizes Roma music. From continental Europe, Spain adopted the French troubadour tradition, which by the 16th century was a major part of Spanish culture. Both ethnic Spaniards and Moors contributed to the troubadour tradition, which spawned the décima song form, which features ten lines of eight syllables each. The décima format remains an important part of Latin music, include in corridos, bolero, and vallenato.
Some modern peoples of Latin America are essentially purely African, such as the Garifuna of Central America, and their music reflects their isolation from European influence. However, in general, the African slaves brought to the Americas modified their musical traditions by either adapting African performance style with European songs or vice versa, or simply learning both European song and performance style.
[edit] Popular music
[edit] Argentina
Main articles: Music of Argentina, Tango music, Argentine rock, Milonga, Chacarera, Chamamé,
The tango is perhaps Argentina's most famous music, becoming famous all around the world. Others include the Chacarera, Cueca, Zamba and Chamamé. More modern rhythms include El Cuarteto, and Argentine Cumbia. Argentine rock was most popular during the 60s, and still remains Argentina's most popular music.
[edit] Bolivia
Main articles: Music of Bolivia, Andean music
Bolivian music is perhaps the most strongly linked to its native population amongst national styles of South America. Following the nationalistic period of the 50s, Aymara and Quechua culture became more widely accepted, and these styles of folk music gradually fused in a more pop-like sound. Los Kjarkas played a pivotal role in this fusion, and in popularizing lambada in the country. Other forms of native music, such as huaynos and sayas arealso widely played.cumbia is another music enjoyed today
[edit] Brazil
Main articles: Music of Brazil, Latin jazz, Tropicalismo
Brazil is a large and diverse country with a long history of popular musical development, ranging from the early 20th century innovation of samba to the modern Música Popular Brasileira. Bossa nova is internationally well-known.
[edit] Chile
Main articles: Music of Chile, Andean music, Cueca, Nueva Canción
The Chilean music of the Andes reflects the spirit of the indigenous people of the Altiplano. It is also where the Nueva Canción originated. Cueca is the national dance.
[edit] Cuba
Main articles: Music of Cuba, Canto Nuevo, Chachacha, Habanera, Latin jazz, Mambo, Nueva Trova, Rumba, Salsa music, Son
Cuba has produced many of the world's most famous styles of music and a number of renowned musicians in a variety of fields.
[edit] Colombia
Main articles: Music of Colombia, Cumbia
Cumbia is originally a Colombian style of popular music, though it is now also found in other countries, especially Mexico. Vallenato and Champeta are also Colombian styles. Cumbia is related to other styles within the atlantic coastal region such as porro, puya, mapale and bullerengue and usually come out of a mix of black, Indian and Spanish influences. Southern Pacific black music is rather different and is prominent the use of the marimba in rhythms such as currulao. Central and southern meztizo usually uses string instruments in styles such as pasillos, bambucos and sanjuaneros. Music in the llanos in the border with Venezuela evolves around the joropo and the use of arps and maracas.
[edit] Dominican Republic
Main articles: Music of the Dominican Republic, Bachata, Merengue
Merengue has been popular in the Dominican Republic for many decades, and is a kind of national symbol. Bachata is also popular.
[edit] Ecuador
Main articles: Music of Ecuador
Ecuadorian music can be classified in mestizo, Indian and black musics. Mestizo music comes out of the interrelation between Spanish and Indian music. In it there's rhythms such as pasacalles, pasillos, albazos and sanjuanitos and is usually characterized by the use of string instruments. Indian music in Ecuador is determined in varying degrees by the influence of inca quechua culture. Within it we find sanjuanitos (different form the meztizo sanjuanito), capishkas, danzantes and yaravis. Black Ecuadorian music can be classified in two. Black music from the coastal Esmeraldas province characterized by the use of the marimba and black music from the Chota Valley in the northern Sierra mainly known as Bomba del Chota and characterized by a more pronounced mestizo and Indian influence than marimba esmeraldeña. Most of these musical styles can also be played by windbands of varying sizes in popular festivals all around the country.
[edit] Haiti
Main articles: Music of Haiti
Rich blend of African and European sounds; along with Cuban and Dominican influences, come together to create Haiti's diverse music. The most notable styles are Kompa and Méringue.
[edit] Mexico
Main articles: Music of Mexico, Mariachi
Mariachi is a kind of popular Mexican music.
[edit] Paraguay
Main articles: Music of Paraguay, Guarania (music), Danza Paraguaya
[edit] Peru
Main articles: Music of Peru, Música criolla
Peruvian music is marked by Indian, Spanish and black African influences. Coastal afroperuvian music is characterized by the use of the cajon peruano. Indian music varies according to region and ethicity. the most well known Indian style is the huayno. Mestizo music is varied and within it we find as most popular valses and marinera from the northern coast.
[edit] Puerto Rico
Main articles: Music of Puerto Rico, Bomba, Plena, Reggaetón, Salsa music
Bomba and plena have been popular in Puerto Rico for a long time, while reggaetón is a relatively recent invention.
[edit] Venezuela
Main articles: Music of Venezuela, Llanero
Llanera is Venezuelan popular music originated in the "llanos" plains, although you'll find the more upbeat and festive Gaita (music style) beat in the western area specically in the state of Zulia
[edit] Nueva canción
Main article: Nueva canción
Nueva canción is a Latin American music genre mosrt directly associated especially with Argentina and Chile.
[edit] Salsa
Main article: Salsa music
Salsa is an amalgamation of Latin musical styles, especially Cuban and Puerto Rican, created in the pan-Latin melting pot of New York City in the early 1970s.
[edit] Tejano Music
Main article: Tejano music
Tejano music can be categorized as country music born in Texas, and performed in Spanish with a variety of cultural influences.
Most Tejanos reside in South Texas, United States. Ethnically they're Mexican descendants, having their own unique form of both folk and popular music, but separate from both Mexican and American music.
[edit] Reggaetón
Main article: Reggaetón
Reggaetón has become an international phenomenon and is no longer classifiable merely as a Puerto Rican or Panamanian genre. It blends Jamaican music influences of reggae and dancehall with those of Latin America, such as bomba and plena, as well as that of hip hop. The music is also combined with rapping (generally) in Spanish.
[edit] Imported styles
Imported styles of popular music with a distinctively Latin style include Latin jazz, Argentinean rock and Chilean rock, and Cuban and Mexican hip hop, all based of styles from the United States (jazz, rock and roll and hip hop). Music from non-Latin parts of the Caribbean are also popular, especially Jamaican reggae and dub, Trinidadian calypso music and Antiguan Soca.
[edit] References
- Morales, Ed (2003). The Latin Beat. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-81018-2.
- Nettl, Bruno (1965). Folk and Traditional Music of the Western Continents. Prentice-Hall, Inc. ISBN 0-13-323247-6.
- Stevenson, Robert (1952). Music in Mexico. Thomas Y. Crowell Company. ISBN 1-199-75738-1. , cited in Nettl, p. 163.
[edit] External links
- IberoAmerica Ensemble - Crossover string ensemble that plays Latin American and Spanish music.
