Music of Latin America: Difference between revisions

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, in Brazil, its close cousin the Portuguese language.

Latin America can be divided into several musical areas. Andean music, for example, includes the countries of western South America, typically Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, 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 not necessarily considered Latin. 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.

Characteristics

There are many diverse styles of Latin music which all 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 Latin music, as are more modern rock, 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 Cuban rumba, Colombian cumbia and Brazilian samba, among other styles. African musical elements are most prevalent in the religious music of the multifarious syncretic traditions, like Brazilian candomblé and Cuban santeria.

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 instrument. 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".

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".

The ancient Central 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.

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.

Popular music

Argentina

Main articles: Music of Argentina, Tango music, Milonga, Chacarera, Chamamé, Cuarteto

The tango was perhaps the first of many Latin dance crazes to become popular all around the world. Gauchos gave Argentina the Chacarera , Cueca, and Zamba; the Guaraní Chamamé, and African slaves Candombe and Murga. More modern rhythms include Argentina's Merengue from Córdoba: El Cuarteto, and the popular Argentine Cumbia. Argentine rock was most popular during the 60s, but has regained popularity in the 80s and 90s.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ecuador

Main articles: Music of Ecuador

Mexico

Main articles: Music of Mexico, Mariachi

Mariachi is a kind of popular Mexican music.

Peru

Main articles: Music of Peru, Música criolla

Puerto Rico

Main articles: Music of Puerto Rico, Bomba, Plena, Reggaeton, Salsa music

Bomba and plena have been popular in Puerto Rico for a long time, while reggaeton is a relatively recent invention.

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

Nueva canción

Main article: Nueva canción

Nueva canción is a kind of folky music found throughout the Andean countries, associated especially with Bolivia and Chile.

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.

Tejano music

Main article: Tex-Mex and Tejano

The Tejano people live in southern Texas in the United States. They are ethnically Mexican, and have their own form of both folk and popular music which is different from both Mexican and American music.

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.

See also

• Latin house

References

• Morales, Ed (2003). The Latin Beat. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0306810182.
• Nettl, Bruno (1965). Folk and Traditional Music of the Western Continents. Prentice-Hall, Inc. ISBN 0133232476.
• Stevenson, Robert (1952). Music in Mexico. Thomas Y. Crowell Company. ISBN 1199757381., cited in Nettl, p. 163.

External links

• Trio del Sur - An ensemble from Croatia that plays mainly south-american music and related. As this time the website is written only in Croatian but an English translation is planned.
• IberoAmerica Ensemble - Crossover string ensemble that plays Latin American and Spanish music.
• Spanish language music Traditional and contemporary Spanish-language music, with genre descriptions, representative artists, CDs & audio samples.
• Latin American music A quick look through traditional and some modern Latin American music. In Spanish
• Latin Music Online Radio
• Party Radio - Internet radio station which streams Latin music.
• Latin-Caribbean Music An article discussing Latin styles as they relate to the Caribbean.
• "The Global Appeal of LATIN MUSIC", from Awake! magazine