Latin American Holidays
Latin American Holidays
Latin American music is the music of all countries in Latin America (and the Caribbean) and comes in many varieties. Latin America is home to musical styles such as the simple, rural conjunto music of northern Mexico, the sophisticated habanera of Cuba, the rhythmic sounds of the Puerto Rican plena, the symphonies of Heitor Villa-Lobos, and the simple and moving Andean flute. Music has played an important part recently in Latin America's politics, the nueva canción movement being a prime example. Latin music is very diverse, with the only truly unifying thread being the use of Latin-derived languages, predominantly the Spanish language, the Portuguese language in Brazil, and to a lesser extent, Latin-derived creole languages, such as those found in Haiti.
Characteristics
There are many diverse styles of Latin music, some of which constitutes 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 American music being bereft of African influence, or being purely African with no European or indigenous elements, but it is now generally accepted that Latin American music is syncretic. Specifically, Spanish song forms, African rhythms, and European and African/Afro-American harmonies are major parts of tropical Latin music as are the more modern genres such as rock, heavy-metal, punk, 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 Dominican Merengue, and Dominican Bachata Cuban Rumba, the Puerto Rican Salsa, Bomba, and Plena, the Colombian cumbia, the Brazilian samba, the Ecuadorian Bomba del Chota and marimba music, the candombe and murga rhythms from the River Plate, or Afro-Peruvian rhythms such as Festejo, Landó, Panalivio, Socabón, Son de los Diablos, or Toro Mata. In Peru, there are regions where African musical influence met and mingled with that of the Gypsy (Roma People). Examples of this mixture are found all over the central and northern coast of Peru in rhythms such as that of the Zamacueca or Marinera and the Resbalosa. In the most rare of musical mestizages the African and Gypsy (Roma people) influence met the Andean, for example the Tondero, the Cumanana, and the Peruvian Vals from the northern coast.
Other 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 America; 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 timbres... 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 people 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 Inca civilizations.
The ancient Mesoamerican 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 pan flutes. 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.
Indigenous music in the Andean countries of Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia tends to have the prominent use of flute-like 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 rattle-like 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 ethnicity within them. In Ecuador for instance, there are sanjuanitos and capishkas. In Peru there is Huayños and in Bolivia there are Tinkus, chuntuquis and morenadas.
Origins
The arrival of the Spanish and their music heralded the beginning of Latin American music. At the time, parts of Spain were controlled by the Moors of North Africa, who tolerated many ethnic groups. These people, 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, the North African nasal, high-pitched singing style and frequent use of improvisation also spread to all the peoples of Iberia, as did the Roma vocal trill that characterizes Romani 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, appearing in corridos, bolero, and vallenato.
Some modern peoples of Latin America are essentially purely African, 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 styles by country
Argentina
Main articles: Music of Argentina, Tango music, Argentine rock, Milonga, Chacarera, Chamamé, and Southern cone musicThe 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. Rock en Español became first popular in Argentina, then it swept through other Latin American countries. That movement is called the "Argentine Wave."
Belize
Main article: Music of BelizeThe music of Belize has a mix of Kriol, Mestizo, Garifuna, and Maya influences. After many centuries of Maya habitation, Spanish and then British colonizers arrived in the area, the latter keeping Belize as its only colony in Spanish-dominated Central America. Far more influential than either European power's arrival, however, was the importation of African slaves. Europeans brought polkas, waltzes, schottisches and quadrilles, while Africans brought numerous instruments and percussion-based musics, including marimba. African culture resulted in the creation of brukdown music in interior logging camps, played using banjo, guitar, drums, dingaling bell, accordion and an ass's jawbone played by running a stick up and down the teeth. Among the most popular styles created by Kriol musicians is brukdown. Brukdown evolved out of the music and dance of loggers, especially a form called buru. Punta and Punta rock jazz hiphop are the most popular dance in Garifuna culture. It is performed around holidays and at parties, and other social events. Punta lyrics are usually composed by the women. Chumba and hunguhungu are a circular
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