|
The term Latin American as used here encompasses
the Americas south of the United States, as well as the entire
Caribbean. The musics of this vast area are perhaps most efficiently
discussed not geographically but rather in terms of ethnic
components--European (especially Iberian), Amerindian, African,
and mestizo ("mixed" or acculturated).
During the colonial period in Latin America (16th-19th century)
many Amerindian populations were considerably reduced, and
much traditional Amerindian musical culture was destroyed
or syncretized with Iberian. Little concrete evidence remains
as to the real nature of pre-Conquest music in the Aztec,
Inca, and Maya civilizations apart from the testimony of 16th-century
Spanish chroniclers and what can be seen of instruments depicted
in hieroglyphs and pottery decorations. Drums, rattles, scrapers,
slit drums (hollowed logs), whistles, vertical flutes, and
panpipes were found, with almost total absence of stringed
instruments. In performing the yaravi song, the huayno song
and dance form, and other genres, modern Andean Amerindians
still make extensive use of vertical flutes and panpipes,
along with European instruments such as bass drums, harps,
and guitars of different sizes. In Mesoamerica Indians now
play harps, fiddles, and guitars based upon archaic Spanish
models, or MARIMBAS of African origin, all of which have largely
replaced indigenous instruments. Only in certain tropical
areas (for example, the Amazon basin) are virtually unacculturated
Amerindian musics found.
The Iberian origins of many song and dance forms are evident
in a widespread predilection for alternating 3/4 and 6/8 meters
(hemiola), the use of harps, fiddles, guitars, and many song
types derived from Spanish verse structures such as the romanze
or villancico. Such song types include the corrido of Mexico,
desafio of Brazil, copla of the Andean countries, and decima
of South America, the Caribbean, and Mexico. Relatively few
Iberian genres have been retained in their original forms;
rather, acculturated song and dance genres are distinctly
regional in text, structure, choreography, and spirit. They
include the zamba of Argentina, cueca of Chile and Bolivia,
bambuco of Colombia, joropo of Venezuela, jarabe and huapango
of Mexico, and son and punto of Cuba. They are usually danced
in couples and often incorporate such features as shoe tapping
and scarf waving.
The largest black populations are found in tropical coastal
lowlands, as in the Caribbean, Eastern Central America, Venezuela,
Brazil, and the Colombian/Ecuadorian coasts. African musical
features commonly retained include call and response singing,
polyrhythms, extensive use of ostinatos (persistently repeated
musical figures), and improvisation based on recurring short
phrases. African instruments found in both unaltered and adapted
forms, with many regional names and variations, include long
drums, often in "family" sets of three (congas),
iron gongs, gourd scrapers (guiro), concussion sticks (claves),
internal or external rattles (maracas, shekere), sanza (marimbula),
and marimbas. The "steel drum" (tuned metal barrel)
of Trinidad has no direct African equivalent but evolved from
drum ensembles. The most African forms are usually associated
with African-derived religions, such as the Yoruba-oriented
candomble of Brazil, lucumi of Cuba, and voodoo of Haiti.
More acculturated Afro-American musics such as the urban samba
de morro (carnival samba) of Brazil, MERENGUE of the Dominican
Republic and Haiti, bomba and plena of Puerto Rico, and RUMBA,
conga, guaracha, son, and son montuno of Cuba have become
national folk musics. SALSA has evolved from the rumba as
a popular music of New York's pan-Hispanic Caribbean population.
Still more cosmopolitan forms have become popular on the "pan-Latin"
and international level through their diffusion by mass media.
These include the BOLERO and danzon of Cuba, the TANGO of
Argentina, the cabaret SAMBA and bossa nova of Brazil, the
calypso of Trinidad, and the cumbia of Colombia. The reggae
of Jamaica is closer in style and spirit to "soul"
music than to Latin musics of the Caribbean.
From the 16th through the 19th century, most Latin American
"art" music reflected contemporary European models.
Indian and Creole (those of European ancestry born in the
colonies) composers and musicians composed and performed music
much like that of their parent colonial cultures. In the 20th
century, however, a number of composers discovered their "national
voices," based partly upon traditional folk and tribal
music (or their conception or reconstruction of it). These
include Heitor VILLA-LOBOS in Brazil and Manuel Ponce (1882-1948),
Carlos CHAVEZ, Silvestre Revueltas (1899-1940), and Blas Galindo
in Mexico. Other composers have tended to represent more universal,
rather than nationalist, techniques: these include Alberto
GINASTERA and Mauricio Kagel in Argentina, Camargo Guarnieri
in Brazil, Domingo Santa Cruz Wilson and Juan Orrego-Salas
in Chile, and Julian Carrillo (1875-1965) in Mexico.
 |
 |
|
- 
