Latin/Central American Music

7th grade music technologyEastwood Middle School

Countries of Latin/Central America

• Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Montserrat, Navassa Island, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, St. Barthlemy, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, St. Maarten, Trinidad & Tobago, Turks & Caicos Islands, Virgin Islands

Influence of and on other cultures• These countries were primarily settled by Moorish, Spanish,

Portuguese, and African peoples. The Moorish empire dominated the Caribbean for almost 2000 years. Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors brought slaves from Africa with them when they conquered these countries.

• African slaves were not allowed to play instruments in North America, but were allowed to in New Orleans (Congo Square) as well as in the Caribbean-they were not used for entertainment here, but rather for communication.

• Four of these countries had a large influence on U.S. music: Brazil, Cuba, Argentina, and Mexico. These countries brought us samba, bossa nova (Brazil), tango (Argentina), bolero (Cuba), and mariachi (Mexico) music.

Ancient Civilizations

• Much of the music from the native peoples was lost when they were conquered by Europeans.

• Some evidence suggests Maya civilizations used instruments: percussion and winds, with almost total absence of strings. These were depicted in hieroglyphs and pottery decorations. Modern Andean Indians still make extensive use of vertical flutes and panpipes, along with European instruments such as bass drums, harps, and guitars of different sizes.

• Only in certain tropical areas (as the Amazon basin) are virtually unacculturated Amerindian music found. Most other cultures now use European instruments instead.

Calypso

• A form of music and dance of the Caribbean, calypso had its primary development in Trinidad, where it is associated particularly with the pre-Lenten carnival. Before the carnival begins, musicians try out their songs nightly before audiences in the Port of Spain. The most popular are used during the carnival. The words of calypso songs are witty and humorous and convey popular attitudes on social, political, or economic problems. Rhythms are provided most often by steel band percussion instruments, made from the tops of oil drums. Most African forms are usually associated with African-derived religions, such as voodoo of Haiti and the Yoruba-oriented candomble of Brazil and santeria of Cuba.

Carnival• The origins of carnival date back to the ancient Greek spring festival in honor of

Dionysus, the god of wine. It has been incorporated into other cultures such as Romans and Roman Catholics.

• The festival is a celebration of indulgences before the 40 days of Lent when people fast and purge themselves of sin.

• Rio's lavish carnival is one of the world's most famous. Scores of spectacular floats surrounded by thousands and thousands of dancers, singers, and drummers parade dressed in elaborate costumes.

• Today the carnival is organized by the escolas de samba (samba schools). They first appeared in 1928. Much more than musical groups, they are in fact, neighborhood associations that provide a variety of community needs (such as educational and health care resources) in a country with grinding poverty and no social safety net.

• Salvador da Bahia was Brazil's first center of government (from 1549 to 1763), and remains its musical capital. For centuries, Bahia was home of the Portuguese sugar industry and slave trade. As a result, today Salvador is the largest center of African culture in the Americas.

• Bahian superstar Carlinhos Brown explains, "We play, not for money, but to celebrate happiness. Our carnival is a street carnival. It is for everyone, not just for those with money."

Tango

• A dance that evolved in Buenos Aires at the end of the 19th century, the tango is probably derived from the milonga, a lively, suggestive Argentinian dance, and the habanera of Cuba and the West Indies. By the 1920s, it had become a popular ballroom dance in Europe and the United States, and had been transformed into a flowing, elegant series of steps accompanied by somewhat melancholy music with a characteristic tango beat.

Mariachi

• Mariachi music has origins deep in Mexican history. The sound of its string instruments and its oldest rhythms are rooted in Mexico's colonial times (1519-1810); people from Spain and African slaves and their descendants mingled with hundreds of American Indian cultures to create a new Mexican culture marked by many regions, each with its own signature musical tradition. Today, mariachi ensembles are part of musical life in every country of the Americas. The USA, the Southwest in particular, is home to many thousands of mariachi musicians, and hundreds of schools host mariachi education programs particularly in the Las Vegas County Schools.

Time Line• 1920s Afro-Cuban dance music popularized in the USA by bandleader Xavier Cugat

(1900-1990). Highlife music developed in W Africa.• 1930s Latin American dances like samba and rumba became Western ballroom dances.• 1940s Afro-Cuban rhythms fused with American jazz to become Cubop.• 1950s The cool jazz school imported bossa nova from Brazil. US bandleader Tito Puente

(1923) popularized Latin dances mambo and cha-cha-cha. Calypso appeared in the pop charts.

• 1960s Miriam Makeba took South African folk and pop to the West. The Beatles introduced Indian sitar music. Folk rock recycled traditional songs.

• 1970s Jamaican reggae became international and was an influence on punk. Cuban singer Celia Cruz established herself in the USA as the 'queen of salsa'. Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré (1939) brought a blues feel to traditional African melodies.

• 1980s World music was embraced by several established pop stars and various African, Latin American, Bulgarian, Yemenite, and other styles became familiar in the West. Zairean Papa Wemba was one of many Third World singers recording in France.

• 1990s New fusions, such as Afro-Gaelic, punk Ukrainian, and bhangramuffin, appeared.

Sources

• http://users.wpi.edu/~arivera/music.html

• http://www.revels-bey.com/history_of_latin_music.htm

• https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/wfbExt/region_cam.html

• http://www.afropop.org/multi/feature/ID/33/