Latin America

Music, broadly defined

General characteristics

Identifiable concepts in Latin American music include:

Nostalgia: impressions of past times

i.e. Migrating to another place from one’s roots i.e Ecuadorian song that relates a mother’s worry that

her child, now living in a “beautiful palace”, will forget his/her humble beginnings

Characteristics con’t.

Descriptive Ballads• Storytelling which focuses on local

figures (human and animal)• These can be good or bad figures. • Ballads have told the stories of many

Latin American heroes and their place in history.

• i.e. Text CD 4, Cut 11 Illuman tiyu

More characteristics

Commentary on current events and outrage at injustice• “There can be no important event in the

history of the people of Latin America that is not reflected in a song.” (Eduardo Arrasco Pirard)

• i.e. “The People United Shall Never be Defeated” from Chile

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uCC-venMtU

Characteristics...

Communication with the supernatural is a major characteristic of much of Latin American music

Examples include:• shaman music• dancing in expectation of spirit possession• adults at a child’s wake taking the “voice” of the

deceased infant who is now considered an angel on the way to “gloria”

Latin American rhythms

Some familiar terms: rumba, mambo, bolero, beguine,

samba, bossa-nova, tango These play a big role in popular

music around the world.

Approaches to healing

Biomedical rooted in study of

pathogenic causes for illness, practiced by doctors

supported by microbiology

treated with modern drugs and medicines

“ethnomedical” rooted in native ways,

practiced by shamans draws on local resources

(plants, etc.) and... shaman’s ability to

influence the relationship of the ill person with the environment and the cosmos

Shamanism

In Latin America, much illness is believed to be spiritually based

essential function for shaman is to heal This is a musical phenomenon:

• uses chanting and rhythm• Shaman shakes or beats a musical instrument (drum,

rattle, bell or gong) to aid in contacting the spiritual world

• This rhythm (regular, percussive) is used to transition back and forth between the spiritual world and the waking world

Mexico

Neighbor to the south… What do we know of her music? Mexican hat dance…. Dut dut dut dut dut dut dut, da

duh etc. Music is a combination of Spanish

and Indian elements Cartoons?

Migrating Monarch butterflies

Mariachi bands

The most well-known music of Mexico to Americans

In the Mexico City phone book there are four solid pages of mariachi bands advertised

Garibaldi Square--every few feet there’s another one ready for hire

When?

Funerals, weddings, baptisms, debutante celebrations...

Mariachi makeup?

Usually 2-3 violins 1-2 trumpets older type rhythm guitar with 5 strings

called a vihuela huge bass guitar with a convex back

called a guitarron purpose is to accompany professional or

amateur singers who want to show off vocal talents

Check out the guitars...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZoWPvdMYDs

A few examples

Mexican cowboy song JVC, Vol. 28, cut 1 Mexican hat dance JVC, vol. 28, cut 2

Latin America

Ecuador

Faces of Ecuador

Roads in the Andes

The summit of Mount Chimborazo is the earth's furthest point from its own

center.

Andes

The Andes mountain range stretches 4,400 miles along the western coast of South America, making it the longest mountain range in the world. The highest peak of the Andes mountain range rises 6,962 miles about sea level. In the Ecuador Andes, the summit of Mount Chimborazo is the earth's furthest point from its own center. Although the Andes mountain range does not compare to the Himalaya mountain range in height, it is twice as long. The climate of the Andes Ecuador is constantly changing, and locals claim the area experiences “four seasons in one day” throughout the year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIXE-5NrC3o&feature=related

Instruments of Ecuador

Instruments of Ecuador

rondador

Downtown Quito, the new and the old

A Convent near Quito

The Quichua of the Northern Andes of Ecuador

Imbabura Province town of Cotacachi (on the equator) language is Quichua 8300 to 9700 feet above sea level maize is a main crop, as it has been for hundreds of years tall eucalyptus grows there, often on plantations local cactus (cabuya) trunks are used to make stools for homes (harp is sitting on one)

Quichua characteristics

one room homes, covered patio with dirt floors styles of dress are the same since the 16th century cover their heads to protect from the sun strong sense of community

Musical tradition:

“Sanjuan” harp is the main instrument uses “purina”: importance of walking harps were brought from Europe by the Jesuit

missionaries, has been in Latin America for more than 400 years

Imbabura harp is a special hybrid, described in your text examples: CD 4/10, p. 435

Iluman tiyu

P. 438-9 in text highly distilled ballad Spanish and Quichua mixed here

Dried armadillo shaker

Andean harp

Afro-ecuadorianos

African Ecuadorians

African Ecuadorians of the Chota River Valley 2 hours north of Cotacachi

5-10% of the population of Ecuador; 70% of the Esmeralda province concentrated in the coastal Esmeraldas Province, north of Imbabura 16th century brought them there via the Jesuits who wanted slaves

Music example

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT_IxCSOShA

The Andean Sound

Groups: Amauta: based in Seattle http://

www.cdbaby.com/cd/amauta comprises Chilean and Bolivian musicians

playing traditional Andean instruments Seattle Northwest Regional Folklife

Festival

Condor

out of Corvallis, Oregon an ensemble of 5 professional, college-

educated musicians from Argentina, Peru, and Mexico

focus on traditional Andean music often at the State Fair in Salem in the late

summer/early fall

Andanzas

4 members from Argentina, Bolivia, and Mexico

use a US classically trained harpist http://

www.americantruths.com/catalogue/andanzas.html

Andesmanta

Ecuadorian musicians performed at Carnegie Hall and at the

Museum of Modern Art in New York http://www.youtube.com/watch?v

=ZK6ymYvqMAw&mode=related&search=

Sukay

Sukay is a very well known group, which has performed at Lincoln Center and at major folk festivals throughout the United States

Cuba!

Buena Vista Social Club Discovered and documented by Ry Cooder His mission is to embrace the world through

music.

Cooder bio

In the mid-60s (at age 17) Cooder was an up-and-coming talent on the blues circuit.

played with Jackie DeShannon, Taj Mahal, Paul Revere and the Raiders and...Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band

Collaborated with Randy Newman, Little Feat and the Rolling Stones

By the age of 20, Cooder had worked with top rhythm & blues acts of his day.

Before the end of the decade, he cut his first album, an homage to personal blues heroes, Lead Belly and Blind Willie Johnson

In the 70s Cooder began to branch out into other areas of the world. This eventually took him light-years away from his roots.

The early 90s found Cooder far from home, producing remarkable albums in collaboration with V.M. Bhatt (A Meeting by the River) and Ali Farka Touré (Talking Timbuktu).

Intro to Buena Vista

"I felt that I had trained all my life for this and yet making this record was not what I expected in the 1990s. Music is a treasure hunt. You dig and dig and sometimes you find something."