WELCOME TO MUSIC 1E, INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC: LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

INSTRUCTOR: RON DUNN (PLEASE CALL ME RON)

Please sit toward middle section of the room

Silence, put away cell phones--This rule is effective throughout the quarter

Laptop computers: Anyone using laptops must sit in first row

Important information:Copy this email:  dunnron@deanza.eduCopy this URL: http://faculty.deanza.edu/dunnron -- instructor's website including Music 1E course resources

Introduction to Music: Latin America

and the Caribbean

WHERE IS LATIN AMERICA?

• From tip of Tierra del Fuego (to Tijuana

• Latin America has an area of approximately 7,880,000 sq. mi

• 14.1% of earth’s land surface area.

• Hundreds of indigenous groups and languages still in existence—many languages dying

• In modern times, areas defined by Colonial administrative language: Spanish (most prevalent), French, Portuguese (Brazil), English (Trinidad, Jamaica)

“THIS IS WHO I AM”: MUSIC IS THE EXPRESSION OF PEOPLE’S LIVES

• How does music express identity in your life?

GETTING TO KNOW YOU….Find a group of strangersWhen it’s your turn, introduce yourself to

your group• How long at De Anza?• If new, from what school or college?• Your major?• Read or paraphrase the two questions

from Student Info sheet Follow-up questions or comments from

group members?Be sure to exchange email addresses!

MUSICAL STUDY IN LATIN AMERICAMUST INCLUDE

Ethnicity

Religion

History

Geography Musical elements,style, aesthetics

OUR JOURNEY

• Introduction to the class• Introduction regional history and issues• Introduction to musical elements: rhythm, melody, form,

texture, etc.• “Classical” music—first contact, church music, colonial “art”

music, modern expression• Regional musics:

• Mexico• Spanish-speaking Caribbean• Brazil• Andes• Southern Cone (Argentina and Chile)

MUSICAL INTOLERANCE/RELATIVITY

• Latin America has long history of “coarse” vs. “refined”• Class and ethnicity used to denigrate music “taking [one’s

own] worldview as an absolute standard” • This practice is called Ethnocentrism

Music/culture must be seen in its own terms: Cultural Relativity

TRANSFORMATION/COMPLICATING MATTERS…

Accepted categories of music• Folk: music of the people, often anonymous, steeped in

tradition and community ritual and associated with uneducated working class, usually in rural areas

• Popular: urban settings, composed by known individuals, circulated throughout the community at all levels, often with commercial considerations

• Art/classical: music of the elite and educated members of a society, music that is studied, written down and performed in more formal settings

MORE COMPLICATIONS…

• However, many genres blur: Martinican Kwadril–

Furthermore, Much Latin American music began as folk music• 20th century brought migration to cities

• hybridization occurs, reification, abandonment of ritual/religious underpinnings

• Folk music becomes preferred popular music• Nationalism in 20th century

• Uses folk music as underpinnings

TRANSFORMATIONS

Transformation of folk genres by modernization, globalization• use of electric instruments, pop beat• abandonment of African or Native elements as

commercial interests “sanitize” for middle class• simultaneous rise of popular genres: salsa, reggae,

tejano, calypso, from folk roots• Typical trajectory: Folk “Art” Popular• Political borders, language not barriers in spread of

popular styles

GLOBALIZATION OF L.A. MUSIC BEGAN IN 1492

• Globalization has helped to create “world music”• Latin American music played big role in creation of world

music as a broad popular category• Latin American music has been transformed in the

process:• Pop orientation, electric instruments• Homogenization criticized by academics and others, see it as

degradation of “authentic” styles

What does this say about “authenticity?”

INDIGENOUS CULTURES BEFORE 1492

• Thousands of groups inhabiting the regions: much diversity

• Extreme geographic diversity, isolations create diverse cultures

• Over time, 3 major groups• Aztec• Mayan• Inca

• As many as 100 million• European contact

decimates populations• Warfare/conquest• disease

THE FIRST AMERICANS

Earliest known instruments were percussion: • gourds, seeds, claws, hooves• Also flutes: wood, cane, bone

• Each had complex governments, religious belief systems• significant architectural landmarks• lucrative economic systems and trade networks• powerful militaries

How do we know what we know?

• Loss of history – Europeans systematically destroyed artifacts

• Music itself almost completely lost: remaining filtered through eyes of conquistadors and missionaries

• Europeans described music as barbaric, demonic, uncivilized because• no harmony• complex syncopation• Dissonance

Reconstructing history• What’s left?

What we knowNo string instruments–all wind, percussion and human voice• Similar instruments found in various parts of continent

• Drums• Shakers• Rasps• Conch shells • Flutes–many different scales, ranges; beauty of flutes is that tuning

system remains intact• Music for religious ceremony dominated

1492 and the advent of syncretism

• What is Syncretism? • process of mutual influence and adaptation among

different religious or cultural traditions: two or more cultures combine to form a new culture

• Not a simple “mixing”—power structures complicate

White Legend and Black Legend

Two opposing models• Black legend: Europeans destroyed people they

contacted and subjugated• White legend: Europeans brought prosperity and spiritual

salvation to indigenous populations• What’s wrong with these models?

Population Decimation

• Smallpox• Tuberculosis• Measles • Dysentery

• By 17th century, as much as 90% of populations were destroyed

Indigenous populations had no natural immunity to European diseases

Emergence of Mestizo culture:Pragmatism, survival and adaptation

EncomiendaReduccionesRepartamiento

Emergence of Mestizo culture:Pragmatism, survival and adaptation

Expert metallurgy combined with European filigree work

Simple European skirts decorated with indigenous patterns and colors

European string Instruments

AdaptationsAndean Charango

Andean harp with other strings instruments

EUROPEAN CULTURES IN AMERICA

THE EMERGENCE OF AFRICAN CULTURE: TRIANGLE TRADE AND THE “MIDDLE PASSAGE”

“Sins traded, bartered for goods to trade for

slaves: glass beads, textiles, guns, whiskey, ivory

European goods traded for slaves in

Africa

Slaves traded in Caribbean for products of slave labor:• rum, sugar, tobacco, molasses–so-called “Sin” products

African Influence in South America• Shaded areas show

areas of slave importationin South America

Cabildos in Cuba (Wikipedia) Name of Cabildo African region of origin Ethnic group of originAbakuá Nigeria/Cameroon EkpeMandinga Sierra Leone MalinkéGanga Sierra Leone MalinkéMina Gold Coast AkanLucumi Benin and Nigeria YorubaCarabalis Biafra Igbo - EfikMacauas Mozambique MakuaCongo Angola Bantu

General Elements of Sub-Saharan African Culture Transplanted to New World

• Complex rhythmic layering–conversation– cross rhythm/polyrhythm

• Bell or clave as guide rhythm, drum patterns fit within it– strong metronomic sense without thinking of beat and/or meter, whereas

Westerners are conditioned to think of organizing music to a meter– Tresillo, cinquillo, other rhythmic patters are African rhythmic patterns

• Short phrases, responsorial forms in both song and instrumental music: lead drum (call) – and support rhythm (response)

• Open-ended cycle AB vs ABA• Drums very important

– Upright and horizontal• Other instruments: marimba, thumb piano, many string instruments• Tonal language–rhythms often have meaning, drums can “talk”• Drums sometimes banned because of their ability to communicate over long

distances .

Religious Syncretism

• Religious devotion a part of both European and indigenous American cultures

• The plan for conversion– Incorporate some elements of native American

worldview– Make religious ceremony joyous, full of splendor– Use lots of music

Patron Saint Festivals

Liturgical Drama and DanceDance-drama used as means of conversion• Matachines, Moros y Christianos

– Symbolism beyond historical enactment, moral undertone

• Pasiones—stylized representations of passion of Christ

• Some incorporated indigenous and African elements; biblical and doctrinal, others with moral undertones, others comedic– Mojigangas: fin de fiesta– Bumba meu boi: resurrected bull

• Modern versions still in existence, widely practiced, regional in nature

Mojigangas puppets

Bumba meu boi

The syncretic process

• Did missionary strategies work?• Separate practices eventually merge: syncretism

• Virgen Mary/Tonatzin, Mother of Aztec gods• Merged as Virgen of Guadalupe

• Guelaguetza , Zapotec feast of Thanksgiving/feast of Virgen of Mount Carmel

Syncretism and Slavery• Ancestor worship/animism at core of African religions• Pantheon of gods merges with Christian saints• In Cuba, Santeria major religion

– Babalu Aye becomes St. Lazarus

Oshun/Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre

Carnaval: the most widespread of all syncretic celebrations!

Syncretism beyond race, religion, culture

• What elements were shared between cultures?

Modern Native Societies

• Importance of Native societies