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- Bongo Drums. The bongo drums shortly called bongos are a percussion instrument with a pair of unequal drums. The larger drum and the smaller drum were named hembra and macho in order.
- Marímbula. The marímbula is a lamellophone and is also known as the marimba in regions such as the Dominican Republic but it should not be confused with the percussion instrument marimba (about which, you’ll know soon in this article).
- Berimbau. The berimbau is a percussion instrument with its origin in Africa and has become popular with the Brazilians. Capoeira is a martial art from Brazil with a blend of acrobatics, dance, and music.
- Agogo. The agogo is an idiophone and the instrument is a bell or a pair of bells. It was first used in West Africa and later brought to Brazil in Latin America.
- Overview
- Pre-Columbian patterns
Latin American music, musical traditions of Mexico, Central America, and the portions of South America and the Caribbean colonized by the Spanish and the Portuguese. These traditions reflect the distinctive mixtures of Native American, African, and European influences that have shifted throughout the region over time.
This article surveys religious, folk, and art (informally, classical) music through time and over the hemisphere. After a brief discussion of the uses of music in preconquest cultures (for further treatment, see Native American music), the narrative turns to how Europeans introduced Iberian church music and began the hybridization of musical practices in both the religious and the folk realms. At the same time, imported art music practices became part of the colonial cultures and were in turn infused with local and regional flavours. By the 21st century various national musical characteristics had asserted themselves in all types of musical practice, while international trends flowed into the regional musical stream as well.
At the time of Christopher Columbus’s first encounter of the “New World” in 1492, numerous indigenous cultures were spread from the northern Mexican mountains to the southern tip of South America and on the Caribbean islands. These cultures ranged from isolated and technologically primitive peoples to highly organized societies with advanced technological knowledge. Little is known about the musical activities or systems of these precolonial civilizations, but available sources do afford glimpses into the roles of music in the most-advanced cultures. These sources include surviving musical instruments, dictionaries of Indian languages compiled by early European missionaries, chronicles written by Europeans of the 16th century, and, for Mesoamerica, a substantial number of pre-Columbian Mexican codices. (A codex is a manuscript in book form.) Some scholars have studied the musical cultures of isolated indigenous communities of the 20th century as a means to understanding the past; although such an approach may be somewhat useful, it is not wise to assume that traditions are continuous and uninfluenced over centuries.
The type of ancient Mesoamerican music that is best-documented is the ritual music of the courts (primarily Aztec and Mayan). Music performance (often allied with dance) is depicted as a large-ensemble activity, in which numerous participants variously play instruments, sing, or dance. The 8th-century murals of the Bonampak temple, for example, show a procession with trumpets, drums, and rattles.
To an extent that is remarkable in light of their numerous differences in other artistic and cultural realms, the different cultures from at least the 8th century to the early 16th century used similar instruments. Drums and wind instruments, primarily flutes, are commonly described in texts and found in artifacts. The teponaztli, a two-key slit drum played with a mallet, and the huehuetl, a single-headed cylindrical upright drum played with bare hands, occupied a special position in Aztec rituals and were considered sacred instruments. Many of the archaeological examples of these drums carry elaborate carvings with glyphs and drawings that reveal symbolically their ritual uses and functions. Comparable instruments served essential functions for the Maya.
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Many flutes from Mesoamerican cultures survive. Among the Aztec they were known generically as tlapizalli. An especially intriguing type of flute found near the Gulf of Mexico coast consists of two, three, or four tubes sounded from a single mouthpiece. Such instruments prove the existence of harmonic possibilities, up to four notes simultaneously, but it is not known how they were used. Ancient Mesoamericans did not develop musical notation, and the Spanish did not transcribe music they heard. Surviving instruments provide some indication of sound quality and pitch but not any precise way of determining scales or melodies.
- Gerard Béhague
Due to its highly syncretic nature, Latin American music encompasses a wide variety of styles, including influential genres such as cumbia, bachata, bossa nova, merengue, rumba, salsa, samba, son, and tango.
May 28, 2006 · The music now associated with the countries and regions of Latin America originated from three cultural formations: indigenous American, European and African, but the genealogies of the many products of these sources are not easily traced.
- Catherine Den Tandt, Richard Young
- 2004
Nov 20, 2019 · Latin American music originated as a result of a complicated social and cultural process that started with Columbus’s arrival to the continent centuries ago. When that happened, everything changed, and indigenous cultures started getting foreign influences.
Aug 31, 2015 · Overviews of music in Latin America are largely authored by musicologists and ethnomusicologists. These works focus on tracing the development of unique musical genres that have resulted from interethnic contact, and defining the types of music performed in Latin America today.
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Sep 18, 2020 · This ongoing and endlessly creative process has generated a great variety of rhythmic styles, and is supplemented by other vital music genres, such as northern Mexican conjunto music and Trinidadian tassa drumming, that owe little or nothing to African influence.
