Tejano Conjunto Analysis

Throughout the Mexican revolution, songs from northern Mexico emerged telling stories of heroism and defeat. Moreover, these corridos, translated into English meaning ballads, were influenced by 14th-century romantic Spanish notes. Further, these ballads, commonly performed by individuals who lack formal musical training and embrace the use of the accordion and tuba in the melody (Madrid 2013, 92). The result of these factors is a musical genre considered unrefined and unsophisticated by most of Mexico until the music’s growth in popularity in the 1970s.

Latin Dance has evolved into a vivid kaleidoscope of many different cultures dancing to the beat of a single drum. These types of music which find their origin in African influence have developed into a meshwork of individual sounds and have grown to be identified with a particular culture. An example of such can be seen in the evolution and history of one of these, Merengue. This type of dance is native to the Carribean, however, it has developed and taken its precedence in the Dominican Republic. This Carribean nation has been crucial to the spread of this music on an international level.

How did Cuba and Brazil affect popular music, culture and dance in the 1940’s and 50’s? In this investigation I am going to establish what affects Cuba and Brazil had on popular music and dance. The first thing I’m going to do is discover how the music from Cuba and Brazil spread to America, the center of music. While doing my research I will be looking at what types of music were popular in Cuba and Brazil during the 40’s and 50’s as well as how these types of music affected American popular music. Two of the sources I used in this essay, Latin Music USA and Music in Brazil will then be evaluated. To

Samba Afro had three main instruments that included the caixa, repinique, and surdo. Often times we fail to realize the close relationship between

This paper will be comparing and contrasting Merengue Tipico music, which is a type of merengue, and bachata music of the Dominican Republic. Merengue and Bachata are the two most popular music genres in the Dominican Republic. These two kinds of music represent the Dominican Republic and its people. Many Dominicans have taken their music and traditions to different parts of the world. Mainly, the Bachata and Merengue have expanded to different cities of the United States and Latin America. Although both genres have a lot of characteristics in common, they also have many differences. Two of the main differences these two genres have are the instrumentation and their artists and composers.

The calypso music that comes from a Trinidad musician is exciting, not on the ground of the blood that he carries in his veins but rather the historical, cultural, and religious favors that are brought together to ensure its production.

Socially and politically reinforced negative racial perceptions of indigenousness and blackness in Mexico have kept Afro–Mexican musical traditions largely hidden from modern music industry. However, the culture of African-descended populations remains alive in embodied musical practices of Mexico, specifically in the regional music and dance forms preserved in many rural states. Among the most prominent of these living traditions is son jarocho, a musical tradition rooted in resistance of African slaves to colonial oppression in the ports Veracruz. Their musical tradition has endured a history of oppression and silencing by both political and religious forces. Through an analysis of the racially driven institutionalized oppression of son jarocho in its early history and the transition to its current role in the immigrant social movement in Chicano communities, Son jarocho’s political and musical essence has prevailed to influence changes in racial, economic, and gender equality.

Despite their failure to convert them religiously through music, the natives were left with a Spanish influence because even after secularization they continued to use European instruments such as: “Violins, violas,” and "guitars” (Ray and Engbeck 1974:16) and most stopped using native instruments. Because of this neglect, there only remains fragmentary evidence--outside of a few early ethnographies and written descriptions of events in the California missions--on native music, while “several hundred European-style musical instruments were being played in California.” (Ray and Engbeck 1974:15)

(lecture hernandez, 2016) The accordion came from Europe, the Guacharaca came from indigenous roots and the drum such as the caja originated from Africa, thus this genre is a mixture or Spanish, indigenous and African roots. At times a sombrero volteado is used in accordance with the instruments and it is used as a symbol of the northeastern valley of Colombia. At a young age children in Colombia are taught to play instruments such as the caja or accordion. Vallenato’s roots have become of high value in Colombian villages that vallenato fans believe that they must teach their own children for the traditions to continue. Vallenato music is characterized as having 4 different styles: puya, merengue, son and paseo. Puya and Merengue are played in a faster pace while paseo and son are slower paced. Incorporating all these elements together, vallenato music, “though less polyrhythmic than cumbia, had a rural narrative style and a lively rhythm, which appealed to costenos, people from La Costa” (Netti,

On Thursday, August the 17th I attended a concert at the North Park theater in San Diego, California. The name of the band is called Celso Piña y Su Ronda Bogota, (which roughly translates to Celso Piña and his round from Bogota). With Celso Piña being the leader of the band, accordionist, and lead singer of the group. In addition, this band hails from Monterrey, Mexico, but their musical style has its roots from the Caribbean region of Colombia. This band is influence by the traditional music of Colombia, such as Cumbia and Vallenato. What sets them apart is that they have taken the traditional cumbia and vallenato and added more percussion, and electric guitar and bass. For example, in this concert, the classifications of the instruments used were the aerophone using an accordion, electrophone with a bass and electric guitar, guiro, timbales, and

Tito Puente was a musician who demonstrated talent in his own unique way. He did this by combining old-fashioned showmanship with mastery over every rhythmic nuance. Additionally, Puente played the vibraphonist, congas, bongos, and saxophone (Ginell 1). This showed how music was Puente’s natural talent. His music was enjoyable for all ethnic groups and ages. Not only that, but he was one of the most well-rounded musicians majoring in percussion and a major force in the development of salsa music. In the 1950s, he initiated his solo career producing more than 100 albums in his lifetime. “Oye Como Va” had been his signature tune (Micucci 1). This tune became so

In this paper I will summarize “Sexuality and Ritual: Indigenous Women Recreating Their Identities in Contemporary Mexico” by Vara. Vara is describing her life and how in her culture it has been difficult for woman to have their own identities, because everything is dictated by men and for men. Her struggles are what led to the community of what it is today. She states, “It made me seek, research, question, in a word, investigate, in many other words, attempt to know why there was such limited and under-valued participation of women in some of the Tepoztlan’s community rituals” (Vara, 177). She is very descriptive about the rituals and challenges she faced and how was it that she overcame those challenges and now in Tepoztlan there are more opportunities for women, that in the past it only used to be for men.

Although, what undeniably surprises young percussionists, especially after listening to his intricate works, is Xenakis’ lack of actual percussion experience. Paganini and Chopin progressed their respective instruments repertoire by composing for their own unprecedented technical ability. Xenakis advanced percussion literature in a different fashion, but with similar results. He did not know how to play the percussion he composed for. He spoke rarely about percussion in interviews and unlike Cage, Xenakis did not publish any articles or treatises on the subject. When Xenakis heard Schick in perform the American premiere of Psappha in 1990, he was not concerned with the interpretation of the rhythms, which is paramount to most percussionists. Instead Xenakis was focused on the woodblock instrumentation that was originally ambiguous in the score. Yet, he was able to compose virtuosic works that required years of technical development calling for the necessity of trained solo percussionists. So, how did Xenakis -a composer that knew very little about the instruments he was composing for- become the percussion “progenitor”? Fortunately for modern day percussionists, Xenakis was in the right time and place to create the influential works still widely performed today. It was matter of Xenakis applying his unique

Latin America are a group countries that is rich with culture. Although those countries struggle with identity over the course of their history, one thing still remain promminate in their culture is music. Music has always been apart of their culture not just for entertaiment but also a way for them to express themselves. In their music, they were able to express their dis content with their social and economy sistuation. This paper will be about the origin of samba and it implication in the latin american culture.

The first generation contadini (p.3) (“southern peasants”) subsumed all of its energies beneath this guiding principle of the family, and derived great strength and satisfaction from it, but at the same time they passed on to their children and grandchildren 0 for whom this book is written – the conflicted psychology that comes from being suspended between two powerful and demanding cultures.