Sunday, 27 May 2012

Latin American Music Styles

Salsa

Salsa is based on Cuban music in rhythm, tempo,bass line, riffs and instrumentation.It is perhaps the most familiar genre for non-Latin American listeners. It is popular across the globe, and it is slowly incorporating other musical styles including rock, jazz, and other Latin American musical traditions to create more variation from the original Salsa. 


Cumbia


Cumbia music was originated from panama as a type of folk music, and later this genre of music  became the Columbian national music. Cumbia was first started as a slow dance by the slaves and natives of Colombia. Contemporary Cumbia music frequently expresses the distress of the African slaves. The music is played mainly by drums and indigenous flutes.

Bolero

Bolero was emerged from the 19th century from an old Spanish dance. This type of music is often slow in tempo and romantic in theme. Therefore, it is categorized as a balladic style of music. The music was originated from Cuba, but later has became popular around the Caribbean area, and finally taking root in the surrounding islands and Mexico. 



Cha-cha-cha


Cha-cha-cha is considered a Cuban music genre. It is popular not only in Cuba,but Mexico and some of the states in the USA. Cha-cha-cha is considered a dance music genre is almost completely accompanied with some sort of dance. The music itself is upbeat, and lively. 


Tango


Tango and its accompanying dance was originated from the urban poor of Buenos Aires in the 1890s. Tango is considered a style of ball room dance music, and was originally played by the orquesta tipica, which includes two violins, piano, double bass, and two bandoneons. Tango may be purely instrumental or include a vocalist. Tango is the more popular type of music from Latin America that has penetrated in to a global market, thus is popular global wide.  



Reggaetón


Reggaeton is an urban form of music originated from  the Caribbean music. The genre became popular in Puerto Rico, and later spread across the globe. Modern Reggaeton mixs Jamaican musical and elements of the Latin America genres, such as, salsa, Latin hip pop, and electronics along with elements of rapping and singing. Reggaeton is typically in Spanish, and its lyrics tend to be derived from hip pop musicals. 

Bachata


Bachata was originated from the Dominican Republics in the early 20th Century. It is popular especially in Latin America and Mediterranean Europe. Bachata is often romantic, and its subjects usually around tales of heartbreak and sadness. Bachata is also known as a form of dance, which is developed from the music. 

Andean Music


Andean music was originated by the indigenous people from the Inca Empire prior to the European arrival. The Andean Music includes folklore music of parts of Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela. Andean music is popular especially among the indigenous populations in Latin America. 


Marimba Music

The Marimba music was developed in Guatemala from the diatonic marimba. Contemporary composers have utilized the unique sound of the marimba in to great musics more and more in recent years. Elements of Marimba music is also incorporated to many jazz music for an improved effect. 

Reggae


Reggae was originated from Jamaica in the late 1960s, but later became popular in Latin America. The Reggae music is easily recognized by the rhythmic accents on the off beat. Reggae has a strong tempo and an emphasize on its drum effects. 

Tejano music


Tejano music is a mixture of various forms of folk and popular music originated from the Mexican-American populations in Texas. The music is often played by instruments such as the flute, guitar and drum. It also includes vocals singing songs that were passed down by the original Mexico natives. This music style has had great influence in Mexico, and other Latin American countries. 


Merengue

The Merengue music was originated from the Dominican Republic in the mid-19th century. This type of music is mainly composed of French minuets of the 19th century, with a mix of African salves culture. The African aspect adds new rhythms and an upbeat to the original minuet. The genre is typically played by a combination of guitar, guiro, tambora, and marimba. 


Latin ballad


Latin Ballad is fluorinated in the 1960s in Latin America and Spain. It is really difficult to sing Latin Ballad, thus the singers are often recognized as skilled singers. In modern times, this genre became the dominant musical genre of Latin pop. 




Mambo

The Mambo music was originated from Cuba and then developed in Mexico. Mambo means "conversation with the gods" in Kikongo, this was the language spoken by the Central African slaves from Cuba. Modern mambo music was born from a song called "Mambo" written in 1938. The music was backed by rhythms derived from African folk music.  


Latin Jazz


Latin Jazz is a jazz with Latin American rhythms. It can also be interpretative as jazz from Latin America. However Latin Jazz has a great influence from the Africa culture.   There are two main types of Latin Jazz in Latin America, one is Afro-Cuban-jazz, which is often presented in Cuban popular dance music. The other is Afro-Brazilian jazz, which includes bossa nova and jazz samba.

Mariachi

Mariachi was orginated in the State of Jalisco, Mexico. The music is a mixture of stringed instruments highly influenced by the Western Mexico cultural impacts. The traditional mariachi consist of brass, wind and percussion instruments.




Bossa Nova Brazillian Music 


The Bossa Nova is a well-known type of Brazillian music developed in the 1950s. It is a mixture of samba and jazz. The Bossa Nova music is a vital element of the standard jazz repertoire. The name "bossa nove" means New Trend.



Vallenato

Vallenato was originated from the Caribbean coast of Columbia. This type of music represent the heritage of the Columbia's northern region. It also emphasizes the syncretism of the three main instruments used to play the music, the guacharaca, the accordion, and the caja drum. Vallenato is considered a type of folk music, and is preserved and passed on in oral forms. Many of the best Vallenato songs are impossible to be represented by musical notes on papers. 


Latin America - Music

      The following is a self constructed map of the different musical styles all over Latin America. Latin America has numerous different styles and genres of musics due to the influences from the Spanish, African and native Latin American cultures. Latin America is famous for many of its musical genres, and their musicals are penetrating the globe.





Map of Musical Styles all over Latin America

Latin America Dessert

Alfajores Recipe Demonstration


The Alfajor is a traditional dessert in parts of Latin America, including Paraguay, Argentina, Chile. Uruguay, Peru, and Mexico. It is easy to make and taste great!






The shortbread Cookies demostration for the Alfajores Recipe

Latin America- Contemporary political geography

Latin America (orthographic projection).svg
Contemporary Latin America




The Contemporary Political Geography of Latin America



The Contemporary Latin America is about 21 million kilometre squared. The population is close to 600 million people which contribute to 10% of the world's population. Latin America is situated between 32.5 north latitude to 55 south latitude. It include 34 nations among Mexico, Central America, Caribbean nations, South America and surrounding islands. Population density is about 26 inhabitants per km squared.  75% of the population in the upland. 








Maps with Corresponding Countries in Contemporary Latin America
Ethnic Composition by the 21st Century in Latin America

Modern Indigenous Languages in Latin America

Thousands of Languages were spoken in Latin America in the pre-Columbia era. However, today, many of the indigenous languages are facing extinction or extinct. In Mesoamerica, which includes southern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and parts of Honduras and El Savador, has as many as several hundred different languages among six major language families. The six major language families of Mesoamerica include Mayan, Oto-Mangue, Mixe-Zoque, Totonacan, Uto-Aztecan and Chibchan. Along with these major languages, several smaller family of languages are also striving in today's world, that includes Tarascan, Huave, Tequistlatec and Misumalpan. Among all these languages, the Oto-Manguean and Mayan families have the largest numbers of speakers in today's Mesoamerica.

The following maps illustrated some of the indigenous languages that are spoken today, corresponding to the part of Mesoamerica that are speaking these languages.
Mesoamericanlanguages.png

File:Mapa de lenguas de México + 100 000.png
Language clusters of Mexico with more than 100,000 speakers





The main European languages in South America today include Indo-European, Portuguese and Spanish.  The Following map illustrate the modern European languages that are spoken in South America today. 
Main European languages in South America


The main indigenous languages of South America include the Quechua languages in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. The Guarani language in Paraguay, and th Mapudungun language in certain parts of southern Chile and parts of Argentina. There are other indigenous languages scattered among South America, the natives have been trying to protect their native identities by conserving their native languages. The scatter of some of the more popular indigenous languages are shown in the following maps. 

File:SouthAmerican families.png




Post Conquest Indigenous People (Today's Indigenous People)






The following map shows the countries in Latin America today that consist of a strong native population and heritage. 




Guatemalan girls in their traditional clothing from the town of Santa Catarina Palopó on Lake Atitlán
Bororo men, Mato Grosso, Brazil
Celebrating the annual "Alegria por la vida" Carnaval in Managua, Nicaragua
Marinera norteña, a Peruvian dance.
bull fight in Bogotá, legacy of Hispanic culture
Indigenous woman in traditional dress, in Bolivia
Guambía people relaxing in Colombia

Sra. Charo and the Qewar dollmakers.jpg
Quechua women in the Andahuaylillas District ofPeru, 2007
Brazilian Indigenous chiefs of the Kayapo tribe: Raoni, Kaye, Kadjor, Panara


Maya women from Guatemala
A group of Quechuas in the Conchucos DistrictAncash Region, Peru


                          Papantla Flyers perform a unique religious ceremony of the Totonac culture. 












Latin America - Pre-conquest indigenous cultures (part 2)


Part 2 : South America

The Inca Empire:
          The Inca Empire was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The empire situated in modern day Peru, and the civilization arose from the highlands of Peru as early as the 13th century. 
File:Inca-expansion.png




The Carib people
        The Carib people include carib, island carib and kalinago people. They are a group of people who lived around the lesser Antilles islands. Their origin lies in the southern West Indies and the northern coast of South America.In the southern Caribbean, they co-existed with the Galibi, a related Cariban speaking group. 
Carib family (by John Gabriel Stedman)


The Arawak

The Arawak were the first encountered natives for Christopher Columbus as he arrived in Americas in 1492. They were described by the Spanish as peaceful primitive people. The Arawak include  Taino, Guadeloupe, the Great Antilles and Bahamas, together with related groups which lived along the eastern coast of South America.
 
Arawak woman, by John Gabriel Stedman

A 17th-century drawing of Taino Arawak musicians in Hispaniola.


File:Indian-Tribes-of-Guiana-WH-Brett-1868.png
Assembly of Arawaks at Mahaiconi, from Indian Tribes of Guiana W. H. Brett (1844).





The Araucanian People

The Araucanian, also known as the Mapuche are a group of native people living in south-central Chile and south western Argentina. They are composed by a wide ranging ethnicity groups who shared a common social, religious and economical structure. 
Vintage engraving of Mapuche
File:Mauricio rugendas - el malon.jpg
Mapuches during a malon raid
Mapuche flag at time of arrival of the Spanish 









Monday, 21 May 2012

Latin America - Pre-conquest indigenous cultures (1)







Part I-Mesoamerica

The Writing System of different Indigenous Groups in Mesoamerica
Common Numbering System Among all groups in Mesoamerica (The bar and dots system)

The Aztec Empire 


File:Aztec Empire 1519 map-fr.svg

The Aztec people dominated the majority of Mesoamerica from the 14th to 16th centuries. They spoke the Nahuatl language, and the word Aztec means  "people from Aztlan" in their language. Aztlan is a mythological place for the Aztecs and later adopted as the word to define the Mexica people. Cultural traits particular to the Aztecs of Tenochtitlan was the veneration of the Mexica patron God Huitzilopochtli, the construction of twin pyramid.

*The Toltec


The Toltec culture was seen to be the intellectual and culture predecessors to the Aztec cultures. The Aztec oral and pictographic tradition also described the history of the Toltec empire giving lists of rulers and their exploits.

Large ceramic statue of an Aztec Eagle Warrior
 


Aztec jade mask depicting the god Xipe Totec






Toltec pyramid at Tula, Hidalgo







The Totonac People


The Totonac people were a group of indigenous people living in the eastern coastal and mountainous areas of Mexico before the arrival of the Spanish. Today, they live among the states of Veracruz, Puebla and Hidalgo, and further maintained quarters in Teotihuacan. The people were famous for their agricultural productions, including vanilla, papayas, and avacados. They were also expert weavers and embroiderers. They dress elegantly and braided their hair with feathers. 
Totonac sculpture. Nopiloa, Veracruz, Mexico.
Polychrome terra cotta, 550 to 950 CE

Ancient Totonac People






The Papantla Flyers perform a unique religious ceremony of the Totonac culture. Dating back thousands of years, this ritual is still performed for the joy of the tourists and to keep the tradition alive.



The Zapotec Civilization

The Zapotic region map

The Zapotec symbols

The Zapotec was the dominate power in southern Mesoamerica. The civilization flourished in the Valley of Oaxaca of southern Mesoamerica. Their economy was based on the collection of tributes from surrounding group due to the lacking of a strong agricultural base. Archaeological evidence dates back the culture at least 2500 years ago. The legacies of the Zapotecs were found in the ancient city of Monte Alban in the form of buildings, ball courts, tombs and grave goods including finely worked gold jewellery. 

Monte Alban, Oaxaca
Monte Alban, Oaxaca

Zapotec people making gold 









 

Zapotec Funerary Urns








The Mixtec People



File:Mixtecs.png
Map showing the historic Mixtec area. Pre-Classic archeological sites are marked with a triangle, Classic sites with a round dot and Post-classic sites with a square


        




    The Mixtec were indigenous people from Mesoamerican whom inhibited the Mexican State of Oaxaca, Guerrero and Puebla. The term Mixtec means "cloud people" from the Nahuatl language. The Mixtec were one of the major civilizations of Mesoamerica and was responsible for many of the major constructions in the ancient city Monte Alban. Monte Alban was originally a Zapotec city, however, the Mixtec later gained control of it. The stone, wood and metal works produced by the Mixtec artisans are well regarded throughout ancient Mesoamerica. 



Mixtec Calender system. The Mixtec used a 260-day calender. A day is a combination of a number a day sign. The coefficient ranges from 1 to 13, while the day sign is any of the following 20 symbols above:  
Turquoise mosaic mask. Mixtec-Aztec, 1400-1521 CE



The Olmec Culture


 Olmec influences in the archaeological record



File:Olmec Heartland Overview 4.svg
The Olmec heartland where the Olmec reigned from 1400 - 400 BCE.

The Olmec was thought to be the first major civilization in Mexico. They reside  in the southern central Mexico area, around the tropical lowlands. The Olmec flourished during roughly the early 1500 BCE to about 400 BCE, also know as Mesoamerica's Formative period. They were the first Mesoamerican civilization and therefore laid many of the foundations for the civilization followed. They were famous for their artwork, particularly the aptly named "colossal heads". The artworks by the Olmec were considered most striking among the ancient American cultures. 

The colossal heads by the Olmec:

     


File:WLA metmuseum Olmec Jadeite Mask 3.jpg   File:The Wrestler (Olmec) by DeLange.jpg

Olmec Jadeite Mask 1000-600 BCE         Olmec era statuette, 1200 – 800 BCE.




The Maya Culture 





         The Maya was considered the only civilization in pre-Columbian Americas to have fully a developed writing system. Its art, architecture and mathematical and astronomical systems were also famous among the other civilizations. The Maya civilization was flourishing during the Pre-Classic Period (2000BC to AD 250). Many city continued to expand throughout the Post-Classic period until the arrival of the Spanish. External trade and cultural exchange influenced many of the Maya's art works and architectures. Today, many Maya descendants still live around Maya area and maintained a set of Maya traditions. The Maya language is still spoken by millions of people today. 

File:Palenque Ruins.jpg

The ruins of Palenque, an ancient Maya city

Maya script on a Kankuen panel depicting King T'ah 'Ak' Cha'an (Dah 'Ag Txhaun)

A stucco relief from Palenque depicting Upakal K'inich
Group of Mayan people at the market
Today's Maya people