Music In Latin America
To approach the work of Latin American artists systematically, the backgrounds which influenced the movement of Latin Americans should be considered. This article provides a brief but conscious effort on providing the nature in which each of these backgrounds, in an unconscious manner affected the rise of the Latin American Dance and Music.
The Iberians:
The Latin America, as a child found a varying degree of attraction towards the Iberian music especially its genres, many of those genres were followed to their tunes, without any change. Many of the verse structures like copla and decima were also adopted by the Latin American poets. Coming to the influence of instruments it's assumed that the usage of Harps and Guitars were borrowed from the Iberians.
Amerindians:
Imagine a bunch of hitchhiker's Diaspora from the Latin America, yes you have got it, the Amerindians were the population who were forced to go on exile during the 16th to the 19th century, thereby defining themselves to be the messianic harbinger of the Amerindian music, which was destroyed with the onset of Iberians. Though some of the arts and music managed to survive, they were haplessly mingled and strangled that there were almost certain death of instruments such as the strings, percussion and the wind instruments. The Mesoamerican Indians still have the old cloak of the Amerindian harps which they use it fervently to stay in tune with the lost culture!
African Influence:
The Africans dominated the majority of the population in the Caribbean islands, they along with it, brought in their cultures and music, they featured a new type of singing called as the Call and Response singing, and African instruments also remained defiant to the rising storms and managed to keep their luster. Examples of such instruments include iron gongs, long drums, and concussion sticks,
Now after a short censure on three major forces that shaped the Latin American Music, we now proceed to talk about specific kinds of music such as the Calypso, Rumba and Merengue that pre dominantly originated from the Latin American bosom and sought to take control of the entire world through its potent charms.
Calypso:
Had its humble origins at Trinidad with special union to the pre Lenten carnival. This form of music is used both for songs and dance. Usually the band of artists used to practice a lot of songs of this particular genre before the onset of the Carnival and the catchy tunes were sung on the day of the carnival, The Calypso form of the song were found to be particularly catchy and witty.
Rumba and Merengue:
Rumba consists of lively music and had a blend of afro- Cuban songs and it deemed a high popularity compared to its comtemporaries. Merengue however though both a vocal and dance style, the style starts moderately to extreme fast at the end. Two notable names on this field are Angel Viloria and Johnny Ventura.
Its considered that these forms and genres had a worldwide impact and have been absorbed, enriched, abridged, enhanced in many forms of music as far as the east.
