Latin American Music

This week we listened to three Latin American pieces: "Santo Domingo" by Los Cumbiamberos de Pacheco, "Huayno" by siko band and "Tin Tin Por Tin Tin" by Joao Gilberto.

The first track, "Santo Domingo", is an example of "cumbia" style music and is a very typical style of Latin American music and may be what is generally thought of when someone thinks about Latin American style music. This style of music likely began in Columbia and has European, African and indigenous influences. Since its beginnings, cumbia has spread all over Latin America and has become a popular style of music. As drums are one of the most important aspects in this style of music, the African influence can be heard in the percussion used within the piece. Indigenous musical influences can be heard in the wood wind instruments used, namely the flute in this piece. The beat of this piece makes it very ideal for dancing, which is an extremely important element of cumbia style music. This music reminded me a lot of the samba style of music we have been learning about in class, mainly in terms of the percussion and rhythm of the piece.

The second song, "Huayno" comes from the Andes in South America. Huayno is the name given to both the style of music and the style of dance in the region. This style of music is thought to have originated in Peru and it represents a combination of traditional folk music and modern rhythms from big cities.   In this piece, and in Andean music generally, many ski panpipes are used. The panpipes in this piece play interlocking rhythms which create a melody. The style of interspersed notes between two musicians playing the panpipes in a piece is called a hocket. Percussion and guitar are also present in this song.

"Tin Tin Por Tin Tin" by Joao Gilberto is an example of classic bossa nova music. Bossa nova is a popular style of music that came out of Brazil and is closely related to samba music. Bossa nova is derived from samba music but puts more of an emphasis on the melody of the music and less emphasis on percussion. It is also influenced by jazz music. Bossa nova was developed and became popular in the 1950s and 60s. Bossa nova pieces generally include classical guitar and drums and percussion. This piece also includes a orchestral background element. Joao Gilberto is considered one of the most influential bossa nova artists. Before listening to this piece, I recognized Joao Gilberto's name from a record my parents own of his music, in collaboration with Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto on vocals. I was excited to listen to one of his own pieces as I had grown up and loved listening to his album with his wife and Getz.

I enjoyed listening to all of these pieces, but I think that I most enjoyed the music by Joao Gilberto. There is something that is so relaxing about bossa nova style music, and I think I was a little bit impartial to his music in the first place because I had grown up listening to another album of his so that piece was very nostalgic for me.