Mestizo Musical

Some Latin American countries like Argentina and Chile have a predominantly European heritage and cosmopolitan cultural style, as are the elite and middle class of most Latin American cities. Due to rural to urban migration, many Latin American capitals have become heterogeneous musical representations of their countries as a whole. Best to study Latin American music through the diversity of cultural groups.

Compla:

An Iberian-derived verse form with four octosyllabic lines per stanza

They perform corridos, waltzes, boleros (a slow, romantic song derived from Cuba), polkas, and rancheras (like North America’s version of country and western music). Mestizos are a mixture of European and Native American cultures. This mix sometimes includes African Americans as seen in music from Central America that includes the Marimba.

Social Cultural Heritages

There are African American cultural enclaves where African beliefs, practice and styles are primary models for social and artistic life. European and cosmopolitan social and cultural style. Lifestyle and artistic practices of a lowland

Amazonian in Brazil. The members of Afro- Brazilian religion candomble cult house in Bahia. Historical experiences of Iberian colonialism. Formation of contemporary nation states. North American economic and cultural domination.

Amazon and other lowland forest areas

“Various indigenous groups of the amazon and other lowland forest areas have maintained the greatest distance from European and North American life ways. Contact with missionaries, white settlers and capitalists, however, has had a long and in many cases disastrous effect on these peoples, on the rain forest, and thus on the planet as a whole The large native populations in the regions supplied much of the necessary labor for the Spanish colonizers.

Mestizo Musical

By:

Peter Cherek

Marissa Kaul

Kevin Pulvermacher

Marina Kopolovic

Mark Nichols

Tamra Schneider

Group A

Heritage and Culture

Costumed dances were practiced by Native Americans (including accompanying music). These dances were continued by missionaries who used dances to attract indigenous peoples to Christianity. The dances describe old men, soldiers, devils, monsters, supernatural beings, Spaniards, Africans, Biblical figures, and animals.

Candomblé:

An Afro- Brazilian religion heavily involving West African religious beliefs and musical practices. Utilizes chantings and drumming.

Mestizo Musical Styles

In restaurants and cafes, you can here conjuntos, norteños, and marimba groups which are associated with a northern Mexico and southern Texas style. This is usually accompanied by mainly accordion, 12-string guitars, electric bass, and drums.

Sesquialtera:

The combination or juxtaposition of duple and triple rhythmic patterns both simultaneously in different instrumental parts or sequentially in the same part; hemiola.

"African influences remain the strongest and have fused most prominently with the Iberian in the Caribbean and along the coast of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, the Guiana region, and northeastern Brazil, where slave labor supported the plantation economy!”