Overview of “Musics of Latin America and the “Oye Como Va” Phenomenon” Chapter 11 in the textbook covers the complex dance and music genres linked to Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the United States, and the international track of development. The main focus of this unit was the development of the Cuban Cha-Cha-Cha, including its roots and development. While we did talk about other types of Latin American music, it was brief and not more important than the Cuban development. For these reasons the main study points for me in this unit is the history of Cuban dance music and the artists who played “Oye Como Va” we discussed in class. The history of Cuban dance music starts with the African slaves that were brought there. These slaves were dropped in …show more content…
The slaves for example were allowed to have drums which the American slaves could not. The Bata Drums were sacred to the slaves of the Yoruba religion, and were used to invoke Orishas with sacred songs. Rumba was similar to Bata drumming, but was the secular version. In the 18th century, Afro-Cuban elements were infused with the European dance styles present at the time. By the early 1900s Cuba was its own country no longer under Spanish control. The Danzon and Son styles were now being played in Cuba. Danzon was considered the National dance of Cuba, and used an ensemble called a Charanga. Danzon had a more of a European feel to it. Son rivaled the Danzon and was more African. Realizing the threat from Son, many musicians began incorporating Son into the Danzon, inventing the …show more content…
He was very gifted in music even attending the Julliard School after serving in the Navy. Puente although born in the US called himself Puerto Rican and associated himself with Cuban Music. He played with Machito and the Afro Cubans, who played authentic Afro Cuban music instead of “pseudo-Latin” music. Their style was Son, but with Jazz influences and used a big band section. From this band Puente formed his own band and would be the epicenter of the mambo craze. The song Puente would be most famous for and what this chapter focuses on is “Oye Como Va’ or “See how She Moves.” This song has a Cha-Cha-Cha element to it, but Puente used a big band section, made the tempo faster, and used more syncopation, and included organ riffs and bass lines. What made the song different as well was the fact it is played in an “a” minor key, and includes vocal harmonies. This song while it took off just like the 1950s craze would fall out very quickly too. In 1970 “Oye Como Va” received a revamp from the famous Santana. Santana’s Version was more popular and gave a revival to Tito Puentes Career. This version had major changes done to it. The first change is scoring. Santana being a rock star plays an electric guitar instead of using a big band section. Santana also put his style into it by putting many blues chords into it. The flute from the original version is also gone, and the mambo section is replaced by guitar solos. Tito Puente Jr. put his
The tradition still takes place today in many areas of Mexico. However, some parts of Mexico do the dance a little differently. The dance is more common in the central regi...
Bachata is a creolized music, meaning that there is both European and African influence. It is also a descendent of a few different Dominican Republic and Cuban forms of music – primarily son, but also merengue and ranchera. Son is music of the African diaspora, commonly involved in debates of African retention. Elements of African music, such as call-and-response and preference for polyrhythm survived the middle passage and are deeply rooted in Caribbean tradition. Stringed instruments are believed to have been part of the European influence on the area, as well as harmonic patterns, as well as verse-chorus structure and prominent duple meter. Modern groups consist of two electric acoustic guitars, an electric bass guitar, a guira (A Dominican Republic percussion instrument), and bongos (Hutchinson). Bachata is thought to have originated in the rural areas, being the music of choice at rural friendly gatherings, similar to son’s roots. Bachata then migrated to the cities with the impoverished as they looked for work. With this move the music transformed into something entirely different from its romantic, seren...
The Latin Americans never wanted to be left in this music development. The Latin Americans had their own music, Jazz (Gordon, 2005). They wanted to influence in the development of the music. Soon, Salsa was born out if mixture from the Jazz music and Mambo. Salsa took the bodily movements and the Cuban beats as a contribution from the Caribbean culture. The Latin America contributed the wording of Salsa music. Diversity necessitated the growth of Salsa as Mambo had been viewed with suspicion as it was linked to ghetto status hence it was
Morales, Ed. The Latin Beat: The Rhythms and Roots of Latin Music from Bossa Nova to Salsa and Beyond. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Da Capo, 2003. Print.
The Folklorico group presentation I was honored to observed was the “Grupo Folklorico Juventud” from North Salinas High School. I decided to attend to this presentation because I use to be part of this Folklorico group. I also enjoy watching the dances for the reason that I believe they are beyond beautiful. It is amazing how a simple dance could transmit so much information while representing a region from Mexico. From my observation experienced, I noticed every region has different movements and customs for a reason. While observing the presentation I noticed most women used long skirts to create different shapes. They usually create the eight shape, half a circle or an entire circle which is created when the dancer does an entire spin while holding and moving their skirt. The skirt is also moved in different levels, such as high, medium, and low. The two levels that are used in most of the dances is the high and the medium level. While dancing the men and women usually do the same steps and movements. All the dances include “zapateados” which are known as foot dances or stomps. The “zapateados” are usually done with different parts of the feet such as the toe, heel and the sole of the feet. The dances include “zapateados” with different sections of the feet because every part creates a different sound. Most of the dances also include jumps and turns. It is extremely important for the
Like stated before, the older version had older songs that are not as popular as they are now.
Many say that music has evolved over the years. This essay shall explore the elements of two versions of one song. It shall discuss the correlations and disparities of these songs and confer how it has been revolutionised to entertain the audiences of today.
“The most common highland dance is the huayno, which is performed to love songs. The most common Ciriello dance is the Macarena, Peru’s national courtship dance” (Morrison 112).
...deo to find the differences between the original and techno remix. Some of the comments made on the original video are as follows: “haha amazing. some king complimented bach on his fantastic ability once and he replied with something like "Oh it's easy, you just have to press all the right keys at all the right times and the instrument plays itself" haha”, “WOW!! It seems like you would need 5 hands to play this song!!!! Brilliant!” and “even with today's technology..it ples in comparison to hearing it played on a true pipe organ..the notes do not float together as JS Bach intended..cool job..but still enjoyable nonetheless..”.
Last is the danzon, with more Spanish origin that African. It consists of an orquesta made up of cornets, saxophones, clarinets and percussion. The horns make the danzon easily distinguishable from the rumba and son. In the middle of the danzon there is a percussion break, in which everyone begins to dance. It is a more respectable, less provocative dance with a much slower tempo. It was danced by the more upper class Cubans as opposed to the son and rumba, which were working-class dances.
Bachata originated from the Dominican Republic in the early 20th century. During dictator Trujillo’s rule, Merengue was the official music to the nation. Because many Dominicans did not accept their African roots, their dances and rhythms were oppressed. Bachata, with its African influences, was considered crude and lower class, only played by campesinos- peasants. It was only popular in the rural parts of the Dominican Republic. However beginning in the early 60s, bachata was steady becoming tolerated, and eventually loved. (Pacini)
Music is a form of communication, letting others knows what is going on in the country, political, social or economic and any other problems the people of the Caribbean faced. With so many different ethnic backgrounds in the Caribbean, they are people with Asians, Indians, and Africans descents. This created a language and culture barrier but each ethnic background shared a common link music. Music bridged the gap between the different ethnicities Music is part of everyone’s culture especially here in the Caribbean. Our culture is recognized worldwide for its music. The Caribbean has different genres of music such as calypso, reggae, dance hall, zouk and many others. Our music has roots in both African and European cultures. The drum rhythm comes from the African in...
Growing up, there was never a day that I did not wake up to the sound of loud salsa music blaring. Or to the loud voices of my mother or grandmother talking. To anyone else this “talking” would surely be mistaken for an argument or fight. Cuba is where salsa music and the conga drum originated, so we tend to be very proud of this. One of the greatest salsa singer/writers was the late Celia Cruz.
...re, Robin D, (2006) Music and Revolution: Cultural Change in Socialist Cuba. University of California Press: New York
Kuss (2004) explores the idea, “in some measure to the eradication of essentialisms and to critical reassessments of the infinite ways in which cultural representation still relies on criteria and conceptual frameworks developed within the Eurocentric sphere of influence, including some models of cultural criticism stemming from vastly different historical experiences.” Firstly, one of the most popular Latin American genre is mestizo music’s. “One prevalent feature found in this genre of music is the emphasis on chordophones, such as guitar, harp, and mandolin (Thomas, 2011). This genre of music is more rhythmically based, fast-paced, with a strong instrumental performance and a strong vocal presence. Some general features of this genre is the prominent use of costume. Moving into the twentieth-century brass bands and various types of accordions became more popular (Thomas, 2011). “During the colonial period, missionaries used music and costumed dances to attract indigenous peoples to Christianity” (Turino). This genre can be seen throughout Latin-America, and specifically in Mexico and Chile sine the influence of the Catholic church has grown. This genre involves a combination of