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Welcome to the Student Corner!
Having attended many conferences and conventions, we have really enjoyed the conversations we have had with student musicians, who almost always have shown such great enthusiasm for the music that we have been publishing. However, a careful review of the typical collegiate music curriculum across the United States has revealed that there is little to no formal instruction specifically related to Latin American classical music that is available to them. In fact, about the best that they can expect is the two or three pages in a music history textbook, which, according to our view on the matter, is woefully lacking in any depth or contextualization. Because of this, we are pleased to create a new section on our website by which we hope to be able to fill in the gaps in the teaching and instruction around this genre.
In our first article, below, we address one of the most fundamental issues related to the classical music of Latin America: though it uses the same notes, staves, nomenclature, etc., of US or European classical music, it is, at the same time, remarkably different. It has had a different history, a different purpose, a different audience, and other characteristics that have led us to the conclusion that we should perhaps use different terms and labels to describe this music.
Below, and on a continuing basis, we will be providing links to additional articles that we hope students will find helpful. At the same time, if there are any questions or issues that you would like to see addressed, please let us know.
No. 1. “The Same, yet Different”
The development of classical music in Latin America followed a different trajectory than that of its northern neighbor.
First, classical music was introduced in Latin America over a century earlier than in the north. Not long after Europeans had arrived to points in the Caribbean and along the northern and eastern shores of South America (and later, along the west coast), they discovered that many of its indigenous inhabitants had a natural proclivity for music. The Europeans used this characteristic to advance the evangelization of local populations by teaching their music to these people; indeed, a good number of them became proficient instrumentalists, chapel masters, and composers. In other words, unlike in North America, European musical culture was imposed upon the indigenes of Latin America.
Second, the types of European music that were introduced into Latin America were different than those in the north. Because the Spanish and Portuguese were mainly interested in evangelization, it was sacred music that played an important role in the recently-established cities and towns of that region. However, although the European colonizers perhaps had some knowledge about the music of Palestrina and other Renaissance masters, by and large, the music that would have been heard in cathedrals, churches and other religious centers had come from, or was inspired by, the sacred music of the Iberian Peninsula, which, at that time, was something of a musical backwater. It is also worth mentioning that there would have been little to no interest in Protestant music, which, of course, was one of the most important influences on music in North America. At the same time, although opera had been introduced into Latin America much earlier than in the north—in fact, the first opera to have been composed in the Americas is La púrpura de la rosa, first performed in Lima in 1701—there was virtually no interest in instrumental music in Latin America until the first third of the 19th century.
Third, those in Latin America who we would today call the “consumers” of music were vastly different than those of the north. First, it was largely the criollos, that is, the first generations of elite Europeans to have been born in Latin America, who cultivated an interest in the contemporaneous European music of their day. Indeed, an entire genre arose, known as “música de salón,” which consisted of light, romantic, and oftentimes technical pieces for the piano that were performed at social gatherings or in private homes. Meanwhile, this same segment of society sought to enhance their own status, and by extension, that of their community, by attracting the most celebrated or eminent musicians, whether as opera companies or individual concert soloists.
Fourth, throughout Latin America, but especially in the Southern Cone (Argentina, Chile and Uruguay), during the early to mid-20th century there was a growing concern among composers as to the style by which a particular country could best be represented internationally. In Argentina, for example, in 1929 a group of composers formed an association (Grupo Renovación) to, among other things, promote and publicize their “modernistic” compositions. This was in stark contrast to others in the same country and at the same time, most notably, Alberto Ginastera, whose music is much more folkloric. This tension has persisted to the present day.
Because of the above, though we may call it classical music—as if it’s the same no matter where or when—whether knowingly or not, today’s Latin American composers have inherited and assimilated this history into their musical thinking. And for this reason, we must accept the fact that Latin American classical music cannot necessarily be evaluated in the same manner or via the same terminology as that of North America or Europe. Rather, we must understand it on its own terms. Only then are we able to acknowledge the extent to which it has followed its own, completely different, trajectory.
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