Preface

The nine contributors to Musics of Latin America recognize a pressing need for additional teaching materials in English about the music of Latin America, and we are excited to provide you—students and teachers alike—a comprehensive, up-to-date resource. This volume covers one of the most musically diverse regions in the world and emphasizes music as means of understanding culture and society. A fundamental component of history and politics, music frequently reflects broader social tensions involving race, class, and gender. Accordingly, musical study is relevant to students across disciplines, from Latin American studies to anthropology, sociology, history, modern languages, international studies, and communications.

Organization and Scope

While much of the text necessarily centers on descriptive information that introduces the general characteristics of regional musical genres, we have framed individual chapters with particular issues in mind. Chapter 1 introduces major themes, such as colonialism, cultural fusion and mestizaje, and urbanization and modernization that have influenced Latin American music. These topics resurface in almost every chapter. We hope that an issue-oriented approach will encourage you to think about overarching processes associated with Latin American cultural forms.

Chapter 2 of Musics of Latin America begins with a discussion of colonialera performance, providing a foundation for understanding the development of regional styles in later years. The next six chapters (Chapters 3–8) are organized geographically each begins with an overview of a region, examining its history, geography, and demographics, before covering representative traditional idioms, commercial and popular repertoire, and finally classical music. In studying a country or region’s music, you will simultaneously gain an understanding of its history and culture.

We account for the most recent developments in Latin American music: wherever possible, each chapter incorporates several examples from the past ten years. Chapters 9 and 10, “Latin American Impact on Contemporary Classical Music” and “Twenty-First Century Latin American and Latino Popular Music,” focus exclusively on contemporary music. In addition, Chapter 10 highlights the artistry of immigrant populations and U.S. citizens of Latin heritage, emphasizing musical styles from the U.S.–Mexico border and the Hispanic Caribbean.

The textbook keeps technical musical language and foreign terminology to a manageable level. Key terms appear in bold upon first usage; they are discussed in the text itself, appear in a list at the end of each chapter, and are defined again in the glossary. An Appendix, “The Elements of Music,” introduces general musical terminology and provides a concise overview of music fundamentals with examples of rhythm, melody, harmony, texture, and form drawn from the text’s repertoire. Ending with an exploration of the aesthetics of indigenous, Afro-descendant, and European-derived music, the Appendix shows you how these musics differ and provides examples of how to listen to and write about all Latin American music analytically.

Each chapter gives students the tools they need to understand a diversity of musical genres. Musical examples and listening guides illustrate genres’ defining characteristics, while Explore and In Depth boxes go beyond the text, drawing students’ attention to important resources and examining sig-nificant figures and events.

Musical Examples

Throughout the text, selected musical transcriptions enhance the discussion of particular musical styles. Information about the characteristics of many genres, from Colombian gaita to Argentine chacarera, is not easily available in current English-language literature, and in some cases any literature. Therefore, most chapters provide half a dozen transcriptions of rhythmic and melodic patterns associated with a given region. They are notated in Western staff notation for more experienced musicians and, whenever possible, in time unit box system (TUBS) notation for those without formal musical training. An explanation of TUBS notation appears in the introduction.

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Using the Listening Guides

Musics of Latin America presents a wide variety of repertoire and seeks to increase your ability to listen critically to and understand the music you study. Eight to ten detailed listening guides are integrated into each chapter. Links to purchase recordings of each work discussed are available on StudySpace (wwnorton.com/studyspace), Norton’s online resource for students. Some listening guides, especially those considering recent repertoire, include only partial lyrics due to the high cost of reprinting material under copyright; students are encouraged to search for the complete lyrics on their own. The listening guides consist of the following elements:

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In Depth Boxes

In Depth boxes throughout the text provide nuanced insight into important historical events, instruments, composers, and cultural trends. Among other topics, these boxes examine the construction of a Central American marimba, the music of shamanis-tic healing rituals, and “testimonial songs” that commemorate the many who died as the result of violence surrounding the Shining Path guerilla movement.

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Explore Boxes

Explore boxes suggest opportunities for independent research, directing you to recordings, videos, and other resources. In Chapter 7, for instance, you are referred to videos of payadas de contrapunto (musical dueling) among Argentine guitarists; audiovisual and written sources on Mercedes Sosa, a central figure of the politically engaged nueva cancion (new song) movement; and documentaries on the chamamé.

Additional Resources

The end of each chapter includes a list of eight to ten additional resources intended to support individual research. Divided into further reading, listening, and viewing, the lists include the material most useful for students and instructors. A much more comprehensive bibliography, videography, and discography is available on StudySpace. It includes literature that we relied on to write our chapters; other written sources on Latin American music in English, Spanish, and Portuguese; and lists of commercially available recordings and videos.

Acknowledgments 

The process of bringing this volume to publication has been long—almost six years—and we are especially pleased to see it completed for that reason. Many individuals have helped shape the content of this volume. We would like to thank the staff at W. W. Norton, specifically Maribeth Payne, Ariella Foss, Justin Hoffman, and Imogen Leigh Howes, who contributed untold hours collecting and organizing data, editing chapters, and providing guidance to each author. Stephanie Romeo and Donna Ranieri provided invaluable help tracking down and securing permissions for visual images, Megan Jackson pursued copyright permissions for printed lyrics, and Debra Nichols was our expert proofreader.

Finally, we are very grateful to the reviewers who evaluated our draft chapters to provide detailed and insightful feedback. Those who have disclosed their names include Gage Averill (University of British Columbia), Alfredo Colman (Baylor University), Drew Edward Davies (Northwestern University), Eric A. Galm (Trinity College), Jonathon Grasse (California State University–Dominguez Hills), Deborah Pacini Hernandez (Tufts University), Carol A. Hess (Michigan State University), Jonathan Kulp (University of Louisiana–Lafayette), Javier León (Indiana University), Alejandro L. Madrid (University of Illinois–Chicago), Peter Manuel (CUNY Graduate Center), Leonora Saavedra (University of California–Riverside), Anthony Seeger (University of California–Los Angeles), Daniel Sheehy (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings), Kay Kaufman Shelemay (Harvard University), Louise K. Stein (University of Michigan), Thomas Turino (University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign), Grayson Wagstaff (Catholic University of America), and Ketty Wong (University of Kansas).

Robin Moore
University of Texas–Austin
April 2012