Preface
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The ten 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 and entirely free 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.
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 colonial-era 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 significant figures and events. The same can be said of the many hyperlinks embedded in each chapter, encouraging independent exploration of topics of interest.
Please also note that the treble clef sign in the upper right-hand corner of every screen allows you to move between chapters easily, and to view all listening examples discussed. And the search feature next to it allows you to find keywords and chapter subsections quickly.
Throughout the text, selected musical transcriptions enhance the discussion of musical styles. Information about the characteristics of many genres, from Nicaraguan son 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 basic 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.
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. Between eight and ten detailed listening guides are integrated into each chapter as pop-up menus. Links to stream each work discussed are embedded in the guide as well. Some 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.
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 shamanistic healing rituals, and “testimonial songs” that commemorate the many who died as the result of violence surrounding the Shining Path guerilla movement.
Explore boxes suggest opportunities for independent research, linking you to recordings, videos, and other resources. In Chapter 7, for instance, you are encouraged to view 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. Whenever possible, hyperlinks to these materials have been provided.
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 from the authors on request. 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.
Many individuals have helped shape the content of this volume. The authors wish to thank the reviewers who evaluated draft chapters of this project at various stages. We also thank the staff at Norton publishing who helped generate the original 2012 version of the textbook, specifically Maribeth Payne, Imogen Howes, and Ariella Foss, and who eventually conferred the rights to the work back to the authors when the textbook went out of print. The new online edition (2026) came about largely through funding provided by contributing author T.M. Scruggs and his Quitiplás Foundation for the relicensing of images and lyrics. Robin Moore and T.M. Scruggs oversaw the new edition of the work, the copyediting of the text and the gathering of countless permissions. We thank others involved in that process as well including Pat Holl, Mercedes Payán Ramírez, and Madeline Styskal. The process of bringing this volume to publication in its first and current edition involved years of work, and all the contributors are especially pleased to see it made available again as a free online resource for that reason.
Robin Moore
University of Texas at Austin
June 2026