Monday, June 4, 2007

Musica Andina-Peru







Hundreds of years of cultural mestization have created an ample musical landscape throughout Peru. Used typical instruments are, for example, the quena and antara or zampoña, the afroperuano drawer and the traditional guitar, that in Peru a variant to so large minor has in addition, well-known like “charango” and the mandolina. Thousands of dances of pre-Hispanic and racially mixed origin exist. The mountain range center, north and the south of the $andes is famous to conserve the traditional rates of huayno and pasacalle. Throughout Peruvian the $andes, in each town, exite a great variety of songs and dances that, as numerous cronistas ameritan, are judged of “infinites” by their diversity. At the incaica time, the word was used taki to talk about simultaneously as much to the song as to the dance, because both activities were not separated one of the other. With the arrival of the Spaniards several processes of musical mestization take place, disappearing some takis and becoming others. Present Andean music is all mestiza, because town does not exist that has not been touched by this process. Even, most of instruments of use in the Andean area he is racially mixed. In Arequipa and the $andes of the South the yaraví, a melancholic style of song has spread greatly, that is one of the spread types more of song. The more well-known song of Andean origin is “the cóndor one happens”, a traditional song compiled by Peruvian composer Daniel Alomía Robles, who included in one zarzuela homónima, and that was popularized in the United States by the pair Simon & Garfunkel. The original composition consists of a hymn to the sun, slow, followed of one kashwa and one flight of Huayno. Huaylas is a glad rate of central the $andes, and is another type very spread of song and dance. In Ancash the rates of huayno, the chuscada one, pasacalle and cashua are cultivated thanks to the contribution of prolíficos musicians like Victor Lamb Gonza'les who in spite of to have passed away in 1949 still illuminates the way of the ancashinos musicians of this new century. Huayno is the sort of more popular Andean music, although its origin cannot be raked until the incaica time, reason why it seems to be a net racially mixed creation. It is cultivated in different variants in all the Peruvian mountainous area. A similar sort is the tondero of the Peruvian North coast.

Rancheras Dance






The ranchera is a genre of the traditional music of Mexico. Although closely associated with the mariachi groups which evolved in Jalisco in the post-revolutionary period, rancheras are also played today by norteño (or Conjunto), banda (or Duranguense), groups. Drawing on rural traditional folklore, the ranchera was conceived as a symbol of a new national consciousness in reaction to the aristocratic tastes of the era. Probably the greatest living exponent of the ranchera is the Mexican singer-songwriter Vicente Fernández.
Traditional rancheras are about
love, patriotism or nature. Rhythms can be in 3/4, 2/4 or 4/4, reflecting the tempo of, respectively, the waltz, the polka, and the bolero. Songs are usually in the major key, and consist of an instrumental introduction, verse and refrain, instrumental section and another verse and refrain, with a tag ending. Instrumentation may include guitars, horns, trumpets, or accordions, depending on the type of band that plays it.
The musical pattern of rancheras is a/b/a/b. Rancheras usually begin with an instrumental introduction (a). The first lyrical portion then begins (b), with instrumental adornos interrupting the lines in between. The instruments then repeat the theme again, and then the lyrics may either be repeated or have new words.
Some of the most popular ranchera composers have been
Felipe Valdez, Antonio Aguilar, as well as the prolific José Alfredo Jiménez. Well-known rancheras include "Noches Eternas", "El Palomito", "Una Mujer Casada", and "En Las Cantinas." Rancheras can be played by a variety of ensembles, such as mariachis and bandas, and incorporating strings, brass, and/or accordion.
Another closely related style of music is the
corrido, which is often played by the same bands that regularly play rancheras. As contrasted to the corrido, however, rancheras are not necessarily heroic ballads and vary more in terms of tempo.
The word ranchera was derived from the word rancho because the songs originated in the countrysides of rural Mexico. Rancheras that have been adapted by
norteño bands are sometimes called norteños.

Tango Dance






Tango is a social dance originating in Buenos Aires Argentina. The musical styles that evolved together with the dance are also known as "tango".
Early tango was known as tango criollo, or simply tango. Today, there are many tango dance styles, including
Argentine Tango, Uruguayan Tango, Ballroom tango (American and International styles), Finnish tango, Chinese tango, and vintage tangos. The Argentine tango is often regarded as the "authentic" tango since it is closest to that originally danced in Argentina and Uruguay, though other types of tango have developed into mature dances in their own right.
Music and dance elements of tango are popular in activities related to
dancing, such as figure skating, synchronized swimming, etc., because of its dramatic feeling and its cultural associations with romance and love.

The dance originated in lower-class districts of
Buenos Aires. The music derived from the fusion of various forms of music from Europe. [1] Jorge Luis Borges in "El idioma de los argentinos" writes:"Tango belongs to the Rio de la Plata and it is the son of Uruguayan "milonga" and grandson of the "habanera". The word Tango seems to have first been used in connection with the dance in the 1890s. Initially it was just one of the many dances, but it soon became popular throughout society, as theatres and street barrel organs spread it from the suburbs to the working-class slums, which were packed with hundreds of thousands of European immigrants.

Salsa Dance






Salsa refers to a fusion of informal dance styles having roots in the Caribbean (especially Cuba), Latin America and North America. Salsa is danced to Salsa music. There is a strong African influence in the music and the dance.
Salsa is usually a partner dance, although there are recognized solo steps and some forms are danced in groups of couples, with frequent exchanges of partner. Improvisation and social dancing are important elements of Salsa but it appears as a
performance dance too.
The name "Salsa" is the Spanish word for sauce, connoting a spicy flavor. The Salsa aesthetic is more flirtatious and sensuous than its ancestor
Cuban Son (See son (music)). Salsa also suggests a "mixture" of ingredients, though this meaning is not found in most stories of the term's origin. (See Salsa music for more information)
Salsa is danced on a core rhythm that lasts for two measures of four beats each. The basic step typically uses three steps each measure. This pattern might be quick-quick-slow, taking two beats to gradually transfer the weight, or quick-quick-quick allowing a tap or other embellishment on the vacant beat. This is not to say that the steps are always on beats 1, 2 and 3 of the measure. (See Styles below.) It is conventional in salsa for the two musical measures to be considered as one, so the count goes from 1 to 8 over two musical bars.
Typically the music involves complex African percussion rhythms based around the
Son clave or Rumba clave. Music suitable for dancing ranges from slow at about 120 beats per minute to its fastest at around 180 beats per minute. (See salsa music).
Salsa is a slot or
spot dance, i.e. the partners do not need to travel over the dance floor but usually occupy a fixed area of the dance floor, rotating around one another and exchanging places. Traveling is not ruled out, and is a necessary part of performance, but in a social setting it is bad etiquette to "take up" too much floor by traveling.



The history of "Salsa" dance is peppered with hearsay and contradiction. Although few would disagree that the music and dance forms originate largely in Cuban Son, Most agree that Salsa as we know it today is a North American interpretation of the older forms. New York's Latino community had a vibrant musical and dancing scene throughout the '50s but found limited success with the 'Anglo' mainstream. In the 1970s, adoption of the term "Salsa" reduced the linguistic and cultural barriers to mainstream adoption of Latin music and dance[1].
The modernization of the Mambo in the 1950's was influential in shaping what would become salsa. There is debate as to whether the dance we call Salsa today originated in Cuba or Puerto Rico. Cuba's influence in North America was diminished after Castro's revolution and the ensuing trade embargo. New York's Latino community was largely Puerto-Rican.
Salsa is one of the main dances in both Cuba and Puerto Rico and is known world-wide.
The late
Celia Cruz, hailed by many as the queen of salsa, said that salsa does not exist as a rhythm, but that it is rather an exclamation for music such as guaracha, bolero, cha cha cha, danzon, son, rumba, etc[citation needed]. The famous Latin composer and band leader Tito Puente also argued that there is no such thing as salsa but only mambo, rumba, danzon and cha cha cha, etc. [2]
According to the late David Melendez
[3], one of the first organizers of the East Coast Salsa Congress and a salsa dancer in New York since the 1970s, the word 'Salsa' first referred to the music. The term was coined in the 1970s by young musicians like Hector Lavoe, Larry Harlow, Ray Baretto, Willie Colon, who wanted a different name for the kind of music they were playing. The term 'salsa' was then popularized by Izzy Sanabria, owner of the Latin New York magazine, and Jerry Massuci, owner of Fania Records. Today, the term 'salsa' as we know it, has become synonymous with the dance, yet the dance suffers a "crisis of authenticity" whereby dancers are perpetually disagreeing over what qualifies and does not qualify as "salsa".
The dance steps currently being danced to salsa music come from the Cuban
son, but were influenced by many other Cuban dances such as Mambo, Cha cha cha, Guaracha, Changuí, Palo Monte, Rumba, Abakuá, Comparsa and some times even Mozambique. Solo salsa steps are called "Shines", a term taken from Tap dancing. It also integrates swing dances. Salsa can be a heavily improvised dance, taking any form the interpreter wishes. Modern Salsa has elements of Jazz, funk, reggae, hip-hop and samba.

San Cubano Dance






With roots on the island of Cuba, Son Cubano is a style of music that became popular in the second half of the 19th century in the eastern province of Oriente. The earliest known son dates from the late 1500s (the oldest known son is "Son de la Má Teodora", from about the 1570s in Santiago de Cuba). It combines the structure and elements of Spanish canción and the Spanish guitar with African rhythms and percussion instruments of Bantu and Arara origin.
While originally a Cuban music style Son has also become a word used for rural traditional musical styles of Spanish speaking countries and apart from the Cuban variant called Son Cubano other son traditions exist in Mexico where for example the
Son Jarocho of Veracruz and the Son Huasteca of the Sierra Huasteca constitute distinct popular musical styles where the concept has been fusioned with indigenous musical styles.


Development
The sisters Teodora and Micaela Ginez were black slaves who emigrated to Cuba from
Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic and brought with them the new rhythm. "El Son de la Má Teodora" marks the birth of Son which Cubans have made their own and which formed the origin of modern Salsa.
Son is derived from
Spanish, African, French Creole and native musical influences, arising first in Oriente province, reaching Havana around the 1880s. The most influential group from this period was the Trio Oriental, who stabilized the sextet format that soon came to dominate son bands. In 1912, recording began with groups like Sexteto Habanero (a re-named Trio Oriental) and Sexteto Boloña, and popularization began in earnest with the arrival of radio broadcasting in 1922, which came at the same time as Havana's reputation as an attraction for Americans evading Prohibition laws and the city became a haven for the Mafia, prostitution and gambling, and also became a second home for trendy and influential bands from New York City. A few years later, in the late 1920s, son sextets became septets and son's popularity continued to grow with artists like Septeto Nacional and its leader, Ignacio Piñeiro. Piñeiro experimented and by fusing son with other genres of music, formed guajira-son, bolero-son and guaracha-son. In 1928, Rita Montaner's "El Manicero" became the first Cuban song to be a major hit in Paris and elsewhere in Europe. In 1930, the Havana Orchestra took the song to the United States, where it also became a big hit

Reggaeton






Reggaeton (spelled also with the acute diacritic in English and known as Reguetón and Reggaetón in Spanish) is a form of dance music which became popular with Latin American (or Latino) youth during the early 1990s and spread to North American, European, Asian, and Australian audiences during the first few years of the 21st century. Reggaeton blends Jamaican music influences of reggae and dancehall with those of Latin America, such as bomba and plena, as well as that of hip hop. The music is also combined with rapping in Spanish, English or 'Spanglish'. Reggaeton has given the Hispanic youth, starting with those from Panama, a musical genre that they can consider their own. The influence of this genre has spread to the wider Latino communities in the United States, as well as the Latin American audience.
While it takes influences from hip hop and Jamaican dancehall, it would be wrong to define reggaeton as the ‘Hispanic’- or ‘Latino’- version of either of these genres; Reggaeton has its own specific beat and rhythm, whereas
Latino hip hop is simply hip hop recorded by artists of Latino descent. The specific rhythm that characterizes reggaeton is referred to as “Dem Bow”.[1][2] The name is a reference to the title of the dancehall song by Shabba Ranks that first popularized the beat in the early 1990s.
Reggaeton's origins represents a hybrid of many different musical genres and influences from various countries in the Caribbean, Latin America and the United States. The genre of reggaeton however is most closely associated with Puerto Rico, as this is where the musical style later popularized and became most famous, and where the vast majority of its current stars originate from.
[3][4][5][6]
Reggaeton lyrics tend to be more derived from hip hop than dancehall. Like hip hop, reggaeton has caused some controversy, albeit much less, due to a few of the songs' explicit lyrics and alleged exploitation of women
[7]; supporters claim this criticism is misplaced due to most reggaeton songs having completely clean lyrics, as well as non-violent lyrics. Further controversy surrounds perreo, a dance with explicit sexual overtones which is associated with reggaeton music.

Early History and Origins
Reggaeton's roots are from
Panama [7] [8][3] with the music evolving and coming to prominence in Puerto Rico. Reggaeton starts as an adaptation of Jamaican reggae (and later Jamaican dancehall) to the Spanish-language culture in Panama [2]. The origins of reggaeton begin with the first reggae recordings being made in Panama during the 1970s. Reportedly, the Jamaican reggae influence on Panamanian music has been strong since the early 20th century, when Jamaican laborers were used to help build the Panama Canal. [2] Artists such as El General, Chicho Man, Nando Boom, Renato, and Black Apache are considered the first raggamuffin DJs from Panama. El General has been identified as one of the fathers of reggaeton, blending Jamaican reggae into a Latin-ised version. It was common practice to translate the lyrics of Jamaican reggae song into Spanish but first authors create song in Polak speak just because Polak is sexy and nice and sing them over the original melodies a form termed “Spanish reggae” or “Reggae en español”. Meanwhile, during the 1980s the Puerto Rican rapper Vico C released Spanish-language hip hop records in his native island. His production of cassettes throughout the 1980s, mixing reggae and hip hop, also helped spread the early reggaeton sound, and he is widely credited with this achievement [9]. The widespread movement of “Spanish reggae” in the Latin-American communities of the Caribbean and the urban centres of the United States help increase its popularity [2].
During the
1990s reggae production took off seriously in Panama; this also occurred separately in Puerto Rico due to the increased popularity of Jamaican ragga imports. Towards the middle of the decade, Puerto Ricans were producing their own "riddims" with clear influences from hip hop and other styles. These are considered the first proper reggaeton tracks, initially called “under”, a short form of “Underground”. DJ Playero was one of the most famous producers at the time, releasing several underground cassettes that featured early performances of some soon-to-be-famous artists like Daddy Yankee. The basis for reggaeton was laid in Puerto Rico at this time, with the melding of Panamanian Spanish reggae, with influences from dancehall, hip-hop and various other Latin American musical genres [2].
The genre morphed through the years, at various points being termed “Melaza”, “música underground”, and “Dem Bow”. This last name originated from reggaeton's distinguishing rhythmic feature: the Dem Bow (alternately spelled “Dembow”) beat.
[1] [2] This beat was constructed by Jamaican record producer Bobby "Digital" Dixon, and first became popular in the song “Dem Bow” (They Bow) performed by Jamaican dancehall artist Shabba Ranks in 1991.[10] The song and beat achieved greater popularity among Spanish-speaking Latin Americans when Panamanian artist El General released the song “Son Bow” in 1991, a Spanish language cover of “Dem Bow” using the same musical track.[11] It should be pointed out that neither Shabba or El General sang reggaeton as neither the genre nor its title were as yet formed. Additionally “Dem Bow” was just a single song in Shabba's catalog, with Ranks not singing another significant song using the “Dem Bow” beat. However the influence of the original Bobby Digital beat is undeniable, and modern Reggaeton often still reflects the original instrumentation, as well as the original rhythmic structure.

Flamenco Dance






Flamenco is a Spanish art form with roots deep in Andalusia — Spain’s southern region. Although there are clues as to how this dance and folk music evolved, the details are lost in history.Even the origin of its name is elusive. Some attribute it to the early 1500s and the Flemish courtiers during the reign of Spain’s Charles V. Their bright clothing inspired the names given things garish or conspicuous, such as flamingoes and flamenco. Others say flamenco was the nationality erroneously given by the common people to Gypsies.

Flamenco’s characteristicsFlamenco combines acoustic guitar playing, singing, chanting, dancing and staccato handclapping. The flamenco dancer performs with passion, fervor, even tortured expressions but always striving for grace and dignity. Flamenco handclapping produces a sharp, almost piercing sound. Those performers not dancing or guitar playing hold the left arm still. It’s bent at the elbow with the hand about neck high and just slightly cupped. The fingers of the right hand slap the left crosswise, covering the hollow. The dancer does not begin immediately, but waits, absorbing the strumming, clapping and singing until inspired to dance.Types of FlamencoThere are more than a dozen varieties of flamenco songs. Many are laments. One classic type, the petenera, tells the story of a beautiful girl named Petenera who brings tragedy to herself and her village. Some songs are named after the Andalusian towns in which they are popular: (Grenada), (Ronda) and (Seville). Words tend to be arbitrary, and the songs seem to have as many versions as there are singers. While flamenco songs and dances may differ with the performer and the location, they all have one element in common — emotion. Flamenco done right creates a profound, moving experience.

Bachata Dance




Bachata, a form of music and dance that originated in the countryside and rural marginal neighborhoods of Dominican Republic. Its subjects are often romantic; especially prevalent are tales of heartbreak and sadness. In fact, the original term used to name the genre was "amargue" ("bitterness," or "bitter music"), until the rather ambiguous (and mood-neutral) term bachata became popular.
Bachata was created and primarily used by servants, who used to play it when they got off of work. They made the music out of ordinary objects like those commonly found in a backyard (Trashcans, Fences,etc). In some rural areas of the Dominican Republic, bachata means trash, but most citizens agree that it means a party. Others say that bachata is derived from the Italian
Ballata, which was a popular form of music in Italy centuries ago.
The music itself is played in
4/4. The most recognizable aspect of bachata instrumentation is the use of an amplified guitar (either electric or acoustic) whose sound has been doctored with a flanger, reverb, echo, or a combination of the three. The use of arpeggiated chords as the basis for the melody is almost standard. An additional guitar, called the 'segunda' or rhythm guitar is usually mixed at a lower volume, and provides syncopation. An electric bass guitar and güira help anchor the rhythm - with the güira sounding a bit like a high-hat (in pre 1990s bachata, maracas were played instead of güira). The use of the bongo drum further solidifies the basic beat, and provides and percussive accents in transition points - for instance right before a chorus.
Derived from the
Latin American tradition of guitar music, and originally named for the crude bars and clubs where guitarists and singers would perform, bachata emerged in the 1960s. According to a documentary, the Beatles cover of Till There Was You (first performed in 1963) helped inspire the genre. Even though some set the origins of Bachata to the early 60s, Bachata songs were played in the brothels of the Dominican Republic in the early 50s. In 2002 a commemorative album was released celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Bachata music. While popular radio filled the air waves with merengue and salsa, bachata musicians were forced to develop their own system of producing and distributing their music. As with most styles of Latin American music, the bachata played today uses electric guitar and has phrasing which is more rhythmic and groove-like than in earlier styles. The evolution to electric has perhaps helped make bachata more accessible.