MarKamusic Historical Perspective
SOUNDS OF
SOUTH AMERICA
The
earliest
expressions of musical culture on the South American continent
were
recreations of the natural sounds found in the aboriginal
environment.
Resourcefulness was the key and the original inhabitants recreated the
only music known to them, the sounds of their native surroundings. They
mimicked
the sounds of wind, rain, falling water, rushing water, lightening,
thunder,
heart beat, snakes, insects and a multitude of birds with the simplest
of
artifacts and found objects including reeds, seeds, dried out gourds,
shells,
pebbles, stones, animal and human bones, logs, and animal skin.
Given
the
absence of handwriting, music and song later emerged as the
principal
vehicle for passing on history, traditions, culture and values from one
generation to the next. For
instance, the oral medium during Inca times was comprised of poetry,
theater,
oral tradition and most importantly music.
The Amautas or wise men had to recite short stories generation after
generation to instruct the children as well as to remind elders about
their
traditions. Important events were turned into verse by the poets and
Haravecs (Inventors)
in order to be sung at festivals or after victory. In Latin America,
well before
the European invasion, as civilizations evolved, matured and fell, so
did their
music, particularly in South America, where hundreds of styles of music
and
instruments had already developed during pre-Columbian
times.
Successive
migrations, some cruel and devastating, some unwilling, some welcome,
each left
their own unique, indelible stamp on the music and cultural fiber of
South
America. Besides, the historic
process of struggle and transformation during the ensuing centuries
also left
its unmistakable trace on the content and context of the music.
The result is that South American music is today a complex blend of
native-indigenous, Euro-Iberian, West African—and most recently—North
American influences. These voices mix with the lyrics, themes,
sentiments and
rhythms of fading indigenous cultures. Today,
many South American tribal groups are extinct, and much of the
aboriginal music,
like parts of the rain forest, has disappeared. In place of the
silenced traditional musical expressions are
new ones, themselves art forms, some joyful, some sad, but always
expressive.
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