Latin American Music Research Articles

Selective Annotation of Few Data for Beat Tracking of Latin American Music Using Rhythmic Features

Selective Annotation of Few Data for Beat Tracking of Latin American Music Using Rhythmic Features

Литература Латинской Америки на филологическом факультете МГУ: научная жизнь

The review is devoted to the main topics and events of the international conference organized by the Department of Ibero-Roman Linguistics at the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University — “The Second Latin American Readings” (November 23–24, 2023). The work of the conference took place in two plenary sessions and four panels, one of which was devoted exclusively to the literature of Latin America. A total of 52 papers were presented, covering a wide scope of problems of Latin American studies, including linguistic, literary, cultural, art, and historical aspects. The plenary sessions included reports on significant phenomena and general trends in the development of Latin American culture, such as the characteristics of the Latin American world view formation in literature, the emergence of a national school of artistic translation in Mexico, and the genesis and formation of abolitionist prose in Cuba. The panels shed light on specific aspects of the continent's literature: issues of individual poetics, the history of individual works, artistic types and genres, as well as illuminating examples of cultural ties between our country and Latin America. The papers were chiefly accompanied by vivid presentations, and the meeting ended with a concert of Latin American music.

The Invention of Latin American Music: A Transnational History Pablo Palomino

<i>The Invention of Latin American Music: A Transnational History</i> Pablo Palomino

The Invention of Latin American Music. A Transnational History

The Invention of Latin American Music. A Transnational History

The Invention of Latin American Music: A Transnational History

Pablo Palomino's book The Invention of Latin American Music aims to trace the development and embrace of the notion of Latin American music as it is commonly used today, whether in academic circles, among listening audiences, in the realm of cultural policy and diplomacy, or with artists and performers themselves. The author argues that the concept, which began to take shape and exert its influence in the 1930s, did not emerge out of a cohesive and concerted regionalist project. Instead, it is the result of a process of layering of competing ideas regarding Latin America as a geographical entity, which intersect with modernist and nationalist desires for cultural distinctiveness and with more pragmatic concerns regarding the creation, protection, and expansion of networks and markets centered on different forms of musical production (live performances, radio broadcasts, recorded sound, music education programs, academic research, etc.). As a result, Palomino defines Latin American music as an aesthetic category, one that provides a convenient handle to those who engage with it, despite lacking a single discernible core or clear external boundary.Palomino further suggests that understanding this process of invention and naturalization also sheds light on the often-overlooked transnational dynamics that informed the various articulations of musical nationalism in Latin America. With this he adds a much-needed regional-level historiographical analysis of how musical nationalism and cosmopolitanism are interrelated and mutually constitutive rather than mutually exclusive. The book begins by considering how a heterogeneous collection of music performance circuits—local, national, regional, and intercontinental—led not to a unifying notion of Latin American music but instead to the emergence of multiple incarnations that partly overlapped and partly competed with one another. Additional conceptualizations of Latin American music grew out of a nascent commercial music industry, in which music critics, royalty collection organizations, and broadcasting stations used a variety of genre labeling practices to negotiate their positionality vis-à-vis national and transnational discourses of authenticity regarding the musics with which they were involved. Nationalist and populist state musical polices, for their part, relied on transnational notions of civilizing the citizenry and elevating the vernacular to help create a regional Latin American framework. That framework was then fleshed out by a transnational network of scholars who undertook the work of theorizing the nature of Latin American music and thus defining its aesthetic ethos. Finally, US foreign policy interests in the region, in particular as articulated by the Music Division of the Pan-American Union and later by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, helped to legitimize the work and expertise of these Latin American music scholars, naturalizing the aesthetic category defined by them and laying the foundation for decades of research, educational initiatives, cultural exchanges, music festivals, and music industry categories that continue to invoke the category.The Invention of Latin American Music covers a great deal of ground and offers a number of important insights for readers interested in the historiography of music research in Latin America. Based on meticulous archival research in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Germany, and the United States, the various case studies included in this book are engrossing in their own right, many of them providing tantalizing leads for future research. The book is also important because of its emphasis on social actors, institutions, and perspectives within the regional context of Latin America, a much-needed complement to other recent research that has tended to privilege the role of US-based individuals and institutions. The book's regional emphasis also offers a good alternative vantage point from which to broach the subject of music nationalism in Latin America, one that meshes well with the work of music scholars like Cristina Magaldi, Fernando Rios, and Leonora Saavedra and that helps to highlight and complicate the overlaps and continuities between nationalism and cosmopolitanism.

An Electronic Bandoneon with a Dynamic Sound Synthesis System Based on Measured Acoustic Parameters

Abstract The bandoneon is a distinctive free-reed instrument with profound ties to tango culture and Latin American music. The scarcity of manufacturers and the related high retail prices, however, are restricting access to the instrument for new generations of musicians. By combining modern technologies and scientific research, the Bandoneon 2.0 project aims to create an expressive and accessible new version of the instrument. In this article, we present an electronic bandoneon with a custom sound synthesis system. We also present an acoustic measurement system with which we analyzed the sound and air pressure signals of an acoustic bandoneon. Through this, we characterized several sound attributes that are utilized in a synthesis model made in Faust DSP. Combining the controller interface and the custom synthesizer, the electronic bandoneon we created can achieve a good level of expressiveness and engagement for the performer. We aim to produce an instrument that can be used in recreational, academic, and professional contexts to address the current sociocultural demand.

Inventing Latin American Music - The Invention of Latin American Music: A Transnational History. By Pablo Palomino. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. 260. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $99.00 cloth; $35.00 paper.

Inventing Latin American Music - The Invention of Latin American Music: A Transnational History. By Pablo Palomino. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. 260. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. 35.00 paper. - Volume 79 Issue 1

The Invention of Latin American Music: A Transnational History, by Pablo Palomino

<i>The Invention of Latin American Music: A Transnational History</i>, by Pablo Palomino

The Invention of Latin American Music: A Transnational History

The Invention of Latin American Music: A Transnational History

Contributors’ Notes

Contributors’ Notes

Contributors’ Notes

Contributors’ Notes

PENGARUH MUSIK AMERIKA LATIN TERHADAP INDONESIA

Since the beginning of the last century, Latin American music has been succes in the U.S. music industry because its intrinsic musical characteristics and its involvement within the film industry. Through the U.S. and Europe, it has been influencing popular music around the world; including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and India, countries that also contributed to the diffusion of Latin styles in Indonesia. The corpus of original works of Indonesian-Latin music is quite huge and has great quality; particularly audio recordings done in the 1950s and 1960s that mixed Latin, Western, and regional musical elements to create new musical forms know as lagu daerah (regional songs) and pop daerah (regional pop). This article aims to provide some understandings of this complex diffusion process utilising mainly a bibliographical research method (books, journals, digital news, etc.), interviews, and listening-based information from old audio recordings. My hipothesis is that Latin American music has been well accepted in Indonesia, espetially in Java and Sumatra, due to historical crossroads that spread musical and cultural similarities in both regions. In order of its importance in Indonesian-Latin music, these are: the conection of Asia and America during the Spanish, Portugal, and Holand colonial era; the Islamic influence in Indonesia, India, Malaysia, and the Iberic peninsula; the influence of Dutch music in Indonesia and German music in Latin America; the role of African music in Latin America and the probable two side influences between Africa and Indonesia; and the inmigration to Amerika from Nusantara-Oceania sailors in prehistoric times.

European Professors at the Cursos Latinoamericanos de Música Contemporánea: Two experiences – Piriápolis, 1974; Buenos Aires, 1977

AbstractBetween 1971 and 1989, fifteen editions of the Cursos Latinoamericanos de Música Contemporánea (Latin American Contemporary Music Courses) took place alternatively in five countries of the continent. These were intensive meetings concentrated in two weeks, consisting of classes, workshops, seminars, conferences, and concerts. One of the central concerns was contemporary art music composition, although an important space was also given to performance, technologies, innovative pedagogies, popular music, and musicology. Around 150 lecturers from different countries took part in the courses, among them, about forty-five were European. On the one hand, the courses aimed at providing updated information on contemporary international musical life. On the other hand, they encouraged its critical evaluation in relation to the history, culture, and concrete practices of Latin American musicians. This article analyses exchanges between Latin American and European musicians regarding compositional techniques, theoretical perspectives, repertoires, aesthetics, and ideological positions during the 1974 and 1977 editions of the Cursos.

Contextualizing a Latin American Music Video: Natalia Lafourcade's "Nunca es Suficiente"

Contextualizing a Latin American Music Video:Natalia Lafourcade's "Nunca es Suficiente" Richard Francaviglia Last year, while researching the geographical roots of popular "salsa" music heard throughout Latin America, I encountered a cumbia-influenced version of a song titled "Nunca es Suficiente." I knew that the original version of this love song by Mexican singer-songwriter Natalia Lafourcade was a bit up-tempo, but wondered how it would sound when given an even more lively cumbia treatment. For those unfamiliar with the term cumbia, it is a musical style that features a distinctive Latin American beat and melodic incorporation of percussion, vocals, and other instrumentation. If that definition seems a bit vague, I suggest listening to some songs in that genre, which will give you a good idea of how it sounds and feels. Your first reaction—unless you do not have a pulse—is to embrace the rhythm and almost involuntarily sway to it. Cumbia is one of those musical genres that persuades on two levels: it simultaneously invites one to listen and to dance. That explains why the best way to understand it is to experience it firsthand. Regarding cumbia's geographical origins, there is considerable speculation and disagreement. Most claim it originated in Colombia, while others may simply say "the Caribbean." As to cultural origins, the safest bet is a combination of Indigenous, Spanish, and African—no surprise, since all three cultures have played a major role in the region's history. In fact, some claim that the word cumbia itself derives from African roots, cumbe meaning to dance in several languages in the western part of that continent. Others suggest that it means "to party" in a number of Caribbean dialects. In either case, cumbia involves a physical and even sensual engagement with one's surroundings. As a friend from Panama put it, "With cumbia, you hear and feel the music—which is very liberating." The phenomenal spread of cumbia in Latin America is noteworthy. In a region of tremendous musical diversity—folk music styles as well as more elite musical traditions—this rhythm-driven genre seems to know no borders. [End Page 164] Although cumbia may have originated about three hundred years ago (or more) in one part of Latin America, in more recent years it has become one of the defining aspects of a broader regional cultural identity. There is no question that it has found its way into all of Latin America in the past fifty years or so. As a Pacific Coast-oriented geographer, I've heard it playing on radio, television, and other devices from Baja California way down into South America. In fact, when I first noticed versions of it in 1992, I was in the Pacific port of Guayaquil, Ecuador, and thought its Caribbean quality sounded a bit out of place, but nevertheless very delightful. As I later traveled south along the foothills of the central Andes, cumbia seemed to have caught on there as well. In my most recent studies focusing on South America's arid west coast, I noticed that it had even found a home in string bean-shaped Chile, from locales as remote as the Atacama Desert in the country's far north to its populous heart in the vicinity of Valparaíso and Santiago. From the U.S.-Mexican border to Tierra del Fuego is an impressive geographical range, indeed; moreover, the growing popularity of cumbia in the United States confirms its broad appeal, not only among Latinos but among increasing numbers of gringos as well. That said, I should note that even within Latin America, there appear to be some regional variations in cumbia that may depend on earlier local styles that may also determine its rates of acceptance. To understand more about this, however, one would have to conduct research very quickly, since things are changing so rapidly. I should note that I was not consciously studying music on my trips to Latin America, with my main interest being cultural landscapes. Rather, I've enjoyed listening to it as the soundtrack to which people live their daily and nightly lives. One thing has now become clear to me: cumbia is a...

Ricardo Lorenz: A Post-Colonial/Modern Latin(o) American Composer

European art music was brought into the Euro-baptized American continent by the Spaniards and Portuguese as an art discipline that supported the conversion to Catholicism, and, in general, its colonization. Nevertheless, Latin American composers—using agency, creativity and the process of transculturation—appropriated and transformed this music tradition to produce their innovative and hybrid art music works according to their culture and history. The article examines a selection of composer Ricardo Lorenz (Venezuela, 1961) musical works, philosophy, and artistic persona. In order to understand how and why postcolonial/modern theories opened up new paths for Lorenz’ musical works, this article introduces Ricardo Lorenz as composer and cultural agent related to Latin American and Latino communities in the United States with his positions of Interim Director of the Latin American Music Center at Indiana University (1987-1992), Chicago Symphony Orchestra Composer-in-Residence, Armonia Musicians Residency Program (1998-2002) and Latin IS American (2013-?) at Michigan State University’s College of Music. Then it discusses some of the ideas, such as the cultural monopoly of constructing an art music canon; building a racial/cultural division of the “Self” and the “Others,” the global music industry’s imposition of marketing tastes and distribution channels, and the representation of Latin American art music works and composers as exotics, within Lorenz text “Voices in Limbo: Identity, Representation and Realities of Latin American Composers” (1999). This methodology prepares us to engage with a conceptual analysis of two works by Lorenz—Mambozart for piano (1995) and the Pataruco Concerto for maracas and orchestra (1999)—to demonstrate Lorenz’s musical language and aesthetic, which reflects his fluency in cultural diversity and political philosophy in addition to reminding us what the process of transculturation stands for in Western art music composition and sounds.

Guitar creativity of Agustin Barrios in the context of the development of Paraguayan music

The relevance of the article is the need to fill the shortage of research analytics, allowing to consider the composing and performing art of Agustín Barrios in the epicenter of the cultural context of the countries of the Latin American continent.Main objectives of the article is to study the creative heritage of the Paraguayan virtuoso, to reveal its influence on the formation and development of Latin American composing and performing guitar art.The methodology involves the use of historical, systemic, structural-functional methods (for a comprehensive analysis of historical events, studying of compositional, genre-stylistic and form-building elements of musical texture), comparative and phenomenological approaches (for comparing Latin American and European genre models, performing versions and extracting meaningful aspects of the studied works). The combination of these methods and approaches provides a wide panorama of the consideration of A. Barrios' creativity, in which major culturological generalizations are combined with genre-style and linguistic specificity of analytical material.Results and conclusions. Agustin Barrios' guitar art is one of the first bright pages of Latin American music of the twentieth century. Archival audio recordings of his performances have become part of the historical foundation. The expansion of the technical arsenal of guitar performance, the creation of a large array of new music, included in the concert and competitive programs of our days, serve as the facts of the undeniable achievements of the Paraguayan musician. He opened to the world the sound silhouettes of his musical culture, its historical heritage and new possibilities. As one of the spokesmen for the aesthetics of indigenismo, Agustín Barrios captured the ritual traditions and mythology of the Guaraní indigenous peoples in his guitar work, revealed the beauty of hybrid genre models in Indian, Spanish-Portuguese and African-American musical fusions. He introduced the academic foundations that go back to the origins of the genre memory of European art, and formed in a new way a lively rhythm-intonational flow of the folk Latin American song-dance tradition, bringing it to the world guitar concert-academic scene.

Astor Piazzolla’s Creative Activity Representation in Guitar Art of the Late 20th and Early 21st Centuries

The article focuses on the personalized genre and style approach to the analysis of Latin American composers’ artistic activity for the guitar, which gained universal acclaim and popularity in academic music culture. The background context for the following analysis causes the necessity in thorough learning of Latin American composers’ creative activity for the guitar as an inseparable part of Latin American music. The author highlights the peculiarities of the main forms and genres of guitar works by Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla. There has been defined the linkage between guitar works and major style tendencies of Latin American music in the 20th century. Contemporary performance practice is being observed together with the examples of guitar redeeming by Astor Piazzolla. Scientific novelty consists in identifying the relevance of his creative activity and importance of his phenomenal creativity in combining genres of light and classical music in a modern guitar repertoire. Main scientific approaches, which have been presented in the article, are as follows: historic and cultural (to analyze the context of composition creating for the guitar), source-based method (to define notes and sound sources of the research), personality-theory (to analyze separate performers’ contribution to the representation of composers’ creative activity). Astor Piazzolla’s creative activity is based on the analysis of notes score and audios for the guitar by contemporary musicians, determining genre range as well as style characteristics.Creativity of Astor Pjaccolli, his unique performing style, a combination of authentic musical traditions of folk music and new musical images significantly influenced the development of guitar art, in particular, expanded the performing pedagogical and concert repertoire of guitarists.

Javier F. León and Helena Simonett (eds.), Views from the South: A Latin American Music Reader (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press in collaboration with the Society for Ethnomusicology, 2016), pp. xi + 449, £28.99, pb

Javier F. León and Helena Simonett (eds.), Views from the South: A Latin American Music Reader (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press in collaboration with the Society for Ethnomusicology, 2016), pp. xi + 449, £28.99, pb - Volume 50 Issue 3

REVIEW | Views from the South: A Latin American Music Reader

Javier F. Leon & Helena Simonett Eds. Urbana, Chicago and Springfield: University of Illinois Press, 2016 ISBN: 9780252081675 (PB) 10.5429/2079-3871(2017)v7i1.15en

A Latin American Music Reader: Views from the South. Ed. by Javier F. Léon and Helena Simonett.

A Latin American Music Reader: Views from the South. Ed. by Javier F. Léon and Helena Simonett.