Music of Latin America and the Caribbean

Mark Brill’s Music of Latin America and the Caribbean is a textbook designed to introduce undergraduate students to a diversity of musical styles and genres and to explain the social, cultural, political, and aesthetic processes through which they emerged. Historical in orientation, it surveys the development of folk, popular, and art music traditions and the important social and historical forces that shaped them. As such, it provides a foundation for understanding common threads that link the historical trajectories of musical traditions of Latin American and Caribbean populations. Particularly noteworthy—and unusual in such surveys—is the inclusion of an entire chapter devoted to Western art music traditions of Latin America. Readers are encouraged to engage with recordings of the musical traditions through an accompanying set of two CDs (which must be purchased separately) and by way of recommended listening found throughout the text. Chapter 1 provides an overview of Latin American/Caribbean musical cultures by identifying common processes and themes—colonization, globalization, cultural syncretism, the development of mestizo cultures— that molded musical development in the Western hemisphere. The impact of European conquest and control of the Americas is framed with a discussion of the competing ideologies of the Black and White legends. The emergence of mestizo musical cultures through the syncretic melding of (mainly) Native, European, and African elements common to New World cultures is presented in a way that prods readers to understand music as a transformative enterprise of identity construction. Establishing a theme that runs throughout the text, Brill argues that music, at its core, is a mechanism “for humans to express themselves, to identify to themselves and to others who they are, and to establish a sense of belonging” (p. 2). Chapter 2 is devoted entirely to European art music as it developed in Latin America from the colonial period through the twentieth century. Brill also shows how New World art music was infused with characteristics of Native, mestizo, and African musical activities that “went beyond European sensibilities and capabilities” (p. 41). Chapters 3-9 discuss the musical traditions of six geographical/cultural areas of Latin America. Each one includes a historical overview and surveys representative folk and popular musical traditions. Chapter 3, on Mexico,


Music of Latin
Mark Brill's Music of Latin America and the Caribbean is a textbook designed to introduce undergraduate students to a diversity of musical styles and genres and to explain the social, cultural, political, and aesthetic processes through which they emerged. Historical in orientation, it surveys the development of folk, popular, and art music traditions and the important social and historical forces that shaped them. As such, it provides a foundation for understanding common threads that link the historical trajectories of musical traditions of Latin American and Caribbean populations. Particularly noteworthy-and unusual in such surveys-is the inclusion of an entire chapter devoted to Western art music traditions of Latin America. Readers are encouraged to engage with recordings of the musical traditions through an accompanying set of two CDs (which must be purchased separately) and by way of recommended listening found throughout the text.
Chapter 1 provides an overview of Latin American/Caribbean musical cultures by identifying common processes and themes-colonization, globalization, cultural syncretism, the development of mestizo culturesthat molded musical development in the Western hemisphere. The impact of European conquest and control of the Americas is framed with a discussion of the competing ideologies of the Black and White legends. The emergence of mestizo musical cultures through the syncretic melding of (mainly) Native, European, and African elements common to New World cultures is presented in a way that prods readers to understand music as a transformative enterprise of identity construction. Establishing a theme that runs throughout the text, Brill argues that music, at its core, is a mechanism "for humans to express themselves, to identify to themselves and to others who they are, and to establish a sense of belonging" (p. 2). Chapter 2 is devoted entirely to European art music as it developed in Latin America from the colonial period through the twentieth century. Brill also shows how New World art music was infused with characteristics of Native, mestizo, and African musical activities that "went beyond European sensibilities and capabilities" (p. 41).
Chapters 3-9 discuss the musical traditions of six geographical/cultural areas of Latin America. Each one includes a historical overview and surveys representative folk and popular musical traditions. Chapter 3, on Mexico, covers the country's rich precolonial past of Maya and Aztec musical heritage before turning to several genres of mestizo folk and popular music. As in other chapters, Brill includes the development of musical traditions that straddle political borders or have made substantial international impact, in this case, on the U.S./Mexican borderlands. Unexplained is the lack of attention to Central America here, except for a brief section on the Marimba traditions of southern Mexico and Guatemala. Chapter 4 includes a general introduction to the Caribbean area before focusing on music from Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. Chapter 5 focuses on Jamaica, Trinidad, Haiti, Martinique and Guadeloupe, as well as the Garífuna of coastal Belize/Honduras. Unfortunately, Brill does not discuss the historical importance of the concept of creolization for the Caribbean area and its music.
Chapter 6 covers Brazilian music with sections on Carnival, music from the northeastern region, and the development of mainstream popular music. Frequent misspellings of terms and several instances of misinformation (such as characterizing fossa as one of the three most important rural styles from the Northeast) make this chapter problematic. Chapter 7 begins with an introduction to Hispanic South America before focusing on Colombia and Venezuela. The Colombian portion includes discussions of bambuco, cumbia, punta, vallenato, and currulao and a short section on Colombian salsa and champeta. Venezuela's mestizo music is represented through the rural and urban manifestations of the joropo while Afro-Venezuelan traditions are exemplified through a discussion of several syncretic celebrations to Catholic saints. Chapter 8, on the Andean region, emphasizes Peru and the influence of Native and mestizo cultures, and includes the most extensive description of musical instruments found in the book. Chapter 9 is on the Southern Cone with sections on Argentina and Chile. As might be expected, the tango occupies a central place as the most representative genre of Argentina's national identity while for Chile the development of nueva canción emphasizes the music's relation to political and social consciousness on a transnational scope.
As an introductory textbook, The Music of Latin America and the Caribbean provides a broad understanding of the importance of music in Latin American and the Caribbean. Its strength lies in establishing the historical trajectories and sociocultural contexts in which individual musical traditions have emerged as meaningful expressions of individuals and communities. However, the book's lack of attention to Central America and the music of contemporary Native populations in lowland South America detracts from its usefulness. In addition, scholarly references and a listing of recommended readings to help guide the student to authoritative sources for information covered in the book would have been useful.
Larry Crook School of Music, University of Florida Gainesville FL 32611, U.S.A. lcrook@ufl.edu