Music of Chile
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Chile was an important center of culture in ancient Tahuantinsuyu (Inca empire), and was afterwards dominated by the Spanish.
| Andean music |
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| Argentina |
| Bolivia |
| Chile |
| Ecuador |
| Peru |
The cueca (short for zamacueca) is considered the "most popular air of Chile" [1] (http://www.users.bigpond.com/apertout/Chile.htm); it first appeared in 1824. The cueca is always in a major key and is written in six-eight time with accompaniment in three-four. According to Pedro Humberto Allende, a Chilean composer, “(n)either the words nor the music obey any fixed rules; various motives are freely intermingled. The number of bars is from twenty-six to thirty, and there is usually an instrumental introduction eight to ten bars in length. The last note of the melody is either the third or the fifth of the scale, never the octave" [2] (http://www.users.bigpond.com/apertout/Chile.htm)). The tonada is another important form of Chilean traditional song, arising from the music imported by Spanish invaders. It is distinguished from the cueca by an intermediate melodic section and a more prominent melody in general; the tonada is also not danced.
A revitalization in native musical forms didn't occur until the mid-1960s, when Angel, Isabel and Violeta Parra began playing in Santiago and popularizing Aymara and Quechua music. The Parras were connected to Gilbert Favre, Swiss-Frenchman who later became a member of influential Bolivian group Los Jairas.
Arising out of the revitalization in Andean music in the 1960s, nueva canción soon emerged in Argentina and, especially, Chile. Born during a period of political struggle across Latin America, nueva canción became associated with political activism and reformers like Chilean socialist Salvador Allende and his Popular Unity government.
The roots of nueva canción are artists like Violeta Parra and Argentinian singer Atahualpa Yupanqui, who collected indigenous songs from rural payadores and helped revitalize the music of these travelling poets and singers. Parra also helped spark an interest in French chanson music, as well as Amerindian instruments like the quena and charango. In the 1960s, Parra met Gilbert Favre and helped inspire him to found Los Jairas, who would go on to become an influential group in the development of Bolivian music.
Nueva canción began its modern evolution in 1962 when musicians like the Argentinian Mercedes Sosa founded a nativist music scene in Buenos Aires. Soon, in 1965, Angel and Isabel Parra opened the Peña de los Parra, a Santiago nightclub which solidified the sound of nueva canción and found an audience for future luminaries like Patricio Manns and Víctor Jara. Jara emerged as the first major voice of nueva canción and began its tradition of assailing the perceived corruption of government officials. Songs like "Preguntas por Puerto Montt" accused officials of massacring civilians and other atrocities. Jara influenced musicians across Latin America, and even further abroad, including salsa, reggae and merengue artists. Jara was promptly arrested and murdered in the first days after the coup in 1973.
The new government of Augusto Pinochet threatened nueva canción artists, driving it underground into the 1970s. Cassette tapes of artists like Inti-Illimani and Quilapayún were circulated in a clandestine manner. The groups continued to oppose Pinochet's government from exile, and helped inspire nueva canción singers from Uruguay (Daniel Viglietti), El Salvador (Yolocamba l'ta), Mexico (Amparo Ochoa) and Nicaragua (Carlos and Luís Enrique Mejía Godoy), as well as Cuban nueva trova artists like Pablo Milanés.
By the 1990s, Pinochet and most other Latin American dictators had fallen from power, and exiles like Inti Illimani returned to their homeland. New artists arose and continued the nueva canción tradition. Emma Junaro, a Bolivian singer, for example, helped evolve the music in canto nuevo.
See also: Music of Easter Island, Chilean rock
References
- Fairley, Jan. "An Uncompromising Song". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), World Music, Vol. 2: Latin & North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific, pp 362-371. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books. ISBN 1-85828-636-0