Latin America

Latin America
Author(s): John M. Schechter, Daniel E. Sheehy and Ronald R. Smith

Source: Ethnomusicology, Vol. 29, No. 2 (Spring - Summer, 1985), pp. 317-330
Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of Society for Ethnomusicology
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The New Grove
317
an authoritative source of additional information. Mildly irritating are the

intermixing of unpublished or obscure sources cited in entries with those intended to point to additional reading and the non-alignment of dates in
these chronological lists. The irritants are greatly reduced in the short unsectionalized bibliographies, but of course the reader wishes these could be
longer.
The final issue is whether or not the study of African music has been
well served by The New Grove. It has. There are surely those who would
point to more extensive coverage of other areas and the dictionary's inherent European bias to support an argument of tokenism, but such an attack
would be misguided. Very few flaws or omissions mar what stands as the
best single source of printed data of African music-data of high value to
both the expert and general reader- and The New Grove must be applauded
for breaking new ground in bringing the world's musics together. Even if it
were the case that The New Grove had been pulled yelling and screaming to
take a global look at music, the fact is that the collected results have produced at least compatible, although perhaps not yet cuddlesome, bedfellows.
Brown University
James Koetting
Latin America
The treatment of Latin American musical culture in The New Grove
marks a decisive step in music lexicography. For the first time, considerable
attention is paid to indigenous musical practices, to musical instruments, to
Afro-American traditions south of the U.S.A., and to each country of
South and Central America, as well as the Caribbean. To be sure, the quality of both ethnomusicological and musicological research has been quite
uneven for Latin American cultures; the erratic nature of the scholarship to
date is reflected in the varying depths of coverage, particularly of countries.
This review essay will discuss first the broad LATIN AMERICA essay, then
address specific country articles, concluding with a treatment of musical instruments.
The general introduction to the music cultures of LATIN AMERICA is
divided into four large sections: "Indian Music," "Folk Music," "AfroAmerican Music," and "Popular Music." Section I ("Indian Music") is further sub-divided into two broad geographical areas: "South" and "Central
America." Included under "South America" are such topics as "Social context," "Song texts," "Instruments," and data on music resources; "Central
America" presents, after an introduction, "Pre-Columbian instruments,"
"20th-century aboriginal music," and "Changes" in the latter.
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Ethnomusicology, Spring/Summer 1985
In general, the twenty-one-column overview of Latin American "Indian Music" contains particularly fine reviews of musical resources and
style, and musical instruments. Fully one-third of the total data-allotment
for the "Latin America" article as a whole, this section brings to the fore the
abundant scholarship that has been published on the subject (which continues) and gives due measure to the historical continuity, functional import,
and diversity of Latin American indigenous musical practices.
Some small problems, however, occur in two large sections: in the
South American "Social context" discussion, for example, the "general annual prayer"described for the Mapuche (10:506-7) is the gnillatun ceremony (mentioned by name in both the ARGENTINA and CHILE articles),
which should have been named, to provide continuity with the accounts in
these other two articles. Properly stressed, though, is the role of song,
among diverse indigenous groups, in enculturation and history-recounting.
For the Inca, the Quechua term for musical oral historian, "haravec"(or,
jarawiq) is best understood not as "('one who invents')", (10:507) but as
"poet," or "singer of araui, " a term defined in the 16th century as "song" in
general and infrequently used to label the kind of historical chant practice
preferably termed generically, cantar historico.
Statements on indigenous scales, such as the particular diffusion patterns of one-to-three-pitch cantillation, tritonic, and pentatonic scales, are
accurate and make an important contribution to our understanding of the
unity-and diversity-of South American indigenous musical cultures.
Under "Genres," though, it would have been helpful to have specific citations (abundantly provided elsewhere) for the lament studies alluded to
(10:510), in order to facilitate indigenous cross-cultural studies in this universal genre. The coverage of instruments is adequate; lamentably, however, the widespread Andean indigenous aerophone-and-drum practice is
overlooked.
For "Central America," the Cuna paired panpipes labeled camburgue
(10:513) appear likely to be the kamu-purui (see "Panama" [14:151-2]). The
section on 20th-century aboriginal music concentrates on Panamanian and
Costa Rican groups; Chamula-Tzotzil-Tzeltal practices of Chiapas, southern Mexico, and Yaqui-Mayo practices of Sonora, northern Mexico, are not
treated here, though they are, briefly, in MEXICO, "Folk Music."
In "Latin America. II. Folk Music," seven paragraphs are devoted to
Mexican folk music. They are generally concise and informative and include
several helpful sweeping statements, such as: "The basic difference . . . between the Inca and the Aztec areas is that whereas Inca [read "Andean"]
folk music could be considered the result of Hispanic influence on an indigenous foundation, Aztec [read "Central Mexican"] folk music appears to reveal an indigenous influence on a Hispanic foundation" (10:520). A few errors previously existing in the Mexican musical literature, however, are perpetuated. Several are contained in the remark: "In the modern huapango
(e.g., La bamba) the typical instrumental accompaniment includes a violin,
two guitarrones (large five-string bass instruments with convex bodies) and
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319
a jarana, although the huapango ensemble also uses harps and jabalinas
(similar to the guitarr6n)" (10:520-1). The large five-string instrument is
most likely the huapanguera, the deep-bodied guitar with five courses of
strings that augments the smaller jarana and violin to complete the typical
Huastecan-style huapango ensemble. Further to the south in the state of
Veracruz, the harp, a different type of jarana, and jabalina (not a large
guitarron, but a small guitar with four strings, more often called requinto)
more typically are employed in performing those regional huapangos.
Finally, one other misleading note, that in the son (a widespread complex of music and dance genres) "Often units of three notes and two notes
are combined to produce a 8 metre" (10:521) merits a remark: this rarely, if
ever, normally occurs in the main types of mestizo son.
Within the "Afro-American" section ("The Colonial Period;" "Independence to century 1900;" "20th Century;" and "Folk Music"), the major
contribution is the treatment of Afro-Americans and their participation in
and creation of art music. There are many interesting facts about music instruction, Afro-American composers, and instrumentalists in Argentina,
Jamaica, Brazil, Mexico, Bolivia, and Peru, especially within the colonial
period, late 19th and 20th centuries. The person interested in "Folk Music"
of countries briefly discussed here (Brazil, Cuba, Trinidad, Haiti, Jamaica,
the Ecuadorian-Colombian littoral, Uruguay) is best advised to search
under the names of specific countries for more detailed information.
The New Grove coverage of folk and indigenous music found in separate entries devoted to Meso-American countries, stretching from MEXICO
to COSTA RICA, painfully reflects the longstanding paucity of research
done on the musics of the smaller Central American nations. While the entries for "Mexico" and "Guatemala"are twelve and four-and-one-half pages
in length, respectively, the total space devoted to folk music in BELIZE,
HONDURAS, NICARAGUA, EL SALVADOR, and COSTA RICA is
limited to a mere ten paragraphs. "Nicaragua" has a small body of data on
20th-century art and traditional music, though it is not clear why some of
the items discussed were included. The focus of this entry is not clear to the
reviewer. "El Salvador," on the other hand, contains information on art
music in the 19th and 20th centuries as well as a very brief discussion of such
dance genres as danza and pasillo, and instruments such as the caramba (a
"musical bow of African origin, known in Nicaragua as the quijongo"
[6:142]) and the (xylophone) marimba. In sum, these rather scanty entries,
jointly mustered by Luis Felipe Ram6n y Rivera and Helen Myers, together
with the three paragraphs on "Central America" by Gerard Behague in the
general "Latin America" essay, amount to little more than one page. This
near-vacuum of music research, coupled with the recent social upheavals
adversely affecting traditional cultures, should signal to ethnomusicologists
a high priority for future music research in the area.
In sharp contrast, the considerable field experience of the author of
GUATEMALA is quite apparent in her entry covering "Ladino" and
"Maya" music of that country. The informative essay is concisely written,
320
the five photographs well selected, and the three transcriptions included are
to the point.
The treatment of MEXICO is the second-largest folk music entry for
any Latin American country ("Brazil"being the largest) and contains much
useful information. It suffers at times, however, from over-generalization,
conjectural statements given as probable fact, and a few factual errors. For
example, in the historical introduction, the false impression that preColumbian music of all the Indian groups living in what is now Mexico was
quite homogeneous might be given by such statements as: "At least four
types of dance and song were taught and practised in the schools of dance
by all Indian youths, male and female," (12:230). Although there might have
been a high degree of musical homogeneity among many Central Mexican
Indian groups, the music of peripheral Indian peoples in all likelihood was
markedly diverse in instrumentation, song style, repertory, methods of
transmission, social function, and so forth. On another occasion, the statements that "Couples in this exhibition dance [the jarabe] are properly attired as Mexican peasants in gala dress" (12:231) and "it [thejarabe] imitates
the courtship of the hen and cock" (12:231) describe only certain types of
jarabe, but are presented as blanket statements applying to all jarabes.
The author's contention that "the son jarocho [a regional song and
dance genre of Veracruz] shows no more black influence than most other
son types" (12:233) is very debatable and seemingly contradicts an earlier remark that "This region [Veracruz] and the music from it have a particular
affinity with the Caribbean area, especially the coastal regions of Venezuela" (12:232). The Caribbean area is marked by a relatively high degree of
continuity with West African culture.
Further errors occur in the "Mexico" article: the vihuela, a five-string
guitar of the mariachi ensemble (12:232) is not also called the guitarra de
golpe. This latter instrument (at times called jarana) is different in structure
(flat back, not round like the vihuela), sound (deeper), and often, tuning.
The modern guitarron of the same ensemble has six strings, not four as
stated on 12:232. Moreover, there is little reason to believe that the namesake of the jarana, a name given to several regional guitar types, probably is
the Yucatecan jarana, a dance form, as claimed (12:233). It is more probable that they both derive from the word, jarana, as meaning "merrymaking." Also, the photo caption describing the musicians associated with
the Yaqui deer dance (12:239) mislabels them, first as an ensemble (they are
actually divided into three separate musical and ceremonial entities) and,
second, one of the dancers as a " 'tiger'man" with a "raspador"(rasp), rather
than the clownish Yaqui pascola dancer, typically playing the sistrum-like
rattle with metal rings mounted in a wooden frame with handle.
Separate entries for the folk music of the Hispanic Caribbean vary
somewhat in quality. The eight-page treatment of "Aboriginal," "Africaninfluenced," and "Hispanic-influenced" musics of VENEZUELA, by
Ramon y Rivera, is authoritative. Included here are fifteen transcriptions
and four photographs. The 3 /2-page description for the DOMINICAN RE-
The New Grove
321
PUBLIC is a surprisingly comprehensive account drawn from limited secondary sources and a brief field trip to that country by the author, with Isabel Aretz, in 1963. Unfortunately, the separate entry, MERENGUE, by
William Gradante, discussing the most important dance form in the Dominican Republic, conflicts with the description given by Ram6n y Rivera, the
author of "Dominican Republic," as to instrumentation.
For PUERTO RICO, the reader encounters an even-handed highlighting of the most celebrated Afro- and Hispano-Puerto Rican musical forms
and a scanning of the traditional Puerto Rican instrumentaria. The concise
and clearly written article's sole disappointment is its limited length-two
pages. A more thorough description could have been assembled from the research available.
The major drawback of the entry, CUBA, "Folk music," is the relative
neglect of Afro-Cuban musical traditions. In the four pages describing instruments and song and dance genres, only eleven lines of text fall under the
"Afro-Cuban music" heading (5:89), in spite of the rich Afro-Cuban musical culture and the large amount of research done by several outstanding
Cuban scholars. The author does, however, touch upon a number of important music and dance forms practiced mainly by Afro-Cubans, such as the
rumba, comparsa and conga. Only one photograph (of an Afro-Cuban batd
drum) and four short transcriptions are included.
For English- and creole-speaking JAMAICA, one finds an article divided into an historical and cultural overview, "Instruments," and "Song
and dance genres," the latter category discussing ritual, ceremonial, social,
work, and recreational musics. The essay's finely honed description focuses
on the great variety of musical practices on the island, reflecting its multitude of ethnic and religious populations. The author properly emphasizes
data on drums (types, construction, use, and special treatment), considered
the principal instrument-type. Also stressed is the homemade nature of a
number of other instruments: vaccine (bamboo bass aerophone), bamboo
violin (idiochord bowed zither), gourd rattle, homemade guitar and banjo,
bamboo saxophone. In sum, the "Jamaica"account presents a clear picture
of a musically multi-faceted society, one perhaps comparable in its complexity (if not precisely alike in its components) to those of Trinidad and
Surinam.
The entry for PANAMA is somewhat unbalanced in that it does not
adequately represent the interrelationship of African heritage and Iberian
influences, and its bibliography lacks depth. Organized in two sections: "Instruments," and "Songs and dances," the article neglects to discuss art music
(odd, insofar as the article's author is a composer), and only some important current traditions are described. Even though there are descriptions of
drums and their ensembles (llamador was omitted), the author neglects to
indicate their African origins. The songs and dance genres presented are important and their descriptions are adequate; however, congo, an important
carnival tradition, was left out.
SURINAM (a country formerly known as Dutch Guiana) is a compact
322
article that presents a good deal of information about traditional musical

forms, instruments, and ensembles. Major racial and ethnic groups are discussed, along with their respective musical traditions. Coverage is organized
on the basis of the representative groups: "American Indians," "Bush
Negroes," "Rural and urban creoles and blacks," "East Indians," "Javanese." Although the bibliography is short, there are many concepts, forms
and genres presented within the article that should spur future research into
this country's music.
GUYANA (formerly the country of British Guiana) is a short entry,
providing little information. Basically, the author indicates that not much
musicological research has been done. For one seeking an area in which to
cast a new line of inquiry, Guyana might well serve as a good place to start.
The islands of TRINIDAD and TOBAGO are represented in an article
that is basically historical in focus. Musical genres, instruments, music within religious traditions, ethnic and racial groups and their traditions, are all
examined within an historical framework. Stress is placed upon development of forms and ensembles. Interesting features of this article are the inclusion of Hindu music traditions, the steel band, and carnival (see the bibliography). The acculturative process and effects of East Indian music and
American popular music on Trinidad's cultural life have yet to be fully
examined.
For Hispanic South America, folk music in COLOMBIA is discussed
from the perspective of ethnic-racial group geographical distribution. The
article is divided into five sections: "The Atlantic coastal region," "The
Pacific coastal region," "The Andean region," "The Llanos," "The Amazon
region." Peoples, styles, ensembles, instruments, and genres characteristic
of these areas are discussed, in turn. The Pacific coastal region is the only
home of the xylophone marimba in Colombia. (The lamellaphone termed
locally, "marimba," appears on the Colombian Atlantic coast, the same region as the third Colombian "marimba"-type,a musical bow.) The Colombian Andean region is seen to share features of instrumentation with the entire Andean region of South America. The Llanos (Plains) "has been an isolated region" (4:580) and is therefore less well documented, although the
well-known dance, the joropo, and an important folk instrument, the
pedal-less harp, are known to be significant in this section of the country.
Finally, the Amazon region, inhabited mainly by Amerindian groups, is
represented by a discussion of music and musical instruments made by the
"Uitoto (Witoto) and Tucano, who live in its south-eastern part" (4:580).
Colombia's traditions are documented with photographs, musical transcriptions, a map, and a most useful bibliography.
For ECUADOR, most welcome, after the half-column allotted to
Ecuadorian folk music in the 5th edition of Grove's, is the more ample
treatment here. Even certain 1954 stereotypes ("Its [Ecuador's] folk music
is . . . mournful" [Fraser 3:366]) have disappeared. The New Grove discussion is divided into "Collections and Sound Recordings," "Jivaro Music,"
"Indian Music of the Sierra," "Mestizo Music of the Sierra," "Hispano-
The New Grove
323
Ecuadorian Music," and "Afro-Ecuadorian Music."

To the archival and field research overview, one could have added the
fine and growing library and tape archives at the Instituto Otavaleio de Antropoligia, in Otavalo [Ethnomusicology Department head, Carlos A. Coba
Andrade].
In the section, "Indian Music of the Sierra," the fipple (duct) flute in
figure 1 (5:830) is not a kena (end-notched flute), but most likely, in this Imbabura region, the 6-stopped pifano. However, the major misleading point
pertaining to both this and the "Hispano-Ecuadorian Music" sections relates to the sanjuanito, mentioned in both sections. The sanjuanito is in fact
a mestizo adaptation of sanjudcn,a principal indigenous genre of northern
highland Ecuadorian Quechua, the genre being focused in Imbabura Province. Thus, sanjuan, not discussed anywhere, should have received discussion under "Indian Music of the Sierra" but did not.
Under "Mestizo Music of the Sierra," sesquialtera is referred to as a
"rhythm," (5:831), rather than its more correct designation as a meter (see
17:193 for the proper definition for the Latin American context). Moreover, the fine photograph of a Quechua harpist (5:831, figure 2) with traditional sound-box golpe present, is discussed in this section, rather than
under the proper "Indian Music of the Sierra" rubric.
For "Hispano-Ecuadorian Music," it would have been helpful to delineate further the character of the Ecuadorian pasacalle as a genre peculiarly
oriented to the expression of local or regional pride. Further, sanjuanito is
not limited to performance "at celebrations in honour of St. John," (5:832)
despite the name; it is performed like pasacalle and pasillo at any mestizo
festive occasion. The discussion of the bomba (genre) and the gourd-aerophone ensemble, the banda mocha, both of the Chota River Valley (Imbabura and Carchi Provinces), should have been included under "Afro-Ecuadorian Music," as the excellent musicians in Chota are Afro-Ecuadorians.
Indeed, one misses a closer description (hopefully to appear in The
New New Grove-7th edition, 2005?) of the hybrid musical culture in
Chota. Chota guitarists perform Imbabura bimodal (relative Major/minor)
sanjudn with a distinctly Afro-American cast, contrary to the remark made
on 5:832. The Chota style's strong syncopation and sixteenth-note underlying pulse are not characteristic of Quechua sanjudn, performed some kilometers away in the same province. It is true, however, that their bomba
(genre) shares the sesquialtera meter with, and is close in tempo to, highland
mestizo albazo and even highland Quechua pareja. Finally, Chota song
texts borrow from the neighboring Quechua lexicon-as, for example,
"shunguito" (shungo: heart), "wambrita" (wambra: young male or female
adult). Finally, "Ibarra"is not, as suggested in The New Grove, APPENDIX A, a "harp," but a city-the capital of northern highland Imbabura
Province, apparently the cite of the photograph (ambiguously labeled) of
the Quechua harpist (5:831); that instrument is called simply "arpa"(harp)
by its performers.
324
In sum, "Ecuador"treats that country quite soundly, ethnomusicologically, with only minor problems (except for the sanjuin factor). It provides
a glimpse of the diversity of musical cultures in this small but ethnically
heterogeneous country.
In general, for PERU, one wishes the discussion had plumbed greater
depths, especially with regard to the established traditions of certain genres,
such as waynu and yaravf, and certain performance practices-such as
harp-in-procession, and altiplano panpipes in hocket and in pipe-and-tabor
technique.
In the Bibliography for "Peru," the original date (1612-1615/1616) of
the Nueva Coronica y Buen Gobierno of Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, an
early native Andean chronicler, should have been given, not 1936, the date
of the Paris Institut d'Ethnologie facsimile edition. The author's last name
begins properly with Guaman, not with Poma. The author of Instrumentos
Musicales del Peru (Lima 1951) should have been listed as A. Jimenez Borja, not A. Borja Jimenez. For completeness, Robert Stevenson's original
study, "Ancient Peruvian Instruments," The Galpin Society Journal XII
(May 1959):17-43, should have been included. This is despite the fact that
the article appeared subsequently in near-unchanged form in his The Music
of Peru (1959, 1960:1-38) and, with limited additional data, in his Music in
Aztec and Inca Territory (1968:243-273). Unfortunate bibliographic omissions are JesuisLara, La Cultura de los Inkas (1967), which offers data on
Incaic song, and Diego Gonailez Holguin, Vocabulario dela lengua general
de todo el Peru', llamada lengua Qquichua, o del Inca (1952, [1608]), an important source for material on 16th-century (and likely pre-Conquest, as
well) Peruvian performance practice, musician-bard specialists, and musical
metaphor-cells- the operation of language in the musical realm. The
"Peru" Bibliography is otherwise quite comprehensive.
However, the discussion of Nazca panpipes in this article, touches but
the tip of the research iceberg on this question. Sas's (1938) comment on
Nazca panpipes' (antaras) producing untempered semi-tones (14:559) was
later expanded upon by Stevenson (1968) and others who demonstrated a
variety of construction factors suggesting clear pitch intentionality in manufacture.
For the "Highland Quechua Music" discussion, the statement that the
Incas "had village elders, wise priests who kept the tradition alive and
taught them to the young," (14:562) disguises the more complex situation,
involving a division of labor among these elders, one group of whom were
specifically musically talented bards. "Quashwa" (various spellings existsee, for example, the entry, CACHUA) refers not merely to " 'love-dance' "
(14:563), but to a pre-Conquest circle dance (as noted in the later discussion
of Ankcu Wallokc music [14:564]), still performed and closely related to the
courting ritual.
In "Other Indigenous Music," "anotas" should be anatas (14:564). Although Aymara sicus are mentioned, their unique hocket and frequent
The New Grove
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(pan-)pipe-and-tabor performance practices are overlooked. The rich

Aymara musical culture in general receives overly brief attention.
For "Mestizo Music," as regards the canchis, "a dance . . . [that] commemorates the seven Inca governors from the time of the empire," (14:565),
the title's etymological connection (canchis = 7 in Quechua) to the alleged
seven governors might have been pointed out. Although harp is briefly mentioned in "Mestizo Music," the instrument's uniquely Peruvian performance
practice of shoulder-wielded playing while processing is suggested in an illustration (14:563, figure 3) but not elaborated upon, as it should have
been.
With "Creole Music," again, it is misleading to describe a genre such as
marinera (correctly considered a musical relation to the Chilean cueca) as
having "simple triple rhythm" (14:565); like its cousin the cueca, the
marinera is in sesquialtera meter, juxtaposing 3/4 and 6Ametric stresses.
In the article, BOLIVIA, wano (2:874) (Quechua: manure, specifically
sea bird excrement) is left undefined. Pinkillo and tarka are not properly defined or distinguished; both are end-blown duct flutes, thus differently classified from the end-notched quena (kena). The tarka's beveled edges are distinctive, and its desired forceful tone quality calls for overblowing, thus
producing fundamental and overblown octave simultaneously.
Further depth of coverage on the great variety of Bolivian altiplano
panpipes would have been desirable: as the article stands, it sounds as if the
7- or 8-tube siku, played in ensembles of variously-sized instruments, is the
only type; this is not at all the case. Highland Bolivia boasts numerous varieties of panpipes, often with each instrument constructed in multiple named
sizes. The prevailing (although not universal: the maizu is single-ranked)
construction is double-rank, with pairs of instruments performing melody
in hocket, as suggested in "Bolivia"2:875; the ira panpipes (considered masculine, and having one tube more, or less, than the arca) leads, the arca panpipes (considered feminine) follows. Thus, what The New Grove describes
as a single instance (siku) of panpipes-performance practice is in fact a principle of highland Bolivian practice, applicable to most panpipes ensembles
of the zone.
The in-depth treatment in CHILE of the variety of "Indian" and "Hispanic" musics by Maria Ester Grebe, must be numbered among the finest
discussions among all those for individual Latin American countries. The
reader is provided with accounts of multiple repertories in specific regions;
with ethnomusicological research accomplished to date; with explanations
for stylistic influences; with the functional uses of ritual musics and instruments-including mention of the role of music in specific Mapuche rites.
"Hispanic folk music" is divided into chronological periods: "Music of
16th- to 18th-century origin," and "Music from the 19th-20th centuries."
Both verse and musical structures are discussed. The comprehensive bibliography, with an even dozen publications by this article's author on Chilean folk and indigenous music, helps to account for its authoritative quality.
326
In the case of ARGENTINA, the 5th edition of Grove's contained an

impressive sampling of Hispanic folk music genres, acknowledging the pioneer work by Carlos Vega and Isabel Aretz; indigenous music, however,
was totally neglected. The New Grove "Argentina"article properly restores
the scholarly balance between "Indigenous Music" ("Fuegian and Patagonian"; "Araucanian";"Chaco"; "Incaic";"Calchaqui Valley") and "Mestizo
and Creole Music." A nice balance is struck, too, in the discussion of indigenous musics, between early field and analytical studies by LehmannNitsche, Hornbostel, and others, and later comparative research by Vega
and Aretz. The description of distinct indigenous musical styles and instruments appears adequate; the corresponding treatment of mestizo and creole
music seems now overly short and summary-like in character for the great
wealth of mestizo genres in that country.
In general, the brevity of the PARAGUAY article reflects the relative
paucity of ethnomusicological research carried out there, to date, in comparison with two of that country's neighbors, Argentina and Brazil. For this
country, the four sentences allotted to the diatonic harp do not do justice
either to its importance in Paraguay or to its dominating influence elsewhere in South America. The capital of Asunci6n boasts at least four harp
makers. Paraguayan folk groups have appeared in most South American
countries, and classes in Paraguayan harp have developed even in Venezuela, a country with its own strong native harp traditions.
The URUGUAY article neatly summarizes prominent elements of four
major regional musical cultures: rural songs and dances appearing countrywide; Brazilian-influenced practices of northern Uruguay; romances and
other survivals from the old European repertory, appearing principally in
children's song; the Afro-Uruguayan candombe drama-choreography, today a Carnival street-pageant.
Whereas folk music discussions are often handled with little regard for
historical developmental considerations, in BRAZIL there is an attempt to
set folk music and its scholarship within some time frame. The discussion is
organized thematically: "Introduction ("History," "Cultural and musical
areas," "General musical characteristics," and "Organology")";"Indigenous
music"; "Luso-Brazilian Folk Music Traditions ("Social Contexts,"
"Dances," "Bailados or dramatic dances," "Song genres")"; and "AfroBrazilian folk music traditions ("Dances and dramatic dances," and "Song
genres")." Photographs illustrating the performance practices of musical instruments, maps indicating musical areas and indigenous cultural areas, a
good bibliography, and illustrative musical examples, complete the wealth
of data presented by Gerard Behague in this informative account of Brazilian ethnomusicology.
Brazil is the "recipient"of a welcome entry on the city of SALVADOR
(BAHIA). This is a short and informative account that deals only with this
city and its history of art music: religious music in the cathedral and smaller
churches; brotherhoods; music education in the city. No mention is made of
non-art traditions; these obviously appear in the general article on Brazil.
The New Grove
327
For the student of history, the catalogue of names and dates opens a world
that many ethnomusicologists have not shared with our musicologistcolleagues.
For pre-Conquest musical cultures, little fault can be found with The
New Grove entries, AZTEC MUSIC, MAYA MUSIC and INCA MUSIC,
thoroughly documented by Robert Stevenson, a pioneering researcher in
this field. The reference, in "Aztec Music," to lengthy descriptions of individual instrument-types, in Stevenson (1968:30-85), could have been
avoided, with benefit to the reader, by short-phrase descriptions of each of
the named Aztec idiophones, aerophones, and membranophones; teponaztli (slit-drum) and huehuetl (single-headed cylindrical drum) are so described elsewhere in the Grove article. Omitted from the bibliography, here,
is Stanford [1966].
The New Grove takes pains to offer mostly concise independent entries
on a number of Latin American instruments, or instruments having Latin
American forms. (See the end of this review for a full listing.) There are two
instrument-discussions, however, where omissions or abridgments of Latin
American practice are glaring. The reader of PIPE AND TABOR will conclude that this one-person dance music ensemble of duct flute-and-drum is
and has been confined to England, France, Spain, and Germany, the only
countries discussed in the article. Its careful delineation of historical and
modern European references omits any mention of Latin America.
Yet, iconographic and modern ethnographic evidence for Latin America points to numerous combinations of aerophone-and-membranophone
being played simultaneously by one musician. In 1966, Charles Boiles introduced a variety of data on pre-Conquest and twentieth-century Mesoamerican aerophone-and-membranophone or-idiophone playing, suggesting that
flute-and-drum technique is "fairly universal" (p. 44). With Boiles, we note
that it is the technique of aerophone-and-membranophone/idiophone that
is the common denominator, the specific historical and contemporary instruments being variable. The Boiles data are buttressed by the illustration
of pipe-and-tabor players accompanying groups of processing sonajero
(rattle-type)-playing dancers in Tuxpan, Jalisco, Mexico, (12:240, figure 7).
Robert Stevenson (1959) has documented panpipe-and-drum performance
practice for the Peruvian Ica Period (ca. 900-1400 A.D.) and panpipetrumpet-rattle-drum performance for the Nazca (ca. 200 B.C.-700 A.D.).
Today, aerophone-and-drum practice is widespread in Andean South
America. This can be documented by the presence of a large number of
modern ensembles, a small selection of which might include: pingullo-andbombo (duct flute-and-large double-headed drum), Ecuadorian Andes;
zampona-and-bombo (panpipes-and-large double-headed drum), PeruvianBolivian altiplano (high plateau); lakita-and-wankara (panpipes-anddouble-headed drum), Bolivian altiplano; sikuri-and-wankara (panpipesand-double-headed drum), Bolivian altiplano; siku-and-bombo (panpipesand-large double-headed drum), Charazani, Bolivia (Callawaya people);
and erkencho-and-caja (clarinet, of horn with attached reed-and-double-
328
headed drum, smaller than bombo), Calchaqui Valley, Northwest Argentina.2 In sum, the data suggest a deeply rooted, and likely indigenous, Latin
American practice. The evidence of time-depth, and of variety of performance practice and specific instrumentation, moreover, suggests that "we
should not restrict our studies only to the concept of pipe and tabor but
amplify them to include any type of simultaneous melodic-percussive performance" (Boiles 1966:46-47).
The second major problem occurs in the article, HARP. The section,
"Harp.5. Diatonic Harps in Spain and Latin America," presents certain correct information but leaves a large void. The statements as to the harp's special status in 16th-, 17th-, and 18th-century Spain and Hispanic America,
and the fact that, "in Latin America there is still a great deal of harp playing" (8:197), are incontrovertible. Also correct are the descriptions of modern Latin American (non-concert) harps as diatonic, with straight forepillars; processional performance practice in Peru today calls for shouldercarrying and playing upside-down, and has done so since at least the 19th
century; the use of the harp as a principal cathedral continuo instrument is
well documented for both the Iberian and the Hispanic American Baroque.
What is missing can be only partially supplied by referring to the individual South American countries ("Ecuador," "Peru," "Venezuela") listed
as cross-references. First, as the "Harp.5" author states, the reader can find
only illustrations (in no instance extensive discussions) of the harp in each
of these country-articles. Second, countries have been omitted from this
list: harp-photographs can be found also in The New Grove country-articles
on "Colombia" (4:580, figure 10), "Mexico" (12:239, figure 6), and "Guatemala" (7:780, figure 4).
These omissions suggest the real neglected factor: an indication of the
ubiquity-and diversity-of the modern Latin American diatonic harp. The
case was stated neatly as early as 1961 by Isabel Aretz (our translation from
the original Spanish): "From the coastlines of the Caribbean to those of the
extreme southern Pacific, from the Venezuelan Plains to the colonial cities
of Paraguay, from the Colombian Andes passing through the high plateaus
of Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, arriving at ancient Tucuman, Argentina, resound harps-but with dissimilar musics. Their sizes and shapes also vary."
(1961:29).
To have been stressed, then, was the breadth of the practice. Mexico
has the Yaqui and Mayo Indians playing harp in the north (Sonora), the
Tzotzil-Chamula-Tzeltal Indians in the south (Chiapas). Among that country's Ibero-American traditions involving harp usage, a major one is the son
jarocho of the Veracruz coastal plain. Linda L. O'Brien describes the harp's
role in the Guatemalan Cakchiquel-Maya highland zarabanda (string ensemble), with the accompanying photograph (7:780) revealing the golpe
practice (a second performer's beating the sound-box in rhythm to the harpist's playing) via padded stick; this golpe function (typically with one or
both hands) is traditional also in Chile, Argentina, Peru, and Ecuador.
Sub-traditions in Venezuela are arpa llanera (Plains harp) and arpa
The New Grove
329
araguenia(coastal harp of Aragua), distinguished by the instruments' different shapes, number of strings, and repertories. The Plains harp tradition exists also in the same broad Plains area, in Colombia; to the west and south,
Ecuador also boasts strong harp traditions in both northern highland Imbabura, (Quechua-speaking indigenous culture; the performance practice is
nicely illustrated in "Ecuador" 5:831) and central highland Tungurahua
(Spanish-speaking Ibero-American culture) Provinces; different harp sizes,
absence (north)/presence (central) of neck-carving, number and material of
strings, and repertories distinguish these sub-traditions. In the Cuzco region
of Peru, one finds the Domingacha harp, shaped as a longitudinally cut
half-pear; a longer harp, with extremely long legs, is dispersed through 20
of that country's 23 states. The distinctive Paraguayan harp, with its exaggerated inverted-arch neck and unique centralized-pressure construction, is
featured as lead instrument in hundreds of ensembles in that country, where
it is the national instrument. Argentinian traditions include a strong presence in Tucuman, in the northwest, a practice which dates back perhaps to
ca. 1600. In Chile, women are harpists; the instrument accompanies cuecas,
tonadas, and romances.
For most of these separate traditions, one can trace historical documentation through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In sum, the
Latin American harp still has "a special status"; it must be counted, along
with the guitar, as a principal chordophone in Hispanic America.
To conclude, with the exception of certain sharp instances of neglect Afro-Cuban music and instruments, harp and pipe-and-tabor traditionsand smaller discrepancies over instrumentation and the labeling and description of instruments and genres, the treatment of Latin American ethnomusicology in The New Grove is admirable. The sections of Latin American
country entries devoted to folk music present generally balanced scholarship on both mestizo and indigenous music cultures. The reader concerned
with New World musics south of the Rio Grande must express gratitude to
both The New Grove staff and the scholars who painstakingly composed
the sundry articles, for implicitly and explicitly placing Latin America, at
last, on a music-scholarly par with the other regions of the world. (For further information on Latin American musical instruments, see also: BANDOLA, BANDURRIA, BERIMBAU, BIRIMBAO, BOMBO, BONGOS,
CAJA, CABACA, CHARANGO, CHIRIMIA, CLARIN, CLAVES,
ERKE, GUACHARA, GUACHARACA, GUIRO, GUITAR, JARANA,
KULTRUN, MARACAS, MARIMBA, MEJORANERA, MUSICAL
BOW, NOTCHED FLUTE, PANPIPES, PINCULLO, QQUEPA,
QUENA, RATTLE, SCRAPER, SLIT-DRUM, STEEL BAND, TAMBORITO, TIPLE, TRUTRUKA, XYLOPHONE.)
Auburn PA
National Endowment for the Arts
Indiana University
John M. Schechter
Daniel E. Sheehy
Ronald R. Smith
330
Notes
1. Scheduled to appear in October 1984 is The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Its expanded coverage of the instruments discussed herewith attempts to redress the
imbalance that lies at the heart of these comments.
2. A fuller list has been prepared and is available upon request from John Schechter.
References
Aretz, Isabel
1961 "Las Arpas Rusticas de Sudam6rica," El Disco Anaranjado, mayo-junio:29-32.
Boiles, Charles L.
1966 "The Pipe and Tabor in Mesoamerica," Inter-American Institute for Musical
Research Yearbook, 11:43-74.
Fraser, Norman
1954 "Ecuador"in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Eric Blom, ed. London:
Macmillan and Co.
Goncalez Holguin, Diego
1952
Vocabulario dela lengua general de todo el Peru, llamada lengua Qquichua, o del
(1608) Inca. Edici6n del Instituto de Historia. Lima: Imprenta Santa Maria.
Lara, Jesis
1967 La Cultura de los Inkas, Vol. II: "La Religi6n, Los Conocimientos, Las Artes." La
Paz: Editorial "Los Amigos del Libro."
Sas, Andres
1938 "Ensayo sobre la Musica Nazca," Boletin Latino-americano de Musica, IV
(octubre):221-233.
Stanford, Thomas
1966 "A Linguistic Analysis of Music and Dance Terms from Three Sixteenth-Century
Dictionaries of Mexican Indian Languages," Inter-American Institute for Musical
Research Yearbook, 11:101-159.
Stevenson, Robert
1959 "Ancient Peruvian Instruments," The Galpin Society Journal, XII (May):17-43.
1959, The Music of Peru: Aboriginal and ViceroyalEpochs. Washington, DC: Pan Amer1960 ican Union.
1968 Music in Aztec and Inca Territory. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Afro-AmericanMusic
From tenuous and not so tenuous roots in Africa, Afro-American
music has had a wide variety of flowering strains in the New World. Given
our present knowledge, any attempt to trace and define all these is bound to
be inadequate in many respects. The New Grove coverage of Afro-American music is full of holes and inconsistencies of approach, but as can be said
of so much of the dictionary, it is a most welcome and well written addition
on a subject previously all but neglected by Grove.
Look up "Afro-American Music" in The New Grove and you will find
only the direction to see UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, LATIN
AMERICA and CANADA. Although information on a variety of aspects

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Author(s): John M. Schechter, Daniel E. Sheehy and Ronald R. Smith

The New Grove

an authoritative source of additional information. Mildly irritating are the

Ethnomusicology, Spring/Summer 1985

The New Grove

Ethnomusicology, Spring/Summer 1985

The New Grove

Ethnomusicology, Spring/Summer 1985

article that presents a good deal of information about traditional musical

The New Grove

Ecuadorian Music," and "Afro-Ecuadorian Music."

Ethnomusicology, Spring/Summer 1985

The New Grove

(pan-)pipe-and-tabor performance practices are overlooked. The rich

Ethnomusicology, Spring/Summer 1985

In the case of ARGENTINA, the 5th edition of Grove's contained an

The New Grove

Ethnomusicology, Spring/Summer 1985

The New Grove

Ethnomusicology, Spring/Summer 1985

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