OBJECTIVES:

• Be familiar with the historical background of

Afro-Latin American music.
• Describe the characteristics of Afro-Latin
American music.
• Identify the different vocal forms of African
music.
 AFRO- LATIN
AMERICAN MUSIC
 WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF AFRO-
LATIN AMERICAN MUSIC?
The Afro-Latin American music can be traced during the
European colonization and slave trade in Africa. European
countries contributed religions and languages like Spanish and
Portuguese. Latin America is comprised of different regions
such as the Caribbean Islands, Mexico, and Central and South
Americas, which are of diversified cultures of the Europeans,
Moors, Mexicans, and other tribes in Africa.
OTHER IMPORTANT EVENTS HAPPEN:
1. Their music is identified by their rhythms , which
they adapted from the elements of Moorish music
and other African and Caribbean music in the
slave trade from 1550-1880.
Claves are a percussion
instrument consisting of a pair
of short, wooden sticks about
20-25 centimeters long and
about 2.5 centimeters in
diameter. A percussion
instrument, consisting of two
sticks or blocks, in which one
is struck against the other in
order to produce a sound.
2. The enslaved Moors of North America in 1776 were
prohibited from playing drums, but in the Congo Square
in New Orleans, Caribbean slaves were free to play
their drums for recreation and entertainment and also
for communication.
These were their “talking” drums, so called because
they can somewhat imitate the human voice, relaying
current and timeless messages which are their
history, struggle and revolving joy.
 .
3 The development of unique musical culture in
Caribbean countries, and influences include Latin
rhythms and dances like habanera and bolero in
Cuba, samba and bossa nova in Brazil, and tango
in Argentina. And the existence of rich music and
dance-like jazz, tango, cha cha, rumba, foxtrot,
and paso doble.
 WHAT ARE THE
CHARACTERISTICS OF
AFRO-LATIN AMERICAN
MUSIC?
1.Conversation ( Call and Response) – a
performance of voice interaction as an answer
to the first chant.
2.Improvisation- Nonscripted ways of singing
which allow for sincere conversations. It is a
framework where the artist has freedom in
creating the musical mood.
• 3. The voice as an instrument- it is the manipulation
of freely controlled piece where they can change
the tone of the voice, its tempo, creation of moods
and even changing the range and voice power.

• 4. The instrument as a voice- the instrument serves

as a “singer” along with the performer.
 AFRICAN MUSIC
• Always has the technique of “call and response”.
• Used percussion instruments played by hands or
with sticks, drums, and others and they use them
also for communication, to convey news, to
teach, to tell a story, and for religious purposes,
this includes the Maracatu.
 MARACATU
• The ceremony of the
Coronation of the Black Kings
in 1674 in Recife.
• The designation of the king is
called Maracatu, Nacao.
• The baque or toque is
considered as the rhythmic
pattern used in maracatu.
 OTHER VOCAL FORMS OF
AFRICAN MUSIC
1.Blues- this is a gloomy folk music of African American
origin, which is naturally in a twelve- bar order.

2.Soul- this is a kind of music that combines the basics of

rhythm and blues and gospel music, which was
popularized by the African Americans.
• 3. Spiritual – the kind of music always has a
Christian or religious theme.

• 4. Call and Response- this is a sequence of two

different phases usually played by two or more
musicians.