At the light of what I have learned and understood over the semester, I can definitely affirm that music is a universal mean and medium of communication and expression in every culture, in every language. The importance of music does not only really reside in instruments, but also how collectively people take part in the process of creating music. That is why making music is a lively process involving “context and culture”, creations and mutual influences, identities and reinventions. In North American culture, music has always been present and has shaped a country with a rich history of cultural diversity and constant exchanges with other nations. The music operated in the U.S. is the image of this young nation: iconoclastic and audacious. This eclectic country has seen its plural identity forged very gradually, before imposing itself, at the edge of the twentieth century, as a pool of personalities claiming an originality free from European influences.
The documented history of music in the United States begins with the arrival of European settlers, beginning in 1620 when the Mayflower docked with the Pilgrim Fathers exiled from England. English (Massachusetts, New England), French (Louisiana), German (Pennsylvania, North Carolina) and Spanish (New Mexico, Florida, Texas) colonists: all brought their musical traditions in all their variety of 'origin. A vector of the evangelization of the indigenous populations, whose musical traditions were stifled, or of the word of god, the music arrived with the colonists was first functional, based on the models imported from the old continent. In the 1730s, the beginnings of a musical life were born: teachers and instrument makers were formed on European knowledge. By 1700, the first organs arrived from Germany to churches in Virginia and Pennsylvania. The traveling opera companies set up the shows and organize concerts around the composers of old Europe. After Boston, with the rise of Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, the nerve centers of musical life are spreading on the continent. European musicians seek fortune in America and, once settled, organize the local musical life: schools, concert seasons, orchestras, musical societies: the economy of music, unlike the old continent, undergoes the same laws as the market economy. The pragmatic spirit requires, early composers often lack formal musical education, without lacking inspiration! Figures like * Louis Gottschalk * and Stephen Forster, in particular, lay the foundations of an American school, for the moment under the dominant influence of European music.
The search for a proper identity by the American composers must naturally have gone through the interest for the autochthonous music, plural as well: the Indian, African music, or the songs of the congregations of the first colonists, the “Americanist” movement takes root in the middle of the 19th century. Regardless of whether the inspiration comes from Black melodies or Creole or Indian songs, or complaints from nostalgic Germans or Norwegians, the seeds of American music are buried under the strata of all the communities that built this magnificent country. With the growing number of composers who draw on the popular traditions of the American continent (Amy Beach, Arthur Farwell MacDowell), the idea of hybrid American music, combining the elements of the old and the new world, is on its way. Music is a means of expression, thus the reflection of an identity, that of the musicians and their audience. It is part of the moment of its creation, but also in the long time of the memory of a people from the moment when it identifies with it by its listening, measured by its audience and its practice. The American continent presents an immense variety of cultures, not only of different ethnic groups (Indian, African, neo-European and Neo-Asiatic) but also of particular ethnohistorical circumstances, related to the inter-continental and transcontinental migratory movements of the beginning. colonization of the sixteenth century. This diversity is expressed in Indo-American, Euro-American and Afro-American musical traditions in North America, Central America, the Caribbean and South America. The acculturated forms of these traditions are nowadays the true universe of the musics of the Americas whose essential characteristics remain mixed. This hybridization takes a very particular form and style depending on the cultural area or social group we are considering. In Music in Mexico: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture, Alejandro Madrid depicts how Mexican’s musical culture finds its roots in its history made of invasions, conquests, and cultural diversity influences. Musical genres such as “norteña “ and “banda” music and its representations find its influences within Mexico and outside of its geographical borders. This cultural back-and-forth gave birth to “hybrid” musical genres and allows music to be reinvented and reinterpreted by integrating non-traditional Mexican instruments and new rhythms. “Norteña” music is originally from the North of Mexico as it is indicated in its name itself. “Norteña” music has a rich musical and instrumental history. First of all, the “norteña music” offers fast rhythms and tempo that are similar to “polka time” and “cumbia”. Its typical instruments are the “bajo sexto”, the “accordion” and “guitarron”. Undoubtedly, “norteña” music traveled with Mexican people who emigrated in the U.S. bringing with them this popular music and receiving outside influences. For instance, in Texas and Arizona, many descendants of German and Scandinavian immigrants can be found and their cultural presence is reflected in instruments that are used in “norteña” music with the accordion, guitars, percussions and double bass. As a result, “norteña” music has taken different instrumental forms and narratives throughout its history. It has also become a strong medium to testify about social and economic issues encountered by Mexican immigrants in North America. However, “norteña” music artists have borrowed North American cultural codes in its representations of it such as the cowboy outfit. In the popular imagination, cowboys are associated with a tall hat with narrow edges, “cowboy” shirts and boots. “Norteña” songs talk about love, the life of immigrants and life difficulties. “Norteña” music has taken a new form with “narcocorrido” songs that glorify drug dealers and what they accomplish in their lives and for their communities. “Narcocorridos” like “rock” music lyrics convey a negative image of the Mexican government and has often been in conflict and censured. These musical genres illustrate how music plays a fundamental social and political role in Mexico. A lot of Mexican regions have its own musical identity and history of influences that go with it. “Banda” music is another example of how music does not have frontiers. Traditionally, “banda” music is performed with a tuba, percussion like the “tambora” and wind instruments like the “tarola”. Similarly to “norteña” music, “banda” music performed with these groups of instruments. Another common point “banda” and “norteña” music have is that they both borrow different musical styles such as “polka” and “rock ballads”. The musical influences found in “banda” come from German immigrants who settled down in Southern Mexico in the nineteenth century. “Banda” music was also transported and transformed as Mexicans traveled and lived outside of Mexico, allowing the “banda” to be renewed and spread throughout the United States.