Before Columbus discovered the New World in 1492, Indians were the indigenous people of the Americas. Therefore, their music culture became the mainstream of American music culture at that time. After 1492, church music was introduced to the Native Americans by Jesuit priests. The colonial authorities suppressed indigenous music. Local rhythms and melodies gradually mixed with European rhythms and melodies to form new and distinctive Latin American music forms. Therefore, many Indian elements can still be found in Latin American music.

The musical culture of Indians is difficult to generalize according to different tribal conditions, but it can be roughly summarized as follows:

First of all, much of Indian music is closely related to life and is closely related to life. Religion, labor and dance are combined, so generally speaking, the melodies they have are simple and have unique expressions. This characteristic is especially reflected in the famous song "Flight of the Condor", a South American folk music based on folk songs in the Andes (played with Indian instruments and guitars). There is no semitone pentatonic scale, with do, re, mi, sol The melody composed of the five tones of la and la forms a unique style and interest.

Secondly, the rhythm of Indian music is relatively simple. However, according to records, before the Spanish conquered Mexico, in order to adapt to religious dances, Mexico already had very complex rhythms struck by percussion instruments. In addition, in the traditional music of Indians, there is no harmony in the European sense.

Thirdly, in terms of musical instruments, the absence of string instruments is a major feature of Indian musical instruments. Although guitars, violins, harps and other string instruments are often used in today's Indian music, these were brought by Europeans since the 16th century, or were manufactured in the New World under European influence. The traditional musical instruments of the Indians are wind instruments such as the flute and okari (xun), or percussion instruments such as drums and shakers. Among the wind instruments, the most popular is the recorder, which is made of bamboo, reed or clay, as well as the panpipe, nose flute, etc. The Indian pan flute is called the Antara flute in Peru, the Cappado flute in Colombia, the Rondado flute in Ecuador, and the Sixx flute in Bolivia. Some people refer to all kinds of panpipes as zampona. Indian percussion instruments are particularly colorful. Drums are often made from hollowed tree trunks, such as Mexico's Teponastral and Brazil's Trocano; the shells can be used as scrapers or hollow shakers. The collective name for shakers is maracas. In addition, there are "floor drums", jungle drums, etc. Indians often endowed their flutes and drums with human qualities, some yin and some yang. For example, Maracas is yin and Guillot is yang. The Guna Indians of Panama have two kinds of toro flutes, of which only one hole is the yang flute and four holes are the yin flute.

In the first few centuries after Central and South America were conquered by Europeans, the church regarded Indian drums and flutes as pagan equipment and banned their use, but to no avail. Aboriginal music survived and eventually became part of social life, even entering churches. In festivals or street celebrations held in urban and rural areas of Central and South America, Christianity and primitive religions are strangely combined, and European music and Indian indigenous music coexist. But more often than not, it is the mixture of Indo-European art that creates new forms, genres and stylistic features.

To sum up, Latin American music is mainly composed of the combination of the above three factors. What is most important, however, is that the intermingling of these factors has created the unique personality known as "Latin America", a "mestizo music" that is by no means a haphazard juxtaposition of many cultures, but has acquired an individual character. New originality.

As already mentioned, most of the inhabitants of Latin America are of mixed race, so the music also expresses the emotions of life that naturally arise from that society. The so-called European style and African black style here have been dyed with the colors of the New World and gained new life. Rather than saying that the original Indian music culture was passed down according to ancient styles, it is better to say that it absorbed various influences on the one hand, and added many subtle changes to express the emotions of people living in reality on the other hand. .

The mixture of these three factors, if viewed from the perspective of melody and rhythm, can be explained by quoting a passage from Ni-Slonimsky's "Music of Latin America": In terms of melody, "the Indians provide the basic The influence of European colonists is reflected in the expansion of scales and the addition of chords. In terms of beat and rhythm, the Indians insist on short sentences and long rests, and use monotonous drumming. Accompaniment. The rhythm of the colonizer is mainly Spanish, typically a double beat of 3/4 and 6/8, resulting in a characteristic interlaced rhythm in the center of the bar. The black influence is added in an almost constant 2/4 beat. Syncopation." Regarding the mixing process of these three factors, the letter quoted Dagu's research results and divided the development of Latin American folk music into three stages: 1. Pure Indian tunes and pentatonic scales; 2. Indian scales. The so-called "mixed race" results in an Indo-European mixed-race musical scale similar to European major and minor keys; 3. "Mixed-race and then mixed-race" means using African black ornaments and changes in ornamentation to further complicate the scale.

It must be pointed out that in Latin America, no matter which country or region it is, people proudly boast: "This is our own music." The inherent music is carefully preserved, and Cherish it very much.