It is a pleasure to be with you again to continue the long and fascinating journey we began together in the previous issue of the magazine.
This time, we will travel to the second-largest continent on our planet: America.

The American continent stretches from the Arctic Ocean in the north to Cape Horn in the south, and it was one of the last to be populated by human beings. Its history is still full of unanswered questions. It was the only landmass on the planet that developed in human isolation until its direct encounter with the cultures of Europe, Africa and the rest of the world. The Viking Erik the Red was one of the first to reach this continent, arriving in Greenland, and Christopher Columbus, sailing from Spain, was the one who began the era of colonization.

It would be an almost impossible task to stop and look at how music is understood in each of the societies that lived or live on this continent, and it is difficult to summarize the enormous rhythmic variety found in this part of the world.
We will look at the rhythm of the Inuit in the far north of America, the drums and traditions of the Native Americans and the musical richness of Latin America, without forgetting, of course, Caribbean music, represented in this article by Cuba, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, as well as the African influence present in many of its musical styles and genres.

We will begin our musical journey in the cold north, on the frozen ground of Greenland, where the Inuit go about their lives with astonishing ease and calm.

North America
The Inuit people, known here as Eskimos, live on the tundras of northern Canada, Alaska and Greenland. They lead a nomadic life, following the migrations of the animals they hunt, among them caribou, bears, whales and seals.

This people of deep-rooted customs uses music in a very spiritual way; they perform songs and dances to maintain harmony between humans and the supernatural.
One of them is the drum dance. This instrument, sacred to them, is played by shamans in their divination rituals, to induce trance or for many of the celebrations and events in the lives of these Arctic inhabitants.
It has a single head and resembles a frame drum. It is usually made of animal hide and features a kind of handle so it can be played properly, since instead of striking the head, the player strikes the wooden rim.
The rhythmic basis of these dances and songs is usually duple, and only the intensity and tempo vary in performance.
Some Inuit music artists we can listen to are: Charlie Ningiuk, Henoch Townley, Laina Tullaugak, Qimutjuit Band, Tudjaat, Tanya Tagaq and Nuuk Posse.

We continue our journey south from the northernmost regions until we come across the traces of ancient Native American tribes. As part of their philosophy, the Cree Indians kept this prophecy: "Only when the last tree has been cut down; only when the last river has been poisoned; only when the last fish has been caught; only then will the white man discover that money cannot be eaten."

Dances and songs were part of the daily life of the Native Americans, who believed that rhythm was present in everything that happened around them. The pulse their music followed was based on the heartbeat, and their round drums imitated it masterfully. In fact, it is known that there was a "walking" rhythm, in two beats, and a "running" rhythm, in four beats. These are basic patterns in which only the accents change or syncopations are added.

Depending on the tribe in question, we can find different types of drums, all made from animal hides but with different characteristics. The Ojibwa used an octagonal drum and another two-headed drum similar to the South American bombo legüero; the Iroquois had a type of drum that was filled with water to change its sound; and various peoples also made instruments or boards from cedar trunks to accompany ceremonial songs to the earth or to sacred animals.
Even today, the descendants of these Native Americans still gather at powwows, events where natives and non-natives come together to sing, dance, socialize and pay respect and honor to Native American culture.

Recordings are not very plentiful, but I can leave you the names of some representative contemporary artists: Walela, R. Carlos Nakai, Peter Kater, Joanne Shenandoah, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Johnny Whitehorse, Brulé, Scott Fitzgerald and Coyote Oldman, among others.

Once the European settlers arrived, and with them the extermination of much of the native population, music was also affected, and the blending of rhythms and sounds began that gave rise to the variety of styles we find in North American music today, such as blues and jazz, the legacy of African slaves, country, bluegrass, rock, funk, soul, etc.

Central America and the Antilles
The arrival of the Spanish in America was fundamental to the development of Latin music. The great variety of peoples encompassed by the Spanish empire and their varied musical genres helped develop patterns and songs that still endure today; take boleros, vallenatos and corridos as examples.

In Central America we find countries such as Costa Rica, with countless influences in its rhythms, such as the tambito, the parrandera, the waltz, the bolero, the quadrille and the mento. Some typical instruments of this country are the quijongo, the marimba, ocarinas, the box bass, the sabak, reed flutes, the accordion, the mandolin and the guitar.

In Panama, on the other hand, there is the "pindín" as a typical pattern, in which the accordion is usually the main instrument. Another popular rhythm is the dance of the congos, in the northern region, which is strongly influenced by African and Antillean elements.

Some bands and artists from these two countries are: Editus, Suite Doble, Las Tortugas, Manuel Obregón, Ulpiano Vergara, Roque Cordero, Jaime Ingram, Eduardo Charpentier Jr., Damián Carles and Priscilla Filos.

In Trinidad and Tobago (we are now in the Antilles) there is a carnival that rivals Rio de Janeiro's in fame, where we can hear calypso, a pattern derived from the old satirical song with which slaves mocked their masters. Accompanied by flutes, maracas and primitive banjos, competitions were held in which participants vied in eloquence and sarcasm. It spread to the other islands and internationally thanks to Harry Belafonte, in its softer version.

When drums were banned, people were driven to look for any object that could be struck, such as cans, garbage cans and, above all, oil drums from the US military bases, which, when worked by hand, could produce the whole tonal scale. These steel drums are very popular, and there are countless steelbands on the islands.

Every steelband has a kind of captain or master of ceremonies; some of the most famous are: Rudolph Charles, aka Charlo (Desperadoes), Neville Jules (Trinidad All Stars), Ellie Mannette (Invaders), Philmore Boots Davidson and Kenny Hart (City Syncopators), Michigan (City Symphony), Oscar Pile, aka Bogart (Casablanca), Winthrop Thomas (Joyland Synco), Kim Loy (Hilanders) and Earl Rodney (Harmonites).

Moving on to Jamaica, the first thing we must mention is the birth of reggae, whose main characteristic is the accent on the third beat of each bar. We all know this musical genre and its most important representative, Bob Marley. Reggae, like its predecessors rocksteady and ska, developed under the influence of other styles heard in Jamaica, drawing on African American sounds such as rhythm & blues and Afro-Caribbean ones such as calypso, ska and other Antillean rhythms. Some of the best-known performers of the genre are the aforementioned Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff, Steel Pulse, Bunny Wailer, Black Uhuru, Lucky Dube and Eddy Grant.

And from Jamaica we travel to Cuba, where the habanera, guaguancó, trova, mambo, cha-cha-cha, son, danzón and guajira are just some of the varied musical styles. Here, from the early 16th century, romances, puntos, zapateos and tonadillas coexisted and interacted with Congo, Yoruba, Carabalí and Arará rhythms, alongside religious chants from various traditions. All these influences, plus those that were added later, make up an enviable rhythmic culture today.
Some representatives of these rhythms and their music are: Ibrahim Ferrer, Rubén González, Orquesta Irakere, Chano Pozo, Compay Segundo, Celina & Reutilio, Silvio Rodríguez, Ernesto Lecuona, Pablo Milanés, Omara Portuondo, César Portillo de la Luz and Chucho Valdés.

South America
From the Caribbean we travel to Peru, Bolivia and other important places in South America, where indigenous culture has a strong presence and the colonial past and the pre-Columbian era were key to cultural development, contributing to the music we can hear in this part of the world today.

Tango, of Argentine-Uruguayan origin, Brazilian samba and bossa nova, Colombian cumbia and Peruvian landó are just a few examples of the most striking or predominant musical styles.

As you can imagine, there is a great variety of musical instruments in such a vast land, but if we focus on traditional ones, here are some of them: the erke, the quena, the anata, the sicu, the bombo, the caja, the kultrún, the ápel, the water drum, the anguaguasu, the pinkillo, the rabel, the michirái, the charango and the takuapu.

Of course, for today's genres the instruments used have little to do with those mentioned above and, as far as percussion is concerned, today we can hear congas, güiros, claves, cowbells, maracas, bongos, timbales, cymbals, frame drums, the Peruvian cajón and the Brazilian cuíca, among others.

If we take a quick look at Peru, we must mention "El Festejo," a typical festive rhythm representative of the Afro-Peruvian mestizo culture alive in Lima and Ica. Its rhythm is usually fast, in 6/8, and it is normally played on the Peruvian cajón.

We must not forget candombe, in Uruguay, either: a pattern born of the ethnic mix and fusion of rhythms of the black Africans brought as slaves to the shores of Montevideo. It is played on three wooden drums of different sizes and sounds. The highest-pitched is called "Chico," the middle one "Repique" and the lowest-sounding "Piano."

And finally we will stop in Brazil, specifically at its "samba batucada," of African origin, which has become world-famous through the Rio de Janeiro carnival. With a syncopated rhythm in a usually fast duple meter, it is always linked to dance and is performed by groups dancing in circles or in double lines. In its ballroom version, samba tends to move toward the rumba.

Some of the best-known samba composers are the Brazilians Chiquinha Gonzaga, Tupinambá, Ernesto Nazareth and José Barbosa da Silva. Among the more contemporary currents, Vinicius de Moraes, Milton Nascimento, Chico Buarque and Maria Bethânia stand out.

That's the end of today's journey. Our next stop... Oceania.

See you soon.

"Music is an echo of the invisible world." Giuseppe Mazzini (Italian philosopher).