Writing in South American Styles

This class focuses on the musical analysis and writing techniques of many of the most important contemporary recording/performing artists and composers in South America. Using a map of South America and the Caribbean, this course virtually travels through the continent visiting each country (except Brazil), to explore their traditional and contemporary music. Scores, recordings, literature, and video material explains how South American music was born, evolved, and transformed by absorbing the encounter between indigenous, African, and European traditional music in the "New World." Using classical and modern musical forms, including: orchestral, chamber, jazz, rock, pop, flamenco, and African music examples, students learn about the wide, and yet relatively unexplored, spectrum of South American music and how to apply these elements into their own compositions. Through analysis, transcriptions, and scored music material provided by the instructor, students learn various rhythmic and harmonic patterns from different countries of South America and the Caribbean, such as: Colombia, Argentina, Perú, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, Trinidad, and others. Students also discuss the historical and social process of South American culture in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the multicultural and multiracial roots of contemporary South American music.