Fandango, Diferencia, Jarocho, Cielito lindo and Chile verdes…

Across the early modern Atlantic world, sounds, tunes, and rhythms travelled with ideas, people, and merchandise to and from the shores and ports of Mexico and Latin America. In America a constant process of variation, recomposition, and reinvention preserved some forms of the past, within the rich stew of the canarios, guabinas, pajarillos, corridos, fandangos, morenas, peteneras and villancicos of the New World. Many surviving collections of music contain diferencias for harp and guitar, and accompaniments shaped around the melody of a ballad or the cadences of a son, illustrating how melodies were glossed, revitalized, and improvised “in the local manner,” to bring forth new genres and original variations. The local sones of New Spain, which were the forerunners of the Mexican son, therefore may preserve many features of colonial musical practice. The origins of much traditional music (in particular, the sones from Veracruz, Huasteca and Guerrero) become clearer when the sones are compared to the characteristic folias, jácaras, jotas, and fandangos of the early modern repertory. Sponsored by LACS and the Department of Musicology.