II. Traditional and popular music

The traditional musics of Uruguay should not be studied in isolation as they share features with those of the bordering regions of the neighbouring countries of southern Brazil and central-eastern Argentina; on a broader level with those of the larger continent of Latin America, and on a general level with the entire Americas. Uruguayan music draws on three cultural sources: the indigenous, the western European and the black African. Each has produced complex rather than homogeneous musical forms, this diversity defining the Uruguayan musical profile. At the time of the arrival of the Spanish conquerors a multiplicity of ethnic traditions already existed dispersed over a wide area with diverse levels of interaction. The varying nature of gradual contact with the colonizers determined contrasting indigenous components in the music of neighbouring mestizo communities. The European contribution was not as simple as is commonly understood: the majority of immigrants, mostly low class, came from different parts of western Europe and the Iberian peninsula, the latter only recently emerged from a war against Muslim invaders involving religious, economic and political conflict. As a result, a variety of acculturated musical situations already existed within the European population. The cultures of slaves brought forcibly from all around the sub-Saharan regions of Africa also carried with them musical material from a diverse number of cultural areas.

Apart from a number of minor historical studies, the first important contribution to research was made by Isabel Aretz in 1943. Between 1945 and 1966, the Uruguayan musicologist Lauro Ayestarán (1913–66) carried out formative work in collaboration with his senior Argentine colleague Carlos Vega (1898–1966), archived in the musicology section of the Museo Historico Nacional.

1. Amerindian heritage.

2. African heritage.

3. Mestizo music and instruments.

Uruguay, §II: Traditional and popular music

Amerindian heritage.

The Amerindian people were nomadic, moving over a very large territory, including parts of Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina and, possibly, Paraguay. While their ethnic roots are unclear, it is known that Guaraní was one of their spoken languages. According to historians, most others were mainly from Charrúa and Chaná, both ethnic groups possibly belonging to the Arawak linguistic family. The Chaná-Charrúas rejected acculturation and were as a consequence practically annihilated by the conquerors. Those who survived were wiped out later, after the independence wars by some of the criollo leaders. However, it is now accepted that resistance to integration did not mean that there was no cultural contact. So, although the Amerindian population was destroyed as an entity during the 19th century (notably until 1831; in subsequent decades less openly), it is not possible to affirm that mestizo culture had not absorbed elements from the Chaná-Charrúa musics. What is accepted is the strong presence of Guaraní musical elements in the resulting popular culture which has meant that in recent decades new Guaraní small communities, belonging to the Mbyá ethnic group, have been able to return from the north. As a result of the return of these groups it is now known that, for the Mbyá, music is a private, ‘secret’ practice, which sheds light on earlier historical chronicles which provided practically no information about indigenous musics. In the mid-20th century when Lauro Ayestarán studied some of these early written documents, an imprecise picture was given of indigenous people playing only trumpets, horns and drums. Presence of instruments other than those known in European organology were not noted. Nor was it understood or recorded that for example, in Chaná-Charrúa culture, music did not constitute a category which could be segregated from the totality of everyday human activity. Other Uruguayan Amerindian groups include a probable small quantity of acculturated Chaná-Charrúas, who succumbed to missionary pressure at the beginning of the 17th century; a massive dispersion of acculturated Guaranís ejected from Jesuit missions by the Spanish crown in 1767; and several Guaicurú groups of unconfirmed number who came from the Chaco to settle as tenant farmers following the land reform of 1815–16 begun by the revolutionary leader José Artigas. Each would have introduced varying musical contributions of diverse ethnic origin, complicated by varying degrees of acculturation ranging from the probably low level of the Guaicurús, to the high levels of Guaranís from the missions.

Uruguay, §II: Traditional and popular music

African heritage.

The contribution of people from the sub-Saharan (Aguisimbian) regions of Africa has been of great influence. However, colonial Montevideo population records show equal numbers of people coming from Mozambique (East Africa), Angola (West Africa) and other territories.

Expressions of black culture conserved in the capital Montevideo are detectable in the music of the llamada, in choreographic-musical elements of candombe and other specific aspects of dance choreography. Despite the diversity of origin of African immigrants, by the beginning of the 20th century evidence suggests unified use of membranophones, with the adoption of the tamboril, a variant common to other Latin American territories. A single-headed drum whose membrane is nailed to a barrel-shaped wooden shell, the tamboril is carried over the shoulder and played with two hands, one holding a stick (see fig.1). There are three sizes of tamboril called chico, repique and piano (in ascending order of size), the latter appearing sometimes as a bass piano called bajo or bombo. Traditionally tuned by stretching the membrane over heat, in recent decades new methods of construction have introduced mechanical tuning mechanisms. Tuning relationships between sizes is more a function and consequence of ‘good tension’ relationships between the instruments than a question of absolute pitch. The wooden body, traditionally made out of barrel laths without nails, and since the 1970s constructed from treated wood, is carved so that each lath wedges into the next, encircled and held together by three iron rings.

A minimum of two different drums (either the repique or piano, with the chico in continuous reference to the other two) is necessary to produce the llamada, the music of this set of drums. They create a rich weave of patterns with none of the different sizes of tamboril acting independently of the others. In the case of the chico rhythmic patterns are fixed; for the piano (bajo or bombo) they are partially unchanged (ex.1); while for the repique they are varied, with improvisational practices. The llamada is produced by several drums of each size, each determining a layer of rhythms which interact with other layers while at the same time engaging in ‘dialogue’ within their layer (particularly the improvising repiques). The continuity of this tradition is directly linked to the black population of Montevideo, within conventillo (tenement house) and barrio (neighbourhood) culture. At the end of the 20th century this has been gradually changing as young white people, whose own life experience contrasts with that of the poor blacks of these marginal neighbourhoods, have become interested in and have adopted this music.

While still associated with particular calendar dates, the llamada maintains a non-explicit ritual spirit. The ‘spontaneous’ meeting of a group of walking drummers is usually accompanied by people of the neighbourhood. The drummers are usually preceded by processing dancers, some of whom may perform choreographic characterizations: while their original meaning is lost, some bear the mark of behaviours related to the acculturation of black African traditions observed elsewhere on the American continent. In the 1950s the continuity of the tradition was transformed through the integration of the llamada into the official Carnival festivities; the whole phenomenon was thus institutionalized by the municipality of Montevideo, with the introduction of written rules and prize-winning mechanisms. Despite this many traditional features persist.

Drummers, who can number from 15 to 100 or more form a line, usually with six to each row, mixing different sizes of tamboril, their music a challenging mix of the polyphonic and polyrhythmic. Traditional costumes are worn (fig.1). They are accompanied by ritual characters including the gramillero, the mama vieja and the escobero or escobillero and the standard bearers. Other participants include dancers (mostly young women) and ‘exotic’ characters drawn from the world of show business (inspired by the Río de Janeiro carnival and transvestite culture among other things), all formally accepted by the official rules and judging panels. The gramillero (see fig.1), a young person disguised as an old man, wears a false white beard, a pair of spectacle frames, a top hat, dress coat, gaiters with rope-soled sandals instead of shoes, two white gloves (one held), while holding a small case in the left hand and using a walking cane to support a tensely held ‘old’ body. This character relates to roles conserved in syncretic religions of the black Americas. The mama vieja evokes an old lady dressed in bulky skirts holding a parasol, walking graciously. The escobero or escobillero wears a colourful shirt, an animal-skin loincloth studded with brilliant objects over tight-fitting trousers, and sandals with long ribbons attached and tied cross-wise up the legs. The escobero carries a thin-sticked broom, making rotating patterns with it in the air, a syncretic practice thought to relate to the exorcism of bad spirits. The trophy or standard bearers often carry war emblems: a star, a half moon, flags and banners; these trophies are probably survivals of historical ‘holy wars’ between Islamic and Christian blacks in both Africa and the New World. In recent decades certain Afro-Brazilian syncretic religions, particularly Umbanda, have increased their presence and influence with practically unchanging practices observing the Brazilian liturgy and sung in Portuguese.

Uruguay, §II: Traditional and popular music

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