On the Shelf from CCBC Libraries
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Tango
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Born on the unlit streets of Buenos Aires, tango was inspired by the music of European immigrants who crossed the ocean to Argentina, lured by the promise of a better life. It found its home in the city's marginal districts, where it was embraced and shaped by young men who told stories of prostitutes, petty thieves, and disappointed lovers through its music and movements. Chronicling the stories told through tango's lyrics, Mike Gonzalez and Marianella Yanes reveal in Tango how the dance went from slumming it in the brothels and cabarets of lower-class Buenos Aires to the ballrooms of Paris, London, Berlin, and beyond. Tracing the evolution of tango, Gonzalez and Yanes set its music, key figures, and the dance itself in their place and time. They describe how it was not until Paris went crazy for tango just before World War I that it became acceptable for middle-class Argentineans to perform the seductive dance, and they explore the renewed enthusiasm with which each new generation has come to it. Telling the sexy, enthralling story of this stylish and dramatic dance, Tango is a book for casual fans and ballroom aficionados alike.
Call Number: GV1796.T3 G64 2013 -
Latin American Popular Culture since Independence
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This unique reader offers an engaging collection of essays that highlight the diversity of Latin America's cultural expressions from independence to the present. Leading historians explore funerals, dance and music, letters and literature, spectacles and monuments, and world's fairs and food. These themes and events highlight the ways in which a wide range of individuals with copious, at times contradictory, motives attempted to forge identity, turn the world upside down, mock their betters, forget their troubles through dance, express love in letters, and altogether enjoy life. The authors analyze case studies from Argentina, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, and Trinidad-Tobago, tracing how their examples resonate in the rest of the region. They show how people could and did find opportunities to escape, if only occasionally, their daily drudgery, making lives for themselves of greater variety than the constant quest for dominance, drive for profits, or knee-jerk resistance to the social or economic order so often described in cultural studies. Instead, this rich text introduces the complexity of motives behind and the diversity of expressions of popular culture in Latin America. Contributions by: Sal Acosta, Thomas L. Benjamin, John Charles Chasteen, Dari n J. Davis, Lauren (Robin) H. Derby, Matthew D. Esposito, Ingrid E. Fey, Stephen Jay Gould, Graham E. L. Horton, Fanni Mu oz Cabrejo, Blanca Muratorio, Jeffrey M. Pilcher, Janet Sturman, and Pamela Voekel.
Call Number: F1408.3 .L2743 2012 -
Musics of Latin America
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Covering one of the most musically diverse regions in the world, Musics of Latin America emphasizes music as a means of understanding culture and society: each author balances an analysis of musical genres with discussion of the historical and cultural trends that have shaped them. Chapters cover traditional, popular, and classical repertoire, and in-text listening guides ensure that students walk away with a solid understanding of the music.
Call Number: ML199 .M886 2012 -
Brazilian Music
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Written by a foremost expert in the field of Brazilian culture, this fascinating volume explores the music of Brazil's Northeast, gauging its historical and cultural importance within the nation's diverse culture. Based on the author's field and archival research over a fifteen year period, this fascinating handbook shows how the musical culture of northeast Brazil emerged and evolved, exploring the interrelated traditional musical styles that helped give the region_and ultimately the Brazilian nation_such a distinctive cultural identity. Moving from broad comparative overviews to specific types of music, the book looks at the social contexts, performance practices, musical structures, and cultural meanings that lie behind the music and provides up-close encounters with contemporary musicians creating and maintaining the area's traditions. Additionally, the book examines the role of music and dance traditions in shaping racial identities in Brazil (blackness, whiteness, mulattoness). The accompanying CD, loaded with both commercial and field recordings, brings the book's ideas and discoveries vividly to life. _ Photographs of musical instruments, musicians, dancers, performances, and costumes, and illustrations of the art of Northeast Brazil including drawings, paintings, and wood cuts _ Diagrams of instrument construction such as the pifano, zabumba, and viola, and an audio CD of musical examples
Call Number: ML3487.B7 C76 2005 -
The Mystery of Samba
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Samba is Brazil's "national rhythm," the foremost symbol of its culture and nationhood. To the outsider, samba and the famous pre-Lenten carnival of which it is the centerpiece seem to showcase the country's African heritage. Within Brazil, however, samba symbolizes the racial and cultural mixture that, since the 1930s, most Brazilians have come to believe defines their unique national identity. But how did Brazil become "the Kingdom of Samba" only a few decades after abolishing slavery in 1888? Typically, samba is represented as having changed spontaneously, mysteriously, from a "repressed" music of the marginal and impoverished to a national symbol cherished by all Brazilians. Here, however, Hermano Vianna shows that the nationalization of samba actually rested on a long history of relations between different social groups--poor and rich, weak and powerful--often working at cross-purposes to one another. A fascinating exploration of the "invention of tradition," The Mystery of Samba is an excellent introduction to Brazil's ongoing conversation on race, popular culture, and national identity.
Call Number: ML3465 .V5313 1999
Open Resources
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Andes Manta
Andes Manta performs the vibrant music of the Andes on more than 35 traditional instruments.
Streaming Videos
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Rebel Music: Americas From Tierra del Fuego to the Río Grande, musicians are lending their voices to dynamic political movements. This program features several defiant artists in performances that are interwoven with social commentary on displaced or disadvantaged communities. Mexican-American Lila Downs sings songs of turmoil at the U.S. border. Anibal and Charly, from the group Santa Revuelta, take us inside the Argentine monetary crisis. Brazilian songwriter Chico Cesar has taken up the cause of landless peasants. With the vallenato of Oyeme Chocó, members of an Afro-Colombian community sing of the military operations that drove them off their land. Through their music, these groups take viewers inside major grassroots movements shaping the Americas of today.
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Tango's Revenge They call it new tango—and for this group of young, gifted musicians, new is an understatement. The sounds rippling out of Argentina today have nothing to do with your father’s tango or even the strains you might hear at the tango dance school down the street. The nascent, percussive music being played in little clubs and on street corners is more world beat than tango. Full of anger and tragedy, jazz rhythms and rock beats, new tango music pulsates like Buenos Aires itself. Tango’s Revenge tells the story of this musical revolution and how a group of gifted young artists has taken as their mission to redefine the sound and culture of one of the great musical genres of the world: tango.
Databases
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Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
Articles on any subject. This is a good place to start.
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Academic Video Online This link opens in a new window
Videos on many subjects from PBS, HBO, BBC, History Channel, and others.
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Arts & Humanities Database
Articles on arts including visual arts, architecture, design, music, literature, and theatre,
and humanities including history, philosophy, and cultural studies. -
Humanities International Complete This link opens in a new window
Articles and ebooks about humanities topics like arts, history, language, law, literature, philosophy, and politics.
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JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Journals, books, images, and primary sources about many subjects.
Radio Stations
Online from CCBC Libraries
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Latin Music
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This definitive two-volume encyclopedia of Latin music spans 5 centuries and 25 countries, showcasing musicians from Celia Cruz to Plácido Domingo and describing dozens of rhythms and essential themes. Eight years in the making, Latin Music: Musicians, Genres, and Themes is the definitive work on the topic, providing an unparalleled resource for students and scholars of music, Latino culture, Hispanic civilization, popular culture, and Latin American countries. Comprising work from nearly 50 contributors from Spain, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States, this two-volume work showcases how Latin music_regardless of its specific form or cultural origins_is the passionate expression of a people in constant dialogue with the world. The entries in this expansive encyclopedia range over topics as diverse as musical instruments, record cover art, festivals and celebrations, the institution of slavery, feminism, and patriotism. The music, traditions, and history of more than two dozen countries_such as Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Spain, and Venezuela_are detailed, allowing readers to see past common stereotypes and appreciate the many different forms of this broadly defined art form. Covers nearly every conceivable aspect of Latin music across almost 1,000 pages of insightful, authoritative information Makes clear to readers how diverse and varied "Latin music" is in its integration of influences as unexpected as the Arab world and Russia, and results from European and aboriginal cultures intermingling throughout history Examines why the United States in general continues to be the epicenter of Latin music and how cities such as New York and Los Angeles influence modern Latin music
Publication Date: 2014-07-29 -
A Guide to the Latin American Art Song Repertoire
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A reference guide to the vast array of art song literature and composers from Latin America, this book introduces the music of Latin America from a singer's perspective and provides a basis for research into the songs of this richly musical area of the world. The book is divided by country into 22 chapters, with each chapter containing an introductory essay on the music of the region, a catalog of art songs for that country, and a list of publishers. Some chapters include information on additional sources. Singers and teachers may use descriptive annotations (language, poet) or pedagogical annotations (range, tessitura) to determine which pieces are appropriate for their voices or programming needs, or those of their students. The guide will be a valuable resource for vocalists and researchers, however familiar they may be with this glorious repertoire.
Publication Date: 2010-04-29 -
Music and Revolution
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Music and Revolution provides a dynamic introduction to the most prominent artists and musical styles that have emerged in Cuba since 1959 and to the policies that have shaped artistic life. Robin D. Moore gives readers a chronological overview of the first decades after the Cuban Revolution, documenting the many ways performance has changed and emphasizing the close links between political and cultural activity. Offering a wealth of fascinating details about music and the milieu that engendered it, the author traces the development of dance styles, nueva trova, folkloric drumming, religious traditions, and other forms. He describes how the fall of the Soviet Union has affected Cuba in material, ideological, and musical terms and considers the effect of tense international relations on culture. Most importantly, Music and Revolution chronicles how the arts have become a point of negotiation between individuals, with their unique backgrounds and interests, and official organizations. It uses music to explore how Cubans have responded to the priorities of the revolution and have created spaces for their individual concerns. Copub: Center for Black Music Research
Publication Date: 2006-04-28 -
Taking Root
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In Taking Root, Latin American women of Jewish descent, from Mexico to Uruguay, recall their coming of age with Sabbath candles and Hebrew prayers, Ladino songs and merengue music, Queen Esther and the Virgin of Guadalupe. Rich and poor, Sephardi and Ashkenazi, Jewish immigrant families searched for a new home and identity in predominantly Catholic societies. The essays included here examine the religious, economic, social, and political choices these families have made and continue to make as they forge Jewish identities in the New World. Marjorie Agosín has gathered narratives and testimonies that reveal the immense diversity of Latin American Jewish experience. These essays, based on first- and second-generation immigrant experience, describe differing points of view and levels of involvement in Jewish tradition. In Taking Root, Agosín presents us with a contemporary and vivid account of the Jewish experience in Latin America. Taking Root documents the sadness of exile and loss but also a fierce determination to maintain Jewish traditions. This is Jewish history but it is also part of the untold history of Brazil, Argentina, El Salvador, Ecuador, Chile, Peru, and all of Latin America.
Publication Date: 2002-09-30
