National Geographic Music (National Geographic)

Uruguay is a country of immigrants—so much so, that by the middle of the 19th century little remained of its original, indigenous inhabitants or their culture. Contemporary Uruguayan culture derives mainly from Spanish and other European influences, as well as from African sources. In the context of Latin America, Uruguay has long been a foreward-looking country with long-established democratic institutions and a civic culture based on populist politics and a welfare state—despite the eleven-year coup that lasted from 1973 to 1984.

Three important historical-cultural trends distinguish Uruguayan music. One is the music played during the month of carnival, and in particular, the candombe and the murga. Related to other Afro-Latin forms such as the Cuban clave, the candombe is descendent of African folklore, the ritual expressions of the Africans that passed through the Río de la Plata region en route to the South of the continent. African slaves were first introduced to Montevideo in 1750. It was a muti-ethnic swath of Africa, with approximately 70% from the Bantu-speaking areas. The candombe was their music, and it has played a significant role in Uruguayan music for the past 200 years. At the dawn of the 19th Century, Montevideo's establishment was deeply troubled by the existence of the candombes, which they indistinctly called tambo or tangó. They banned them and harshly punished their participants, considering the dances a threat to public morals. But although African culture was quickly repressed by the Spanish, the slaves' need for expression survived in the clandestine tangós – a word that referred to the drums, the dances and the places in which religious rituals were held. Slavery was abolished in 1846.

In Uruguay, people of African descent accounted for about half the population two centuries ago; they now number about 189,000 in a nation of 3.2 million. But the descendent of the 19th century tangós – the candombe -- lives today on the streets of Montevideo. For many Uruguayans of African descent, candombe is part of everyday life and resistance in a continually discriminating society. It consists of a rhythmic structure played on drum ensembles called cuerdas which feature barrel drums of three different sizes and a related choreography. A full candombe group, collectively known as comparsa, comprises of the cuerda, a group of female dancers, and several stock characters, including a matriarch, her husband, and the stick soldier. Candombe is performed every Sunday night on the streets of the central neighborhoods of Montevideo where many drummers get together to play outdoors. As the cuerda makes its way through the streets of the city, the contagious rhythm calls people in the neighborhood to join. Periodically the cuerda stops and lights a fire, to heat the drum skins and tune the drums. It turns into a massive parade during carnival when comparsa members will also dress in costumes that reflect the music's historical roots in the slave trade.

In the past several decades, the candombe rhythms have made their way into mainstream music, used to express resistance during the years of the military regime, and to define national identity. During the '60s the candombe became a driving force in the development of Uruguayan popular music, combining with practically all musical trends and styles, such as folk music, rock, jazz and pop. And since the 60s, many Uruguayan musicians have included this traditional rhythm in their music, among them Lágrima Rios, Alfredo Zitarrosa, Eduardo Mateo, Hugo Fattorusso, Ruben Rada, Jaime Roos, and Jorge Drexler.

The murga is a form of musical theater of Spanish-Andalusian origins, and like the candombe, has transformed through time. A traditional murga group comprises of 10-20 men, consisting of a chorus and three percussionists that perform during carnival. The singers perform in harmony, with up to five parts. Their repertoire typically consists of a suite of songs, bookmarked by an opening saludo and a closing retirada, and interspersed by recitatives. They often feature melodies from last year's hits to which new lyrics are composed, offering updated political and social satire. As such, the murga lends itself to being a platform for popular resistance. The music played along, performed on drums derived from European military traditions including a bass drum, snare and cymbals, is also called murga. It is typically performed on outdoor stages during carnival, when groups compete against one another, dressed in colorful, jester-like costumes. Some of the longstanding bands, such as Saludo Araca la Cana, are cultural icons in Uruguay. The murga has also found its way into popular song with artists such as Jaime Roos, Rubén Rada and Washington Canario Luna.

The second historical-musical thread is the milonga-tango tradition. The milonga also originated in the Río de la Plata area of Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil, in the 19th century, reaching its heights of popularity in the 1870s. Its roots are in Europe and an earlier style of singing called payada de contrapunto. It was set to a lively duple meter was accompanied by the guitar, and often included musical improvisation. Over time dance steps and other musical influences – especially candombe based rhythmic syncopations, were added, eventually giving rise to the tango. Dance steps contain the same basic elements as the tango but the milonga's movements are faster and require greater relaxation of the body. Today the word also signifies a tango party.

Tango is considered to be Argentina's "national" music, but in fact, it was born simultaneously in the suburbs of both Buenos Aires and Montevideo. It is still questioned whether Carlos Gardel, the giant of tango, was actually born in Tacuarembo, Uruguay, rather than in France. Orchestra director Francisco Canaro and Julio Sosa have been keystone names in the tango tradition, and the famed "Lu Cumparsita" was written by the Uruguayan composer Gerardo Matos Rodríguez. Contemporary names in the tradition include Hugo Díaz, Marino Rivero, Raul Montero, and Elsa Moran, among others. Perhaps the primary difference between the Argentine tango tradition and the Uruguayan it that the tango in the repertoire of Uruguayan orchestras was accompanied from the outset by other popular rhythms, including the milonga, the vals, and the candombe – all the dance rhythms of Uruguay.

The third musical thread has grown from Uruguay's two distinct rural regions, the South and the Northeast, that culturally, relate to neighboring Argentina and Brazil. The folkloric rhythms of those regions formed the basis from which what became known as canto popular emereged in the 60s. Canto popular was developed by intellectual elites, whose distance from the economically dominant groups led them to evolve a culture critical of the existing order; the music followed literary and theatrical trends. Artists such as Los Olimareños, Daniel Viglieti (who was later forced into exile) and Alfredo Zitarrosa led this trend. They shared the use of regional folklore, a preoccupation with the poetic level of the text, and a desire for political, social and economic change with the nueva canción latinoamericana (Latin American New Song) that swept other countries in Latin America, especially Argentina and Chile. As in Argentina and Chile, the 1973 coup d'etat in Uruguay (which lasted until 1984) created a situation in which this movement experienced a great amount of censorship, and some canto popular artists were blacklisted. With lessening performance opportunities and media exposure during the coup years, rock disappeared from the Uruguayan stages, and canto popular lowered its profile. At the same time, artists became more experimental, and in the 1970s canto popular expanded to include with new influences from other genres, including contemporary art music, tango and murga.

In parallel with canto popular, rock and roll first broke into Uruguayan audiences with the arrival of The Beatles in the early 1960s. A wave of rock bands modeling themselves after British rockers appeared in Montevideo, including Los Shakers, Los Mockers, and Los Iracundos. They became major figures in a rock movement that also greatly influenced neighboring Argentina. With the coming of the military dictatorship in 1973, the Uruguayan rock scene effectively died, but resurged in the mid-1980s. Current Uruguayan rock has garnered massive popularity with bands such as La Vela Puerca, No Te Va Gustar, La Trampa and Buitres and the city of Durzano attracts more than 100,000 audience members to its annual rock festival. Uruguayan rock is often stamped by other national genres such as candombe, milonga or murga. —Nili Belkind