This week in our online music class we’ll revisit Latin America in all its musical and cultural glory. We’ll sing some of our favorite songs from the last three months like “Wan Boto,” “La Llave” and “Mayan Peace Song.” Don’t know the songs? Tune in to the live class (http://www.allaroundthisworld.com/livecast-schedule) and sing along.
There are so many EXTRAORDINARY instruments in Latin America! In honor of our online class season let”s spend some time with the All Around This World overview of Latin instruments here. Pick your favorites…maybe samba drums?
There are so so so many generes of music in Latin America.
So many.
The All Around This World introduction to the MANY kinds of Latin music starts kids well in our online classes. In this video we meet Chile’s tonada:
This week we start our musical adventures in Latin America. ¡Hola amigos! From a 1492 “stumble-upon” by Christopher Columbus, who “discovered” a part of the world that was already full of millions of people and their many proud civilizations, waves of European colonizers, primarily from Spain and Portugal, claimed the area we now know as Latin America as their own. Some of these colonizers viewed the land with actual hope, others as only a resource to abuse. Whatever their intent, colonial governments trounced the indigenous population, brought humans from Africa as slaves and extracted as much wealth as possible from the fertile land. At the same time, as a not insignificant side-effect of their domination, the Europeans–again, mainly the Spanish and Portuguese–also brought with them their own European culture, Iberian poetry and cuisine, and most relevant to us, their melodic and passionate music. Over the next three months in Latin America we’re going to explore, engage and ENJOY!
This week in class we sing “La Llave,”which means “the key.” All Around This World adapted this from the Spanish song, “Estrellita,” which is about a girl finding the best occupation for herself, disliking all of them except the job of teacher. (“Estrellita is looking for a job, Ma-tey-ree-lay-ree-lay-ree-lay…What kind of job will we give her…? We’ll let her work as a cook…She doesn’t like that job…We’ll let her work as a teacher…That job she likes!”) I hope you enjoy the video above, the one of me introducing and singing the song. Even if you do, you’re still allowed to enjoy this version more.
This week’s online class takes us to Latin America where people from two continents collide in historic devastation…and we dance. In learning about the origins of of Afro-Latin music we acknowledge the coldness of colonialism and the darkness of the Dark Passage — yes, this is a music program for kids! Be wise in your telling . . . — while at the same time celebrating the creation of new forms of music and dance that merge Spanish storytelling with the African beat. Though we nod to the past, we power on. Let’s go.
