Music of Mexico

The music of Mexico is very diverse and features a wide range of musical genres and performance styles. It has been influenced by a variety of cultures, most notably deriving from the culture of the Europeans, Indigenous, and Africans. It also sometimes rarely contains influences from Asians and Arabs, as well as from other Hispanic and Latino cultures. Music was an expression of Mexican nationalism, beginning in the nineteenth century. Francisco Gabilondo Soler and Mexican music in Chile The foundation of Mexican music comes from its indigenous sounds and heritage. The original inhabitants of the land used drums (such as the teponaztli), flutes, rattles, conches as trumpets and their voices to make music and dances. This ancient music is still played in some parts of Mexico. However, much of the traditional contemporary music of Mexico was written during and after the Spanish colonial period, using many old world influenced instruments. Many traditional instruments, such as the Mexican vihuela used in Mariachi music, were adapted from their old-world predecessors and are now considered very Mexican. There existed regional and local musical traditions in the colonial period and earlier, but national music began to develop in the nineteenth century, often with patriotic themes of national defense and against foreign invaders. Conservative general and president Antonio López de Santa Anna brought a Catalan music master, Jaime Nunó, from nearby Cuba to create a network of military bands on a national scale. He composed the music for the Mexican national anthem. During the French Intervention in Mexico, which placed Maximilian of Habsburg on the throne of the French empire in Mexico, many musicians accompanied his entourage and he established the National Conservatory of Music in 1866. Liberal President Benito Juárez saw the need to create military bands. Village brass bands proliferated in the late nineteenth century, with concerts in town squares, often on a central kiosk.