It is difficult to talk about the music of Central American Natives in the 18th Century because, by then, the region had been under Spanish colonization for roughly 200 years. Unlike the colonists in North America looking to start a new life, the Spanish had a firm mission in mind: make money for Spain. To that end, the Spanish had already founded large cities and established churches in the region by the time the British and French even began to have a history on the continent. Further, the Spanish conquerors were almost entirely men without families, which meant a lot of them married indigenous women. As a result, there was a lot of mixing between European, American, and later African races. [1] With this is mind, it becomes much harder to distinguish what music in the 18th Century constitutes “Native American” from this region after over a century of racial and cultural mixing.
One thing that can be said is that the Spanish introduced stringed instruments to the continent, and by the 18th Century African drums and marimbas had appeared. (More on the Marimba in the “Caribbean Islands and Caribbean Coast” section.) The indigenous cultures began to experiment with these and create their own variations. As Mark Brill writes in Music of Latin America and the Caribbean, “the Natives began using new instruments in ways no European ever did, in religious observances, harvest ceremonies, or courtship rituals that were specific to the Americas.” [2] This was a new style, neither European nor originally Native American, but a mix of the two. These stringed instruments “were often exclusively strummed to provide harmony, or played as rhythm and percussion instruments, to the point where they were sometimes classified as drums.” [2] The Spanish introduced the instruments to Central and South America, and the Natives there immediately began using them in their own ways.
Though stringed instruments were foreign, the region did have some instruments of its own. Notable among them was the teponaztli, a hollow drum with two “tongues” that a musician would strike with mallets to produce two different sounds. This instrument dated back to before Columbus’ voyage, and its use in music-making continues to this day in many parts of Central America. [3]
Two teponaztli made from hollowed out logs. The “two tongues” are clearly visible on the tops of the instruments.
Additionally, long before the 18th Century, Spanish missionaries recognized that music in Native cultures was used almost exclusively for their religions and spirituality. As such, the missionaries pushed to build musical schools and to write songs for the Natives that emphasized Christian – specifically Catholic – teachings. By the 1600’s, the Central American Natives had multiple accomplished composers writing European-style church music. The most well-known was likely Juan Matías, who wrote several Baroque-era hymns like “Quién sale aqueste día disfrazado.” [4] This was the Native American music of the Central American Spanish colonies in the 18th century: they had already spent a lot of time blending with European and African musical traditions, but the result was a unique mixture that is characteristic of the region even to this day.
[1] Brill, Music of Latin America, p. 12-13
[2] Brill, Music of Latin America, p. 16
[3] Olsen and Sheehy, “Mexica”, Garland Encyclopedia, p. 556-557
[4] Brill, Music of Latin America, p. 36
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