term méringue is problematic in that it may be used to refer to a variety of different
Haitian song and dance forms. Among the more elite groups, it was donned as a
kind of elite parlor music known as méringue lente or méringue de salon. Among
lower social groups, méringues were also performed during Carnival in a proces-
sion known as méringue de carnaval. Among bourgeois society, the term may refer
to a type of social dance that was accompanied by dance bands of the period. The
term also designates music performed by itinerant musicians, usually of a lower
social station, performed in tourist areas such as hotels, restaurants, and airports.
In spite of the apparently close association between the méringue and the Domin-
can merengue , there is a considerable amount of disagreement regarding the Afri-
can origins and Haitian influence of méringue on the Dominican merengue. Gage
Averill points to the considerable amount of political tension between these two
countries as a reason for the disagreement about the genre’s origins.
As a dance, the méringue was performed in a variety of contexts depending on
the venues. In the ballroom among the middle and upper classes, the méringue was
a couple dance, which was expected to be learned among the well-bred members
of Haitian society. It was thus the favorite dance among the Haitian elite. Averill
points to a well known statement that attested to the importance of the dance at so-
cial gatherings: “ Mereng ouvri bal, Mereng fenmen bal . . .” (“The méringue opens
the ball, The méringue closes the ball. . .”). At the other end of the social spectrum,
the méringue de carnaval was danced as a street procession and adapted to the exu-
berant spirit of Carnival.
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The chief musical characteristic associated with méringue is a five-pulse rhythm,
which was appropriated from the contredanse, and this rhythm is known in Haiti as
the quintolet, and in Cuba as the cinquillo , with the rhythm approximating a long-short-long-short-long subdivision. This rhythm, with strong associations to many
types of Caribbean musics, appears to have reached Cuba via Haiti, after the 1804
revolution, with a close Cuban relative being the danzón . Depending on the context
of performance, the quintolet could either be performed as a syncopated rhythm, or
as a more rubato-like interpretation where the five pulses are played more or less
evenly across the measure, the former interpretation more common in dance band
interpretations, while the latter was more common in solo salon music for piano.
The méringue provides an interesting example of a crossover genre that was ca-
pable of interclass contact among different social strata in Haiti. This can be seen in
examples of composers of art music, who would compose méringues for the various
social groups mentioned above. For art music composers, the méringue served as a
vehicle for infusing African elements into the art music of Haiti. Composers such
as Ludovic Lamothe, Justin Elie, Werner Anton Jagerhuber, and Frantz Casséus
all used méringue -influenced rhythms in some of their classically derived music,
which resulted in their maintaining a strong connection to the popular. Lamothe’s
output consisted of compositions in the style of méringue de salon, such as “La
Dangerouse” for solo piano, as well as a méringue de carnaval entitled “Nibo,”
which won the prize for best song competition in 1934. Additionally, Casseus’s
“Coumbite” (Kreyol: konbit ), which is cast in a quintolet rhythm, became a pop hit
for Harry Belafonte under the title “Merci Bon Dieu.”
Further Reading
Averill, Gage. A Day for the Hunter, a Day for the Prey: Popular Music and Power in
Haiti. Chicago studies in ethnomusicology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.
Bilby, Kenneth M., Michael D. Largey, and Peter Manuel. Caribbean Currents: Ca-
ribbean Music from Rumba to Reggae. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2006.
Largey, Michael. “Haiti: Tracing the Steps of the Meringue and Contredanse.” Creoliz-
ing Contradance in the Caribbean, 209–30. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press,
2009.
George Torres
Mexico
Mexico is bordered by the United States to the north and Belize and Guatemala to
the south. The population is 60 percent mestizo, 30 percent Amerindian, 9 percent
white, and 1 percent other. Mexico was ruled by Spain for nearly three centuries,
after the conquest of the Aztec (Mexica) Empire. Music in Mexico is a combination
252 | Mexico
of traits from different musical traditions. Like its racially mixed peoples, the mesti-
zos, musical traditions have an essential mestizo character. Iberian music and dance
brought to Mexico have been kept alive and have blended with native traditions.
Afro-mestizo traditions are mainly found along the Gulf coast and in the Pacific
coastal area. Most Amerindian musical events coincide with the Catholic liturgical
calendar and feature a syncretic mixture of European and Amerindian elements.
Indigenous music, dance, and ritual are still thriving throughout Mexico but are es-
sentially incompatible with the popular musical world.
Except for the African-derived marimba (xylophone), found throughout south-
ern Mexico, all folk instruments are adopted and adapted from European instru-
ments. The violin, the diatonic harp, and the guitar were all introduced early
during the colonial period. The import of brass and wind instruments from Europe
in the second half of the 19th century led to the formation of municipal and com-
munity bands. The diatonic button accordion was brought to Mexico’s Northeast
by German and Czech immigrants in the late 1800s.
The Iberian folk and popular religious repertories diffused by missionaries dur-
ing the colonial period had a significant influence on music and dance in New
Spain, still evident in the many folk religious plays associated with Christian holi-
days. As Spanish dominance deteriorated in the late 18th century, music and dance
with a more local character began to emerge. Transformations of Spanish folk ex-
pressions into local genres and styles gained in popularity after 1810, when Mexico
achieved independence from Spain and when the ecclesiastical control of social and
cultural life diminished. At the same time Mexicans’ interest in European fine-art
music grew stronger. Although the country’s upper classes enjoyed a musical life
dominated by Italian opera and lighter musical theater derived from the Spanish
zarzuela , local tunes and dances ( sones and jarabes ) found their way into the musical comedies featured at the cities’ theaters. Upper-middle-class parlors re-sounded with song and romantic piano music. During the last decades of the 19th
century, a definable Mexican national style emerged. Mexicans’ struggle during
the 19th cen tury to affirm their own cultural and political identity eventually led
them to turn to their folk and folklore in order to differentiate their national heri-
tage from other nation-states. Mestizo folk music came to be considered the most
representative and most consistent expression of Mexican music.
Mexico’s repertory of popular music, from its ve
ry beginnings in the 19th cen-
tury, cannot always be sharply distinguished from those of folk music traditions
and art music as these categories overlap substantially (see Folk, Art, and Popular
Music ). In fact, popular music genres in Mexico were often urban renditions of folk
genres, whereas the most popular folk songs were influenced by 19th-century Euro-
pean salon music. This ambiguity is reflected in the common use of the term popular
music: in the Spanish language the term música popular actually means music of the
people, encompassing what ethnomusicologists call folk and traditional as well as
Mexico
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popular urban music. Outside academia, mass-mediated popular music is commonly
referred to as música pop (pop music) or música comercial (commercial music).
National and Regional Musics
The urban orquesta (a small orchestra dominated by string instruments), favored
by the upper and expanding middle classes for serenades and private events, played
selections of the popular and semiclassical repertories. During the first decades of
the 20th century, the music of composers like Miguel Lerdo de Tejada, the direc-
tor of Mexico City’s Orquesta Típica (an ensemble formed in 1884 consisting of
an array of string instruments, wind instruments, and marimba, with musicians
dressed in folkloric garb), acquired an intensely Mexican flavor. In the mid-1920s,
Los Trovadores Tamaulipecos, a string band from northeast Mexico, spearheaded
the creation of the new ranchera style, which would become Mexico’s quintes-
sential popular music genre.
From the numerous regional folk string ensembles, it was the mariachi from the
state of Jalisco that in the 1930s developed into Mexico’s national music ensemble.
Part of the state’s efforts to produce a more integrated society was the creation of
an official folklore that would help blur regional differences. Cultural missionar-
ies were sent out by the government to study and collect folk songs and dances
throughout Mexico. Existing traditional practices were modified and institutional-
ized for the new nationalism. The mariachi originally consisted of harp, guitarra
de golpe (guitar type), and one or two violins. The urbanized mariachi replaced the
harp with the more practical guitarrón (bass guitar). The developing radio, film,
and recording industries of the early 1930s were influential in forming the typi-
cal mariachi ensemble with added trumpets. Nationalistic radio laws issued by the
Mexican government privileged certain popular cultural forms in order to ensure
that the medium would disseminate a uniquely Mexican culture and thereby pro-
mote a sense of national solidarity.
The mariachi fit the kind of national ideology propagated by the postrevolution-
ary government, but many other distinctive local ensemble types remained virtu-
ally unknown outside their regions of origin. Some of these marginalized styles
survived the century, though mostly in modernized versions, and were ultimately
embraced by the national and international popular music industries. Among those
were the brass band traditions. As one of Europe’s most significant cultural exports
of the 19th century, the brass band was introduced to every colony overseas. Fa-
cilitated by the mass production of brass instruments and new valve mechanisms,
bandas populares (popular bands) became a ubiquitous feature of Mexico’s musi-
cal life in the late 19th century and thrived in both rural and urban areas. Bandas
were performed at various outdoor celebrations such as bullfights, cockfights, horse
races, parades, saint days, weddings, and funerals. Like the military bands at that
254 | Mexico
time, popular bands played an eclectic repertory of marchas (marches), operatic
selections, and popular dances such as waltz, polka, and schottische . In the early 20th century, specific combinations of brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments consolidated in different regions of Mexico. It was the revolutionary move-
ment of the first two decades of the 20th century, however, that played a crucial role
in the development of bands’ regional characteristics, inasmuch as it was a major
impetus to both patriotism and regionalism.
Another of those peripheral music styles was the accordion-driven conjunto
norteño , a small ensemble from rural northern Mexico. Introduced by German and
Czech settlers in the late 19th century, the button accordion appealed to the local
musicians who developed a mixed repertory of popular dances such as schottisches,
redowas, polkas, canciónes (songs), and corridos (folk ballads descended from the Spanish romance). This music migrated with the peasants to the cities, where
norteño, due to the modernization of the instrumentation in the 1950s (most nota-
bly the addition of an electric guitar and a drum set), eventually spread from the
Velázquez, Consuelo
Composer and lyrist Consuelo Velázquez (1916–2005) wrote “Bésame mucho.”
It was the only song to top the U.S. charts for 12 weeks running, and it had
two million radio and television performances, according to BMI, at the time of
Velázquez’s death. Velázquez’s music career began at an early age, and she gave
her fi rst performance at the age six. She graduated from the national conser-
vatory in Mexico City as a classical pianist at age 20. As a composer of songs,
Velázquez wrote about suffering lovers, claiming to rely on her imagination
for her subject matter. She wrote “Bésame mucho” when she was 25, and, as
she claimed, “had never been kissed.” She worked at radio station XEQ, plan-
ning their classical music programming and was featured on her own program
under a male pseudonym since radio was considered immodest for women.
Many well-known performers covered Velázquez’s songs, including Frank Sina-
tra, the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Diana Krall, Cesaria Evora, and Placido Do -
mingo. Her popular songs include “Anoche,” “No me pidas nunca,” “Déjame
quererte,” “Pensará en mí,” “Yo no fui,” “Que seas feliz,” and “Cachito.”
Further Reading
Fox, Margalit. “Consuelo Velázquez Dies; Wrote ‘Bésame Mucho.’ ” New York
Times Obituary, January 30, 2005.
Rebecca Stuhr
Mexico
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255
working-class neighborhoods to the dancehalls of the middle classes. Nowadays,
norteño figures among Mexico’s commercially most popular music styles.
Throughout most of the 20th century, the Mexican media industries were con-
trolled and centered in Mexico City, which largely determined trends and fashions
in popular music. Emerging in the 1930s, the comedia ranchera (ranch comedy),
the most enduring genre of Mexican cinema, helped to establish the canción ranch-
era , a kind of romantic pseudo-folk song performed by famous singing actors with
mariachi accompaniment. After World War II, the canción romántica , a more re-
fined and sentimental version of the canción ranchera, arose and gained in popular-
ity, in particular among middle-class urbanites. During the golden age of Mexican
romantic music in the 1940s and 1950s the bolero , originally a Cuban form that
was adapted by Mexican composers
and performers in the 1930s, enjoyed great
popularity in the capital and other cities. A slow and soft musical style emphasizing
vocal melody, the bolero was able to give authentic voice to the new cosmopolitan
Lara, Agustín
Agustín Lara (1897–1970) is considered Mexico’s greatest songwriter. His
song output is believed to have reached about 700 songs, though only about
420 survive in documented sources. Lara’s early reputation was as a member
of Mexico’s cabaret culture, where he worked as a pianist and singer. Many
of his songs from this period pay homage to the fallen woman archetype.
Lara brought the Mexican urban popular song to national prominence. He as-
similated national and international styles in his music, such as the Mexican
son, Argentine tango, waltz, fox trot, and most importantly, Cuban bolero.
The bolero, in the hands of Lara, was transformed from a lively 2/4 song to a
slower and more rhythmically refi ned 4/4 version. Much of Lara’s success was
gained through the performances of some of his famous interpreters which
included, among Mexican interpreters, Maria Felix, Toña la Negra, Pedro Var-
gas, Chavela Vargas and many other trios like Los Panchos, whose repertoire
consisted mainly of boleros. Among international performers, his interpreters
include Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Jan Pearce, Mario Lanza, and Julio Iglesias.
Further Reading
Franco, Adela Pineda. “The Cuban Bolero and Its Transculturation in Mex-
ico: The Case of Agustin Lara.” Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 15
(1996): 119–30.
George Torres
256 | Mexico
sentiments of the displaced urban masses. The boleros of the prolific composer-
pianist Agustín Lara (1897–1970) are nowadays considered Mexico’s classic
popular music style. This romantic genre gained international fame through the in-
terpretations of the guitar-based trios like Los Panchos and Los Ases in the 1940s
and 1950s. The bolero and the hybrid canción-bolero flourished until they gave
way to new musical developments, which enraptured Mexico’s youth in the early
1960s: rock ‘n’ roll and an international ballad type popularized by the famous
Encyclopedia of Latin American Popular Music Page 44