Music of Costa Rica
Encyclopedia
The country of Costa Rica
has many kinds of music.
Though its music has achieved little international credit, Costa Rican popular music genres include: an indigenous calypso
scene which is distinct from the more widely-known Trinidad
ian calypso sound, as well as a thriving disco
audience that supports nightclubs in cities like San José
. American and British rock and roll
and pop
are very popular and common among the youth (especially urban youth), while dance-oriented genres like soca
, salsa
, merengue
, cumbia
and Tex-Mex have an appeal among a somewhat older audience.
Mexican music
is very popular among older people and some people in the countryside. During the middle years of the 20th century, Costa Rica was exposed to much Mexican cultural influence.
Another new genre explored in Costa Rica is celtic with the group Peregrino Gris.
is a very popular instrument, and Costa Rican marimba music is very popular. In modern times, groups like Cantares have helped to popularize Costa Rican folk music, and were a leading part of the New Costa Rican Song movement http://www.lafi.org/magazine/articles/cantares.html.
Costa Rica's pre-Columbian population has contributed a large part of the country's folk heritage, include rare musical scale
s, certain ceremonial songs and ocarina
s. The Guanacaste
region, in the Nicoya Peninsula
, is home to the best-known folk traditions. Along the Atlantic coast, the African musical
heritage is more pronounced, and Afro-Caribbean music
like rumba
, calypso
and reggae
are popular.
In most of Costa Rica, ancient instruments like ocarinas are being replaced by international instruments like accordion
s and guitar
s. There are still folk styles, even outside of Guanacaste, such as the Talamanca Canton's Danza de los Huelos and the Boruca people's Danza de los Diablitos
.
Guanacaste is the major center for Costa Rican folk music, especially pre-Columbian styles like the Danza del Sol and Danza de la Luna of the Chorotega
, who also popularized the ancient quijongo
(a single-string bow and gourd
resonator
) and native oboe
, the chirimia
http://www.photo.net/cr/moon/arts-and-culture.
Costa Rica's population never developed a major rhythm or style that became a major part of popular music, but there have been exceptions, such as the Costa Rican landscape school of painting in the 1920s. The Andean peña
tradition (an international gathering of like-minded persons) is strong in Costa Rica as well, introduced by immigrants from Chile
and Argentina
.
In the late 1980s some local artists and bands became famous for having their own style and original material, such as José Capmany
, Café con Leche
and Inconsciente Colectivo; some of them had fans from outside of Costa Rica, like Editus, a Grammy winning contemporary jazz ensemble. At around that time a popular Latin genre developed, chiqui-chiqui (a mixture of merengue
, cumbia
and other Latin rhythms along with afro-pop influences) as it was known, led by bands such as Los Hicsos and La Banda. After losing popularity around the 90's, chiqui chiqui has resurfaced and established itself as one of the most popular and recognizable music among Costa Ricans, thanks in part to the release of CD re-editions of many classic hits.
From the late 90's to present time, there has emerged a newer local rock style led by bands such as Gandhi
, Evolución
, Tango India, Suite Doble, Alma Bohemia, and Kadeho, all of which have been accepted positively by Costa Rican youths. There are Metal bands, like Grecco
, Arsenal, Advent of Bedlam, Slavon, Eternal, to name but a few.
The rock bands begins a new standard to CR's music with Time's Forgotten, The Last Void, Pneuma, Sight of Emptiness making really high albums and concerts.
The international community starts to take a look at Costa Rica where bands like Time's Forgotten plays in BajaProg (Rock Festival) and have several reviews in the best progressive magazines, sites, and radios. For example Dividing Line put the album "Dandelion" between the best 15 album in the 2009.
Fortunately, Costa Rica has become a centerfold for international Metal concerts. Bands such as Anthrax, Cannibal Corpse, Gamma Ray, Masterplan, Kreator, Epica, Therion and Sodom have come to play in the country. It became better with the coming of Iron Maiden back in 2008. With that concert, Costa Rica is now becoming an important stop for Metal bands. Examples of this are Metallica, Amon Amarth and Megadeth.
Also bands venturing into Reggae and Ska are popular, one example is Mekatelyu and Michael Livingston.
Malpaís, a band emerging from the Guanacaste-area, is one of the central bands of the Costa Rican rock and music scene of today, mixing traditional Costa Rican folk and Latin music with jazz
and rock and has met great success in Costa Rica and surrounding countries.
For all the fanfare of rock, electronic or world music, Latin music is somehow the most common music genre in some specific sectors, and visitors will find that most Costa Ricans of certain generations favor Latin music (Cuban, Mexican and Colombian).
in the 1970. "Concertina Ana Gabriela Castro-Rosabal" was the first 4 year old girl/ child/Costa Rican to direct the Youth Symphony Orchestra into tuning in its 1970 Debut, and first 4-year-old violin soloist to play Mozart under the direction of director Gerald Brown. Violinist Ana Gabriela Castro-Rosabal, master in violin performance was the key performer for the youth symphony orchestra Debut in 1970. "La niña violinista del Taburete" was how newspapers used to refer to 4-year old violin "Concertina Ana Gabriela Castro-Rosabal". This affectionate title, was given due to the fact, that she was so small, that she used a wooden box, made by her father Enrique, to rest her feet. The wooden box, became the "symbol" of how young this talented 4-year old violin concertina was.
Costa Ricans say, "Costa Rica does not have an army, but it has violins".
performing organizations include the Costa Rica
n National Symphony Orchestra (formed in 1970), which has been conducted by Americans Gerald Brown and Irwin Hoffman
, and currently by the Japanese music director, Chosei Komatsu
. The country is also home to an opera company, one of the first professional choirs in Central America, and a state-subsidized youth orchestra, which belongs to the National Symphony Orchestra. The Universidad de Costa Rica has a concert band and an orchestra, besides an early-music group and several chamber music groups. The National University
, Universidad Nacional, has a resident string quartet and a Symphony Orchestra which had its very successul premiere at the National Theatre in San José on May 10, 2007, conducted by Dieter Lehnhoff
. It has also a highly successful piano school led by the Russian virtuoso, Alexandr Sklioutovsky. Other well-known groups are the El Café Chorale
and the Sura Chamber Choir
http://www.photo.net/cr/moon/arts-and-culture and also the pianist Ismael Pacheco, who was the second Costa Rican pianist to have been performed at the prestigious Carnegie Hall
in 2001 and also at the Musikverein in 2007. http://www.myspace.com/izmaelpacheco.
Both the Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR), in San José, and the Universidad Nacional (UNA), in Heredia
, have well-structured programmes in Music, where students can pursue bachelor's degrees in instrumental and vocal performing, composition
, and conducting
. The latter also has a doctoral degree in Central American Arts and Letters, with an emphasis in Music.
Contemporary composers include Mario Alfagüell, Marvin Camacho, Alejandro Cardona, Bernal Flores, Benjamín Gutiérrez, Luis Diego Herra, and Eddie Mora, to name but a few.
Costa Rican folk institutions include the Fantasía Folklorica. Every August, Costa Rica is home to an International Festival of Music.
In recent years the government, led by the Ministerio de Cultura, has aimed to revitalize traditional Costa Rican music.
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
has many kinds of music.
| Music of Costa Rica Topics | ||
|---|---|---|
| Calypso Calypso music Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song... |
Rock Rock music Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music... |
|
| Soca Soca music Soca is a style of music from Trinidad and Tobago. Soca is a musical development of traditional Trinidadian calypso, through loans from the 1960s onwards from predominantly black popular music.... |
Rumba Cuban Rumba In Cuban music, Rumba is a generic term covering a variety of musical rhythms and associated dances. The rumba has its influences in the music brought to Cuba by Africans brought to Cuba as slaves as well as Spanish colonizers... |
|
| Reggaeton Reggaeton Reggaeton is a form of Puerto Rican and Latin American urban and Caribbean music. After its mainstream exposure in 2004, it spread to North American, European and Asian audiences. Reggaeton originated in Puerto Rico but is also has roots from Reggae en Español from Panama and Puerto Rico and... |
Hip hop Hip hop Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing... |
K-pop K-pop K-pop is a musical genre consisting of electropop, hip hop, pop, rock, and R&B music originating in South Korea... |
| Pop Pop music Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop... |
Cumbia Cumbia Cumbia is a music genre popular across Latin America. The cumbia originated in the Caribbean coast of Colombia, where it is associated with an eponymous dance and has since spread as far as Mexico and Argentina... |
|
| Merengue Merengue music Merengue is a type of music and dance from the Dominican Republic. It is popular in the Dominican Republic and all over Latin America. Its name is Spanish, taken from the name of the meringue, a dessert made from whipped egg whites and sugar... |
Salsa Salsa music Salsa music is a genre of music, generally defined as a modern style of playing Cuban Son, Son Montuno, and Guaracha with touches from other genres of music... |
|
| Bachata | Classical music Classical music Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times... |
|
| Tex-Mex Music of Mexico The music of Mexico is very diverse and features a wide range of different musical styles. It has been influenced by a variety of cultures, most notably indigenous Mexican and European, since the Late Middle Ages... |
Guanacaste Guanacaste Province Guanacaste is a province of Costa Rica located in the northwestern part of the country, along the coast of the Pacific Ocean. To the north it borders Nicaragua. To the east is the Alajuela Province, and to the southeast is the Puntarenas Province. It is the most sparsely populated of all the... |
|
| Marimba music Marimba The marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. It consists of a set of wooden keys or bars with resonators. The bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys ... |
Folklorico | |
| Afro-Caribbean music Afro-Caribbean music Afro-Caribbean music is a broad term for music styles originated in the Caribbean area, most notably music of Cuba, music of Puerto Rico, music of Haiti, music of Jamaica, music of The Bahamas, music of Belize, music of the Dominican Republic, music of Trinidad and Tobago, music of Venezuela, music... |
Metal Heavy metal music Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States... |
|
| Punk Punk rock Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock... |
Ska Ska Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues... |
|
| Timeline and Samples | ||
| Central American music | ||
| Belize Music of Belize The music of Belize has a mix of Kriol, Mestizo, Garifuna, and Maya influences. After many centuries of Maya habitation, British colonizers arrived in the area in the 17th century. Belize was Britain's only colony in Spanish-dominated Central America until self-government in 1964 and gaining full... - Costa Rica - El Salvador Music of El Salvador The music of El Salvador has a mixture of Mayan, African, Pipil and Spanish influences. This music includes religious songs used to celebrate Christmas and other holidays, especially feast days of the saints. Satirical and rural lyrical themes are common... - Guatemala Music of Guatemala The music of Guatemala is diverse. Music is played all over the country, even in the remotest corners. Towns also have wind and percussion bands -week processions, as well as on other occasions. The Garifuna people of Afro-Caribbean descent, who are spread thinly on the northeastern Caribbean... - Honduras Music of Honduras The music of Honduras is very varied, Punta is the main "ritmo" de Honduras, to Caribbean music like salsa, merengue, reggae, and reggaeton all widely heard especially in the North, to Mexican rancheras heard in the interior, rural part of the country... - Nicaragua Music of Nicaragua Music of Nicaragua is a mixture of indigenous and European, especially Spanish, influences. Musical instruments include the marimba and others that are common across Central America... - Panama Music of Panama Panama is a Central American country, inhabited mostly by mestizos . The music of Panama was influenced first by the indigenous populations of Kunas, Teribes, Nobe Bugle and others, and then by the black population who were brought over, first as slaves from Africa, and also Colombia between the... |
||
Though its music has achieved little international credit, Costa Rican popular music genres include: an indigenous calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
scene which is distinct from the more widely-known Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
ian calypso sound, as well as a thriving disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
audience that supports nightclubs in cities like San José
San José, Costa Rica
San José is the capital and largest city of Costa Rica. Located in the Central Valley, San José is the seat of national government, the focal point of political and economic activity, and the major transportation hub of this Central American nation.Founded in 1738 by order of Cabildo de León, San...
. American and British rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
and pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
are very popular and common among the youth (especially urban youth), while dance-oriented genres like soca
Soca music
Soca is a style of music from Trinidad and Tobago. Soca is a musical development of traditional Trinidadian calypso, through loans from the 1960s onwards from predominantly black popular music....
, salsa
Salsa music
Salsa music is a genre of music, generally defined as a modern style of playing Cuban Son, Son Montuno, and Guaracha with touches from other genres of music...
, merengue
Merengue music
Merengue is a type of music and dance from the Dominican Republic. It is popular in the Dominican Republic and all over Latin America. Its name is Spanish, taken from the name of the meringue, a dessert made from whipped egg whites and sugar...
, cumbia
Cumbia
Cumbia is a music genre popular across Latin America. The cumbia originated in the Caribbean coast of Colombia, where it is associated with an eponymous dance and has since spread as far as Mexico and Argentina...
and Tex-Mex have an appeal among a somewhat older audience.
Mexican music
Music of Mexico
The music of Mexico is very diverse and features a wide range of different musical styles. It has been influenced by a variety of cultures, most notably indigenous Mexican and European, since the Late Middle Ages...
is very popular among older people and some people in the countryside. During the middle years of the 20th century, Costa Rica was exposed to much Mexican cultural influence.
Another new genre explored in Costa Rica is celtic with the group Peregrino Gris.
Folk Music
The Caribbean coast shows a strong African influence in the complex percussion rhythms like sinkit. Like its northerly neighbors in Central America, the marimbaMarimba
The marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. It consists of a set of wooden keys or bars with resonators. The bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys ...
is a very popular instrument, and Costa Rican marimba music is very popular. In modern times, groups like Cantares have helped to popularize Costa Rican folk music, and were a leading part of the New Costa Rican Song movement http://www.lafi.org/magazine/articles/cantares.html.
Costa Rica's pre-Columbian population has contributed a large part of the country's folk heritage, include rare musical scale
Musical scale
In music, a scale is a sequence of musical notes in ascending and descending order. Most commonly, especially in the context of the common practice period, the notes of a scale will belong to a single key, thus providing material for or being used to conveniently represent part or all of a musical...
s, certain ceremonial songs and ocarina
Ocarina
The ocarina is an ancient flute-like wind instrument. Variations do exist, but a typical ocarina is an enclosed space with four to twelve finger holes and a mouthpiece that projects from the body...
s. The Guanacaste
Guanacaste Province
Guanacaste is a province of Costa Rica located in the northwestern part of the country, along the coast of the Pacific Ocean. To the north it borders Nicaragua. To the east is the Alajuela Province, and to the southeast is the Puntarenas Province. It is the most sparsely populated of all the...
region, in the Nicoya Peninsula
Nicoya Peninsula
The Nicoya Peninsula is a peninsula on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica and lies in the Guanacaste Province in the north, and the Puntarenas Province in the south. It is located at . It varies from 19 to wide and is approximately long, and forms the largest peninsula in the country. It is known...
, is home to the best-known folk traditions. Along the Atlantic coast, the African musical
Music of Africa
Africa is a vast continent and its regions and nations have distinct musical traditions. The music of North Africa for the most part has a different history from sub-Saharan African music traditions....
heritage is more pronounced, and Afro-Caribbean music
Afro-Caribbean music
Afro-Caribbean music is a broad term for music styles originated in the Caribbean area, most notably music of Cuba, music of Puerto Rico, music of Haiti, music of Jamaica, music of The Bahamas, music of Belize, music of the Dominican Republic, music of Trinidad and Tobago, music of Venezuela, music...
like rumba
Cuban Rumba
In Cuban music, Rumba is a generic term covering a variety of musical rhythms and associated dances. The rumba has its influences in the music brought to Cuba by Africans brought to Cuba as slaves as well as Spanish colonizers...
, calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
and reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
are popular.
In most of Costa Rica, ancient instruments like ocarinas are being replaced by international instruments like accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
s and guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
s. There are still folk styles, even outside of Guanacaste, such as the Talamanca Canton's Danza de los Huelos and the Boruca people's Danza de los Diablitos
Danza de los Diablitos
Danza de los Diablitos is a three day annual festival, held December 31 through January 2 by the Boruca people, indigenous people in Costa Rica. The male participants of the tribe perform a ritual dance re-enacting the Spanish conquest wearing elaborate costumes. The most important part of the...
.
Guanacaste is the major center for Costa Rican folk music, especially pre-Columbian styles like the Danza del Sol and Danza de la Luna of the Chorotega
Chorotega
Chorotega, also known as Mangue, was a language indigenous people of Honduras, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. The ethnic population number around 10,000. The Chorotega language, which was a member of the Manguean branch of the Oto-Manguean language family, is now extinct...
, who also popularized the ancient quijongo
Quijongo
The quijongo is a type of musical bow used by the indigenous peoples of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. In some countries, such as El Salvador, it is known as the carimba. It was probably used by the indigenous Chorotega people of Nicoya....
(a single-string bow and gourd
Gourd
A gourd is a plant of the family Cucurbitaceae. Gourd is occasionally used to describe crops like cucumbers, squash, luffas, and melons. The term 'gourd' however, can more specifically, refer to the plants of the two Cucurbitaceae genera Lagenaria and Cucurbita or also to their hollow dried out shell...
resonator
Resonator
A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance or resonant behavior, that is, it naturally oscillates at some frequencies, called its resonant frequencies, with greater amplitude than at others. The oscillations in a resonator can be either electromagnetic or mechanical...
) and native oboe
Oboe
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
, the chirimia
Chirimia
Chirimía is a Spanish term for a type of oboe, and in English is used to refer to various primitive oboes found in Latin America, based on instruments introduced during Spanish colonization.-Distribution:...
http://www.photo.net/cr/moon/arts-and-culture.
Costa Rica's population never developed a major rhythm or style that became a major part of popular music, but there have been exceptions, such as the Costa Rican landscape school of painting in the 1920s. The Andean peña
Peña
Peña, meaning "rocky outcrop" or "rocky summit" in the Spanish language , may refer to:-Mountains:*Peña Montañesa, a mountain in the Pre-Pyrenees, Aragon, Spain*Peña de los Enamorados, a mountain near Antequera, Andalusia, Spain...
tradition (an international gathering of like-minded persons) is strong in Costa Rica as well, introduced by immigrants from Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
and Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
.
In the late 1980s some local artists and bands became famous for having their own style and original material, such as José Capmany
José Capmany
José Capmany was a Costa Rican songwriter and guitarist. Along with Enrique Ramírez, he was a founder of the band "Café con Leche", a popular rock band in Costa Rica in the late 1980s. His latest release "Canciones Cotidianas" included a compilation of his work...
, Café con Leche
Café con leche
Café con leche is a Spanish coffee beverage. More similar to the Italian caffe latte than to the French café au lait, café con leche is a coffee beverage consisting of strong or bold coffee mixed with scalded milk in approximately a 1:1 ratio...
and Inconsciente Colectivo; some of them had fans from outside of Costa Rica, like Editus, a Grammy winning contemporary jazz ensemble. At around that time a popular Latin genre developed, chiqui-chiqui (a mixture of merengue
Merengue music
Merengue is a type of music and dance from the Dominican Republic. It is popular in the Dominican Republic and all over Latin America. Its name is Spanish, taken from the name of the meringue, a dessert made from whipped egg whites and sugar...
, cumbia
Cumbia
Cumbia is a music genre popular across Latin America. The cumbia originated in the Caribbean coast of Colombia, where it is associated with an eponymous dance and has since spread as far as Mexico and Argentina...
and other Latin rhythms along with afro-pop influences) as it was known, led by bands such as Los Hicsos and La Banda. After losing popularity around the 90's, chiqui chiqui has resurfaced and established itself as one of the most popular and recognizable music among Costa Ricans, thanks in part to the release of CD re-editions of many classic hits.
From the late 90's to present time, there has emerged a newer local rock style led by bands such as Gandhi
Gandhi (Costa Rica)
Gandhi is a Costa Rican rock band formed by Luis Montalbert-Smith , Federico Miranda , Abel Guier and Massimo Hernández . Inspired by British groups such as Pink Floyd, Queen, and The Beatles, and Latin American bands Soda Stereo and Caifanes...
, Evolución
Evolución
Evolución, a band that hails from San José, Costa Rica, started out in 1997. Their members originated in the underground alternative rock movement that struck the country in the early 90's. They released "Musica para Sentir" their first album and quickly caught on to the local rock festivals...
, Tango India, Suite Doble, Alma Bohemia, and Kadeho, all of which have been accepted positively by Costa Rican youths. There are Metal bands, like Grecco
Grecco
Grecco is a town in the Río Negro Department of Uruguay. It is located south of Route 20 and about east of the junction of Route 20 with Route 4. Its status was elevated to "Pueblo" category on 17 November 1964 by decree Ley No. 13.299.-Population:...
, Arsenal, Advent of Bedlam, Slavon, Eternal, to name but a few.
The rock bands begins a new standard to CR's music with Time's Forgotten, The Last Void, Pneuma, Sight of Emptiness making really high albums and concerts.
The international community starts to take a look at Costa Rica where bands like Time's Forgotten plays in BajaProg (Rock Festival) and have several reviews in the best progressive magazines, sites, and radios. For example Dividing Line put the album "Dandelion" between the best 15 album in the 2009.
Fortunately, Costa Rica has become a centerfold for international Metal concerts. Bands such as Anthrax, Cannibal Corpse, Gamma Ray, Masterplan, Kreator, Epica, Therion and Sodom have come to play in the country. It became better with the coming of Iron Maiden back in 2008. With that concert, Costa Rica is now becoming an important stop for Metal bands. Examples of this are Metallica, Amon Amarth and Megadeth.
Also bands venturing into Reggae and Ska are popular, one example is Mekatelyu and Michael Livingston.
Malpaís, a band emerging from the Guanacaste-area, is one of the central bands of the Costa Rican rock and music scene of today, mixing traditional Costa Rican folk and Latin music with jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and rock and has met great success in Costa Rica and surrounding countries.
For all the fanfare of rock, electronic or world music, Latin music is somehow the most common music genre in some specific sectors, and visitors will find that most Costa Ricans of certain generations favor Latin music (Cuban, Mexican and Colombian).
Classical music
Costa Rica also has a youth symphony orchestra, founded by ex-President Jose Figueres FerrerJosé Figueres Ferrer
José María Hipólito Figueres Ferrer , served as President of Costa Rica on three occasions:1948–1949, 1953–1958, and 1970–1974....
in the 1970. "Concertina Ana Gabriela Castro-Rosabal" was the first 4 year old girl/ child/Costa Rican to direct the Youth Symphony Orchestra into tuning in its 1970 Debut, and first 4-year-old violin soloist to play Mozart under the direction of director Gerald Brown. Violinist Ana Gabriela Castro-Rosabal, master in violin performance was the key performer for the youth symphony orchestra Debut in 1970. "La niña violinista del Taburete" was how newspapers used to refer to 4-year old violin "Concertina Ana Gabriela Castro-Rosabal". This affectionate title, was given due to the fact, that she was so small, that she used a wooden box, made by her father Enrique, to rest her feet. The wooden box, became the "symbol" of how young this talented 4-year old violin concertina was.
Costa Ricans say, "Costa Rica does not have an army, but it has violins".
Music Institutions
Classical musicClassical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
performing organizations include the Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
n National Symphony Orchestra (formed in 1970), which has been conducted by Americans Gerald Brown and Irwin Hoffman
Irwin Hoffman
Irwin Hoffman is an American conductor, born in New York. He was a protege of Serge Koussevitsky. He conducted the Vancouver Symphony from 1952 to 1964, after which he became Associate Conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He was Acting Music Director of the Chicago Symphony for one...
, and currently by the Japanese music director, Chosei Komatsu
Chosei Komatsu
is a Japanese conductor who is currently in his seventh year as Artistic Director of Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica. Also, after five seasons as Music Director of Japan’s Central Aichi Symphony Orchestra, he recently assumed the title of Conductor Laureate.Komatsu previously held the...
. The country is also home to an opera company, one of the first professional choirs in Central America, and a state-subsidized youth orchestra, which belongs to the National Symphony Orchestra. The Universidad de Costa Rica has a concert band and an orchestra, besides an early-music group and several chamber music groups. The National University
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
, Universidad Nacional, has a resident string quartet and a Symphony Orchestra which had its very successul premiere at the National Theatre in San José on May 10, 2007, conducted by Dieter Lehnhoff
Dieter Lehnhoff
Dieter Lehnhoff is a composer, conductor, and musicologist.-Life:Born in Guatemala City to German settlers, 1955, Dieter Lehnhoff has been a pupil of Klaus Ager, Gerhard Wimberger, Josef Maria Horváth, and Dr. Friedrich C. Heller in Salzburg...
. It has also a highly successful piano school led by the Russian virtuoso, Alexandr Sklioutovsky. Other well-known groups are the El Café Chorale
El Café Chorale
El Café Chorale belongs to the Costa Rican Choral Institute and was founded in 1994, established as one of the most distinguished and worthy Choral Ensembles en all the Country....
and the Sura Chamber Choir
Sura Chamber Choir
Sura Chamber Choir is a musical institution from Costa Rica, regarded as one of the most promising choirs to have emerged from Central America, having participated in concerts all over the world....
http://www.photo.net/cr/moon/arts-and-culture and also the pianist Ismael Pacheco, who was the second Costa Rican pianist to have been performed at the prestigious Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
in 2001 and also at the Musikverein in 2007. http://www.myspace.com/izmaelpacheco.
Both the Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR), in San José, and the Universidad Nacional (UNA), in Heredia
Heredia, Costa Rica
Heredia is a city located in the Heredia province of Costa Rica and is the capital of that province. It is currently undergoing a rapid process of industrialization and is located 10 kilometers north of the country's capital, San José....
, have well-structured programmes in Music, where students can pursue bachelor's degrees in instrumental and vocal performing, composition
Musical composition
Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.- Musical compositions :...
, and conducting
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
. The latter also has a doctoral degree in Central American Arts and Letters, with an emphasis in Music.
Contemporary composers include Mario Alfagüell, Marvin Camacho, Alejandro Cardona, Bernal Flores, Benjamín Gutiérrez, Luis Diego Herra, and Eddie Mora, to name but a few.
Costa Rican folk institutions include the Fantasía Folklorica. Every August, Costa Rica is home to an International Festival of Music.
In recent years the government, led by the Ministerio de Cultura, has aimed to revitalize traditional Costa Rican music.
Articles
- [Campos Fonseca, Susan: “Historia compensatoria y Filosofía: Un caso centroamericano”, en BABAB, Nº33, verano, España, 2008, ISSN · 1575-9385. Disponible en: http://www.babab.com/no33/susan_campos.php]