Traditional / folk music of Peru
When people talk about the music of South America, maybe the first thing that you remember is samba or bossa nova. Brazil, Colombia and Argentina maybe the first things comes to your mind about the music. But the truth is, folk music of Peru is un-ignorable. Just in the recent few years folk music of Peru has come to the attention of the world. The interesting part is many of folk Peruvian musicians are still working on their pure style, even those who are famous around the world, they keep their root and avoid western/commercialize type of music.
The same as most of folk and popular musics in South America, folk music of Peru has a strong bound to the dancing. Almost most of folk music genres in Peru, comes from a type of dance or accompanied by a dance. The number of genres and style is huge. It is a long list which is not possible to name all of them in a short page. Some of the most famous dances and also folk musics of Peru are: Huayno, Festejo, Tondero, Tuntuna, Inga. Here
you can read about some of the dances and a small description about each of them.
Música criolla (Criolla music)
During the 16th century and later, Peru was on of the most important part of Spanish Empire colonies and it was center of trading slaves. Spanish Empire transfer many tribes from West-Africa to Peru and separate members of the tribes to prevent revolution between them. They were forcing slaves and also indigenous people of Incas and also Quechua people to accept Spanish culture and language. So through the centuries a new culture which is mixture of Afro, Indigenous and Spanish culture born. Criolla refer to the Afro Peruvian folk music which comes originally from this amazing culture. Many of the rhythms and dances mentioned above are part of criolla. So in fact criolla is included of many sub-genres. So when you listen to most of folk musics from Peru, specially criolla generes, you can feel all these cultures and musics at the same time.
Huayno is a type of folk music and dance which born in Andean mountains of Peru. It is also popular in other Andean countries like Ecuador and Bolivia too but Peru is the main land for it. It is used in many ethnic group specially between Quechua people. There are/were many famous artists sing or compose huayno folk music. Some of notable huayno musicians are Pastorita Huaracina, El Jilguero de Huascarán, La Pallasquinita, Amanda Portales. Huayno in Peru is more based on violin while in Bolivia it is more charango and wind instrument centric.
This type of folk music in Peru, is the most popular music and dance in Peru. There are different genre for it, like norteña and limeña. Marinera norteña is the most famous one and can be called as national dance in Peru. The dance is done by couples with using of handkerchiefs.
This type of folk music and dance is also very popular in Peru and it's a type of music from Afro-Peruvians in the coast. The origin of the music is from 17th century and the slaves who brought to Peru to work in the mines or agriculture tasks. Today it is not just popular between Afro Peruvian but also uses by many people. It is a dance and music of young couples in festivals and social events. The dance is erotic and energetic and full of gestures.
Some of the instruments which is used in folk music of Peru are (of course other than guitar): charango and it's variations (mini string instrument similar to guitar), cajon (percussion instrument), Jawbone (percussion instrument and it is used in Afro music in Peru. It is made by teeth of animals ), ocarina and waqra phuku (wind instruments), harp, violin, accordion, ..
The list of folk music and also dances in Peru is huge, here we just mentioned few of them, on the list below you can listen to some of these traditional music and genres.
If you have some information about the folk and traditional music in Peru please send us through contact us page or put a comment on each song page. Even a single phrase will help us. Also if you know some songs in each dance or folk music style from Peru, please kindly introduce it to us.
Traditional / folk songs for Peru
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