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 Trinidadiancalypso sound, as well as a thriving disco audience that supports nightclubs in cities such as 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 including 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.
Folk Music
Costa Rican Dance Performance
The Caribbean coast shows a strong African influence in the complex percussion rhythms such as sinkit. Like its northerly neighbors in Central America, the marimba is a very popular instrument, and Costa Rican marimba music is very popular. In modern times, groups such as Cantares have helped to popularize Costa Rican folk music, and were a leading part of the New Costa Rican Song movement .
Costa Rica's pre-Columbian population has contributed a large part of the country's folk heritage, include rare musical scales, certain ceremonial songs and ocarinas. 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 including rumba, calypso and reggae are popular.
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, Distorsión, Café con Leche, Modelo Para Armar and Inconsciente Colectivo; some of them had fans from outside of Costa Rica, such as 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,Jaque Mate, La Pandylla, Manantial and La Banda with well-known classic hits such as La Avispa, El cangrejo, Julieta, El criticon, El hula hula etc.
After losing popularity around the 1990s, 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. Some examples of Costa Rican hits with Chiqui chiqui are:
Bands
Song
Year
La Banda
Avispa (Suavecito)
1978
Los Abejorros
La Fiesta
1982
La Banda
Panamá Me Tombé
1982
La Pandylla
A Comer Mamey
1985
Marfil
Menealo
1985
Jaque Mate
El Pipiribao
1985
Blanco Y Negro
El Güiri Güiri
1986
Jaque Mate
El Cangrejo
1986
Manantial
Julieta
1986
Marfil
Represento
1986
La Banda
La Pastilla Del Amor
1987
La Maffia
Con Medio Peso
1988
Los Alegrísimos
El Delicuente
1988
La Empresa
Latino Soy
-
Los Hicsos
El Hula Hula
-
From the late 1990s to the 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, including Grecco, Advent of Bedlam, Corpse Garden, Catarsis Incarne, Heresy, to name but a few.
The rock bands begins a new standard to CR's music with bands such as Time's Forgotten, Pneuma and Sight of Emptiness making really high albums and concerts. The international community starts to take a look at Costa Rica where bands such as 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.
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. Cantoamerica is a band led by Manuel Monestel that for many years has developed research and promotion of the music of the Costa Rican Caribbean coast. Calypso music and other caribbean sounds are included in the band´s repertoire. Cantoamerica has traveled all over the world as ambassador of Afro Costa Rican music.
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).
Costa Rica's music also includes hip hop,Reggae and electronic. Such artist as Sirius the Dogg Starr, Tiko305, Crypy 626, Huba, Toledo, Gtermis (Ragga by Roots), Charli VL, AXB, Bega, Tapon, shel, gonin, banton y ghetto, kike, Tinez, Original Warrior Street Reggae Artist, Poeta, Mr Pray, Jahricio, Rude Boy, Talawa Reggae Army. Hip hop, Reggae, electronic producers such as DJ P, Zion, Killa, aRNine, Chino Artavia, Rooper Francheschi, Kastro, Del Bloke, DJ Arturo morales, DJ Cole, DJ accion, DJ juan, DJ gerarld, DJ action, Marfil (group), moonlight dub (group) have a huge Hip Hop, Reggae, electronic influence in their music. Many of these artists have recorded and produced for local artists and international artists. Starting in the Mids 90s Costa Rican Hip Hop and Reggae culture has grown. Artist Tapon and group Ragga by Roots were the most famous artists in the late 90s with Hits such as "Creada a mi manera" by Tapon and "Sentimientos" by Ragga by Roots. DJ P working mainly on his mixtape and Toledo's CDs. Tiko has released 2 successful mixtapes, Tiko's Blood Vol. 1 and Tiko's Blood vol. 2.
Classical music
Costa Rica also has a youth symphony orchestra, founded by ex-President José Figueres Ferrer 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 girl was.
Music institutions
Classical music performing organizations include the Costa Rican National Symphony Orchestra (formed in 1970), which has been conducted by Americans Gerald Brown and Irwin Hoffman, followed by the Japanese Chosei Komatsu. In 2014, Carl. St. Clair assumed the position as music director . 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 successful 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 and also the pianist Ismael Pacheco, who was the first Costa Rican pianist to have been performed at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in 2001 and also at the Musikverein in 2007 .
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.
Related Research Articles
The music of Latin America refers to music originating from Latin America, namely the Romance-speaking regions of the Americas south of the United States. Latin American music also incorporate the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Due to its highly syncretic nature, Latin American music encompasses a wide variety of styles, including influential genres such as cumbia, bachata, bossa nova, merengue, rumba, salsa, samba, son, and tango. During the 20th century, many styles were influenced by the music of the United States giving rise to genres such as Latin pop, rock, jazz, hip hop, and reggaeton.
The music of Jamaica includes Jamaican folk music and many popular genres, such as mento, ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub music, dancehall, reggae fusion and related styles.
The music of Trinidad and Tobago is best known for its calypso music, soca music, chutney music, and steelpan. Calypso's internationally noted performances in the 1950s from native artists such as Lord Melody, Lord Kitchener and Mighty Sparrow. The art form was most popularised at that time by Harry Belafonte. Along with folk songs and African- and Indian-based classical forms, cross-cultural interactions have produced other indigenous forms of music including soca, rapso, parang, chutney, and other derivative and fusion styles. There are also local communities which practice and experiment with international classical and pop music, often fusing them with local steelpan instruments.
The Music of Puerto Rico has evolved as a heterogeneous and dynamic product of diverse cultural resources. The most conspicuous musical sources of Puerto Rico have primarily included African, Taino Indigenous, and European influences. Puerto Rican music culture today comprises a wide and rich variety of genres, ranging from essentially native genres such as bomba, jíbaro, seis, danza, and plena to more recent hybrid genres such as salsa, Latin trap and reggaeton. Broadly conceived, the realm of "Puerto Rican music" should naturally comprise the music culture of the millions of people of Puerto Rican descent who have lived in the United States, especially in New York City. Their music, from salsa to the boleros of Rafael Hernández, cannot be separated from the music culture of Puerto Rico itself.
Several styles of the traditional music of Venezuela, such as salsa and merengue, are common to its Caribbean neighbors. Perhaps the most typical Venezuelan music is joropo, a rural form which originated in the llanos, or plains.
Panama is a Central American country, inhabited mostly by mestizos. The music of Panama is heavily based on the folk music of Spain, particularly that of Andalusia and was influenced first by the indigenous populations of Kunas, Teribes, Ngobe Bugle and others, and then by the black population who were brought over, first as slaves from Africa, between the 16th century and the 19th century, and then voluntarily to work on the Panamanian Railroad and Canal projects between the 1840s and 1914.
The music of Barbados includes distinctive national styles of folk and popular music, including elements of Western classical and religious music. The culture of Barbados is a syncretic mix of African and British elements, and the island's music reflects this mix through song types and styles, instrumentation, dances, and aesthetic principles.
Portuguese music includes many different styles and genres, as a result of its history. These can be broadly divided into classical music, traditional/folk music and popular music and all of them have produced internationally successful acts, with the country seeing a recent expansion in musical styles, especially in popular music.
Music of Honduras is very varied. Punta is the main "ritmo" of Honduras with other music such as Paranda, Bachata, Caribbean salsa, cumbia, reggae, merengue, soca, calypso, dancehall, Reggaeton and most recently Afrobeats widely heard especially in the North the Department of Atlántida, to Mexican rancheras heard in the interior rural part of the country.
Liberia is a district and the largest city in the Guanacaste Province of Costa Rica, located 215 kilometres (134 mi) northwest of the national capital, San José. Part of the Liberia canton, it is a major center for the country's tourism industry.
The music of the Virgin Islands reflects long-standing West Indian cultural ties to the island nations to the south, the islands' African heritage and European colonial history, as well as recent North American influences. Though the United States Virgin Islands and British Virgin Islands are politically separate, they maintain close cultural ties. From its neighbors, the Virgin Islands has imported various pan-Caribbean genres of music, including calypso music and soca music from Trinidad and reggae from Jamaica.
There are several subgenres of reggae music including various predecessors to the form.
People from the Caribbean have made significant contributions to British Black music for many generations.
Deborah Nowalski Kader, better known by her stage name Debi Nova, born August 6, 1980, is a Costa Rican singer-songwriter that is widely considered to be the most successful Costa Rican artist in the country's history. Nova first started as a backing vocalist for Gandhi, one of Costa Rica's biggest and most-beloved rock bands of the '90s and '00s. Her international music career began when she became a backing vocalist for Sérgio Mendes and Ricky Martin. She then collaborated with multiple artists, including the Black Eyed Peas, Mark Ronson and Sean Paul, and wrote songs for Orishas and RBD.
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. Songs like "El Barco", "La Historia Salvaje". "La Modelo" and "Mamá y Papá" are considered folk rock music in Costa Rica. He died in a car accident on October 13, 2001.
Moonlight Dub Xperiment is a live dub band formed 2009 in San Jose, Costa Rica. Their music is in the Ethnic dub/world music genre which is similar to Kanka, Thievery Corporation, Lee Scratch Perry.
Benjamín Gutiérrez is a celebrated composer in Costa Rica. He is a conductor, composer, and pianist. Gutiérrez began by studying music with his grandmother, Rosa Jiménez Nuñez, daughter of the composer Pilar Jiménez.” Gutiérrez then studied music in Guatemala City, Boston, Ann Arbor, Aspen, and Buenos Aires. The following were several of his teachers: Ross Lee Finney, Darius Milhaud, and Alberto Ginastera. Gutiérrez has written music for piano, orchestra, violin, viola, clarinet, flute, saxophone, trombone quartet, bassoon quartet, marimba, opera, and several other instruments.
Guadalupe Urbina is a Costa Rican singer-songwriter, poet, and activist. Urbina is a folk musician whose compositions reflect the oral tradition of Guanacaste, her birthplace. She has performed in both Europe and the United States and has won various awards for her work domestically and internationally.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
