It is estimated there were more than 2000 living languages in use across the two American continents as the European explorers began landing on New World soil. On this 2024 season of Momentos Musicales, marking Hispanic Heritage Month, we will explore a handful of the indigenous languages still in use while also giving attention to the songs and musical instruments spawned by Nahuatl, Quechua, Aymara, Guarani, and Yucatecan Maya.
Many of these indigenous languages are kept alive throughout the Americas by musical artists such as Los Folkloricos and Tlen Huicani, of Mexico; Quilapayún and Inti-Illimani, of Chile; and Markama, led by Quena specialist, Juan Lazaro Mendolas and his group, Markama, from Bolivia.
20th Century composers such as Heitor Villa-Lobos, Carlos Chavez, Silvestre Revueltas, Lalo Schifrin, and Alberto Ginastera borrowed from indigenous sources, creating a whole new universe of the amalgam of New World and Old World. Meanwhile, diligent academic research from Robert Stevenson and Malena Kuss shed light on the old while standing as guardians of the ancient languages which are so quickly eroding.
Listen for Momentos Musicales at 2 o'clock every weekday afternoon on KPAC's Classical Connections, from September 16 through October 11.
