History

Native music.

Music has existed for millennia in South America, but like the native languages (Quechua being the most important), it was not written down. The instruments used by the native people were mainly wind and percussion instruments. Among them are the quena, zampoña, toyo, tarka, ocarina, pututo, bombo, seed rattles, and rainstick.

Vocal music has also been in existence since the 1500s. It was only with the arrival of the Spaniards that local music, either original works or transcriptions of older music, was written in musical notation.

Colonial music.

One of the earliest instrumental works that we can find was written by Baltasar Martínez y Compañón between 1783 and 1785. Martínez y Compañón not only notated music but also painted over 1000 folios depicting activities, costumes, and musical scenes of colonial South America. This treasure allows us a glimpse of life, musical and otherwise, during Spanish Colonial times. Other important composers during this period were Juan de Araujo (1646-1712) and Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco (1644-1728), who wrote the first opera in the New World, “La púrpura de la rosa.”