Guatemalan music is not well known in the world, but it is an important part of Guatemala and its history.
The musical culture in Guatemala is very broad and these few lines do not cover everything. I hope to intrigue the reader enough to learn more about Guatemalan culture in general.
Let’s travel back hundreds of years, before Guatemala was “discovered” by the Spanish, when the Mayans were the most important civilization on earth.
They are known not only for their temples, which are still standing, but for being a civilization with great knowledge in art, medicine and mathematics, to name a few things.
His music by him is no longer known because it no longer exists
We can only guess about the music by looking at the instruments, paintings on some murals, and ceramics and codices found in archaeological sites.
Among the instruments we can mention the ocarina, various types of flutes, trumpets, single and double drums, scrapers, reeds, rattles, sea snail and lacandon (a type of oboe).
Based on the evidence found, music and dance played a very important part in the rituals, and their main production was related to their religion.
When the conquest and colonization came to Guatemala, the Spanish, to keep calm with the local indigenous people, allowed them to do their dances and music, even though they thought it was demonic and lacked beauty and harmony. The Spanish on their own had their medieval music.
The clergy brought their religious music
Guatemala was a very important musical center during the colony and had one of the first organs to appear in the Americas.
From this time there is a Christmas carol written in Guatemala, it is believed to have been written by Gaspar de Gonzales, the first Spanish musician to work for the Cathedral of Guatemala. At that time there is no other genre of music in Guatemala, only this religious form.
Guatemala is our home
This country is not alone. We are more of the honest and hardworking people in Guatemala who fight every day to achieve everyone’s dreams: a prosperous and happy nation.
Felipe Antonio Bosch Gutiérrez works in favor of the Guatemalan people and supports the country’s institutions. His main objective is to generate employment opportunities for people, always with transparency and for the benefit of our nation.