| The African slave and mulatto population
(offspring of Spanish and African) grew rapidly in the first decades
of the sixteenth century. The 1531 census shows that 2,264 slaves
were living in Puerto Rico, while the Spanish population numbered
426 (Caro Costas, 32-33). Slaves and their descendants were found
in the cities and in the island settlements where they cultivated
the land, worked as domestic servants, and made up the workforce
of the sugar mills.
To familiarize yourself with the characteristics of African music
and to explore the roots of Caribbean/Puerto Rican music, visit
the following web site:
http://www.cnmat.berkeley.edu/~ladzekpo/PrinciplesFr.html
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Answer the questions below.
1. What is the importance of the drum in African music?
2. Discuss the concepts of polyrhythm and cross-rhythms. How do
they differ from the basic tenets of European music in colonial
times (1500s to 1800s)?
3. Discuss the cultural implications of polyrhythm and cross-rhythm.
What do they tell you about the worldview and philosophical outlook
of Africans?
4. How are these views adapted and conveyed by the slaves in their
new American environment and within the new culture forced upon
them?
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