Traditional music and dance
In a way, Peruvian music is older than Peru itself. This is borne out by the discovery of prehistoric instruments that tell of music being played in these lands 10,000 years ago. Among them, quenas (flutes), zampoñas (panpipes), pututos (shell trumpets) and a wide variety of wind instruments made from sugar cane, bones, mud, horns and metals tell of the ingenuity of the first Andean artists.
Along with Bolivia, Peru is the stronghold of what is commonly referred to as "Andean music" - those original pre-Hispanic songs and melodies that fused over time with Spanish music. However, it would be more accurate to speak of music and dance, in the plural, such is the richness of the field. Throughout the Peruvian Andes, there are thought to be several thousand regional variants. But on a national scale, the most popular traditional Andean genre is unquestionably the huayno . Highly prized by the Quechua people - but appreciated throughout the country - it is recognizable by its fiery rhythm and piercing vocals. Generally played in groups of accordions, guitars, harp, saxophone, brass and even flutes (like the sikus) during festivities, the genre has seen some emblematic artists such as Leonila Martina Portocarrero Ramos, also a researcher in Andean culture, Dina Páucar, one of the best record sellers, Raúl García Zárate, the great national guitarist, and Sonia Morales. In terms of choreography, the huayno is danced in couples, with agile stomping and joyful, facetious movements.
In addition to this emblematic aesthetic, Peru has many other traditional musics and dances, specific to each region. The west coast is home to música criolla, a large musical family combining European, African and Andean influences. One of the most representative genres of this branch is the Peruvian waltz (also known as vals criollo), a cousin of the Viennese waltz, faster and more rhythmic, a veritable explosion of joy. Another great criolla expression is the marinera. With its African origins and later Indian and mixed influences, it has become Peru's national dance. Performed in couples, with gracefully handled scarves, it mimics, like a dance theater, a nuptial parade, set to the rhythm of percussion. There are several forms: the marinera criolla (Creole) or de Lima, the elegant marinera norteña, more alert and sensual, and the marinera del sur, more sentimental and austere. To see and dance it, a good opportunity is to go to the National Marinera Competition held every year at the beginning of the year in Trujillo. The ancestor of the marinera, the zamacueca is a rhythmic, seductive Creole song and dance from Lima. Like the marinera, other dances from the same region are also syntheses of African, indigenous and Spanish roots: the festejo, a sensual courtship dance, full of jerky, vigorous movements, marked by powerful percussion; the tondero, close to the marinera, whose frenzied rhythm draws its choreography from cockfights; and finally, the lando, of Angolan origin and a possible ancestor of the zamacueca.
Heading further south in the country, we cross the Sierra, a mountainous region as rich in beautiful landscapes as it is in musical traditions. The huaylarsh, a lively dance and music linked to agricultural work, can be heard here. This region is also home to the tunantada, Jauja's emblematic masked dance, which satirizes the colonial society of yesteryear. Still satirizing, in the Junín region you can dance the chonguinada, an elegant choreography mocking the minuet danced in the bourgeois salons of the Spanish colonists. In the same region, it's not uncommon to see a muliza, a dance invented by donkey drivers and inspired by the mule step. Less visible is the cachua, a dance performed in the round. That said, none of these dances is as popular as the danza de las tijeras, the famous "scissors dance". The reason it's so famous is undoubtedly because the immense physical skill displayed by the danzaq, the participants in the ritual, is sensational. A fusion of Hispanic and Andean cultures, this dance pushes its participants to multiply their acrobatics while passing "tests" such as eating insects, garter snakes or toads, sliding a sword through the areopagus, and so on. A Peruvian treasure, the scissors dance was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2010.
In the Altiplano, in the heart of the Andes mountain range, the high altitude has not dampened the local culture, and there are many traditions unique to the region. Starting with the diablada, one of Peru's most colorful and spectacular dances. To the sound of the sikú or zampoña, masked dancers in sumptuous costumes embroidered in gold and silver dance a representation of good and evil. This is particularly visible during the Virgen de la Candelaria festival in Puno in February. In Huancayo, one of the most popular dances is El Santiago. It is performed during cattle branding ceremonies or for herd fertility rituals. Usually performed by young women, the songs are simple and moving. Also inspired by the animal world, the llamerada is a common sight in the same region. In this dance, the performers imitate the llama's swaying step and the herders' march through the winding paths of the land. Another important dance of the region is the morenada. Although particularly representative of Bolivian culture, the morenada is very common in the Peruvian Altiplano region. Dating back to colonial times, it mimics African dances imported by slaves. Other noteworthy traditions include El Sikuri, a martial dance encircling and accompanying a group of siku (traditional panpipes) players, and el kajelo, a dance of love. It's also impossible not to mention el harawi, a melancholy, non-danceable indigenous musical theme and lyrical poem with origins in pre-Columbian times. Accompanied by the charango, mandolin and quena, this music can also be recognized by the frequent silences punctuating the melody.
As for the Selva, the region may be sparsely populated, but the music still resonates. Here, in the rainforest, it has even preserved its original purity. It uses percussion instruments such as the manguare, a large wooden drum made from a tubular trunk. If you want to get your fill of traditional Peruvian music before or after a trip to the region, we recommend watching Javier Corcuera's documentary Sigo Siendo, a true tribute to national folklore, featuring local figures such as Susana Baca, the iconic singer of Afro-Peruvian music, and Jaime Guardia, the local charango master and a great name in traditional Andean music. Otherwise, there's no shortage of local events to caress traditional Peruvian music, such as the Fiesta de La Virgen Del Carmen in Paucartambo, south of Cusco, a festival where a wide range of dances come together, and Arequipa's anniversary dance festival on the Misti.
Popular music
Flamboyantly emblematic of Peru, Yma Sumac is without doubt the most popular Peruvian artist of all time. A mythical diva, this five-octave soprano't career exploded in the 1950s when she signed with the American label Capitol Records. From then on, she played everywhere, dazzling crowds with her exceptional vocal abilities, giving the mambo its golden letters and remaining, far from the portrait of exotic Castafiore that people sometimes try to paint of her, the " nightingale of the Andes ".
Beyond this icon, the most popular music in Peru is cumbia. Here, the Colombian genre is doing very well and has found a local translation, chicha, a mix of rock (often psychedelic), huayno and original Colombian cumbia. Feel like dancing cumbia or chicha? In Lima, there's no better place to go than La Casona de Camana, where you can dance the night away, and La Emolienteria, where you can eat as well as have fun.
Classical music
Unsurprisingly, it was during the colonial period that musical activity in Peru began to intensify. The Spaniards brought Baroque music with them, and a few musicians began to make their mark locally, such as the Spaniard Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco (1644-1728), who in 1701 composed La Púrpura De La Rosa, the first opera written and performed on the American continent. After Independence (1821), José Bernardo Alcedo made a name for himself by composing the current national anthem. This was later restored (in 1869) by the Italian-Peruvian composer Claudio Rebagliati, another great name in 19th-century Peruvian music. By inviting Peruvian folklore and popular tunes into classical music, the composer established himself as one of the forerunners of musical nationalism in the country. In fact, the latter movement spawned some of the most important composers of the first half of the 20th century, such as Ernesto Lopez Mindreau (1892-1972), Carlos Valderrama Herrera (1887-1950), Theodoro Valcárcel (1902-1942) and Roberto Carpio (1900-1986), each of whom, in their own way, composed art music influenced by Peruvian folklore or Andean music. To get an idea of the form these compositions took, it's worth remembering that it was at this time (1913) thatEl condor pasa, the ultra-famous zarzuela, was composed by composer Daniel Alomía Robles (1871-1942).
As in many other countries, the 20th century brought a wind of modernity to Peruvian composition, with atonal music and dodecaphony having a huge influence on local creation. This was particularly true of Rodolfo Holzmann (1910-1992) and André Sas (1900-1967), German and French musicians respectively, who settled in Peru and became national references. In the 1950s, their interest in these new compositional techniques gave rise to a new wave of composers combining modernity and Peruvian traditions, such as Enrique Iturriaga Romero (1918-2019), José Malsio (1924-2007), Enrique Pinilla Sánchez-Concha (1927-1989), Celso Garrido Lecca, Francisco Vidal Pulgar (1929-2012) and the hyper-prolific and revered Edgar Valcárcel (1932-2010).
An avant-garde spirit perpetuated in the 1980s and 1990s by Alejandro Núñez Allauca, working somewhere between neo-indigenism and (what he described as) "pointillist atonalism", José Sosaya, trained in France by Yoshihisa Taira, and the prolific and award-winning Miguel Oblitas Bustamante. In recent years, numerous young talents have emerged, many of them grouped around the Cercle de Composition du Pérou(Circomper), a group seeking to promote contemporary classical creation in Peru. Some of them, such as pianist Jimmy Lopez, violinist Clara Petrozzi, Jorge Villavicencio Grossmann, Rajmil Fischman and Pedro Malpica, have acquired international reputations.
Many of the names mentioned in this paragraph have been played by (or with) the National Symphony Orchestra. Since its first concert in 1938, the ensemble has performed at Lima's Teatro Municipal, before finding a suitable new home in the Gran Teatro Nacional. Inaugurated in 2013, this modern building hosts the city's finest dance, classical music and folk shows. It's also worth noting that, while the country doesn't have a long tradition of opera, it has nonetheless seen the birth of some famous tenors, such as Luigi Alva, who has performed on all the world's greatest stages, Ernesto Palacio, very much at home with Mozart and Rossini, and Juan Diego Flórez, one of the most appreciated voices in bel canto. A country to be seen and heard!
