Music and dance have always been two of the most outstanding manifestations of our culture. Little is known of Puerto Rico’s pre-Columbian music. The Indians used to dance and sing to the beat of the areíto, under both cheerful and melancholy circumstances. They used to celebrate with this ceremonial dance any event that came about. During the 19th century, their peculiar attachment to dancing was still conserved; despite many prohibitions on public dancing and rehearsals made by the overbearing governors of the island. Seduced by the magic spell of dancing and singing, Puerto Rico, from its origin, excitedly devoted itself to the creative task, sometimes adopting and sometimes adapting things, and was able to mark its own identity in the musical forms that it inherited from Spain. It also took advantage of black rhythmic songs and dances. December 11, 1516 on the San Juan Ship, arrives on the island the silversmith Pury Díaz, who introduced the first Spanish guitar to the island of San Juan Bautista (St. John the Baptist). As the conquest was being carried out, the first Spaniards brought with them the romances and romancillos. Games and nursery rhymes, Christmas carols and other lyrical manifestations like capas and décimas (ten-line stanzas). Typical instruments –modified legacy of several cultures—show its attachment to the past: the güiro and the maracas (indigenous legacy), the bomba and the bongo (African legacy) and the guitar, a Spanish contribution. The peasants’ décimas remind us of the Spanish troubadours that improvise rhymes. The seis is a typical dance also inspired by a popular Spanish dance. The danza is a dance inspired by highbrow music, and oddly enough this is the music type Puerto Rican anthem falls under. The Bomba is a very spectacular typically African dance. The Plena, a music full of rhythm, most characteristic of Puerto Rico. One must not forget, either, a unique instrument that is characteristic of the island: the four-stringed guitar. Back in 1854 the Puerto Rican dance had reached a remarkable artistic development. In the initial period of its evolution (1855-1896) the danza was cultivated by Puerto Rican composers like Aurelio Dueño, Francisco Santaella, Julián Andino, Casimiro Dúchense and the brothers Federico and Heradio Ramos. The danza reaches in the hands of the San Juan composer Manuel Gregorio Tavarez (1843-1883) the stylistic mastery that it had not had in earlier times. Later on, Ponce’s Juan Morel Campos (1857-1896), wrote danzas mainly for orchestra. Other danza composers with an independent and varied style were José Quinton, Angel Mislan, Rafael Balseiro, Luis R. Miranda, Jesús Figueroa, among others. At the turn of the 19th century, Puerto Rico’s splendid musical development suffered a severe blow because of the immediate impact of the American invasion in 1898. Just as the 20th century started, a large part of the Puerto Rican society didn't hide its eagerness to harmonize the old musical tradition and the American fashion. As of the years 1927 through 1930, new kind of music, with a black accent, started to be heard: the plena, born in the slums. Also, by the same time, appeared Rafael Hernández's popular songs, melancholy, of telluric accent, filled with the native landscape. Without a doubt, one of the things for which Puerto Rico is better known beyond its borders is for the great number of musicians that have made famous the Caribbean salsa, which, in fact, arises as a combination of the music characteristic of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. The names of Bobby Capó or Tito Puente are unforgettable, along with those of young artists that stir up passions like Ricky Martin, Dany Rivera, Lucecita Benitez, Elvis Crespo or Marc Anthony, among many others.
