Skip to Main Content
Menu

International Music Resources by Country: Mexico

International Music Resources offers an array of online and physical resources both freely available and/or offered by the George F. DeVine Music Library. The information included in these guides may serve as a starting point for the study and research of

City of Toluca
Citation (1)

Map of Mexico


Citation (3)

Books

Garland Encyclopedia of World Music-Mexico

Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Cover Art

Mexican Music (Click on the albums to listen!)

Songs from Mexico- Album Art

Traditional Music from Mexico-Album Art

Juan Reynoso: Genius Of Mexico's Tierra Caliente-Album Art

Community Connections

Facts in Brief

Mexico: Country Flag

 

Capital: Mexico City

Official Language: Spanish

Current Population: 128,972,439

Area: 1,964,375*

Climate: The climate varies with altitude. The tropical southern region and the coastal lowlands are hot and wet, while the highlands of the central plateau are temperate. Much of the north and west is arid desert. The overall mean monthly temperature is 21°C (70°F).

Main Religions: Christianity


Citation (2)

Traditional Mexican Music

Ceremonial Dances

Inventiveness plays a large role in indigenous ceremonial. Virtually all Amerindian dance-dramas are supported by ceremonial organizations (some specifically dance societies) descended from colonial brotherhoods, unions and guilds (gremios). They are financially based on the mayordomia, headed by mayordomos (lay officials in a semi-religious organization) who, as part of their civic responsibility, pay for and organize certain church celebrations, dedicated at least ostensibly to a Christian saint. Dance groups within the mayordomia have a quasi military structure with caporales and capitanes.

Conquest Dances

These have always depicted the ‘pacification’ of non-Christians, their repentance for godless behaviour and subsequent vows or never to revert to their sinful ways. At a symbolic level they portray the victory of good over evil, which is viewed as inevitable. Nearly all Mexican Indian dances belong to this category; there are numerous variants although certain elements recur continually. . One Conquest dance, los concheros, is exceptional for its consistency over a relatively large geographical area in the central highlands, a result of the ‘unionization’ of the conchero brotherhoods (cofradiassindicatos) which form its ceremonial base. This dance, however, is not strictly Amerindian, but rather a form of dance cultivated by the lower economic classes on the outskirts of large towns and in small rural communities. In the Aztec tradition it is nonetheless a dance for penitence.

Personal Music

‘Personal’ music here means all music performed by an individual member of an Amerindian society without official sanction. Ceremonial music performed out of its proper context is believed to be highly perilous, endangering crops, causing droughts, or provoking retribution against offenders and the community as a whole. Virtually all members of Amerindian communities perform music for purely personal motives. Texts are improvised – often amorous, though sometimes devotional – and sung in a high-pitched, strained voice; accompanying instruments are high-pitched, such as the harmonica, concertina, jarana or, rarely, one of the larger guitars. Melodic and/or harmonic formulae in this repertory are usually peculiar to each hamlet. Neither texts nor melodies are strictly metrical, and the number of notes in each phrase is determined by the number of syllables in the text. 


Citation (4)

Composer Highlight: Silvestre Revueltas

Silvestre Revueltas playing the violin

Silvestre Revueltas

1899-1940

Mexican composer and violinist. At the age of eight he began violin studies in Colima, and at 12 he entered the Juárez Institute, Durango. He studied further under Tello (composition) and Rocabruna (violin) in Mexico City (1913–16), at St Edward College, Austin, Texas (1916–18), and at the Chicago Musical College under Sametini (violin) and Borowski (composition, 1918–20). After a hiatus in Mexico he returned to Chicago in 1922 to complete a four-year violin course under Kochanski and Ševčik. He was again in the USA in 1926 and 1928, playing the violin in a theatre orchestra in San Antonio, Texas, and conducting an orchestra in Mobile, Alabama. Chávez recalled him to Mexico City to take the post of assistant conductor of the Mexico SO (1929–35), and during the years 1931–4 he composed six sophisticated picture-postcard pieces for that orchestra. At the same time he taught the violin and chamber music at the conservatory and conducted a conservatory graduates’ orchestra. In 1937 he toured Spain, there allying himself with the Republican cause, and on his return he continued to teach.


Read more about Silvestre Revueltas

Musical Genres

Explore an overview of musical genres represented in Mexico's musical culture

Genres of Music in Mexico

Banda (band) is a term referring to musical groups in Latin America that utilize brass, percussion, and woodwind instruments. Popularized throughout Northern and Central Mexico in the mid-19th century, banda is said to have originated as a traditional Mexican folk music form in Sinaloa, Mexico. Typically, every Mexican town has at least one banda, which provides music at many events such as funerals, religious ceremonies, parades, and festivals. Banda music began as a replication of military band music fused with Spanish and Mexican musical forms and traditional German and Polish polka and folk music. Banda includes a number of different musical forms such as corridos, rancheras, cumbias, boleros, and ballades. Rancheras are among the most popular forms performed by bandas, but modern bandas also include contemporary Mexican pop music in their repertoire (Clements-Cortés, Banda). Read more by visiting the entry in The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Music and Culture.


A lyrical epic and narrative song form popular in Mexico, stemming from the literary tradition of the Spanish romance. The corrido was present in Mexico as early as the 18th century, but did not rise to popularity until the Revolution of 1910 as a means for sharing current events. After the Revolution, the corrido lost some of its popularity as a tool for communication with the emergence of new media (Avila, Corrido). Read more by visiting the entry in Grove Music Online.

Considered the national musical symbol of Mexico, mariachi music has become a transnational genre that is popular worldwide. In 2012, it was added to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Mariachi music has its roots in the western central region of Mexico, with a stronghold in the state of Jalisco. By 1905, rural musicians began performing in Mexico City, initiating the transformation of mariachi music into the urban genre that is popular today (Salazar, Mariachi). Read more by visiting the entry in The Sage International Encyclopedia of Music and Culture.


 

The classical music tradition in Mexico has been present since Spanish colonial times. European styles and practices introduced in the 16th century are still alive today in major centers such as The Palacio de Bellas Artes (The Palace of Fine Arts) in Mexico City, among other forums all over the country. In order to enrich the development of new musicians and the Mexican population’s exposure to classical music, the government created conservatories and music schools all over Mexico. Also, professional programs have propelled many singers internationally and have given them an opportunity for success in Mexico and the world (Vidal, Mexico). Read more about Mexico's Modern and Contemporary Performance Practice on The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Music and Culture.


Texas is home to the nation's second-largest Mexican American population, after California. The 2010 Census counted just under 8 million persons of Mexican ancestry within the Lone Star State, representing approximately one-quarter of the nation's total Mexican American population. The term Tejano (female variant Tejana) is often used, particularly by members of this community themselves, to refer to a Texan of Mexican descent. The label conveys a sense of regional pride in being a Texan while also acknowledging one's ethnic Mexican/Hispanic heritage. Additionally, tejano (loosely translated into English as “Tex-Mex”) refers to a specific genre of Spanish-language music deriving from the Texas borderlands region that blends norteño musical styles from Mexico with country/western and rock ‘n’ roll influences from the United States, with lyrics often sung in Spanish. Tejano music plays regularly on Spanish-language radio stations throughout the United States, particularly in the southwest (Cortés, Tejano). Read more by visiting the entry in Multicultural America: A Multimedia Encyclopedia.


Subject Headings

Search by Subject Headings to retrieve materials based on your topic:
  • Music--Mexico
  • Rock music--Mexico--2001-2010
  • Popular music--Mexico
  • Popular music--Mexico--History and criticism
  • Folk dance music--Mexico
  • Indians of Mexico--Music
  • Mestizos--Mexico--Music
  • Folk music--Mexico
  • Composers--Mexico

Interdisciplinary Subject Headings:

  • Tejano music
  • Tejano musicians -- United States
  • Mexican American women
  • Mexican Americans
  • Music -- Social aspects -- Mexican-American Border Region
  • Conjunto music
  • Motion picture music -- Mexico

Books Available in the Library Collection based on Subject Headings

Databases

Search using library databases

Databases to Explore

Streaming E-Resources
E-Resources
Encyclopedias & Dictionaries
Literature
Art
Video Streaming

Citations

(1): "Toluca" by "Michael Mees

(2): Location, Climate, Language, Religion, Flag, Capital (Mexico), in Europa World online. London, Routledge. University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Retrieved 11 January 2022 from http://www.europaworld.com/entry/mx.is.2

(3): Country Map (Mexico), in Europa World online. London, Routledge. University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Retrieved 11 January 2022 from http://www.europaworld.com/entry/mx.MAP

(4): Béhague, G., Stanford, E., & Chamorro, A.  Mexico, United States of. Grove Music Online. Retrieved 12 Jan. 2022, from https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000018539.

Avila, Jacqueline. "Corrido." Grove Music Online.  16 Oct. 2013;  Accessed 18 Oct. 2022. https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-1002249156.

Britannica Academic, s.v. "Mexico," accessed October 19, 2022, https://academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/Mexico/108719.

Clements-Cortés, Amy. (2019). Banda. In J. Sturman (Ed.), The SAGE international encyclopedia of music and culture (Vol. 1, pp. 324-325). SAGE Publications, Inc., https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483317731.n91

Cortés, Carlos E. (2013). Tejanos. In Multicultural America: A multimedia encyclopedia (Vol. 1, pp. 2054-2055). SAGE Publications, Inc., https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781452276274.n843

Europa World Plus. "Mexico," accessed October 19, 2022, https://www.europaworld.com/country/Mexico?id=mx.

Salazar, Lauryn. (2019). Mariachi. In J. Sturman (Ed.), The SAGE international encyclopedia of music and culture (Vol. 1, pp. 1394-1395). SAGE Publications, Inc., https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483317731.n457

Vidal, Mariana Mevans. (2019). Mexico: modern and contemporary performance practice. In J. Sturman (Ed.), The SAGE international encyclopedia of music and culture (Vol. 1, pp. 1443-1448). SAGE Publications, Inc., https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483317731.n472