User Manual
41A User’s Guide to Garritan World Instruments
African-American spirituals gave rise to blues music reecting pain and oppression. Mixed cultures
also resulted in hybrid music forms—the French-African Creole music of New Orleans, for example.
is melting pot of America also brewed up a new musical genre, Jazz, that ignited the musical imagi-
nation of the entire world. e use of syncopation, asymmetrical rhythms, and free improvisation on
melodies reected the sense of freedom in the United States in the early nineteenth century.
Country music is believed to originate from a mixture of African-American spirituals, blues, and Ap-
palachian folk music. Rural Appalachian folk music was a mixture of British, Irish-Celtic, and African
inuences. Instrumentation included blow bottles and jugs, banjo, dulcimer, zither, washtub bass,
harmonica, and washboard (all of which are included in the Garritan World Instruments library).
Each successive wave of immigrants contributed a unique musical avor to North America. Whether
it was the Civil War, or the opening up of the frontier in the West, music mirrors the historical forces
that shaped America.
e Music and Instruments of Latin America
e music of Latin America is some of the most rhythmic and energetic in the world. Almost any-
where you go in Central and South America and the Caribbean Islands, music is close by.