Music and Dance

Uruguay has a number of local musical forms. The most distinctive ones are tango, murga, a form of musical theatre, and candombe, an afro-Uruguayan type of music. There is also milonga, a folk guitar and song form deriving from Spanish traditions and related to similar forms found in many Hispanic-American countries. The famed tango singer Carlos Gardel is rumoured to have been from the Uruguayan town of Tacuarembó.
The popular music of Uruguay, which focuses on rock, jazz and many other Western forms, frequently makes reference to the distinctly Uruguayan sounds mentioned above.

Uruguayan Tango
The modern field of tango music and dance arose Buenos Aires, Argentina as well as Montevideo, Uruguay. It is still questioned whether Carlos Gardel, the giant of tango, was actually born in Tacuarembo, Uruguay, rather than in France.[citation needed] Other Uruguayan tango musicians, among the most important names, were director Francisco Canaro and singer Julio Sosa. One of the best-known tangos in the world, "La Cumparsita", was written by Uruguayan composer Gerardo Matos Rodríguez. Modern tango musicians include Raul Jaurena, Hugo Díaz, Miguel Villasboas, Marino Rivero, Raul Montero, Elsa Moran, Gustavo Nocetti, Luis di Matteo, Julio Brum, Hector Ulises Passarella, and Giovanna. One of the key names in modern tango, poet Horacio Ferrer, who contributed the lyrics for several of the most important tango works by Astor Piazzolla, is Uruguayan as well.

Candombe
Candombe originates from the Uruguay where African slaves brought their dances and percussion music.Candombe rhythms are produced by drum ensembles, known as cuerdas, which include dozens of drummers and feature three drum sizes: tambor repique, tambor chico and tambor piano, known as tambores de candombe.
The Afro-Uruguayan rhythm Candombe has played a significant role in Uruguayan culture for over 200 years. The rhythm is created by the use of three drums (tambores); tambor piano, tambor chico and tambor repique. The piano is the largest in size and the lowest in pitch of the three tambores. The rhythmic base of Candombe, its function similar to that of the upright or electric bass. The chico (small) is the smallest in size and highest in pitch of the three tambores, serving as the rhythmic pendulum. The tambor repique (ricochet) embellishes Candombe's rhythm with improvised phrases. Each of the three tambores is played with an open hand (mano) and a stick (palo) in the other. At a minimum, one of each of the three tambores must be present.

The purest form of Candombe takes place each Sunday night on the streets of Montevideo, where many drummers assemble, playing their drums under the moon lit sky. Isla de Flores is the main street that joins Cuareim and Ansina, Candombe's two main social groups. For over a century spontaneous cuerdas have paraded on this street, and continue to do so today. As the cuerda slowly makes its way through the narrow streets of Montevideo, this contagious rhythm takes with it all in its path, surrounded on all sides by the neighborhood people moving their bodies to the rhythm of Candombe. At intervals the cuerda will pause, and by setting a fire, will heat their drums' skins for tuning purposes.

Murga
Murga is a kind of Montevidean musical theater for Carnival celebrations. Murga in Uruguay A traditional murga group comprises a chorus and three percussionists and this is the type of murga performed on stages at Carnival. The singers perform in harmony using up to five vocal parts. Vocal production tends to be nasal and loud with little variation in volume. The percussion instruments, derived from the European military band, are the bombo (a shallow bass drum worn at the waist and played horizontally), redoblante (snare drum) and platillos (cymbals). The two most important pieces of the performance are the opening song (saludo) and the exit song (retirada or despedida). These get played on the radio during the Carnival period and some of them, such as the Saludo Araca La Cana 1937, are cherished by Uruguayans as cultural icons.

Uruguayan rock
Rock and roll first broke into Uruguayan audiences with the arrival of British band The Beatles in the early 1960s. A wave of bands appeared in Montevideo, including Los Shakers, Los Mockers, Los Iracundos and Los Malditos, who became major figures in the so-called Uruguayan Invasion of Argentina. With the coming of the military dictatorship in 1973, the Uruguayan rock scene effectively died; since the mid-1980s it has resurged. Since the beginning of the 2000s Uruguayan rock has achieved a great popularity. Bands like La Vela Puerca, No Te Va Gustar, La Trampa or Buitres have a massive following. A rock Festival in the city of Durazno, attracts more than 100,000 people every year.

Classical music
Well-known modern composers of European classical music include Eduardo Fabini, Hector Tosar, Coriún Aharonián, León Biriotti, Renée Pietrafesa Bonnet . The modern conductors Gisèle Ben-Dor, Jose Serebier and Carlos Kalmar are also renowned in their field. Abel Carlevaro, a classical guitar virtuoso performer is worldwide known for having established a new school of instrumental technique.
There are several classical orchestras performing countrywide. The SODRE(Acronym for "Official Service for broadcasting Radio, TV, and Performing Arts"), is the main institution generating cultural activities for the whole country. Created on year 1929, it manages a Symphonic Orchestra, a Chamber Music and Ballet ensembles, and a Choir, among others. Capitol's City Hall (Intendencia) has several Orchestras performing Classical as well as popular music, like the Orquesta Filarmónica and others.