Traditional Colombian music can be divided into four distinct zones:- The Atlantic (Caribbean) coast ,
- the Pacific coast ,
- the Andean region,
- and the Eastern Plains.
Caribbean (Atlantic) Music pulsates with vibrant rhythms, such as cumbia, porro and mapalé.
The cumbia is mainly accompanied by an instrument called guacharaca.
The cumbia is mainly accompanied by an instrument called guacharaca.
The music from the Pacific coast, such as the currulao with its strong use of drums, is touched by Spanish influence.
The Colombian Andean music has been influenced by Spanish rhythms
Among typical examples are the bambuco, pasillo guabina and torbellino, played with stringed instruments such as the tiple or guitar, as well as piano.
The Andean music of Colombia differs noticeably from that of Peru, Ecuador or Bolivia.The music of the Eastern Plains, "Los Llanos - música llanera", is usually accompanied by a harp, a cuatro (a type of four-stringed guitar) and maracas.
Dances and typical rythms of Colombia
It is the most representative of the Colombian music from the Andean zone. It is performed by duos or trios that play the guitar, the tiple, the mandolin and on some occasions, the flute, but more often the guitar and the tiple are used, accompanied by singing. It is danced by couples. From this rhythm come the torbellino, the sanjuanero, the guabina and the bunde.
The Cumbia is the archetype of Atlantic coastal music and symbolizes Colombian music for the rest of the world. It was created by the mixing of native melodies and African rhythms. It is played with Caribbean coast gaitas drums, maracas and guacharaca.
The cumbia can be divided into two different types.
- Classical cumbia: Musical instruments alone are used. It is never accompanied by singing.
- Modern cumbia: It is performed with some of the typical instruments and is accompanied by song.
CUMBIA BULLERENGUE: Its rhythm is derived from the cumbia. It is danced by women. Men accompany them with music and their singing is regulated by clapping. It differs from the cumbia in the dance choreography.
MAPALE: It is of African origin and is danced chiefly on the Atlantic coast and on the banks of the Magdalena River. With its fast rhythm and constant clapping, it has a marked playful quality.
MERENGUE: A native rhythm of the Dominican Republic. It is the only West Indian rhythm that competes with other international ones. It is very popular in the Caribbean region of Colombia, mainly in the Magdalena department and the surrounding area.PASEO: It is divided into two rhythms, slow and fast The latter is the most popular in vallenata music. The slow paseo is romantic, but the fast one rarely so. From time to time, it can be confused with the merengue.
PORRO: A rhythm originating in Caribbean folklore, that contains dancing and singing. It has variants such as the porro tapao or puya and the porro palitiao, a faster rhythm than the cumbia. According to some, it is a monotonous but joyful rhythm.
In the beginning, the porro was performed on native instruments and nowadays it is played by an orchestra and by papayera bands.
MAPALÉ: It is of African origin and is danced chiefly on the Atlantic coast and on the banks of the Magdalena River. With its fast rhythm and constant clapping, it has a marked playful quality.SON: It is a relatively slow rhythm of African origin with native influence, similar to the other vallenata rhythms. One of its characteristics is the use of the bass accordion. Both the son and the paseo recount the life stories of their authors and friends or describe the region in which they live.
VALLENATO: This is one of the well-known popular rhythms in Colombia nowadays. It originated on the country’s Caribbean coast and its name comes from Valle de Upar "Valledupar" (Valley of Upar) the place of its birth.
It is played with accordion, caja vallenata drum (a larger version of the bongo) and guacharaca. Generally, this kind of music consists of 4 basic rhythms: paseo, son , merengue and puya. The main composers and performers have been Rafael Escalona, Alejo Durán, Emiliano Zuleta, Enrique Díaz , as well as Carlos Vives, who has introduced new styles to the vallenata with great success.
ZAFRAS: These are mostly songs sung by farm workers, from the Caribbean region.
GUABINA: A typical rhythm of the Huila, Tolima, Santander and Bayacá regions. The National Festival of guabina and tiple, takes place at the beginning of August in Velez, Santander, where representatives of different departments get together. The guabina is a vocal song with danza and torbellino rhythms and added variants of popular songs, although there are guabinas with their own structure.
PASILLO: A rhythm inspired by the Austrian waltz and the Colombian "danza".
In the beginning, it was played on the piano in reception rooms. Subsequently, it became popular and started to be played on the tiple, the mandolin and the guitar, accompanied by singing. The lyrics, which are usually beautiful, have been composed by well-known poets. Among the best-known pasillos are: La gata golosa, Chaflán’, Vino tinto, Esperanza and many others.
RAJALEÑA: This rhythm is the most authentic among the different musical expressions of Huila folklore.
The instruments that distinguish the rajaleña from other types of music are the queco flute, the carangano, the tiple, the drum and other native instruments of the region. The rajaleña's clever lyrics express their love stories, their life experiences and the beauty of their region.
SANJUANERO: Music which has come from old folklore of the so-called Tolima Grande. (Huila and Tolima) It is a mixture of bambuco and joropo and is played at the St. John and St. Peter festivals. This rhythm is joyful and fast and its dance represents the conquest of love, which begins with a flirt, is followed by infatuation, and ends with the symbol of marriage.
BUNDE: Tune of the Pacific coastal region that also exists in Andean folklore. It consists of a mixture of rhythms; structured guabina, torbellino and bambuco. The best known is the Bunde Tolimense by the composer Alberto Castilla
TORBELLINO: Rhythm from Boyacá, Cundinamarca and Santander folklore that is heard during pilgrimages, dances, local holidays and travels. The peasants express their feelings with their music which is accompanied by songs and dances.
SALSA: A Cuban native rhythm introduced to Colombia through Barranquilla. At the end of the sixties, some Puerto Rican musicians played the rhythm at the Cali Fair and the people of that city adopted the rhythm, the city thus becoming "The World Capital of Salsa".
BUNDE: Musical tune from the Pacific seaboard. It is of African origin and its name comes from the word “wunde” from Sierra Leone. It also exists in Andean folklore with a mixture of rhythms such as structured guabina, torbellino and bambuco. The best known is the bunde tolimense composed by A. Castilla.
CONTRADANZA: It is a popular dance of the south region of the Pacific coast. It is used in dance shows to illustrate a typical national dance, as a result of the striking colours of the costumes, its elegance and the mobility of the dancers.
CURRULAO: It is the best-known rhythm from the folklore of the Pacific region. It consists of dancing and singing, accompanied by music played typically with instruments such as the native marimba, the conunos, the bass drum, the side drum and the cuatro guasas or tubular rattle. It has two varieties: the juga and the bereju.
MAKERULE: Music of Choco folklore. It resembles an Andean dance. The slowness of the dance shows its noble ancestry. Some people from the region say that its name came from the surname, "Mac Duller ", a man who had a bakery in the town of Andagoya, department of Choco.
"los Llanos Orientales" "música llanera" (Orinoco Region)
JOROPO: Music with a fast rhythm that predominates on the Eastern plains.
Generally, it is accompanied by singing and corridos. there is also tapping as a result of its flamenco ancestry. The joropo is performed with cuatro, harp and capachos (small maracas).
Varieties: The pasaje (a slow rhythm), the zumba que zumba, the galeron and the golpe, also called seis. At times, contrapunteos songs are heard, consisting of verbal duels and repartee. In the region, the term "joropo" means party and dance.
GALERON: It is a variation of joropo with a similar structure. It is the oldest rhythm, dance and song of the plains area. It is heard a lot while cowboys are working and is frequently played during the plainsmen festivals. One of the best-known galerones is called Galeron Llanero.
PASAJE: It is a rhythmic and slow variety of joropo. The lyrics of its songs are usually descriptive.
- Chocó: Pregón, Polka, Mazurka, Jota Chocoana, Calypso, Tamborito Chocoano, Abozado, Aguacorta, Agualarga and Bambara.
- Southern Pacific Region: (songs) Pango, Andarele, La Madrugada, Tiguarandó and Saporrondó.
- Eastern Plains "Los llanos": Quirpa, Chipola, Guacharaca, Pajarillo, Gaban and Nuevo Callao
- San Andrés and Providencia: Scottish Cuadrillas, Cotillón and Calypso.
- Carrilera
- Regué
- Carranga
- Spanish Rock
Musical Instruments
The musical instruments which are used to play the different types of Colombian music are:
- MANDOLIN: A stringed instrument plucked with a plectrum. It is usually accompanied by the tiple and the guitar
- BOMBARDINO: It is a brass wind instrument, otherwise known as the tuba or euphonium, played with the clarinet.
- BASS DRUM OR TAMBORA: A drum from the Pacific seaboard, whose cylindrical body is made from a balsa tree trunk.
- GAITA: A wind instrument that originated with a native tribe of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in the Caribbean region of Colombia. It is a long hollow tubular wooden stick with holes near the end and a head made of beeswax and vegetable coal, trimmed with a turkey feather. There is a variety of gaitas to be found.
- CAPADOR: A wind instrument made with pipes of fine hollow canes of different sizes. The name, capador, is only used in Cundinamarca, Tolima and Huila.
- KARANGANO: An instrument from Huila and Tolima departments, made of bamboo.
- CHIRIMÍA: A wooden Instrument similar to a clarinet. It has almost disappeared because it is very difficult to play.
- CLARINET: An instrument of European origin, frequently used in Choco department .
- CUARTO: A stringed instrument mainly used on the eastern plains.
- CUNUNO: A conical form of drum, from the Pacific coastal region.
- ESTERILLA: A wind instrument with twelve pipes made of cane, bound together by a fibrous string.
- REED FLUTE : (Flauta de Carrizo) A flute, placed diagonally across the body from left to right, made of a bamboo-like cane which is grown in the Pacific coastal region .
- MILLO FLUTE : This wind instrument is a kind of flute made of cane from millo. It is the essential instrument for playing the cumbia music of the Atlantic coastal region.
- GUACHE: A percussion instrument used to play cumbia music, along with the guacharaca, millo flute, brass drum and maracas.
- GUASÁ: A typical bamboo percussion instrument from the Pacific seaboard. It resembles a maraca without the handle, and is of tubular form with vegetable seeds and stones inside. It is played on the diagonal.
- MARIMBA OF CHONTA: A marimba made from the chonta palm tree It is typical of the Pacific coast.
- REQUINTO: A wooden stringed instrument, similar to a small tiple, with twelve metal strings divided into four groups of three strings each.
- RONDADOR: A wind instrument made of different-sized pipes of fine hollow canes bound together by a fibrous string.
- ZAMBOMBA: A type of drum. This instrument is a gourd, cut in half and covered with an animal skin. There is a hole in the middle which holds a cedar stick. It is typical of the departments of Santander, Huila and Tolima . It accompanies guabina and torbellino music.
Pasillo (English: little step) is a South American genre of music extremely popular in the territories that composed 19th century Viceroyalty of New Granada and Gran Colombia: Colombia's Central Mountain region; and especially Ecuador, where it is considered the national musical style; and to a lesser extent in the mountainous regions of Venezuela and Panamá. Venezuelans refer to this style of music as: "vals" (Spanish for "Waltz").
Today, it has incorporated more European features of classical dance, such as Viennese waltz in Colombia and features of sanjuanito and yaraví in Ecuador. As it spread during the Gran Colombia period, pasillo also absorbed the individual characteristics of isolated villages. This gives it an eclectic feel; however, the style, tone, and tempo of the music differ in each village, and indeed between each country.
In its waltz, pasillo alters the classically European dance form to accompany guitar, mandolin, and other string instruments.
Bambuco took a cultural foothold in the Andean region of Colombia and has spread in popularity throughout Latin America. The Festival Folclórico y Reinado Nacional del Bambuco in Neiva is a festival celebrating bambuco music.
The Cumbia originated in Colombia's Caribbean coastal region, from the musical and cultural fusion of Native Colombians, slaves brought from Africa, and the Spanish during colonial times in the old country of Pocabuy, which is located in Colombia's Momposina Depression.
Cumbia began as a courtship dance practiced among the African slave population, which was later mixed with European instruments and musical characteristics. Cumbia is very popular in the Andean region and the Southern Cone, and it's still more popular than the salsa in many parts of these regions.
Origins: It is mainly asserted that cumbia's basic beat evolved from Guinean cumbé music. However, this basic beat can be found in music of Yoruba (in the rhythm associated with the god Obatala), and in other musical traditions across West Africa. Cumbia started in the Caribbean coast of South America, in what is now the northern coast of Colombia, mainly in or around the Momposina Depression during the period of Spanish colonization. Spain used its ports to import African slaves, who tried to preserve their musical traditions and also turned the drumming and dances into a courtship ritual. Cumbia was mainly performed with just drums and claves.
The slaves were later influenced by the sounds of New World instruments from the Kogui and Kuna tribes, who lived between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Montes de María in Colombia. Millo flutes, Gaita flutes, and the guacharaca (an instrument similar to the güiro) were instruments borrowed from these New World tribes. The interaction between Africans and Natives of the New World under the Spanish caste system created a mixture from which the gaitero (cumbia interpreter) appeared, with a defined identity by the 1800's. (These gaiteros' are not the same as the Venezuelan Zulian gaiteros.) The European guitars were added later through Spanish influence. According to legend, the accordion was added after a German cargo ship carrying the instruments sank as a of accordions washed ashore on the northwest coast of Colombia. However, it's more likely that German immigrants brought the instrument to Barranquilla in the 19th century, and it was later adopted by the local population.
In Panama, the processes that shaped the culture and idiosyncrasies of the Colombian Caribbean through the three aspects (Hispanic, black and Indian) from the Spanish colonial period until today, also occurred in the isthmus. Research in the field talks about their appearance in the Colonial era. In the evenings, Creole families would gather to recite poetry and perform music typical of Spain and other parts of Europe. Other nights, they would bring their slaves to play their traditional drums and dances. Among the favorite African dances was El Punto. It consisted of intrinsic and abdominal movements and an African woman dancing alone. Another dance was the Cumbia. For this one, the couples advanced to the center of the room, both men and women, and gradually formed a circle of couples. The dance step of the man was a kind of leap backwards as the woman slid forward carrying a lighted candle in her hand holding a colored handkerchief.
The slave courtship rite, which featured dance prominently, was traditionally performed with music played by pairs of men and women and with male and female dancers. Women playfully waved their long skirts while holding a candle, and men danced behind the women with one hand behind their back and the other hand either holding a hat, putting it on, or taking it off. Male dancers also carried a red handkerchief which they either wrapped around their necks, waved in circles in the air, or held out for the women to hold. Until the mid-20th century, Cumbia was considered to be an inappropriate dance performed primarily by the lower social classes.
The basic rhythm structure is 2/4. Due to its origins, both African and New World Native influences can be felt in Cumbia.
In Colombia, Cumbia is played with a rhythm structure of 2/4 and 2/2.
In Mexico, it is played with a rhythm structure of 2/2.
In Panama, it is played with a rhythm structure of 2/4 and 6/8.
In 1882 it became Venezuela's national dance. Formerly, the Spanish word joropo meant "a party", but now it has come to mean a type of music and dance that identifies Venezuelans. This is because in the 18th century the llaneros started using the word “joropo” instead of the word "fandango", which was the word used at the time for party and dance.
The Joropo is played with the arpa llanera (harp), bandola, cuatro, and maracas (ibid), making use of polyrhythmic patterns, especially of hemiola, and alternation of 3/4 and 6/8 tempos. It was originally played, most often also sung, by the llaneros, the inhabitants of the Colmbian and Venezuelean Llanos, Llanos (plains), and thus also called música llanera (ibid).
The singer and the harp or bandola may perform the main melody while a cuatro performs the accompaniment, adding its characteristic rhythmic, sharp percussive effect. The cuatro and the bandola are four-stringed instruments which are descendants of the Spanish guitar. The only real percussion instruments used are the maracas. Besides the genre and dance, the name joropo also means the performance, the event or occasion of performance.
The joropo adopted and still uses the hand turn, the movement of the feet, and waltz turns. First, the partners dance a type of waltz holding each other tightly. Then they stand facing each other and make small steps forward and backward as if sweeping the floor. Lastly they hold each others’ arms, and the woman does sweeping steps while the man stomps his feet along with the music’s rhythm.
No comments:
Post a Comment