Short mention of the medieval, legendary character of the almighty male-protagonist of the songs (The “Guapo”(significa el enojado en Barranquilla), the Macho). Mention possible origins in medieval ethos (Garcia de Leon) Medieval games, contests, defiances and challenges. Link to heroic figures making justice (guadalupe Salcedo la toma de Páez, YouTube oral testimony by bandola peasant player) but also to flirty don-juans and situations involving bulls, Cocks and horses. Cult for penises and sexist jokes, erotic humor (picaresca)
he physical strength needed. The activities and the values that derive from being a cowboy. The games. Maybe some hints about the relationship between rhythmic patterns in the music and the rhythm of a Horse’s gallop. The protagonist of horses, specifically cowboy ternary repertoire: joropo son jarocho and Huasteco). Are there socioeconomic mappings that allow us to prove the hypothesis? Look for sources. Bedsides that: similarities between lifestyles, costumes. The rancho of the llano. The fundo of the Pampa. The sombrero peloeguamo shared by jarochos y llaneros. Sobre todo los llaneros son centauros. El sombrero: the male símbol, the penis. (El sombrerito, sombrerito blanco, el sombrero: vallenato cumbia,
Pregúntan al Cholo: y uste que nació en sogamoso por que canta música llanera?
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porque los llaneros somos tan arrechos que nacemos en cualquier Puta parte del mundo
This is the moment to recall the "colonial popular entertainment" I mentioned in the introduction of this research. Garcia de Leon´s description of the fandango as a popular entertainment in the context of the colonial economies is something that has changed my image of colonial reality.
"At the fairgrounds, the streets were flooded with announcements, processions and carnivals; the inns and villages with fandangos and celebrations. Over the commercial exchange and the spaces for forbidden games, there was an exchange of coplas and tonadas, sones and instruments."
From understanding the colonial past as repressive and painful, I have come to discover the "hidden reality" of the popular celebration, which can be seen as a subversive a space for resistance for the oppressed ones. Paraphrasing the antillian Poet Dereck Walcott Garcia de Leon follows:
"Under this universalisation of commodities, what today is already an expanded and fragmentary cultural spectrum was constituted: a spectrum of gastronomic, gestural, dance, religious and musical elements. ´Such is the basis of the Antillean experience: this shipwreck of fragments, these echoes [...], these partially remembered customs which have not declined, but rather enjoy great robustness.´´"
This sense of caribbean identity as an "afirmative afro-hispanic melange" has been promoted by caribbean intelectuals like Cuban antropologist Fernando Ortiz, who tried to define the culture of that same region comparing it with a “melting pot,”—an ajiaco—“the most typical and most complex stew, made up of several vegetables… and pieces of various kinds of meat, all of which are boiled in water until very thick to make a succulent broth …” (Montfort. 2016)
Going back to the subject of colonial caribbean economies, it is for this research to understand the
This research is mainly based upon two particular Fanadangos from the Caribbean-Mettered repertoire, the Huapango and the Joropo. The culture surrounding this music is inextri
In Joropo, this Sesquialtera becomes quicker and more complex. It doesn't happen against the accompaniment and melody but it is embedded in the accompaniment itself, It happens constantly throughout the song, against Cuatro and Bass. On top of that, plucked melodic instruments add an extra layer of rhythmic complexity (usually the harp, but sometimes a Lute). The beat is almost twice as fast as in Huapango. It could be expressed in one bar of 3/8 for the bass, against one of 12/16 for the cuatro. (with one harmony every two bars). Fin the video illustrating this on the right.
This "Golpe" (which is the name given to the different rhythms) is called Seis Por derecho or "Pajarillo". There is a different rhythmical distribution of that sesquialtera in the Golpe called "Golpe de Seis Corrido"
In the next chapter you can see the last cross-over experiment: an arrangement of Antonio Soler´s Fandango R.146 in a collage with a Joropo Pajarillo in which I play the cuatro myself. This last crossover exercise was recorded professionally and can be considered the main artistic result of this research.
The experience with the Cuatro allowed me to develop a vocabulary of strumming strokes to improvise and give an identity to the violin in the crossover style I develop. Below you can see an improvisation transitioning from the Passacalle-Bass through the strumming pattern of the Seis Corrido, and Seis por Derecho. At the end the castanet strumming as seen in Baroque Fandangos like the one by Boccherini
Joropo or Llanero music does not involve the use of the violin, but the experimentation with the "cuatro" was included in this research because, as seen in the former Chapter, the role of the violín in Fandango music is inextricably linked to that of the strummed instruments. In order to create a particular sound for my violin playing in the Ensemble that was the outcome of the Research, it was important to learn the instrument and to try to import those techniques on the Violin.
Besides the importance of studying Cuatro for the development of a particular violin sound, exploring Joropo was interesting for the research because Joropo music contains the most complex polyrhythms in sesquialtera-proportion. This polymetric is the most distinctive feature of the mixed-race American Fandangos, as seen in Chapter 2.2. In Joropo we can find the real expression of "Latin American mixed-race Baroque" musical traits. In terms of instruments, particularly the Diatonic Harp has been identified as an element from the Hispanic Renaissance, as well as the harmonic cycles or ostinato bases. (Calderón Sáenz 2016, 358)
This percussive technique was first developed and popularized by Alexis Cardenas, world-famous Venezuelan violinist, who is equally at home with classical music as well as in Mexican, Venezuelan folklore, and Jazz. On the video to the side you can hear the recording that made this technique and this improvisation style famous across Latin American musical youth in the 2000´s.
More elaborated singing calls are the ones traditionally used during the milking. These milking songs or Tonadas were used by the milker or Ordeñador in order to calm down the cows, and to indicate to the "Becerrero" (the boy in charge of managing the calves) which calf is to be sent in to be reunited with the mother. The descending melodic minor third appoggiatura ornamentation and soft downward glissandos at the end of the phrases of the Tonada have been identified as indigenous traits (Calderón Saenz 2016, 357). With the boom of the oil industry in Venezuela during the XX century and the industrialization of milking, the Tonada threatened to disappear. The artist Simón Diaz rescued the Tonada by establishing it into an official commercial song type. The album dedicated to this Tonada, shown to the right, is representative of his work, and represent an artistic elaboration of that Amerindian musical traits preserved in Joropo Oral traditions.
In Huapango the Sesquialtera happens when the violin makes figuration in 3/4 against the Strumming accompaniment that could be notated in 6/8 (with one Harmony per bar). Besides the score below you can see a video illustrating this (Harmonic-Rhythmic accompaniment on the Cuatro and rhythm of the melody with the voice)
3.1. JOROPO AND EXPERIMENTS WITH THE CUATRO
But the richest contribution of Joropo to the Research was its particular cultural imagery, which gave an Identity to the Ensemble created for this Research:
As mentioned in the chapter The Fandango as a Fusical Family, the lifestyle and culture related to cattle work across the Caribbean have been a niche for the preservation of fandango-cultural expressions. Although traditional cattle work practices have been displaced by industrialization, the Cancionero Ternario Caribeño still shares many references to this "cowboy" culture reflected in the lyric and the music. In Joropo, the music of the traditional Fandango-Celebrations of the eastern plains of Colombia and the interior of Venezuela, we find again references to a certain "amplified masculinity". Games originating from cattle-work routines such as the tame, the coleo, and ritual games such as the cockfight have created a whole vocabulary in which bulls1, rattle-snakes2, hats3 are often used as symbols for the penis, or as excuses for humorous allusions.
SESQUIALTERA POLIMETRICS IN JOROPO
While the Baroque Fandango and the Southern Fadangos don't have much polyrhythmic, Joropo has the same superposition between a ternary and a binary pulse that we found in Huapango (we empirically experienced it in Chapter 2.2. in the song "El Fandanguito" by doing a crossover exercise with the Bassline).
Joropo-music itself is particularly embedded in the cattle-work routines. The guidance of the herd within the extensive territory of the "Hacienda", for example, requires constant communication between animals and humans, producing a very particular sound- environment. Cattle-work songs or "Cantos de Vaquería" traditionally used by the Cabrestero or herdsman, follow a particular melodic outline (see in the video on the right).
