Vallenato studio

MUSICAL GENRE OF THE COLOMBIAN CARIBBEAN REGION: EL VALLENATO

Is a musical genre indigenous to the Caribbean coast of Colombia, with its epicenter in the former province of Padilla, and an important variable in the savanna region of the departments of Bolivar, Sucre and Cordoba. Colombian music is the rhythm that has reached more popularity, both nationally and internationally. Its popularity has now spread to neighboring countries like Venezuela, Panama, Ecuador and Mexico.

Originates from dairy songs with which pawns of big ranches accompanied their evening hours to collect and confine the cattle, and, when they made trips transhumant cattle are believed to be the basis of what later become the story songs that led to the vallenato.

Traditionally interpreted with three instruments: the accordion and drum guacharaca, sometimes plays guitar. What it does feature the traditional vallenato is to be played only three instruments that do not require any amplification, two percussion (drum and guacharaca), setting the pace, and the accordion which plays the melody. The rhythms of vallenato music or air are the paseo, merengue, puya, son and Piqueria.

No one knows exactly where it comes from the word "vallenato", despite the many assumptions that have been exposed. Vallenato is usually defined as a musical genre of the Colombian Caribbean coast, more precisely the area of influence of Valledupar, capital of Cesar department. It is argued that the name comes from the popular adjective for those born in the city where it is most deeply rooted in this genre. According to some, it is a neologism that was born with native travelers on mules, who when asked in other lands where they were, for the farmer responded that "I am born in the Valley", which is like saying "I'm born Valley ".

INSTRUMENTS

Accordion: Instrument of Austrian origin, was smuggled by German immigrants from Curacao by the department of Guajira in Riohacha capital by 1885. Vallenato musicians modify it to produce its distinctive sound.

Drum: Percussion instrument of African origin, this was the contribution made by the slaves to this beautiful genre. This is a small drum whose top was made from goatskin, deer or sheep. The glass is made from a hollow tree trunk 40 cm high and 30 cm in diameter. The tree trunk should be fibrous, such as matarratón.

Guacharaca: Instrument concave friction than 40 cm long stem is made of cane. Its name comes from the guacharaca or wild turkey, native forest birds of tropical America, whose song is similar to the sound produced by the instrument, possibly this was the contribution of Amerindians.
 

FESTIVALS

The importance vallenato acquired in the last decades of the twentieth century led to the organization of festivals in which the accordion players compete for the honor of being declared the most capable performer in each of the air. The most famous of these festivals is "Vallenato Legend Festival, held annually in late April in the capital of Cesar Valledupar, and whose first version was played in 1968. The winner of the first festival was Alejandro Duran, whom he defeated in the stage named "Francisco the Man, " the legendary Emiliano Zuleta.

AIRES O RHYTHMS

• Walk: For the performers is the air easier to play. The pace picks up and spontaneously literary histories and stories of the people. It was originally designed to perpetuate through song the story of the prehistoric peoples of the region. The word walk is in the environment vallenato, the newest among the five named traditional rhythms, to the point of no more than 80 years since its popularization.

• Merengue: The Merengue origin of the word dates back to colonial times and comes from the word muserengue, name of an African culture brought from the coast of Guinea, arrived in the Colombian Caribbean coast, making a great contribution musical and cultural development of the country. The merengue is unlike the other air in the interpretation and marking.

• Puya: As Valledupar and other peoples of the former department of Magdalena, the pace oldest was called puya. Its name derives from the verb poking, punching synonymous. This rate, as Indian, never had singing and was in imitation of some birds singing. Subsequently, over time, they were merging different typical elements of coastal and riverine Colombian culture, even creating a genre sung to different indigenous puja, occurring as a result the puya vallenato with your current balance between the song, the melody and rhythm.