Encyclopedia of Latin American Popular Music

by George Torres

  ribbean styles like salsa , merengue, and plena are enjoyed throughout the country.

  The traditional figure of the payador sings improvised poetry, usually in

  8-syllable, 10-line stanzas known as décimas. In a payada de contrapunto, two singers face off in order to showcase their talent. A slow version of the milonga, a

  popular genre in Uruguay, accompanies payadas . Faster versions are usually con-

  sidered dance music and often do not contain lyrics. Milonga is also popular in the

  southern regions of Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.

  Uruguay

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  435

  The tango developed in both Argentina and Uruguay around the same time,

  on both sides of the Río Uruguay. The earliest traces of the tango date back to the

  1880s. The most famous Uruguayan tango is “La cumparsita” (“The Little Pa-

  rade”), which is well known internationally as well. Estilo (also called triste ) was popular in Uruguay until the 1930s and had a significant impact on the development

  of tango singing. The birthplace of Carlos Gardel, arguably the most well-known

  tango musician, is disputed between France and Uruguay.

  The tamboril is a key instrument in candombe, an Afro-Uruguayan genre. The

  candombe is typically played by conjuntos lubolos , in black communities around

  Montevideo, and is sometimes associated with Carnival celebrations. Candombe

  is often accompanied by llamada drumming. The genre experienced a popular re-

  vival in the second half of the 20th century.

  In the 1960s, rock entered the global music, beginning in Britain and North

  America. The Beatles were popular in Uruguay as in the rest of the world, and

  served as the catalyst for the Argentine rock movement. Other international styles

  like jazz also gained popularity at this time. Cover bands of major British rock

  groups like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were in demand, until the military

  coup of 1973, which toppled the unstable government of President Bordaberry and

  defeated the guerrilla group Movimiento de Liberación Nacional, also known as

  the Tupamaros (National Liberation Movement). Free elections did not occur again

  until 1984.

  Murga is a type of dance theater performed during Carnival season, which con-

  sists of more than 80 days of celebration and is the longest in the world. Murga is

  related to the Spanish zarzuela and to teatro callejero (street theater). The murga is of Spanish origin, but has undergone many transformations since its conception.

  In the 1990s, murga gained acceptance as part of the sphere of Uruguayan popu-

  lar music.

  Canto popular uruguayo is a musical style comparable to nueva canción and

  nueva trova that developed in the 1970s. Canto popular uruguayo was the most

  dominant genre in Uruguayan music until the 1990s. Canto popular uruguayo is

  sung in Spanish, as opposed to most rock music, which is performed in English.

  Los Olimareños was a duo comprised of Pepe Guerra and Braulio López in the

  early 1960s. They criticized the restrictive government and pushed for economic

  and social change, with the result that their music was banned during the military

  dictatorship.

  Other famous Uruguayan artists include Daniel Viglietti, Alfredo Zitarroja, and

  Eduardo Fabini. Daniel Viglietti, a singer, guitarist and composer, was influential

  in the canto popular uruguayo movement. Zitarrosa also sung and composed songs

  that formed part of the canto popular uruguayo repertoire. Their music was banned

  in 1976, and did not receive air time on the radio until 1984, at which time Zitar-

  rosa returned from exile.

  436 | Uruguay

  Further Reading

  Beattie, John W. and Louis Woodson Curtis. “South American Music Pilgrimage. IV.

  Argentina and Uruguay.” Music Educators Journal 28, no. 5 (1942): 22–27.

  Béhague, Gerard. Music in Latin America: An Introduction. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Pren-

  tice Hall, 1979.

  Martins, Carlos Alberto, Catherine Boyle, and Mike Gonzalez. “Popular Music as Alter-

  native Communication: Uruguay, 1973–82.” Popular Music 7, no. 1 (1988): 77–94.

  Schechter, John Mendell. Music in Latin American Culture: Regional Traditions. New

  York: Schirmer Books, 1999.

  Caitlin Lowery

  V–W

  Vallenato

  Vallenato is a music and dance genre from northern Colombia found in the coastal

  Caribbean region. Originally a rural tradition that came out in the early 20th cen-

  tury, vallenato emerged within the popular music sphere in the 1950s through the

  efforts of pioneers like Rafel Escalón. The original conjunto de vallenato ensemble

  consisted of an accordion, caja, and guaracha , and it would play genres like me-

  rengues and paseos. During the 1960s and 1970s, vallenato spread from the rural areas to city centers, at which time the electric bass, guitar, and Afro-Cuban percussion (e.g., conga and cowbell ) were added to the original trio instrumentation,

  and thus acquired a more modern sound that reflected urban tastes for music such

  as salsa . During the 1980s, the popular modernized vallenato became one of Co-

  lombia’s most popular music genres. In the 1990s Colombian pop star Carlos Vives

  began recording traditional vallenato that used a mixture of some old-guard folk-

  loric musicians and younger professional musicians from Bogotá. His 1994 album

  Clásicos de la Provincia was a great success for Vives, and it helped to spread the

  success of urban vallenato beyond Colombia to international popularity among

  Spanish speaking regions in Latin America, Spain, and the United States.

  Further Reading

  Marre, Jeremy and Hannah Charlton. “Shotguns and Accordions: Music of the Mari-

  juana Regions of Colombia.” Beats of the Heart: Popular Music of the World. London: Pluto

  Press in Association with Channel Four Television Company, Ltd., 1985.

  Sturman, Janet L. “Technology and Identity in Colombian Popular Music: Techno-

  Macondismo in Carlos Vives’s Approach to Vallenato.” In Music and Technoculture, edited

  by René T. A. Lysloff and Leslie C. Gay, Jr., 153–81. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan Univer-

  sity Press, 2003.

  George Torres

  Vals/Valse

  Widespread throughout Latin America, the vals or valse developed from the triple-

  meter European waltz, eventually evolving into numerous national genres. The

  437

  438 | Vals/Valse

  vals appears in multiple forms: dance, vocal music, and instrumental music. As

  with dances such as the mazurka, polka , schottische , and contredanse, colonial aristocracy in Latin America retained the vals as a formal dance, and during the

  19th century the vals also flourished within the salón tradition as solo piano music.

  By the middle of the 19th century, the vals diverged significantly from the European

  waltz, employing freer choreography and greater movement of the hip and arms. In

  particular regions, the vals went through advanced processes of creolization and the

  genre served as a national music derived from urban popular music. Traditionally,

  the performance of a vals includes such musical instruments as the guitar, tiple ,

  cuatro , bandúrria, violin, and harp.

  A social dance encountered in many parts of Latin America, the vals appears

  in diverse settings such as Andean festivals and Argentinean equ
estrian spectacles

  known as jineteadas. Best known as the pasillo or vals del país in the countries of Colombia and Ecuador, the music remains in triple meter. Often in the minor

  mode, the nostalgic music frequently portrays melancholic emotions. In Peru, the

  vals criollo emerged as an urban genre; however, in the 20th century, as the genre

  eventually waned within urban populations, the vals criollo flourished as popular

  music in rural areas of the country. The vals criollo serves as the most important

  genre of música criolla —a classification implying that the music displays features

  of both Iberian and Peruvian heritage. In Peru, the vals —influenced by the jota

  and mazurka —first appeared and gained popularity in the urban centers situated

  on the coast. At the beginning of the 20th century, Peruvians associated the vals

  with the working class. Principally a vocal genre, the text of songs regularly dealt

  with the struggles of daily life. The rising popularity of foreign genres (fox trot,

  tango, and ranchera) led to the decline of the vals in the late 1920s. Frequent use of syncopation takes place in the melodies of vals criollo, employing occasional rubato. Early instrumentation included the guitar, laúd , and bandúrria; however, the guitar—the requisite instrument of the vals criollo —ultimately replaced both the

  laúd and bandúrria. By 1950, the Afro-Peruvian inclusion of the cajón , spoons, and quijada (donkey jawbone) became commonplace for the genre, with two guitars and cajón serving as the standard.

  Further Reading

  Olsen, Dale, and Daniel Sheehy, eds. The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Vol. 2.

  New York: Garland Publishing, 1998.

  Santa Cruz Gamarra, César. El waltz y el valse criollo. Lima: Instituto Nacional de Cul-

  tura, 1989.

  Mark E. Perry

  Vals Criolla. See Vals/Valse.

  Venezuela

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  439

  Venezuela

  The Bolivarian republic of Venezuela is a country in the north of South America. It

  is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Brazil to the south, Guyana to the

  east, and Colombia to the west. The music from Venezuela is relatively unknown

  outside of the country but the newer generation of musicians now attracts interna-

  tional attention. Its musical life is diverse and vibrant.

  Being located on the southern part of the Caribbean, and a Spanish speaking

  country, it is not surprising that popular musical forms from Spanish-speaking

  Caribbean islands as son, salsa, merengue, bachata, bolero, and the more recent

  reggaetón are much appreciated in Venezuelan urban centers. Reggaetón origi-

  nates from Puerto Rico and Panama and contains elements of hip-hop music

  mingled with Dominican merengue and salsa; it is popular among the youth and is

  very danceable. One of the first orchestras that started to perform in Caracas since

  the early 1940s was the Billo’s Caracas Boys by the bandleader Billo Frómeta,

  originally from the Dominican Republic but establishing himself in Venezuela

  since 1937; this band is still active and they play merengues, boleros and son with

  their own unique style. Other orchestras were the Porfi Jimenez Orquestra and Los

  Melódicos. Since the 1960s, singer and bass player Oscar de Leon gained national

  and international fame as one of the best soneros (vocal salsa improvising) in salsa.

  Besides these Caribbean forms, the Venezuela gaita ( zuliana ) is also a popular

  dance form, played generally during Christmas, and is originally from the Zulia

  state. Venezuelan pop musicians have gained popularity in other Latin American

  countries besides Venezuela, as Ricardo Montaner (very popular in Chile), José

  Luis Rodríguez “El Puma,” Ilan Chester, and Franco DeVita. Since the end of the

  1980s, young musicians created the Venezuelan Ska movement, and the most well-

  known group was Desorden Publico.

  Since the 1940s, popular urban music influenced by traditional Hispano-

  Venezuelan and Afro-Venezuelan music attained a dynamic and vibrant charac-

  ter. The precursor of the rich variety of groups and outstanding musicians was the

  choral group Quinteto Contrapunto who made elaborate choral arrangements of

  traditional rural musical traditions, and the composer and bandleader Aldemaro

  Romero in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s based his musical compositions and per-

  formances on rural musical traditions mixed with jazz and Brazilian bossa nova .

  Thereafter, several groups were formed such as Serenata Guayanesa, El Cuarteto,

  Ensamble Gurrufio, Onkora, Recoveco, and many others. These groups include the

  joropo , the national dance of the country, the Venezuelan merengue, the vals , the pasaje, the gaita, the alguinaldo and other musical expressions from the hinterlands and the capital Caracas in their repertoire, and elaborate these musical forms in a

  more academic manner in chamber ensemble formats and jazz-like arrangements

  440 | Venezuela

  Anibal Castillo, center, and his sons play traditional Venezuelan music outside of the Con-

  gress in Caracas, Venezuela, in 2003. (AP/Wide World Photos)

  and performance style. In aftermath of these groups, a younger generation of musi-

  cians baptized a musical scene called the urban acoustic movement (the so-called

  MAU), with the main characteristic of mingling traditional musical expressions

  with other non-Venezuelan influences such as jazz and the Brazilian choro (cham-

  ber music). The musical movement is characterized by the dynamism of musical

  creation, by virtuoso and playful performances on professional handmade instru-

  ments, improvisation, and the interchanges of musicians in different groups and re-

  cordings. Some of the musical groups forming part of this movement are C4 Trio,

  Encayapa, Kapicua and Los Sinverguenzas,

  The main musical instruments from Hispano-Venezuelan music are: the cuatro ,

  the llanera and central harp, the maraca , the bandola , the mandoline, and the guitar. The cuatro is considered the national instrument of Venezuela, and a new gen-

  eration of instrumentalists brought this instrument to the concert halls in popular,

  chamber, and jazz group formats.

  Further Reading

  Agerkop, Yukio. “La Bandola de Venezuela: El Lugar y la Innovación Musical.” Revista

  Musica e Investigación 9, no. 17 (2011).

  Gerard Béhague, et al. “Venezuela.” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians,

  edited by S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan, 2001.

  Vihuela

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  441

  Salazar, Rafael. “Música y Tradición en la Región Capital.” Revista Musical de Venezu-

  ela 18 (1986).

  Yukio Agerkop

  Vihuela

  The vihuela is an old Spanish guitar that was very fashionable during the late 15th

  and 16th centuries before it was replaced by the guitar. In fact, it is considered the

  precursor of the modern guitar. Similar to the lute in Europe, it placed an important

  role in Spanish music of the time. Important Spanish composers who wrote music

  for the vihuela include Luis de Narváez, Luis de Millán, Alonso Mudarra, Antonio

  Cabezón, and Diego Pisador, among others.

  The instrument was fretted with movable, wrapped-around, and tied-on gut frets.

  It had 12 gut strings arranged in six double courses. Even though there were sev-

  eral tunings for the vihuela, i
t was common to use a tuning that was very simi-

  lar to the modern guitar, except that the third string was tuned a half step lower

  (e-a-d-f#-b-e).

  Vihuela music was commonly written in tablature, a system that uses horizontal

  lines to represent the strings and numbers, letters or symbols to indicate the fret

  where the note is supposed to be played. The rhythm is indicated using traditional

  solfeggio notation.

  Apart from this vihuela, which was plucked with the fingers, there were other vi-

  huelas such as the vihuela de penola that was played with a plectrum, and a bowed

  vihuela called vihuela de arco, the predecessor of the viola da gamba. Vihuelas

  faded as the polyphonic music lost its importance at the end of the 16th century and

  the vihuela’s place was taken by the Baroque guitar.

  The Mexican vihuela is a five-string, deep-bodied, bellied guitar that resem-

  bles the shape of the guitarrón, the bass guitar used by the mariachi ensembles.

  It is tuned like the first five strings of a guitar and its fourth and fifth strings are

  tuned an octave higher than the guitar. It is used in mariachi ensembles as well

  as in other ensembles that play sones abajeños and sones arribeños (see sones ) from the states of Michoacan and Jalisco. Some vihuelas are fretted and some that

  do not have inlaid frets use gut frets for the lower half of the neck, the upper half

  being fretless. Vihuela is usually strummed and has a chordal function within the

  ensemble.

  Further Reading

  Cano Tamayo, Manuel. La guitarra: historia, estudios y aportaciones al arte flamenco.

  Granada: Ediciones ANEL, 1986.

  Raquel Paraíso

  442 | Villancico

  Villancico

  Villancico is a musical and poetic form. The villancico’s antecedents were in me-

  dieval song and dance forms. It first appeared in Spain in the 15th century and in

  time became the most important secular genre in both Spain and colonial Latin

  America. Exempt from the formal and stylistic rigidity that applied to other genres,

  early villancicos evolved freely, allowing for loose structures and diverse composi-

  tional styles. A villancico could be a freestyle folkish composition or a solemn work