Title of piece: Joropo quitapesares
Performers: Cimarrón
Origin: Colombia
Orchestration: Maracas, Cajon, Harp, String bass, Cuatro, Tenor guitar
Cimarrón is a Grammy-Nomiated group, which consists of singers, dancers, and instrumentalists from Colombia. The word Cimarrón means wild bull. This music is performed at a fast/brisk tempo, which is pushed by maracas, percussive strings, and singers. This "música llanera" which means plains music is some of the best music being brought out of South America.
In this music, many musical things are happening. First, it begins with a strong unison entrance. This grabs the attention of the audience right from the beginning. Heterophony definitely has a strong presence in this music. A number of instrumentalists take a solo, and put a variation on the melodies that are played. Also, the solo that are being played, are being improvised (I am sure). With the form of soloing, there has to be an intra-ensemble interaction between the players. Just as in jazz in the United States, the players use eye-contact or hand-symbols to bring a solo to an end or to begin at a certain section. The pitch of the instruments are high, and I feel that helps to work with the fast paced tempo. The timbre of the maracas and the cajon help to provide that driving tempo. They are subtle with the right amount of emphasis. The "percussiveness" of the strings really interlock between one another. Also, there are some notes that may not sound exactly pleasing to everyone's ear, but in this culture, this may be considered correct. Unfortunately, not in this piece, but others by this group include vocals and dancers. This would also connect to music and movement.
I really enjoyed reading your comments on this piece. It was interesting to read your interpretation of the roles that certain instruments in this piece. Do you think that the role of the instruments has any connection with the classifications used in South America? I liked the point you made about an "intra-ensemble interaction" between the players. This is so essential in any type of improvised music and I liked the connection you made between this and jazz music in the United States.
ReplyDeleteGood description of the piece but make sure you include a paragraph reacting to each week’s specific prompt. This can be found under Assignments each week.
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