Venezuela: Music and joropo of the plains in the 2.0

This post is part two of a series on the Venezuelan plains and culture. Follow this link to read the first post in the series.

Of musical genres that assembled the folklore of the plains of Venezuela, the joropo has long been the most representative. The music and dance come from the broad flat parts of the country where the predominant culture is closely linked to land and livestock. His music is heard to the north coast and traditions are shared both in the plains of Venezuela and Colombia. In sum, the joropo represents the mixture of cultures and imagined that have evolved at their own pace and that characterize much of Venezuelan culture that continues to evolve and mixing until today.

Photo of Diego Tabares. Published under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

In the blog Long Live Joropo tells the story of its kind in Colombia:

It is the most representative folk dance of the Colombian-Venezuelan Llanos, is one of the folk dances with the typical Spanish survival, engendered in the Flemish and Andalusian dances, as well as demonstrate their footwork. The word "joropo" comes from the Arabic "Xarop" which means "syrup" and is related to the syrups Guadalajara in Mexico. In this dance the couples dance footwork and loose, the body remains rather quiet, giving much importance to the heels, which is fast. In dance of flirtation, the Ranger is pursuing the woman, drawing a spiral turns and turns progressively more tight and together in pursuit of the center position of women, who are reluctant and modest approaches the male.

In the channel of the group "Harmonies of Venezuela" can see and hear the musical structure of joropo. In this video, the group spends a joropo instrumental called "Passages Venezuelans", dedicated to composer Paul Camacaro.

Thanks to artists and lovers of the culture of the plains, many samples of music and dance can be found in citizen media like YouTube. In this video the whole of Villanueva Casanare Caribabare shows the performance of their instruments and their dance partner.

Also in the blog Folklore Venezuelan Joropo Ranger , you will find several examples of music and stories that characterize the region.

Also in the blog Llaneras , Oscar J. Camero, shared and discussed about the origins and characteristics of the music of the plains. Cited authors and musicians dedicated to the preservation and expansion of the plains and music is also discussed about their constant evolution:

Claudia Saez reads Calderon, in his "On the dialectic between the hit and run hit a six [...] Type rhythmic, harmonic and structural shocks prairie," "The Joropo is an expression of popular art in constant evolution, involving poetry, song, music and dance in a form of improvisational creativity on established structures and determining parameters of style, "stressing that it is a cultural event originated mainly in the scope of the" central basin of the Orinoco, "from Villavicencio, in Colombia, to the states of Apure, Guarico, Cojedes and Portuguesa, Venezuela. It basically implements the harp (or mandolin), four and maracas.

Within this evolution, there have been several musicians who have taken the strong rhythms of the instruments themselves joropo of academic music. An example can be seen in this video, which plays a joropo Silvia Navarrete piano composed by Moses Moleiro to mid-twentieth century:

Finally, another mutation joropo shown in the video of Dudamel and the Youth Symphony Orchestra during their participation in the BBC Proms, a video widely shared and discussed among citizen media inside and outside Venezuela

Written by Laura Vidal · Comments (1)
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