Folk music of South America, and the Misa Criolla
The folk music of the Andes and the Pampas is in Songs > Latin American folklore. Much of it moves in 6/8 and 3/4 at once, the hemiola explained in Rhythm and meter: listen for the bars where the tune stops going in two and goes in three.
Zambas
The zamba is the slow dance of the handkerchiefs from the north of Argentina, in 6/8. A zamba in a minor key often leans on its relative major for a couple of bars before V7 brings it home.
- Zamba de mi esperanza, by Luis Profili, in F major: the zamba that Jorge Cafrune’s record made known all over Argentina.
- Alfonsina y el mar, by Ariel Ramírez and Félix Luna, written for Mercedes Sosa about the poet Alfonsina Storni, here for a choir in four parts in C minor. Each verse turns to the relative major, E♭, through B♭7 and B♭ augmented, whose F♯ rises to G; the chorus ends on D major and G7, where the A and B of the melodic minor climb to the tonic.
- Balderrama, by Cuchi Leguizamón with words by Manuel J. Castilla, about the all-night bar in Salta where the musicians and poets met. It is in E minor, and one turn of its tune, heard six times, falls from D through C♯ to B over a G chord: a chromatic passing note.
- Zamba por vos, by the Uruguayan singer Alfredo Zitarrosa.
The chacarera and its cousins
Short pieces written for Ferrous Lineup show the dances of the region, each with the hemiola its own way. They are good to study, because they are short and plain:
| Demo | Dance | Listen for |
|---|---|---|
| Chacarera del patio | chacarera, Santiago del Estero | the bombo plays 6/8 on its head and 3/4 on its rim; the V7 bar of each verse and the last bar go in three |
| Gato del arroyo | gato, the Pampas | nearly all I and V7; the guitar plays on beats 2 and 3 of a bar of 3/4 against the tune’s 6/8 |
| Malambo del fogón | malambo, the gaucho’s dance of stamping boots | I and V7 in running eighths; bars 5 and 6 switch to 3/4 |
| Chamamé del estero | chamamé, Corrientes | the accordion; bars ending in a quarter and an eighth pull into 3/4 over the bass’s 6/8 |
| Cueca de la caleta | cueca, Chile | hand claps between the beats, and a two-bar remate, V7 then I, at the end |
| Marinera del callejón | marinera, Peru | guitar and cajón; a quick fuga in running eighths ends it |
| Bambuco del páramo | bambuco, Colombia | nearly every phrase starts an eighth note after the downbeat |
Each dance is also a style in the Library, so the band can play it under your own chords (see Styles and the Library).
The Andes
The huayno is the dance of the Andes of Peru, Bolivia and northern Argentina, in a quick 2/4, written here two bars to one bar of 4/4. Its tunes often use the minor pentatonic scale (A C D E G in A minor) and fall to the same cadence again and again, long, long, short.
- El cóndor pasa, by Daniel Alomía Robles, from his zarzuela of 1913: a slow theme on A minor and its relative major, C, then the fuga, a fast dance running up and down the same scale, where the drums come in.
- La Quebrada de Humahuaca, a traditional huayno in E minor: its second strain starts on D, the flat seventh, and there is no D♯ anywhere.
- Carnavalito de la quebrada: the carnival dance of the Quebrada de Humahuaca, for quena, charango and bombo, on five notes only.
- Vidala de la quebrada: the slow song of the north-west over a hand drum. Its chords never use a dominant: G and C, ♭VII and ♭III, lead home instead.
The Misa Criolla
Ariel Ramírez’s Misa Criolla (1964) is a Mass sung in Spanish, each of its five movements set to a rhythm of Argentine and Andean folklore. All five are demos:
| Movement | Rhythm | Listen for |
|---|---|---|
| Kyrie | vidala-baguala, slow, 3/4 | the choir’s bass climbing by semitones; the Christe in A major; the end on A major, a Picardy third |
| Gloria | carnavalito, quick, 2/4 | A minor and E major a beat each; a slow yaraví in 3/4 in the middle |
| Credo | chacarera trunca, quick, 3/4 | A minor and D major, A Dorian’s raised sixth; phrases cut off before the third beat |
| Sanctus | carnaval cochabambino, Bolivia, quick, 3/4 | A major; the drums coming in one by one; three bars of 4/4 that broaden into a held chord |
| Agnus Dei | estilo pampeano, slow, 3/4, no drums | the guitar’s free runs; a plagal close, D minor to A minor |
The Kyrie shows in a few bars how much a bass line can do:
From bar 3 the bass climbs A, B, C, C♯, D, E♭, E, a step or a semitone at a time, and each chord is chosen to fit over it. A7 over C♯ is a secondary dominant, the V of D minor, and its C♯ rises to D (see Chords from outside the key). A minor over E, in bar 7, is the cadential six-four, which sits on the dominant’s bass and leads to E.
Elsewhere in Latin America
- Mexico: La bamba goes round C, F and G7 without stopping, as a son jarocho does; La Llorona, a slow son from Oaxaca in D minor, walks down the Andalusian cadence, D minor, C, B♭, A7; Cielito lindo is a mariachi waltz.
- Venezuela: Alma llanera, a joropo in a quick 3/4, the arpeggio standing in for the harp and the cuatro.
- Colombia: La gata golosa, a quick pasillo in A major.
- Uruguay: the candombe of Montevideo. Candombe del barrio moves in 3 + 3 + 2, the tresillo the milonga and the tango lean on too; Rubén Rada’s Candombe para Gardel keeps changing mode, from G major to G minor and back.
- Brazil: the songs of the gaúchos of Rio Grande do Sul, such as Boi barroso, and Luar do sertão, a toada about the moonlight of the backlands.