Further Reading
Llerenas, Eduardo, Enrique Ramírez de Arellano and Baruj Lieberman, producers. “The
son, ” in liner notes to Antología del Son de Mexico. 3 Compact Discs, 5–7. Mexico City: Corason, 1985.
152 | Dupla Caipira
Rodríguez, Olava Alén. “Cuba.” The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Volume 2:
South America, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, 822–44. New York: Garland
Publishing, 1998.
George Torres
Dupla. See Dupla Caipira .
Dupla Caipira
The caipira duo ( dupla ) practices a largely melancholic rural music that emerges from the Central-Southern region of Brazil (the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais,
Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Paraná, and Mato Grosso). The term caipira, roughly
translatable as hick or hillbilly, was once an epithet for the ostensibly lazy and an-
timodern resident of the backcountry. Now, however, the term and its associated
music are enjoying a renaissance as the backbone of a distinctly local identity in
the Central-Southern region of Brazil.
The dupla, often a pair of brothers, sings the entire caipira song harmonized
in parallel thirds or sixths. Traditional instrumentation has one performer on a six-
string nylon guitar, and the other playing the consummate instrument of Central-
Southern rurality, the viola caipira (a small 10-string, steel-string guitar with a
strident tone). Instrumentation reveals a division of labor within the dupla, which
extends into other aspects of performance. One singer takes the higher, primeiro
voice for the life of the dupla (singers do not alternate), while the other sings the
lower segundo. The melody may rest in either the higher or lower register, and the
singer who carries the melody most often also writes songs, tells stories on stage,
organizes the order of performance, and manages scheduling and finances. This
hierarchical aspect of dupla performance alternates with an egalitarian pose in
which hierarchy is neutralized; the quality of a dupla is measured by the blending
of its two voices. It is said that a truly superb dupla will stay in tune at all times,
so that, if one performer slips out of tune by accident, the other will simply follow.
The frequently melancholy lyrics treat the importance of tears, the grief that ac-
companies betrayal in love, and the sadness of having to leave the countryside for
the city. Perhaps the most important song form is the moda de viola (or viola song)
a recitative in which the voices double the viola, though other significant forms
include the cururû, toada, batuque, and pagode de viola. The Central-Southern re-
gion from which this music springs draws a sense of identity from its agriculture,
particularly cattle production centered on a large refrigeration plant built in the São
Paulo town of Barretos in the early 20th century, and its folklore (especially música
caipira ) and Portuguese dialect, which are at the forefront a mixture of Portuguese
and Indigenous elements.
Dupla
Caipira
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153
The history of the dupla form is difficult to trace, but it is certainly tied up with the
informal Catholicism of the region. Dual harmony singing characterizes important
rituals such as the Folia de Reis, or Three Magi Parades, as well as the animation of
secular backcountry parties. In these contexts, songs often last 10 minutes or longer,
contain some improvised lyrics, and may also be accompanied by dancing. Música
caipira began its dialogue with urban forms of public culture in 1910, when amateur
folkloricist, poet, physical-education teacher, brick-factory owner, and circus-tent
master, Cornélio Pires, brought duplas to São Paulo’s MacKenzie University. Pires
was also the first to record música caipira in 1929, marshalling his considerable
rhetorical, fund-raising, and entrepreneurial skills to persuade Columbia Records of
the wisdom of the undertaking. In the 1930s and 1940s, the genre accounted for as
much as 40 percent of national music sales, by one scholar’s estimate.
Some academics suggest that commercial recording marked the end of the le-
gitimate dupla caipira. They claim that the transformation of música caipira in
the late 1950s and early 1960s into música sertaneja, with its increasing use of
electric guitar and bass, drum kits, and treatment of romantic themes, furthered the
disappearance of caipira; however, practitioners in the early 20th century do not
agree. Alongside a late 20th- and early 21st-century growth of popularity of com-
mercial Central-Southern rural music, called música sertaneja, the dupla caipira
is enjoying a renaissance led by brothers Pena Branca and the now late Xavatinho, and
Zé Mulato and Cassiano. These duos draw upon the work of Zé Carreiro and
Carreir-inho, Alvarenga and Ranchinho, and Tião Carreiro and Pardinho, as well as Liu
and Leu, Zico and Zeca, Zilo and Zalo, and Tonico and Tinoco. A recent group of musi-
cians using the solo viola caipira as a means of exploring Central-Southern tradition
includes Ivan Vilela, Paulo Freire, and Roberto Corrêa.
Further Reading
Dent, Alexander Sebastian. “Country Brothers: Kinship and Chronotope in Brazilian
Rural Public Culture.” Anthropological Quarterly 80, no. 2 (2007): 455–95.
Dent, Alexander Sebastian. “Country Critics: Muśica Caipira and the Production of
Locality in Brazil.” Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, Department of Anthropology, Au-
gust 2003.
Dent, Alexander Sebastian. River of Tears: Country Music, Memory, and Modernity in
Brazil . Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009.
Alexander Sebastian Dent
E
Ecuador
Ecuador is located on the western side of South America, bordered by Colombia
and Peru. The equator passes through the country, which is geographically di-
verse, as it has both a mountainous Andean region and Amazonian rainforest. The
population is 65 percent mestizo, while 25 percent is Native American, 7 percent
white, and 3 percent of the people are of African descent. Spanish is the official
language, although several Amerindian languages are also spoken, especially Que-
chua. The traditional music of Ecuador, often played by groups of mestizo musi-
cians, includes albazos, pasacalles, and pasillos , all of which are considered part of the música nacional. Pasacalles and albazos typically highlight a particularly
valued aspect of its region of origin, such as its women, instruments, or landscape.
The pasacalle is a kind of pasodoble with some elements unique to Ecuador. The
albazo is a kind of rhythmic dance music, like the famous traditional piece “Aires
de mi tierra.”
Pasillos, which began as indigenous music, became the most popular Ecuadorian
genre in the early 20th century. In the 1950s, pasillo faced competition in Ecuador
from international styles like bolero , tango , vals , as well as ritmos tropicales like
guaracha and cumbia . The pasillo incorporated elements of the European waltz and is also found in Colombia, Panama, and Venezuela. The instrumental pasillo is usually performed as quickly as the instrumentalists are able to play it, in contrast to
the pasillo lento, which is sung slowly to communicate the emotion of the piece, and
accompanies
the guitar, mandolin, and other stringed instruments. Julio Jaramillo
(1935–1978) was one of the most well-known pasillo performers as he toured Latin
America, playing boleros, tangos, valses and rancheras , in addition to pasillos.
The sanjuán is danced in Quechua-speaking communities in the Andes
Mountains. The sanjuanito, similar to the sanjuán, is associated with the Imba-
bura province, in the northern mountains of the country. Sanjuanitos may have
a traditional, historical theme (such as the death of Atahualpa, the last Incan
emperor) or be autobiographical in nature. The main instrument in the genre is
the rondador , a traditional Ecuadorian instrument known in English as a pan-
pipe, consisting of 8 to 34 tubes, which are not placed in order by length. The
rondador is usually made of cane, and like the harp, it is sometimes played on
street corners.
155
156 | El Salvador
Bomba is popular in the Chota river valley in northern Ecuador among people
of African descent. The dance-song bomba is traditionally accompanied by guitars,
güiros, and maracas . Bombas originally were written on the subject of love, but in the 1980s and 1990s, some composers created songs of political significance.
Bomba has moved to larger cities like Quito and may be heard in discotecas and
street performances. The marimba dance, called curralao, is also performed in the Chota River Valley region, but has lost ground to popular styles like cumbia and
bolero in recent years, and is now played mainly for tourists.
Rock music, which gained worldwide recognition in the 1950s, became popu-
lar with Ecuadorian young people, perhaps due to its association with rebellion.
In the 1970s, bands such as Sueños de Brama, Mozzarella, and Luna Llena popu-
larized hard rock, while in the 1980s, groups such as Spectrum, Blaze, and Post
Mortem impacted the development of heavy metal in Ecuador. Carlos Sanchéz
Montoya directed the first rock program on Radio Pichincha. More recently,
the band The Four Horsemen has gained fame for their covers of Metallica and
Megadeath.
Juan Fernando Velasco has emerged as a significant singer of Latin pop, as he
performed in Madison Square Garden in 2006, and in 2008, at the Paz sin Fronteras
(Peace without Borders) concert, along with internationally acclaimed performers
Juanes, Alejandro Sanz, and Juan Luis Guerra.
Further Reading
Alberto, Carlos, and Coba Andrade. “ Danzas Y Bailes En El Ecuador. ” Latin American
Music Review / Revista de Música Latinoamericana 6, no. 2 (1985): 166–200.
Arroyo Avilés, Alexandra. “ El rock en el Ecuador. ” LANIC. University of Texas. Web.
January 2, 2010.
Godoy Aguirre, Mario. “La música en el Ecuador.” LANIC. University of Texas. Web.
January 3, 2010.
Handelsman, Michael. Culture and Customs of Ecuador. Westport, CT: Greenwood
Press, 2000.
Riedel, Johannes. “The Ecuadorean ‘ Pasillo’: ‘ Musica Popular,’ ‘ Musica Nacional,’ Or
‘Musica Folklorica’ ?” Latin American Music Review (Revista de Música Latinoamericana)
7, no. 1 (1986): 1–25.
Schechter, John Mendell. Music in Latin American Culture: Regional Traditions. New
York: Schirmer Books, 1999.
Caitlin Lowery
El Salvador
El Salvador, the smallest country on the American continent, is situated to the south-
west of Honduras, just below Guatemala. The population is 90 percent mestizo,
El
Salvador
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157
as the majority of Salvadorans are of American Indian, European, and African
descent, with a minority of whites (9%) and Amerindians (1%). As a result of the
mixing of different races and ethnicities, the popular music of El Salvador is a fu-
sion of African, European, and indigenous influences.
African slaves introduced two variations of the marimba , the marimba de arco
(with a bow) and the marimba criolla to El Salvador. The most well-known modern
version is a three-octave marimba de arco and the music is always instrumental. In
the 1920s and 1930s, marimba ensembles played internationally, touring Europe
and the United States. In 1932, however, there was a coup d’état that resulted in
a matanza (massacre) of the indigenous population in which 30,000 people were
killed. The indigenous population, along with its traditional instruments like ma-
rimba de arco, virtually disappeared. Because they could be adapted to play new
styles, marimba ensembles remained popular until the 1950s and 1960s, when rock
came on the world music scene. A gradual revival of the indigenous Salvadoran
culture began in the 1990s.
The first third of the 20th century is considered the golden age of Salvadoran
popular music, as the Marimba Centroamericana became popular both in El Sal-
vador and abroad. In the 1920s, the first radio station in El Salvador, owned by the
government, played waltzes, foxtrots, rancheras , sones , and songos . These genres, along with the tango from Argentina, formed the basis of Salvadoran popular
music, as musicians from El Salvador created their own versions of these styles.
Pancho Lara was the well-known Salvadoran composer of “El Carbonero,” which
he wrote in the 1930s and is considered a national hymn. In the 1940s and 1950s,
marimba ensembles made the bolero , cha-cha-chá , mambo, and swing popular.
The nueva canción movement developed in the 1970s, but the Salvadoran Civil
War in the 1980s forced some musical groups into exile in the United States as
the violence escalated. The musical group Cutumay Camones, founded in 1982,
helped define the nueva canción of the national liberation struggle of El Salvador,
or Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN), as did the band
Yolacamba Ita. They performed popular protest music which connected and mo-
bilized the working classes and boosted morale. The Cutumay Camones played
rhythms popular with the lower classes, such as boleros, corridos , cumbias , and rancheras. The title of their first recording, Vamos Ganando la Paz (“We Are Winning the Peace”) became a slogan of the FMLN.
Today the majority of the music played for entertainment, particularly in urban areas,
comes from the United States. Young people also frequently listen to rock en español
as well as disco music. Mexican music remains popular in rural regions. For example,
Mexican rancheras are commonly heard throughout the country. Rafael Barrientos
founded the Orquesta Internacional de Lito Barrientos, which produced the famous
cumbia “Cumbia en do menor.” Concerts showcasing national music were popular-
ized in the 1990s. They were promoted by the Instituto Salvadeano de Turismo and
performed by the Ballet Folklórico, both within El Salvador and abroad.
158 | Estribillo
Popular music within El Salvador is influenced to a great degree by North Amer-
ican trends, with the incorporation of electric guitars, bass guitars, synthesizers,
and amplifiers. The Salvadoran band Ayutush has a unique rock sound, sometimes
called Guanarock. Popular genres from other areas of Latin America include Do-
minican bachata and merengue , as well as hip-hop (as demonstrated by groups like Pescozada) and reggaetón . Rap groups like Mecate and reggae ban
d Anastasio y los del Monte are also popular. The impact of foreign music, especially from the
United States, is evident throughout the country, although it is particularly domi-
nant in cities.
Further Reading
Alegría, Claribel. “The Two Cultures of El Salvador.” The Massachusetts Review 27,
no. 3/4, Latin America (1986): 493–502.
Almeida, Paul, and Ruben Urbizagastegui. “Cutumay Camones: Popular Music in El
Salvador’s National Liberation Movement.” Latin American Perspectives 26, no. 2, Reas-
sessing Central America’s Revolutions (1999): 13–42.
Scruggs, T. M. “Música y el legado de la violencia a finales del siglo XX en Centro
América.” Revista Transcultural de Música 10 (2006).
Caitlin Lowery
Estribillo
The estribillo is the refrain of a musical piece, which may be repeated exactly or
with modifications throughout the number. It may be purely instrumental or com-
prised of a stanza or several lines. Frequently used in several genres of folk and
popular music (both song and dance), it originated from the broad traditions of
popular song.
The estribillo may appear at the beginning or the end of each stanza of a piece. It
is essential to the piece’s musical structure, as its primary function is to emphasize,
repeat, and summarize the action of the piece for the listener. In dance music, it
provides the thematic center that shapes the song’s narrative, and contains the tex-
tual climax that conveys the meaning of the story. Generally, the refrain is related
to the song’s title, although it can sometimes replace the title if it gains significant
recognition. Historically, the gradual increase of its structural complexity shows the
evolution of the thought processes of composers and audiences.
In Venezuela, the estribillo is a polyphonic traditional chant sung as a duet. It
is performed at wakes, prayer services, and Christmas festivities, and can be of a
secular or religious nature. The chorus is performed in a lively 6/8 meter. The typi-
cal stanza is a quatrain, comprised of four six-syllable lines. It is also a type of jo-
ropo in the eastern region of the country. It is accompanied by the cuatro , maracas ,
Encyclopedia of Latin American Popular Music Page 29
