ANTECEDENTS OF “ARRULLO”
WIND MUSIC BEGINNINGS
The wind band in Colombia has deep historical roots. Such ensembles have been part of the cultural scene since the sixteenth-century colonial period when European traditions were introduced on American soil and adapted to the different contexts and conditions of Colombia. Since that time Native Colombian composers have created a genre of wind music that is distinctly Colombian through the synthesis of native folksong and folkloric traditions with transplanted Western art music traditions.
For centuries, Catholicism was the predominant religion in the states conquered by Spain. In this liturgical tradition, the organ has been the most used and representative instrument. Relevant to understanding this tradition is the fact that only a few cathedrals in Colombia could afford such an impressive instrument. Therefore, small ensembles were formed, incorporating wind instruments such as the native chirimias, a double reed instrument similar to the shawm, and a predecessor of the oboe. These ensembles not only substituted for the organ and played during masses, but they also evolved into secular, civic instrumental playing outside of the church.
In this period, the church was the center of progress for the arts, but there were other prominent (yet forbidden) secular genres being developed, including the sanjuanito and the danzante. These constituted unique forms that are evidence of the constant transculturation between Western art music traditions and Colombian folk music and were essential to the evolution of traditional Colombian music and wind bands.
The beginning of the 19th century was marked by Colombia’s independence from the Spanish crown. With this independence came increased nationalism. Central to this nationalism was the establishment of larger wind ensembles and bands as vehicles for the creation and transmission of uniquely Colombian music. These bands, as in many other countries and cultures, initially developed through roles in the military. By the 1820s, their function shifted back to more civic and religious duties. It is during this time that we find the greatest development of bands in terms of forming a social-cultural movement, one that served as a vehicle of national and regional identity.
Despite the enlargement of wind bands to a symphonic proportion and the proliferation of these groups, there were a significant number of small ensembles, also known as “traditional ensembles,” being formed. Some of these traditional ensembles consisted of a combination of string instruments, such as guitars, cuatros, bandolas, and tiples; others were comprised solely of wind and percussion instruments, including (most frequently) clarinets, trumpets, trombones, euphoniums, snare drums and cymbals. These chamber wind ensembles were known as papayera folk bands in the coastal region of Colombia, and fiestera folk bands in the mountainous regions. These folk bands often served both functional and artistic purposes, performing primarily for the entertainment of people at festivals and civic occasions.
THE FOLKLORE OF COLOMBIA
Colombia is geographically divided into six different regions, each one with specific characteristics. These regions are known as the Insular, Caribbean, Andean, Eastern Plains, Pacific, and Amazonas.
Given their geography and climate, each region has developed different customs reflecting all aspects of life, namely, the spoken accents and speed of their speech, their celebration of festivities, the preparation of their food, the clothing they wear, and their artistic expression through dance and music.
The Insular region covers the islands of San Andres and Providence on the Atlantic Ocean and the islands of Malpelo and Gorgona on the Pacific. The music from the islands in the north is heavily influenced by Caribbean rhythms such as Soka and Calypso. The music from the south is influenced by the music from the continental Andean region.
In the east, Orinoco shares a border with Venezuela. Its characteristic genre is called Joropo, a festive style played with harp, bandola, cuatro, and capachos, and is danced by couples.
Of all the regions in the country, the Pacific has the largest percentage of inhabitants of African origin. The most noticeable musical style is Currulao, which is played with marimbas and other percussion instruments.
Amazonas, in the south, shares borders with Ecuador, Bolivia, and Brazil. This region has a very small population due to its jungles and hard accessibility, so the principal musical influences are indigenous. In their rituals, the music mainly employs primitive wind and percussion instruments.
The Andean region is in the center of the country landlocked by the other regions. Bambuco and Pasillo are the two most prevalent styles in this part of the country. These are unique for their combination of Spanish guitars, bandolas, tiples, and other European-influenced string instruments, with the richness of the African syncopation.
The Caribbean region is located on the northern coast of the country and has access to the Caribbean Sea. The most characteristic genres/styles from this area are Vallenato, Cumbia, and Porro, but due to African influence and important cultural development, other rhythms such as the Puya, Fandango, and Bullerengue are commonly found in this region’s music.
As Nikolas Slonimsky mentions in his book, Music of Latin America:
The musical folklore of Colombia is derived from Spanish, Negro, and Indian sources. The Spanish influence is strongest in the melodic inflection of country dances. The Negro element enters strongly in the percussive rhythms of Colombian popular music. The monotonous chants of the Indians survive in their primeval solemnity in the interior.
Emirto de Lima, one of the most influential musicians on the Caribbean coast during the turn of the XIX century, and author of the book, Folklore Colombiano published in 1942, was quoted by Slonismsky as follows:
In Colombian Music, we find elements of the culture of three races that have passed through Latin America. Listening to the beat of a drum, one conjures up a picture of African slaves driven down the coast during an era now happily past. In the dolorous chants of the Indians of the Amazon region, there is the wistfulness of the aborigines, who express their yearnings in the melancholy sounds of the flutes. And when a dapper boy, or a young lady of Santander or Cundinamarca, picks up a guitar and recites a sentimental ballad one is transported as if by magic into ancient Spain. What a delight it is to recapture in these rhythms, chords, dissonances, accents, and gambols, the aura of the old romance, the passions, and ardors of bygone days.
In John Schechter’s Music in Latin American Culture, William Gradante explains:
Like all Latin American Nations, Colombia is comprised of a multitude of cultural groups, each creating, performing, and preserving its own musical traditions. Such groups include relatively isolated African-American villagers inhabiting the Atlantic and Pacific lowlands; Native American groups scattered from the Guajira peninsula in the north, through the central Andean core, to the vast grassland and jungle expanses of the Amazon and Orinoco river basins in the south and east; predominantly Hispanic mestizos populating towns and small cities throughout the eastern plains and Andean highlands; and citizens of all racial and ethnic combinations crowding into a rapidly growing number of cosmopolitan metropolises both in the Andes and along the Caribbean coast.
Music of the Caribbean region
As mentioned before, the rhythms/styles from the Colombian Caribbean region are diverse. Considering the objectivity of this subject, and without disregarding the overall influence of Caribbean folk music in Valencia’s writing, only those specifically used in Victoriano Valencia’s Arrullo are discussed below.
These selected rhythms are representative of traditions from a Caribbean subregion, the Savannah, which included the states of Sucre and Cordoba. This is the native territory of Victoriano Valencia, which is important considering how much folk material from this region he used in Arrullo.
Many of the sonorities and textures in Arrullo are drawn from the Conjunto de Gaitas (native wind instrument ensemble), Baile Cantao (Sung Dance), and Banda Papayera (folk band).
Conjunto de Gaitas
Gaita is the generic term for “pipes,” and also the name given to several aerophones, including bagpipes, as well as some musical expressions and danced genres from Colombia. In this context, the term “gaitas” is being used as the instrument, not the genre.
These gaitas, also known as ‘hatchet’ flutes, made their way from the Kogi settlements into the mestizo villages and cities of the northern region of Colombia. They measure from sixty to seventy centimeters in length and have two configurations. The female gaita (gaita hembra) has five finger holes and carries the melody. The male gaita (gaita macho) has only two finger holes and has a more rhythmic role, marking the beat and accentuating the last pitches of each measure, the male gaita player usually doubles playing the maraca.
The gaitas ensemble was one of the principal instrumental ensembles employed to accompany dance on the Atlantic coast of Colombia. Historically there was at least one of these ensembles in each town and village.
To a degree, the people from the Caribbean region of Colombia are racially diverse, the main races being Native American, African, and Spanish. These races brought musical culture and created unique blends. The ensemble of gaitas is one of the products of this syncretism and exhibits elements taken from the three cultures.
A couple of gaitas (male and female) accompanied by maracas represent the native American contribution. Two drums, a tambora (two-membrane drum played with sticks) and alegre (happy), o llamador (caller), which are conical, vertically played-hand drums, represent the African influence. Hispanic influence came a few decades after the establishment of this tradition, which started as purely instrumental. Poems and texts in Spanish were added later.
Some of the rhythms and melodic patterns played by this ensemble are presented next.
Note that the maraca has not been included in the following written samples, this is due to having to always play a characteristic ostinato pattern, which is always against the downbeats. Also, many of these melodies and implied harmonies are modal due to the nature of the primitive instruments that allowed few notes. The most common modes are Mixolydian, Dorian, and Aeolian. Finally, the syncopated rhythms and hemiola are evident throughout.
Puya
Gaita
Cumbia
Baile Cantao
Baile Cantao is a colloquial way to say Baile Cantado, which literally translates as Sung Dance or Song and Dance. These dances are part of several artistic expressions of ancestral and popular origin that contributed to the diversity of the cultural scene in the Caribbean region of Colombia.
It includes a combination of fundamental elements of African ethnicities brought to America during colonial times. Despite the inhuman conditions around this cultural expression, music was a way to strengthen and unify communities. This was one of the most important and celebrated traditions and it is even considered an intangible heritage of humanity by UNESCO.
Hugo Salgado, an expert in this tradition from Puerto Escondido, Cordoba affirms that Baile Cantao is fundamentally a dance between a woman, who flirts with a man playing a single-padded African drum. He clarifies that in some other subregions of the Colombian Caribbean, the protagonist dance role was given to men, but in the majority of the traditions, the women are the center of singing and dancing, while men play the drums.
Baile Cantao is a purely vocal and percussive tradition, with important emphasis given to the dance aspect. The main instruments used are male and female drums, which are also known as alegre (happy) and llamador (caller). These terms/instruments are used interchangeably in other traditions, like the previously presented Gaitas Ensemble or Cumbia; other instruments are tambora (two-membrane drum), maracas, hand clapping, and voice.
It is a complicated task to classify the musical genres and dance styles in the Colombian Caribbean, since there are differences in the terminologies used between populations, but four major sung dances are distinguishable: bullerengue, chande, tamboras and fandango de lengua. Here are some examples of the main rhythmic patterns used by these genres, these have been transcribed and compiled from live performances.
Bullerengue Sentao (slow)
Bullerengue Chalupa (fast)
Fandango de lengua
Here are examples of melodic material used by the cantoras (singers).
Chorus
Verse
Chorus and verse combined
Banda Papayera
Preceding the arrival of the wind bands to the Bolivar region, musical groups were fundamental for festive events in rural settings. These groups mainly included voices and percussion instruments which included hand or two-membrane drums, guaches, maracas, hand clapping, and pieces of wood. Wind instruments included long gaitas, short gaitas and caña’ e millo.
Wind Bands in the Savannah subregion were established during the nineteenth century in two ways. The first is connected to the military aspects of the independence period. The second is related to the festive celebrations by the more privileged sectors of society.
These bands, whether related to the military or court-like heritage, propagated a new voice parallel to the gaitero. The “new” instruments like trumpet, clarinet, piston trombone, snare drum, cymbal, and bass drum brought with them the history of musical traditions from the Occident, which included the development and technology of instrument construction and the tonal system. Also, these instruments offered powerful acoustic capabilities which made them very suitable for corralejas, also known as bullfight celebrations.
The next example of wind band popularization started during the final decades of the nineteenth century and was supported, among other ways, by its connection with the booming economical dynamic of the region in ways of obtaining honoraries.
Interactions between the band, gaitas music, and the tradition of singing and dance led to the establishment of regional papayera bands and a unique repertoire during the twentieth century.
While the tradition of adapting popular themes from the gaiteros ensemble could have generated part of the initial repertoire for these folk bands (such is the case of puya), it is also evident that rhythms such as porro and fandango developed from this format.
Papayera bands are typically formed by three or four clarinets, three to five trumpets, two to four-piston trombones (from the military period), one or two bombardinos (baritone saxhorn), and percussion, including bass drum and crash cymbals. Sometimes a tuba is added.
Arlington Pardo, faculty at the Atlántico University in Colombia says that there is “unspoken” but quite noticeable evidence about instrumental roles and the protagonism of the papayera band musicians. Pardo agrees that the trumpet is the most important instrument (it is easy to find band directors who are trumpeters), they are given the most prominent melodic lines and lead the form, this hierarchy is followed by the clarinets, bombardinos, trombones, and lastly the percussion. In the beginnings of this tradition, percussionists were not considered core musicians, but rather accompanists.
The following are excerpts of the papayera band’s main rhythmic patterns.
Porro
Fandango
THE COMPOSER
Victoriano Valencia is a prolific Colombian composer of symphonic bands and traditional folk ensembles. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of band music in Colombia. His compositions and arrangements for the symphonic medium have received awards at national competitions and are performed throughout Europe and North America.
Valencia was born in 1970 in Monteria, Colombia. He has a bachelor's in Music Education from the National Pedagogical University of Colombia and a Master’s in Composition from EAFIT University in Colombia. His compositions and arrangements for wind ensembles are based on Colombian and Latin American folk rhythms. He is also known for recording production and the development of music teaching materials.
Valencia has worked as a cultural advisor for Colombia’s Ministry of Culture and several universities in Colombia, including the Universidad de Córdoba, Universidad del Norte, Universidad de Caldas, the University of Antioquia, the University of Caldas, and District University of Bogotá. He regularly serves as a judge for national band competitions, as well as other music competitions throughout Colombia. Valencia is an advocate for maintaining the traditions of prior generations. Part of this advocacy is achieved through his directorship of Bands Magazine, a quarterly publication specializing in the Colombian wind band movement.
In 2014, he was appointed artistic director of Medellin’s International Chamber Music Festival, an event organized and sponsored by the local government which is recognized internationally for its educative and artistic nature.
He is also an active member of the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE) and represents Colombia on the artistic committee of the Ibero-American Congress for Bands and Ensembles. Valencia is also the founder of the Colombian National Association of Composers and Arrangers for Bands and Ensembles (ACCOMPAS).
He is currently a full-time composition faculty member at the Universidad Pontificia Javeriana in Bogotá and also teaches at the Colombian National Pedagogical University.
Valencia has written a few works that have become part of the core repertoire of the Colombian band tradition. Pieces like his Third Suite for Band, also known as “200: (celebrating the 200 years of Colombia’s independence) have been widely accepted and performed across the world. His Second Suite for Band was commissioned by a Colombian professional band (Banda Sinfonica de Sabaneta) and published in the collection Latin American Music Project by Ludwig Masters in the United States.
Lamberto Coccioli, professor of Music and Technology at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, describes Victoriano Valencia’s music as threading a fine line between traditional roots and innovation, especially formal and harmonic, without falling into the easy trap of emulating the jazz-derived idiom and sounds of North American big bands. “I found his music highly original and very well scored.” Coccioli visited Colombia in 2006 and experienced the wind band culture. He described it in the following sentence:
“Yesterday night I went to a concert in the main church of Salamina, amidst the mountains in the coffee-growing region of Caldas in central Colombia. It was a “banda sinfónica juvenil,” bringing together the best players from all the local wind bands (there are 44 of them from every village in the region). The quality of the playing was amazing. Eighty kids aged 14 to 18 played a mixed repertoire of classical music arrangements and Colombian folk music, with unerring precision, great intonation, and an infectious sense of rhythm.”
This type of reaction is common among people listening to Valencia’s compositions or arrangements for the first time and even the so well-trained Colombian musicians who play his music often.
THE COMPOSITION
The Colombian national office for cultural affairs has developed ways to stimulate artists, creators, investigators, and cultural managers to work on exceptional projects. One of the most used strategies is giving grants, which are often given to individuals or organizations after a selective process. The selection is often of a finished product or a highly advanced project. It is important to mention that the national government also helps to support and develop the wind band movement in Colombia. The Ministry of Culture is responsible for maintaining music academies for school bands, but the private sector is heavily involved as well.
Arrullo is Victoriano Valencia’s first suite for band, and it was composed and first published in a compilation of five educational pieces for children and youth wind band (Cinco piezas de musica colombiana para banda infantil y juvenil), a project that gained national attention for winning the outstanding Award for the Creative Arts by the Colombian government in 2003. Arrullo is currently available through the Spanish music publishing house, PILES.
Main Characteristics
Arrullo is written in three movements. Each movement is based on dance, rhythms, and traditions from the Savannah of the Colombian Caribbean region.
The form of the piece is:
Mocarí Intro A B C Coda (A) Codetta
measure # 1-48 49-92 93-140 141-178 179-211 (203-211)
Goyo Intro A A1 Coda
measure # 1-13 14-60 61-123 124-136
Mayo A B C Coda (A-B-C) Codetta
measure # 1-32 33-88 89-168 169-216 217-224
A characteristic of the form is the establishment of a coda at the end of each movement to collage the important themes and rhythmic patterns of the movement. Valencia only marked “Coda” in the first movement, but the principle applies to each movement.
The first and last movement’s overall structures are a representation of an elaborated, extended song form, typical of the art-song tradition in western classical music. But the second movement is an extended A-A’, representing the primitive and simple characteristics of Baile cantao.
The first movement’s title, Mocarí, makes reference to a pre-Columbian indigenous settlement in the modern state of Cordoba, Colombia. Valencia combines traditional scoring, from the folk bands of the region (papayera band), and more urban-global sounds that evoke the North American wind band.
This heterogeneous approach is evident in the opening where a sustained chord is played by the horns and clarinets while saxophones play an eight-note ostinato. Together, the atmosphere evokes film music. This is accompanied by a chordal and mono-rhythmic section by the low brass which is taken straight from the porro.
Goyo is the title of the second movement and means “father” in a local dialect of Cordoba. This movement features the arrullo (lullaby) which is the idea around the whole composition. The main melody is a traditional lullaby from the Caribbean region, and its tranquility contrasts with the first movement’s melodic material.
The text of the lullaby is:
Duérmete niño, duérmete ya Sleep boy, sleep now
antes que venga la zorra pelá before the fox comes
duérmete niño, duérmete tú sleep boy, you sleep
antes que venga el currucucú. before the currucucu comes.
The third and last movement, Mayo, which translates to “mother” in the native indigenous dialect of Cordoba, shows strong influences from fandango rhythms played in the tradition of papayera folk bands. Both harmonic and melodic languages are clearly tonal, where the basic I-V-I progression dominates the musical structure. It also proposes an interesting perspective of arrullo (lullaby), by superimposing dance-like hemiolas. One may also experience a section with what seems to be a rock beat in the background. It is also important to highlight that the superposition of melodic and rhythmic material, typical of the Coda, becomes increasingly constant as the movement ends.
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