Antologia de la musica tradicional venezolana

To the fevered imagination of Christopher Columbus, admiral of the ocean and lord of new Worlds,
the land which today is Venezuela was, simply, heaven on earth, "a land of grace. . . " the sight of
whose resplendent beauty captivated his heart. Under this spell, having seen the wonders of the
Peninsula of Paria and the impressive mouth of the great Orinoco River, he wrote ecstasycally to
Ferdinand and Isabella about the domain which stretched before his eyes as "this land of grace...".
When he conquered the seas in the name of Their Catholic Majesties, Columbus believed he was
discovering a new world. He knew nothing of the land, however, and no news reached him of the
highly advanced cultures and thousand-year-old civilizations existing throughout the length and
breadth of our Continent. In fact this world, wholly unknown to him, already had its own
institutions and was as old as the one he came from. A world with its own history and life within the
context of the most ancient cultures of the universe. It existed before it was called America, and the
instant the Europeans gave it a name, they betrayed their ignorance that there was another world
as old as theirs.
While men on the other side of the ocean lived by the Julian calendar, which was off solar time by a
total of ten days, the Mayas measured their days and nights with astounding accuracy. It took the
Europeans almost two centuries to correct their error. Much of the immense cultures of those
remote times remains to be investigated. Great civilizations lie buried today under deep layers of
earth, under dense jungles and promontories shaken by seismic cataclisms.
Referring to these lands and their people in the diary he left to posterity, Columbus says, "There is
no better people or better land, they love their neighbours as themselves and their speech is the
sweetest in the world, and gentle, and always laughing". The sociologist Dardo Cuneo says: "Theirs
is a world on a grand scale, with enormous distances; a world of nature, bountiful and hard, that is
to say a world of disturbing surprises; a world to surprise and marvel, and one the chroniclers could
only qualify from the outset by this word marvelous. It appears in almost all the records and
letters of the Conquistadors and colonizers".
Quoting Hyatt Verril, Jorge Abelardo Ramos inserts a paragraph into his own: "When the Spanish
soldiers under the command of Francisco Pizarro entered the Temple of the Sun in Cuzco, they
thought they had come to the City of the Ceasars, such were the marvels gathered there. But the
stunned amazement lasted only a minute: "Without pity the valued symbols were torn from their
places, the royal mummies knocked down, the ornaments shattered and spilt like curds. The sacred
vessels were beaten and destroyed; the priceless tapestries torn to shreds. The magnificent rugs
and the most beautiful woven fabrics ever seen were cut to ribbons by swords and daggers for
wrapping to pack the booty of gold. Struggling and fighting among themselves, each trying to take
the lion's share of the treasure, the soldiers in coats of armour trampled jewels and images, beat
golden utensils or hammered them to reduce them to shapes easier to handle. So they stripped the
temple and the marvels of the garden of all precious pieces and metal. Oblivious to the beauty, the
art, the incalculable value of the booty, they threw into the crucible all the metal to convert it into
bars, the whole treasure of the temple: the plate which covered the walls, the amazing wrought gold
trees, birds and objects from the garden. Thus behaved the men of Pizarro, Diego de Alma-gro,
Carvajal or Lope de Aguirre, possessed by homicidal dementia".
This was, among the others, the most terrible attack on the world of marvels in which the
monumental architecture was grandiose, in which the standards of the State inspired in such
Utopians of the Old World as Thomas More, Francis Bacon, Tomasso Campanella and other
idealists the happy concept of the State itself, such were the institutions which governed the
pre-Columbian peoples.
In Venezuela over the course of the centuries the contribution of three important ethnic groups, the
Indian, the Negro and the white man bore the fruit of a new sensibility shaped by the environment,
which was to be revealed particularly in the art of music. It might well be said that this is one of the
most important, if not interesting, spiritual endowment. A rich, living heritage is found in the
different regions of the country with their respective peculiarities: the autochthonous (ritual) music
of our native tribes; the Negro, arriving with the slave traffic from Africa; and the white contributed
by the Spanish Conquistadors. In the process of changes brought about through time, this
transculturation has borne fruit. Yet we can still find each one in its full purity, whether Indian,
wholly Negro in origin which is found in coastal regions; or the white, spread across the length and
breadth of the country. The diversity of our people's dances and songs is truly prodigious in all its
aspects: inflections of melody and rhythm, inventive words in the verse and the couplets lively
poetic descendants of the old Spanish ballads.
The music that arrived here was that of the High Renaissance and the first Peninsular Baroque.
The instruments used were those corresponding to that period, such as the vihuela, the lute, the
"chirimia", a type of clarinet; the violas of bow and hand, the alpine horn and perhaps other
primitive wind or reed instruments, as well as stringed instruments such as the medieval harp;
percussion instruments such as drums, kettle drums, the "furruco" or "zambomba", etc.

We have little written documentation about this formative period, although the first news of music
in Caracas dates back to the closing years of the 16th Century, scarcely two score years after the
founding of the city by Spanish Conquistador Don Diego de Losada in 1567. The first organ
was installed in the city's main church in 1591. The first news of a clavichord dates from 1669. The
Ecclesiastic Council created the first school of plainsong in 1640. Between the years of 1750-1760
the first musical society, known as "La Filarmonica", was founded. In about 1770 twenty-nine
violins were imported from Mexico. Eleven years later the Town Council of Caracas hired an
orchestra for Corpus Christi festivities, composed of violins, violas, cellos, base-viols, flutes,
clarinets, trumpets, as well as oboes, cornets and Spanish bassoons. Together with music, there
developed a humanism movement of considerable scope: literature, philosophy and history. We
should also point out here that during the second half of the 17th Century continuing into the 18th
Century, a literary and philosophical movement was generated in the capital of Venezuela by
religious orders, notable the Jesuits and Recollet priests, and distinguished representatives of what
was later to constitute the native nobility. Although painting and sculpture were cultivated, they
were not foremost among Venezuelan arts, as were the highly developed plastic arts in the
viceroyalties of Mexico, Peru and Nueva Granada. In Nueva Granada there rose the eminent figure
of the great Bogota painter, Vasquez y Ceballos.
In the Province of Venezuela and in Caracas, the Capital, there occurred a musical movement
inequalled throughout Hispanoamerica. In it we find traces of Italian Baroque in particular. The
first generation of this solid artistic movement is represented by Juan Manuel Olivares
(1760-1797), Jose Antonio Caro de Boesi (17...-?), and Jose Francisco Velasquez the Elder
(1756-1805). The second generation is headed by Jose Angel Lamas (1775-1814) of whose works are
preserved more than 40 religious compositions. Among those are his "Misa en Re" in a refined Mozart style and "Popule Meus" written in 1801, which foreshadow in style and thought Beethoven's
famous Opus 48 "Chansons de Gellert", composed by the immortal German in 1803. Don Pedro
Palacios y Sojo, illustrious priest and maternal uncle of the Libertador, Simon Bolivar, was a prime
stimulater of great musical activity.
The second generation pursues an elegant style of great purity, which was sparked by Bach's sons,
Johann Christian and Philip Emmanuel Bach, and influenced in part by the models of the
Mannheim School. Venezuelan musicians deserve admiration for keeping up with the Europeans,
in all respects. The movement they formed has been called the "American Musical Miracle" by Kurt
Lange, the distinguished German-Uruguayan musicologist. This elegant style, which sprang from
the Bach sons and diverged until it achieved the pure Viennese classic style represented by Haydn
and Mozart, was conspicuous in works by Venezuelan composers of the 18th and first half of the
19th Centuries. The colonial music attracted much attention from notable personalities who visited
our country in the past. We recall the names of Alexander von Humboldt, Depons,
Dauxion-Lavayse, the Count of Segur, Anton Goer-ing, and other scientists and naturalists. Baron
Humboldt noted: "The good taste through instruction, a knowledge of French and Italian literary
models, and a decided predilection for music, which is successfully cultivated and serves to unite
the different classes of society, as the culture of fine arts always does". All this intense intellectual
and artistic activity of our 18th Century, sowed a restlessness for the liberty and independence of
these countries. The majority of our great men, our liberators, had delved into the renovating ideas
of the Illustration and the Encyclopedia. While cultivating their spirit in the fine artes, at the same
time they formed a clear political and social conscience which opened the way to the epic of
emancipation.
In the 19th Century, the art of music became even more relevant on a national scale. Under the sign
of Romanticism, the so-called minor forms were cultivated waltzes, ballads, ballroom dances,
etc., as well as piano sonatas and instrumental chamber music. Opera was written. In Caracas: Jose
Angel Montero (1832-1881) conceived a lyric drama, "Virginia", on a libretto by the Italian poet
Domenico Bancalari (1809-1879) ; and in Merida (the Venezuelan Andes), physician and composer
Jose Maria Osorio (1803-1851) shaped his comic opera, "Don Rufo", which he had his students sing
in that city. In his printshop, Osorio published "Elements of Plainsong and Harmony", "The Practice
of the Divine Canticles" a lithographed work of 143 pages, as well as Services for the Dead, motets
and other religious works.
Although Caracas since colonial times has always had orchestral groups, it was in 1930 that the
Venezuelan Symphony Orchestra was established on a permanent basis under the direction of one
of its founders, the venerable maestro Vicente Emilio Sojo. Sojo likewise forged and guided
a nationalistic movement in music. The members of this, his students, wrote their symphonic and
chamber music on native airs, popular songs and folklore themes, in a style which could be
considered post-impressionist.
With reference to autochthonous and folk music, Venezuela is fortunate in having a full and
beautiful heritage, rich in its variety of melodic and rhythmic inflections and giros, as we have
already noted. Some are of great interest as they appear to echo the old Baroque forms speaking in
the refined resonances of the harpsichord. For instance, if you listen to the expressions of the
popular harpists, one seems to hear the music of a Scarlatti, a Cabezon or a Rev. Soler. In dances
and vocal music we find vivacious, impetuous rhythms and harmonies of extreme simplicity,
derived from the old medieval, Renaissance and Baroque instruments, which arrived with the

Conquistadors the "vihuela", the lute, the harp and the guitar. Later came the clavichords and
harpsichords imported by the "criollo" bourgeoisie, owners of the land, its economy and destiny. We
find an infinity of tunes in the work songs, cattle herding songs, milking songs, songs of corn
grinders, washerwomen, farm laborers, sugar cane crushers; and the religious music of ancient
European origin, medieval-Gregorian.
The tribal music is quite impressive: the age-old chants of the shamans; the polyphonic chorales of
the Yukpa indians of the Perija Mountains in Zulia State; the funerary flutes of the Yukpas; the
five-part "Aoru-Ra", a long clarinet, of the Parajuano Indians of Sinamaica Lagoon in Zulia; the
Guajiro trumpet from Paraguaipoa, Pajaros Lagoon, Zulia State; as well as others of great interest
to the ethnomusicologist. Worthy of note is the "Ballad to the Beautiful Virgin" which is found
among the School of Borgona composers. Of remote Spanish origin, it has been preserved among our
Andean peaks, in the town of Canagua, Merida State.
The dynamic music of Negro origin is also impressive. The variety of rhythms which at any given
moment are synthesized in a polyrhythm provides one of the most interesting aspects of our music.
The contribution of the African ethnic group, which is quite large in reality due to the vastness of
that continent, has been of utmost importance in some of the dances which our people do so well.
This ethnic group has such a finely attuned ear for rhythm that when one of the drummers is offbeat, the others immediately stop and accuse the offender of being "out of tune".
Worthy of note also is the manufacture of instruments, the making of violins, violas, harps, guitars,
bandolines, pandores and other instruments of this great heritage we have outlined. The music on
these recordings was taped at its source. There is no artifice, everything was recorded in its own
surroundings by Luis T. Laffer, passionate researcher of Venezuela's great spiritual heritage.
PART I
1)
LA PAVA (CRESTED GUAN or wild "turkey"), is a "golpe" or rhythm from Aragua State,
played on a local Araguan harp, which differs from the plains or "llanero" harp in having a larger
number of strings. The five for bass notes are made out of deer gut; the 16 strings of the middle
register are made of nylon; and the 12 strings of the upper register are made of steel. The "golpe" is
a variation of the Joropo, national dance of Venezuela. Recorded at Villa de Cura, Aragua State,
April 1, 1973, performed by the blind harpist Alfredo Sanchez, a 25-year-old farmboy.
2)
TONO DE CARITE is a wake for a dead child. "Tonos" could be considered as polyphonic songs
for two and three voices, sometimes accompanied, as in this case by a "cuatro" (small fourstringed
guitar) and violin. The polyphony is harmonic and contrapuntual, sung by totally untrained voices.
Recorded in the hamlet of La Tintorera near Quibor, Lara State, April 27, 1957.
3)
CANTO CORAL YUKPA (YUKPA CHORAL CHANT) is in reality a collection of voices
chanting during a ritual dance of the Yupka tribe, indians of Carib stock. This chant was recorded
in the Sierra de Perija, headwaters of the Tukuko River, Zulia State, on January 15, 1959. This
"polyphonic" chant is one of the songs and dances which are celebrated during the full moon in
rituals stimulated by "chicha", a fermented drink make of ground corn and mashed bananas.
4)
CANTO DE P1L0N (CORN-GRINDING SONG) is sung only by women while they are
pounding the corn. This chant seems to echo the pounding job as the women grapp the heavy wood
pestles, raising them rhythmically over the mortar, a large trunk with a hollow in the upright end
to hold the grain. The woman sings a ballad separated between verses by a phoneme that sounds
something like jay, joy or simply ay. In general the songs refer to love affairs. The rhythm is always
binary. Recorded at Campoma, Ribero District, Sucre State, October 13, 1973.
5)
LA PERRA (THE BITCH), a chant and dance accompanied by the long drum, is performed
during the Feast of St. John the Baptist in the Barlovento region of Miranda State, east of Caracas.
An incantation accompanying the dance invokes magic aid in the hunt, in this case of a paca, a type
of rodent the size of a rabbit. The drum is a Tam-bor Largo or long drum played in unison with
several others, creating a rich and interesting polyrhythm. Recorded at Aricagua, Miranda State,
March 10, 1971.
6)
PASTORES DE MARIARA (MARIARA SHEPHERDS), is a "pa-rranda" or Christmas
celebration. The monodic song is accompanied by a "cuatro" or four-string guitar, a "botijuela"
clay wind instrument, and some percussion instruments such as maracas and the "furruco" or
"zambomba" of Spanish origin. Male dancers dressed as women, feign fear of the central figure
disguised as a bull which must dominate them. The ritual is performed by villagers who have made
religious promises to do so during the year. It is a tradition rooted in villages of Carabobo State,
east of Valencia. Recorded at Aguas Calientes, Mariara, December 8, 1957.
7)
RITO DE TURA (RITE OF "TURA"), (Dance of the Hunters). No one knows the origin of the
word "tura". Today the name is applied to an ancestral rite involving dance and music. The wind
instruments, made of "carrizo", a common reed growing on the banks of our rivers, include: the
"tura", the "turitas", "tura hembra" (female) and "tura macho" (male). This rite takes place during
the corn harvest. Today, the tradition is maintained by the descendants of the Ayaman, the Gayon

and Jirajara Indians. In this recording we include the "Hunter's Dance", part of the "Tura Pequena"
or "Mazamorra". Another variety is the "Tura Grande" or "Llora" (Weeping), a secret rite performed
in fulfilment of a religious promise, or danced in memory of the dead. It is performed in caves or in
stone houses outside of town. The "tura" here selected is played with the "quena" flute of three holes
and another of four; a pierced maraca, and the skull of a deer or "matacan". The skull, its openings
and fissures sealed with beeswax, becomes a musical instrument that is blown through the spinal
cord opening. Recorded at Tapialito, Quebrada de Piritu, the House of the Spirits, Municipality of
Agua Grande, Lara State.
PART 2
1)
TROPEZON (STUMBLE, CHANCE MEETING), a "golpe llane-ro" or plains rhythm, is played
on the bandolin, the "cuatro" (four-string guitar) and maracas. It has a ternary beat with a very
lively rhythm. The bandolin carries the solo while the cuatro and maracas make up the
accompaniment. Recorded in Maporal, Barinas State, September 9, 1973.
2)
RAJU N AO. The drum pieces of coastal regions in Venezuela are very varied. The melody
sung by the soloist is accompanied by a battery of drums of different sizes, from the "mina", "tambor
redondo" or round drum, to the "curbeta". In this piece, clearly of African origin, the "soloist" is
accompanied by a choir without polyphonic or even hetero-phonic traces. The choir is made up of
men and women. It is interesting to note the multiple rhythms formed by the drums, in this case the
round drum which is called "culo e puya". Collected at Curiepe, Miranda State, October 10, 1973.
3)
MAREMARE. This piece is of aboriginal origin, even if by now it has lost its autochthonous
essence, of which remains only the "flautas de pan" made of river reeds. In this recording we include
a local form of the dance whose music descends from the Coaca Indians of Carib filiation. The
"Maremare" of Cumanacoa has several parts of "toques": "El Perro" (The Dog), "Comecandela" (Fire
Eater) and "El Cangrejo" (The Crab). In the version here are: "flautas de pan", drum, "guarura" or
the large conch, a kind of murex. Recorded at Cumanacoa, Sucre State, July 29, 1972.
4)
ROMANCE DE LA VIRGEN BELLA (BALLAD OF THE BEAUTIFUL VIRGIN). This very
old ballad, Spanish in origin, is pre-Renais-sance. The "melismas" noted bring us hints of Gregorian
plainsong. It was recorded in a very remote town in the Andes, El Rincon, Canagiia, south of the
city of Merida, Merida State, on August 21, 1968.
5)
SANGORONGOMEZ, a part of the musical suite and dance honoring St. Benedict, a Negro
saint, is also known as "C HIMBANGUELERO ". In rendering it, each region employs different
instruments. In the Lake Maracaibo area the people normally use drums, while in the Andes string
instruments are used. In this recording made in Palmarito, Merida State, on December 28, 1968,
we notice a nose flute and sometimes an ordinary flute. During the street procession in which the
saint is borne on a platform, the parishioners and paraders wave banners and sometimes play a
large maraca. In the town of Mucuchies, Merida State, they also dance the " GIROS DE S AN B ENITO "
(the gyrations of St. Benedict).
6)
TROMPA GUAJIRA, aboriginal music of the Guajiro Indians, is played on a small
instrument known in Africa and Europe as a Jew's Harp, in common use today by the Guajiros. The
instrument seems to be a native creation made of a thin reed spear with a string tensed over it. It is
played softly with the fingernail, its resonance being due to the fact that the player holds the
instrument in his teeth thus making the mouth and cranial cavity into a resonating box. Recorded
near Pa-raguaipoa, Zulia State, April 17, 1971.
7)
LOS CALAMBRES - CABALLITO (THE CRAMPS - PONY), music and dance which comes
from the "T AMUNANGUE ", a dance in nine parts, from the state of Lara. Other parts include: "St.
Anthony and the Battle", "Yiyivamos", "The Beauty", etc. In the Tamunangue one notices traces of
African origin and some native Indian forms, as well as music of Spanish origin. The Sixth Part,
"L OS C ALAMBRES ", reproduced on this band, was performed by farm workers of Hacienda San
Rafael near El Tocuyo, Lara State, December 1, 1957.
PART 3
1)
M ARISE LA OR LA GUABINA OR LA REVUE LT A is a folklore suite from Aragua State
consisting of several sections: "E L P ASAJE " the Landscape, "L A G UABINA " a fish, "E L
Y AGUASO ", and "L A M ARI - SELA ". Played in combinations of 3/4 and 6/8 time, the variety of expression in the melody and accompaniment form a rhythmic richness which is truly attractive. Here
we reproduce the suite played by blind harpist, Alfredo Sanchez, on his Araguan harp; recorded at
Villa de Cura, Aragua State, on April 1, 1973. This beautiful music is reminiscent of the
harpsichordists Scarlatti and Soler.
2)
AORU-RA is a kind of clarinet with a sound somewhat like an English horn. Of pure
aboriginal origin, it comes from the Parajuanos Indians of Arawak filiation. The " AORU - RA ", in five
parts, is made of reed, an ancient instrument which is similar to others of ancient Far Eastern
cultures. Recorded at Sinamaica Lagoon, Zulia State, January 2, 1973.

3)
PRETENDI A UNA SEnORITA (I COURTED A YOUNG LADY) is a " FULIA " which comes
from the Spanish word "folia". But the " FULIA " retains only the name, however, and there is no
relation with the ancient form as sung in the Canary Islands. In the Venezuelan " FULIA ", the singer
alternates with instrumentals based on the " CUATRO " or four-string guitar, drum and maracas. In
the Barlovento "fulia", reproduced here, the soloist alternates with the choir and there follows a
recitative part. It reveals Negro influences. This " FULIA ", part of the traditional Barlovento "Cruz
de Mayo" celebrations was recorded in Aricagua, Miranda State, June 26, 1959.
4)
FLAUTA FUNERARIA. Hollowed in human bone by the Yukpa Indians of Carib descent,
the funerary flute produces not more than three notes (DO, MI, and SI flat) and is somewhat similar
to the " QUE - NA ". It has been used in burial rites from time immemorial. Recorded in the Sierra de
Perija, headwaters of the Tukuko River, Zulia State, January 15, 1959.
5)
LA DE SPED IDA (THE FAREWELL), a J OROPO (national dance of Venezuela) from the
East, is sung to the accompaniment of the bandolin as solo instrument, the " CUATRO " or four-string
guitar, maracas, drum and the standard Spanish guitar. The ternary rhythm is dynamic,
and the solos are quite interesting as the singer goes from low range to high falsetto. Recorded at
San Lorenzo, Sucre State, October 14, 1973.
6)
AGUINALDO INDIGENA (INDIAN CAROL) played with a "mo-nochord", an instrument
known in Sucre State, Eastern Venezuela, by the name of "marimba de boca" (mouth xylophone),
and a drum. It is not really aboriginal, but only a Venezuelan Christmas carol with a characteristic
rhythm of three quavers in the first time and two in the second. The accompanying drum is played
in a variety of ways. Recorded in Cumanacoa, Sucre State, July 29, 1973.
7)
EL CURA ME REGAnO (THE PRIEST SCOLDED ME) is a "polo" from San Lorenzo in Sucre
State. Although "jotas", "malaguenas", "polos", "fulias" and other old Spanish expressions appear in
our folklore heritage, all have been transformed by the environment. If anything is preserved it is
the meter, but the music has no relations whatsoever with the originals as they are known today in
Spain. What remains in the "polo" is the quatrain, verses that are repeated to complete musical
periods or phrases. Recorded October 14, 1973.
PART 4
1 ) LA EATALLA O LA PRESENTACION DE SAN ANTONIO (THE BATTLE or
INTRODUCTION OF ST. ANTHONY) is the opening part of the complex "Tamunangue" folk dance
referred to in PART 2 as a notable musical expression of Lara State. Poetry, music and dance are all
in honor of St. Anthony of Padua. This part, as the other appearing in the album, was recorded at
Hacienda San Rafael near El Tocuyo, December 12, 1957.
2 ) CANCION DE ORDEnO (MILKING SONG). There is no doubt that these milking songs are
the most beautiful Venezuelan chants, having sometimes a modal character, beautiful free-rhythm
monodies reminiscent of the Renaissance troubadours. They are sung by the "lla-nero", cattleman
of the plains, to calm the cows during milking. In evocative poetry and languid melody, the milker
calls by name both the calf and the cow, who appears to fall under the spell of the song as she is
milked. Most of these mi'king songs have melodies of great beauty, which the cowboys sing or
whistle, creating a serene mood. Recorded at La Puerta, Candelaria Ranch, Miranda District,
Guarico State, January 29, 1974.
3 ) EL AGUACERO (THE DOWNPOUR) is a rain-calling invocation at planting time. Here you
can appreciate rich multiple rhythms produced by the percussion of bamboo sections known as
"quitiplas". A ritual music of African origin, although the words are in Spanish, -the piece preserves
certain phonemes which bring to mind remote African languages. The melody is wholly rectilinear.
Recorded October 10, 1971, in Curiepe, (Barlovento region), Miranda State.
4 ) CANTOS SHAMANICOS (CHANTS OF SHAMANS or WITCHDOCTORS). These chants
made by the Yanomami or Waika Indians under the effects of a hallucinogen, a drug called "yopo"
or "ebena", are of the greatest authenticity, recorded at the headwaters of the Orinoco River,
Territorio Federal Amazonas, on April 21, 1970. The Yanomami live in the tropical forest in a
pre-ceramic culture, hunting, clearing small jungle plots for planting. The sub-tribes engage in
ferocious wars between naked warriors.
5 ) JOTA. In this "jota" there is no relation to the Spanish "jota", which has a different rhythm.
Throughout centuries, Venezuelans have preserved the names of simple forms such as this,
although now there is no structural correspondence except, perhaps, for the metric system.
Although it is not exact either, it maintains through time an expression long diluted in the
American environment, as in ,the present case. Collected at Campoma, Sucre State, on October 13,
1973.
6 ) QUIRPA is a piece employing ternary and binary beats, sometimes combined. Some of these
"quirpas" are difficult to play or to score because of the shifting rhythms and accents and the
complicated figures. This one, collected at Palmarito in Apure State on March 12, 1973, is one of the

simplest. There are some in Guatire, Miranda State, requiring great ability to read properly. In
this music there is much of our national dance, the Joropo. There is a kind of "duel" or challenge between the singers, one answering the other. It is what our people call "contrapunteo" counterpoint,
a difference of opinion between the two.
7)
EL CAPITAN CAYO EN EL HOYO (THE CAPTAIN FELL IN THE HOLE), is a Negro "gaita"
collected at Bobures in Zulia State on September 3, 1971. The African Negro influence shows in the
rhythm, the rectilinear melody, the use of drums and maracas, and in the insistent repetition of
words and verses.
8)
POLO. This form may be found from Eastern Venezuela all the way to Falcon State in the
west. Sometimes we find it performed instrumentally only, as is the case here. The instruments are
bandolin, "cuatro" and maracas. Recorded at San Lorenzo, Sucre State, on October 14, 1973.