Chacarera
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Chacarera is a folk dance and music originated in the northwest of Argentina in the 19th century.
The Chacarera is usually played with guitar, violin, accordion and bombo legüero, with a melody in 6/8 that follows the bombo in 3/4, and its danced by couples loosely dancing on their own, but in groups, with rounds and turns.
While the exact origin remains unknown, around 1850, people started dancing Chacarera in the northwest of Argentina, specially in Santiago del Estero. The name originates from the word "chacra" ("farm"), as it was usually danced in rural areas, but it slowly made its way to the cities of that area.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Chacarera arrived to Buenos Aires, but in spite of the welcome of this traditional form of music, it couldn't compete with the popularity of tango.
In the sixties, the Chacarera increased its popularity, with the general resurgence of Argentinean Folklore, in the voices of Los Chalchaleros, Los Tucu Tucu, and specially with the Carabajal Family, which represents many generations of Chacarera musics and singers, beginning with Carlos Carabajal, named "Father of the Chacarera", despite of being many years later of the Chacareras origin, and following with Los Carabajal, Peteco Carabajal, Rosana Carabajal, and many others.
Chacarera is still played and danced in many provinces of Argentina, specially in Catamarca, Salta, Tucumán, Santiago del Estero, and Jujuy, and it can be also found in the south of Bolivia. Each Province has it own flavour of chacarera with subtle differences, mainly in the steps (Chacarera doble, Chacarera larga, Chacarera trunca, etc).
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[edit] Dance
It is a rapid dance in triple meter for couples, danced in groups, which begins with the beating of the feet on the ground while the guitarist strums the introductory bars.
[edit] Origin of the music
There may be a link between the chacarera and the chaconne, which is described in The New Oxford Companion to Music as follows: "A dance in triple meter which originated in Argentina and was taken up as a form and variations in Spain and Italy in the early seventeenth century, in France soon after. The chacona had both instrumental and vocal accompaniment. The refrain was constructed upon one of a series of typical harmonic schemes (e.g. I-VI-IV-V; I-V-VI-V). Some composers used the same melody throughout the piece, repeating it in the manner of a ground bass." Many of these chaconne characteristics, such as a refrain in a “typical” harmonic scheme and an almost ostinato-like ground bass, are found in Ginastera’s “Chacarera.” It has been speculated that the chaconne and the chacarera had a common origin and parallel developments, now reunited appropriately in the neoclassicism of this composition.
[edit] See also
- List of dances
- Music of Argentina
- Argentine folklore
- Latin American folklore
[edit] External links
- Argentine Folk (Spanish)
- Folk of the North (Spanish)
- List of chacareras
- Structure of the dance
