Glossary of Colombian music

This page is a glossary of Colombian music.

Main article: Music of Colombia

Contents

• A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

• agüelulo - A teenage gathering, originally held in private homes and then larger spaces; a teenager who frequented such a place was a agüelero or sometimes a cocacolos, after the main beverage drunk at agüelulos, Coca-Cola[1]
• música andina - An early national style of the 19th and early 20th centuries, developed from the Andean interior[1]
• música antillana - A kind of popular dance music based on Cuban and Puerto Rican styles[1]
• audición: literally listening, can refer to a "special musical tribute to the career of a particular artist or group", performed before the beginning of a concert[1]

B

• baile - Literally, dance, dances are alphabetized under their descriptor, e.g. baile de cuota is alphabetized under cuota
• bambuco - An Andean style of dance music, perceived as a national music in the early 20th century,[2] or an Andean lyric music performed along with pasillo as a common part of the música andina repertoire[1]
• balada - In popular music, refers to a kind of "Spanish romantic popular music", found across Latin America[1]
• bandola - A stringed instrument similar to a mandolin, used in llanera[2] and musica andina[1]
• bandolin - A larger relative of the bandola[2]
• bingo bailable - a dance that includes bingo games and salsa music[1]
• bolero - A loose term for love ballads[1]
• bombo - A drum used in folklore groups on the Atlantic coast, laid with sticks and used to start a performance by calling on the other drums to perform;[2] a bass drum used in traditional cumbia ensembles[1]
• bugalú - An early form of New York salsa, popular in Colombia during the 1960s, a fusion of son with rhythm and blues[1]
• bullerengue - A Costeño form, performed by flute-and-drum ensembles[1]
• 'The Colombian Mambo-the Colombian men would go to clubs and dance with each other until their legs fell off.

C

• caja vallenata - A vallenato drum originally made from goatskin[2]
• calle de las salsotecas - Literally, salsoteca street, referring to Calle 44, a three-mile-long road in Cali, referring to the numerous salsotecas and tabernas along the street, known for featuring salsa dura and Cuban music during the 1980s and 90s[1]
• caballo - A rhythmic pattern played on the conga[1]
• camaján - An alternate term for the pachuco[1]
• campana - A cowbell[1]
• campanero - A performer of the cowbell, notably played by audience members along with the on-stage performer[1]
• capachos - Maracas[2]
• música caribeña - A rarely used synonym for música antillana[1]
• carrilera - A form of guitar-based music from the Antioquia province, associated "with the urbanizing peasant or working class"[1]
• carrito - Small, streetside vendors of recorded music[1]
• carrizo - A form of Colombian folk flute[2]
• caseta - A dance hall[1]
• cencerro - A timbales cowbell[1]
• champeta - A form of rootsy music from the Atlantic coastal city of Cartagena, where an Afro-Colombian population developed the style;[2] an Afro-Colombian style associated with Cartagena and Barranquilla, which combines elements of African pop, soca, zouk, mbaqanga and soukous[1]
• champús bailable - A Caleño tradition of house parties, which began in the 1930s and were usually held on Sundays;[1] champú, a beverage made from pineapple, corn, bitter orange leaves and a fruit called lulo[1]
• chandé - A Costeño form, performed by flute-and-drum ensembles[1]
• chirimía - A kind of ensemble found in the northwest corner of Chocó province[1]
• chucu-chucu - An alternate term for raspa[1]
• cokacolo - A teenage dancer at a agüelulo[1]
• contrapunteo - An improvised, verbal duel[2]
• música colombiana - Colombian music, formerly understood to refer to música andina in the 19th and early 20th century, when that style was perceived as a national music
• baile de cuota - A type of dance party in Cali's working-class neighborhoods during the mid-20th century[1]
• cuatro - A small guitar, used in llanera[2]
• currulao - A marimba-based music found along the southwest littoral Valle, Cauca and Nariño provinces of Colombia, as well as Esmeraldas in Ecuador[1]
• cumbia - A form of nation music, originally from the Atlantic coast and characterized by a "solidly grounded and complex layered rhythm with an airily syncopated melody"[2]

E

• empanada bailable - An alternate term for champú bailable, referring to the empanadas often served

F

• fandango - A Costeño song form, performed by flute-and-drum ensembles[1]
• festivales - Community dances in Cali, held in neighborhood dance halls or pavilions[1]
• fiesta patronales - Saints days[1]
• flauto de millo - See millo, flauto de

G

• gaita - A folk flute;[2] a Costeño form, performed by flute-and-drum ensembles;[1] conjunto de gaita is a traditional cumbia ensemble[1]
• guabina - A kind of música andina[1]
• guacharaca - A scraper, common in vallenato
• guache - Rattles made from filling metal or gourd tubes with seeds[2]
• guateque - Originally a Cuban word referring to a rural campesino party, which came to refer to a form of salsa dura, characterized by "slow, grinding son montunos with heavy bass and percussion; associated also with El guateque de la salsa (The Salsa Party), a popular radio show from 1989 to 1993[1]

I

• música de la interior - An Andean style, often used synonymously with bambuco, characterized by a gentle and melodic sound and a well-developed melody at the expense of rhythmic complexity[2]

J

• joropo - Originally a folk dance performed in honor of saints days and other special occasions, such as birthdays and baptism;[2] now more often a generic word for llanera based dance music;[2] a courtship dance associated with central Colombia and that region's cowboy culture, a "dynamic, polyrhythmic mestizo style that fuses Andalusian, African and indigenous elements"[1]

K

• kiosco - A community pavilion, used for musical performances[1]
• kuisi - an indigenous flute made from a hollowed cactus stem, with a beeswax and charcoal powder mixture for the head, with a quill made from a goose or turkey feather for the mouthpiece. There are male and female versions of the pipe (or gaita in Spanish), the female kuisi bunsi (or gaita hembra) with 5 holes, and the male kuisi sigi (or gaita macho) with two.[3]

L

• llamador - A drum, traditionally used in cumbia as well as modern música tropical[1]
• llanera - A form of harp-led music[2]

M

• marimbula - A low-pitched thumb piano[2]
• flauto de millo - A folk clarinet of the Atlantic coast[2]
• melómano - A "music aficionado"[1]
• música - Literally music, music forms are alphabetized by their descriptor, e.g. música antillana is alphabetized under antillana

N

• música de negros - Literally black people's music, a pejorative term used by the elite to deride musics such as música antillana[1]
• nueva ola - Literally new wave, a kind of pop-balada performed by romantic crooners, which peaked in the 1960s and 70s[1]

O

• orquesta - A dance band[1]
• orquesta femenina - An all-female dance ensemble[1]
• orquesta infantile - An all-child dance ensemble[1]
• orquesta juvenile - An all-youth dance ensemble[1]

P

• pachanga - An early form of New York salsa, popular in Colombia during the 1960s, especially in the city of Cali[4]
• pachuco - An iconic figure, a "ruffian and a hustler... an antihero", especially important in the culture surrounding the Zona de tolerancia[1]
• parrandero - A typical lyrical focus of the more macho side of popular cumbia, referring to a boasting, aggressive and sexual "party-going man"[2]
• pasillo - A lyric song form from the Andean region[1]
• el paso Caleño - A traditional dance step from the city of Cali, characterized by a "rapid 'double-time' shuffle on the tips of the toes"[1]
• pasta americana - Carrito slang referring to the thicker and higher quality vinyl of American records
• picó - Derived from the English pickup, a large sound system among DJs in Cartagena and Barranquilla during the 1980s[1]
• pop tropical - A form of mid-1990s pop-salsa[1]
• porro - A music genre. A village brass band;[2] a song form performed by the flute-and-drum ensembles of the Atlantic coast region, as well as mid-20th century urban dance orquestas[1]

R

• raspa - A simplied form of música tropical which emerged in the late 1960s[1]
• refajo - A street slang from the Zona de tolerancia in Cali[1]
• rock en español - Spanish language rock music, most closely associated with the cities of Bogotá and Medellín in Colombia[1]
• rumba - Partying or merry-making, compare to rumbero, a party[1]

S

• salsa - A Spanish Caribbean dance music created in New York City using elements of Afro-Cuban and Puerto Rican music, a combination known in Colombia as musica antillana[1]
• salsíbiri - A term coined by Fruko to describe his own style[1]
• salsómano - A salsa fan[1]
• salsoteca - A venue that plays salsa
• serenata - A pan-Latin tradition of street serenades performed by small groups of instrumentalists, especially guitarists[1]

T

• tambor hembra - The lead frum of the Atlantic coast drum choirs[2]
• tambor macho - A conga-like drum that leads the basic rhythm of the Atlantic coast drum choirs[2]
• terapia - An alternate term for champeta[1]
• musica tropical - A form of salsa-based music innovated by Joe Arroyo;[2] a form of dance music based on various Atlantic coast genres[1]
• tiple - A small stringed instrument, used in llanera[2] and musica andina[1]

V

• vallenato - A form of accordion-based music, related to música tropical and cumbia, and originally associated with the Atlantic Coast
• vallenato-protesta - A form of vallenato-based protest song[2]
• verbena - Free street parties held during the December Feria and sponsored by the city of Cali[1]
• viejoteca - Dance parties, originally appearing in 1993 for senior citizens but later appealing to middle-aged partygoers and finally abandoning any age restrictions; these viejotecas became associated with a revival of the agüelulos and nightclub scenes of the 1960s and 70s; originally from Cali, viejotecas have spread to Medellin and Cartagena[1]

Z

• zarzuela - Operettas[1]

See also

• Music

References

1. Wazer, Lise A. (2002). The City of Musical Memory: Salsa, Record Grooves, and Popular Culture in Cali, Colombia. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 0-8195-6441-9.
2. Burton, Kim. "El Sonido Dorado". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), World Music, Vol. 2: Latin & North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific, pp 372-385. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books. ISBN 1-85828-636-0
3. Sturman, Janet L. (2003). "Technology and Identity in Colombian Popular Music". In René T.A., Lysloff; Leslie C., Gay (eds.). Music and technoculture (illustrated ed.). Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press. pp. 153–180. ISBN 0-8195-6514-8. Retrieved 2009-08-16.
4. Waxer, pg. 92; Waxer cites the Cali claim to Helio Orovo, from personal communication on May 31, 1996