Page 37 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Argentina

A POR TR AIT OF ARGENTINA  35

Chacarera is played on the guitar, violin, and
bombo legüero (drum), and sometimes with an
accordion. It is an upbeat country rhythm with
a dance akin to a line dance with couples
moving in and out of the embrace position.
Los Chalchaleros are the best-known
performers of this popular genre.

La Nueva Canción is a pan-national movement that
emerged in the wake of the successful Cuban
Revolution, when Latin American songwriters began to
compose protest songs. Argentina’s Mercedes Sosa was
an early pioneer and over a span of 30 years has
become the best-known exponent of the style.

Mapuche Music
Although recordings of the
musical traditions of the now
extinct Tehuelche, Diaguita, and
Querandies cultures are difficult
to find, there is still a living
Mapuche tradition in Argentina.
Bombo legüero, an Andean A siku, pan pipe Artists such as Beatriz Pichi
skin drum made of bamboo Malen per form songs in
Mapundungun, the Mapuche
tongue, and incorporate native
instruments and ancient poetry
into their composi tions. Mapuche singer Beatriz
Quena, a traditional six-hole Mapuche music springs from a Pichi Malen
bamboo flute tradition of living in close and
harmonious contact with nature. Unlike most Western
Folklore instruments such as the pan music, it is not codified or written but based on natural
flute and quena are the essentials of melodic patterns and ancestral rhythms that are trans-
Andean music, and are often combined mitted orally. Mapuche music influences their poetry,
with the charango and violin. Mapuche dance, dramatic repre sen ta tions, empirical medicine,
folk musicians have their own distinct ive as well as religious beliefs.
instruments, including the trutruka (horn)
and kultrun (hide-drum).
Rock nacional started in Buenos Aires and Rosario in the 1960s.
Although initially incor porating many British rock influ ences,
musicians later explored local musical roots and created a
distinctive sound. Santa Fe-born León Gieco (left) is a well-loved
veteran performer of folk-rock music.

Pop and fusion thrive in
Argentina, as young people
are able to explore inter-
national musi cians as well as
listen to major local bands
such as Divididos and Bersuit
Vergarabat. Soda Stereo, led
by Gustavo Cerati (right), is
the most successful band to
emerge in Argentina in the
past 30 years.

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