Musical Styles from Colombia
1 – The “Torbellino” is a peasant’s song from the central and North Eastern regions of Colombia. It has a lively in character, and it can be instrumental or vocal. It is transcribed in 3/4 meter, and its harmonic cycle is short, just three chords in swift rolls, usually allowing great virtuosity in improvisations on the Requinto (a small steel-string guitar)
2 – The “Schiotis” is one of the few binary dances of Colombian Andean music. A distant relative of Polka, it came to the continent from Spain in the form of a Salon dance. The word “Schiotis” derives from “Scottish.” Its harmonic structure is quite simple.
3 – The “Corrio” is one of the rhythms belonging to the “Joropo System” (as some scholars have called it); these are written under a 3/4-6/8 time signature, with a shifting matrix of accented eighth notes. “Joropo” music is entirely an oral tradition of the great plains of the Orinoco basin which spans Colombia and Venezuela. In Joropo we can distinguish three musical forms: “Tonada” (slow song form), “Pasaje” (medium tempo) and “Golpe” (fast).
