TRADITIONS, FAIRS AND FESTIVALS

EL COLEO

Coleo is a traditional Venezuelan and Colombian sport, very similar to a rodeo, where a small group of llaneros (cowboys) on horseback pursue cattle at high speeds through a narrow pathway (called a manga de coleo) in order to drop or tumble them.

Coleos are usually presented as a side attraction to a larger event, such as a religious festival. They are very popular in Venezuela and in parts of Colombia, mostly in the plains (llanos).

A coleo starts with the participants and a calf or bull (this depends on the age and stature of the competitors) locked behind a trap door. The trap door leads to a narrow earthen pathway about 100 metres long with high guard rails, open at the other end. When a judge gives a signal, the calf is set loose and starts running. A couple of seconds later, the riders are released and they race to grab the calf by its tail. The rider who accomplishes this first will increase speed, dragging the calf until it finally stumbles. The object is to accomplish this in the shortest time.

Coleo can be a dangerous sport, and most of the participants are male. However coleos in which all the contestants are female are not uncommon. Accidents can happen, because the riders compete aggressively and ride at high speed with minimal bodily protection. Additionally, some spectators attend coleos sitting on top of the high guard rails, and the occasional excited or drunken spectator may fall or collide with the riders or the bull itself.

Joropo

The Joropo is a musical style resembling the waltz, and an accompanying dance, having African and European influences. It is a fundamental genre belonging to Venezuela, specifically to its typical music or música criolla (creole music). It is also the most popular "folk rhythm": the well-known song "Alma Llanera" is a joropo, considered the unofficial national anthem of Venezuela.


In 1882 it became Venezuela's national dance. Formerly, the Spanish word joropo meant "a party", but now it has come to mean a type of music and dance that identifies Venezuelans. This is because in the 18th century the llaneros started using the word “joropo” instead of the word "fandango", which was the word used at the time for party and dance.


Classification


There are three types of joropo: llanero, central, and oriental.


• The joropo llanero is played with the nylon stringed harp, bandola llanera, the cuatro, and the maracas.


• The joropo central is played with a metal stringed harp, maracas, and voice.


• The joropo oriental has additional instruments such as guitar, mandolin, bandola oriental and (rarely) accordion.






Playing


The Joropo is played with the arpa llanera (harp), bandola, cuatro, and maracas (ibid), making use of polyrhythmic patterns, especially of hemiola, and alternation of 3/4 and 6/8 tempos. It was originally played, most often also sung, by the llaneros, the inhabitants of Colombian and Venezuela Llanos (plains), and thus also called música llanera (ibid).


The singer and the harp or bandola may perform the main melody while a cuatro performs the accompaniment, adding its characteristic rhythmic, sharp percussive effect. The cuatro and the bandola are four-stringed instruments which are descendants of the Spanish guitar. The only real percussion instruments used are the maracas. Besides the genre and dance, the name joropo also means the performance, the event or occasion of performance.


Dancing


The joropo adopted and still uses the hand turn, the movement of the feet, and waltz turns. First, the partners dance a type of waltz holding each other tightly. Then they stand facing each other and make small steps forward and backward as if sweeping the floor. Lastly they hold each others’ arms, and the woman does sweeping steps while the man stomps his feet along with the music’s rhythm.


Evolution and more refined forms


In modern times, several other instruments have been adding themselves to playing various parts in Joropo performances, for instance, guitar, flute, clarinet, piano, and so on, up to having a complete symphony orchestra playing Joropo arrangements. Since the 1950s the Venezuelan composer Aldemaro Romero pioneered praiseworthy orchestrations of numerous Joropos, among other native Venezuelan genres, allowing international audiences to enjoy the beautiful Venezuelan music, albeit in a more conventional presentation. Curiously enough, it often happens that when a Symphony Orchestra plays a Joropo, the cuatro is still included.

EL CONTRAPUNTEO

The Contrapunteo is a musical genre that has typically been developed in Venezuela. It is the confrontation between two or more people who play with improvised verse and song, which is called música llanera. Who troves better is the winner, the container must follow the rhyme as the last words of the challenger, they usually used llanos words to rhyme typical.