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Cuatro (Venezuela)
Encyclopedia
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
has four single nylon strings, tuned
Musical tuning
In music, there are two common meanings for tuning:* Tuning practice, the act of tuning an instrument or voice.* Tuning systems, the various systems of pitches used to tune an instrument, and their theoretical bases.-Tuning practice:...
(ad'f#'b). It is similar in shape and tuning to the ukulele
Ukulele
The ukulele, ; from ; it is a subset of the guitar family of instruments, generally with four nylon or gut strings or four courses of strings....
, but their character and playing technique are vastly different. It is tuned in a similar fashion to the traditional D tuning of the ukulele
Ukulele
The ukulele, ; from ; it is a subset of the guitar family of instruments, generally with four nylon or gut strings or four courses of strings....
, but the A and B are an octave
Octave
In music, an octave is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the "basic miracle of music", the use of which is "common in most musical systems"...
lower. Consequently, the same fingering can be used to shape the chords
Chord (music)
A chord in music is any harmonic set of two–three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously. These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may for many practical and theoretical purposes be understood as chords...
, but it produces a different inversion of each chord.
A cuatro player is called a cuatrista.
History
Its 15th-Century ancestor was the Portuguese CavaquinhoCavaquinho
The cavaquinho is a small string instrument of the European guitar family with four wire or gut strings. It is also called machimbo, machim, machete , manchete or marchete, braguinha or braguinho, or cavaco.The most common tuning is D-G-B-D ; other tunings include D-A-B-E...
.
The predecessor of the Venezuelan cuatro is the four-string Spanish guitar which disappeared in the 16th century after a short period of surging popularity
Popularity
Popularity is the quality of being well-liked or common, or having a high social status. Popularity figures are an important part of many people's personal value systems and form a vital component of success in people-oriented fields such as management, politics, and entertainment, among...
. In the 1950s, Fredy Reyna
Fredy Reyna
Fredy Reyna was a Venezuelan musician, arranger and performer, regarded as the undisputed master of the Venezuelan cuatro, which he elevated to the level of a concert instrument, and one of his country's most important cultural figures in the 20th century.- Early life :Fredy Reyna was born in...
documented the evolution of the renaissance guitar into the current Venezuelan Cuatro, and reinvented the cuatro as a solo instrument, equally capable of rendering traditional Venezuelan music as well as Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
pieces. The popularity of the instrument in Venezuela and elsewhere may be due to its apparent simplicity, having only four strings, as well as its compact size.
The design and quality of its construction may vary widely, from rustic, inexpensive instruments, to the custom-built Concert Cuatro, comparable to the finest Classical Guitar
Classical guitar
The classical guitar is a 6-stringed plucked string instrument from the family of instruments called chordophones...
s. The cuatro is often said to be the Caribbean version of the Ukelele, having a similar sound, looks, and tuning; and being used in Venezuela, Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
, and throughout various other Caribbean spots.
Playing
The cuatro is particularly designed for strumming: the fingerboardFingerboard
The fingerboard is a part of most stringed instruments. It is a thin, long strip of material, usually wood, that is laminated to the front of the neck of an instrument and above which the strings run...
finishes flush with the top of the instrument, and the upper half of the sound board is often completely covered by a scratch plate made from hardwood
Hardwood
Hardwood is wood from angiosperm trees . It may also be used for those trees themselves: these are usually broad-leaved; in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen.Hardwood contrasts with softwood...
.
Most of Venezuelan folkloric music relies on the cuatro as its rhythmic and harmonic base. It is used in most genres of the different regions of Venezuela, such as Joropo
Joropo
The Joropo is a musical style resembling the waltz, and an accompanying dance, having African and European influences originated in Venezuela and performed in Colombia and Venezuela. It's a fundamental genre belonging to its typical music or música criolla...
in the Llanos, Gaita
Gaita (music style)
Gaita is a style of Venezuelan folk music from Maracaibo in Zulia State. According to Joan Corominas, it may come from gaits, the Gothic word for "goat", which is the skin generally used for the membrane of the furro instrument. Other instruments used in gaita include maracas, cuatro, charrasca and...
in Zulia, Galerón in the Oriente or calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
in Trinidad.
A recent evolution in playing technique has made the cuatro a versatile instrument capable of handling, on its own, solo parts including both melody and harmony. The technical and musical knowledge and expertise required to be able to play the instrument in this way is astounding. The results have made Venezuelan traditional music leap to a whole new level of complexity, many times encompassing the utilization of Jazz harmonic structures and melodic phrasing to enrich many traditional tunes. An example of this is the exceptional technique and knowledge of the instrument demonstrated by Venezuelan musician Cheo Hurtado
Cheo Hurtado
Cheo Hurtado is a Venezuelan musician, one of the most celebrated virtuoso performers of the cuatro, whose extremely agile strumming technique is currently believed to be unsurpassed. He also plays mandolin, bandola and guitar.-Biography:...
. The cuatro used in Waltz
Waltz
The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
, joropo
Joropo
The Joropo is a musical style resembling the waltz, and an accompanying dance, having African and European influences originated in Venezuela and performed in Colombia and Venezuela. It's a fundamental genre belonging to its typical music or música criolla...
, parang
Parang
Parang is a popular folk music originating out of Trinidad and Tobago, it was brought to Trinidad by Venezuelan migrants who were primarily of Amerindian and African heritage, something which is strongly reflected in the music itself. The word is derived from two Spanish words:'Parranda', meaning...
, calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
, and soca
Soca music
Soca is a style of music from Trinidad and Tobago. Soca is a musical development of traditional Trinidadian calypso, through loans from the 1960s onwards from predominantly black popular music....
.
Tuning
- A perfect fourthPerfect fourthIn classical music from Western culture, a fourth is a musical interval encompassing four staff positions , and the perfect fourth is a fourth spanning five semitones. For example, the ascending interval from C to the next F is a perfect fourth, as the note F lies five semitones above C, and there...
between strings 1 and 2. - A major thirdMajor thirdIn classical music from Western culture, a third is a musical interval encompassing three staff positions , and the major third is one of two commonly occurring thirds. It is qualified as major because it is the largest of the two: the major third spans four semitones, the minor third three...
between strings 2 and 3. - A major secondMajor secondIn Western music theory, a major second is a musical interval spanning two semitones, and encompassing two adjacent staff positions . For example, the interval from C to D is a major second, as the note D lies two semitones above C, and the two notes are notated on adjacent staff postions...
between strings 1 and 4.
The most popular tuning for the cuatro is A D F# B, with the B string tuned to a major second interval from the A string (instead of the more "guitar-like" perfect fourth from the F#). This feature where the strings are not tuned from low to high is known as "reentrant tuning
Reentrant tuning
A reentrant tuning is a tuning of a stringed instrument where the strings are not ordered from the lowest pitch to the highest pitch ....
" and is believed to have originated as a way to prolong the life of gut strings, which were used until the early 20th century. Reentrant tuning helps to achieve similar sounds between the downstroke and the upstroke on strummed instruments. The 5-string banjo also uses reentrant tuning.
Fredy Reyna
Fredy Reyna was a Venezuelan musician, arranger and performer, regarded as the undisputed master of the Venezuelan cuatro, which he elevated to the level of a concert instrument, and one of his country's most important cultural figures in the 20th century.- Early life :Fredy Reyna was born in...
altered the way the cuatro is strung and broke with reentrant tuning. His cuatro, called "solista" (soloist), was tuned in strict ascending pitch order. After trying many tunings, Reyna settled on (E A C# F#) as the one he used the most. In doing this, he (inadvertently at the time) arrived at the stringing and tuning of the Renaissance guitar. His work has been meticulously documented by Reyna himself, but it has not been widely adopted.
A popular way to remember the tuning of the cuatro among Venezuelan cuatro players is to play each string individually from top to bottom, while singing the words "Cam-bur pin-tón" in the same expected notes of the four cuatro strings. (Cambur Pintón means Ripe Banana in Venezuela. The phrase is used mainly because its four syllables are long and because of its easy-to-remember nature). A variation is "Hi-pó-cri-ta", playing the strings from bottom to top.
The "Venezuelan" cuatro in other countries
The cuatro is an important part of "música llanera", belonging to the Venezuelan area known as "El Llano". As such, el cuatro is widely used in eastern Colombia. El cuatro is also used in Trinidad and TobagoTrinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
to accompany musical bands at Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
time singing about the birth of Christ. This type of music is called parang
Parang
Parang is a popular folk music originating out of Trinidad and Tobago, it was brought to Trinidad by Venezuelan migrants who were primarily of Amerindian and African heritage, something which is strongly reflected in the music itself. The word is derived from two Spanish words:'Parranda', meaning...
, from the word "parranda," meaning "to make merry." Parang music mixed with a calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
flavor has found itself deeply rooted in the culture of the people of this Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
country. The language use in the songs is mostly Spanish but Patois
Patois
Patois is any language that is considered nonstandard, although the term is not formally defined in linguistics. It can refer to pidgins, creoles, dialects, and other forms of native or local speech, but not commonly to jargon or slang, which are vocabulary-based forms of cant...
and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
is used as well. This richly adds to the rhythmic sounds of this versatile instrument.
The cuatro, under the name cuarta, is also very popular on the Dutch Lesser Antilles, Aruba
Aruba
Aruba is a 33 km-long island of the Lesser Antilles in the southern Caribbean Sea, located 27 km north of the coast of Venezuela and 130 km east of Guajira Peninsula...
, Curaçao
Curaçao
Curaçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands...
and Bonaire, where it is used for different types of music, including the traditional tumba, waltz, danza, polka, calypso, bolero, march and several others.
Some famous Venezuelan cuatro players
- Simón DíazSimón DíazSimón Narciso Díaz Márquez is a singer and Grammy Award winning composer of Venezuelan music.- Career :Díaz has endeavored to recover the folklore and musical traditions of the llanos, the Venezuelan plains...
– Venezuelan singer and cuatro player. While not a cuatro virtuoso "Uncle Simón" is the face of the llaneroLlaneroA llanero is a Venezuelan or Colombian herder. The name is taken from the Llanos grasslands occupying western Venezuela and eastern Colombia. The Llanero were originally part Spanish and Indian and have a strong culture including a distinctive form of music.During the wars of independence,...
folksinger. His is the composer of "Caballo Viejo" and "El Becerrito" - Hernán GamboaHernán GamboaHernan Gamboa was born in San Tomé, in the State of Anzoátegui, located in the eastern part of Venezuela, June 18, 1946. He is the son of Carmito Gamboa Almeida and Carmen Alexis Gamboa....
– Founding member of Serenata GuayanesaSerenata GuayanesaSerenata Guayanesa is a vocal and instrumental quartet that plays typical Venezuelan folk music. It is one of the two best known groups playing this music .-Origins of the group:...
. Left in the 1980s to pursue a solo career. Invented a method to play the cuatro called "rasgapunteo" (Spanish) - Cheo HurtadoCheo HurtadoCheo Hurtado is a Venezuelan musician, one of the most celebrated virtuoso performers of the cuatro, whose extremely agile strumming technique is currently believed to be unsurpassed. He also plays mandolin, bandola and guitar.-Biography:...
of Ensamble GurrufíoEnsamble GurrufíoThe Ensamble Gurrufío is a celebrated quartet dedicated to the research, arrangement and reinterpretation of Venezuelan instrumental music. Their approach has to do with a new, classically-schooled, educated style, but allowing for improvisation as a fundamental element, leaving ample room for the... - Nil LaraNil laraNil Lara is a Cuban-American musician from Miami, Florida who is a singer, guitarist and songwriter, playing the tres, the six-stringed Cuban guitar, and the cuatro, a Venezuelan guitar.- Biography :...
- Fredy ReynaFredy ReynaFredy Reyna was a Venezuelan musician, arranger and performer, regarded as the undisputed master of the Venezuelan cuatro, which he elevated to the level of a concert instrument, and one of his country's most important cultural figures in the 20th century.- Early life :Fredy Reyna was born in...
– took the playing capabilities of the instrument to new heights, and created a method of teaching the cuatro. Famous soloist. - Juan Carlos SalazarJuan Carlos SalazarJuan Carlos Salazar is a well known Venezuelan singer and cuatro player. Juan Carlos was born in Caripito, a small town in the State of Monagas. Born to a singer, guitarist and cuatro player and a composer, Juan Carlos learned how to play cuatro and guitar by ear.Juan Carlos Salazar actually began...
– Venezuelan singer, guitar and cuatro player.