World Music Exploration 2010/11 Week 5 - Traditional Argentine Music

This month, my students and I will be exploring the music of Argentina. This week, we're listening to traditional music. As with the traditional music of Australia (last month's adventure), traditional music in Argentina is tied to folk dances. Most people think "tango" when they think of Argentine music (me too). For that very reason, I searched for non-tango music examples. There are several types of traditional music in Argentina, including:

  • the Chámame: a lively dance with elements from European polkas and waltzes from Eastern Argentina,

  • the Cuarteto: an upbeat dance that resembles the mergenue but has strong Spanish and Italian folk music elements. The music is played by accordions, pianos and violins and,

  • the Chacarera: a lively dance that emerged from NW Argentina's rural areas. It's a lively square dance with music played by the Spanish guitar and drums.

This week's clip features the Chacarera:

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