Music of Cuba: Topics
Bolero	Chachachá
Charanga	Classical music
Contradanza	Conga
Danzón	Filín
Guajira	Guaracha
Habanera	Jazz
Hip hop	Mambo
Musical theatre	Nueva trova
Rumba	Son
Timba	Trova
History
Awards	Beny Moré Award
National anthem	"La Bayamesa"
Caribbean music
Bahamas - Bermuda - Cayman Islands - Cuba - Dominican Republic - Haiti - Jamaica - Lesser Antilles - Puerto Rico - Trinidad and Tobago - Turks and Caicos Islands

Guajira is a form of Cuban música campesina (countryside music). As sung, it has some similarity to the criolla^[1] and the punto.^[2] It contains bucolic countryside lyrics, rhyming, similar to décima poetry. The music is a mixture of 3/4 and 6/8 rhythms. According to Sánchez de Fuentes, its first section is in a minor key, its second section in a major key.^[3] Secondly, it is now used mostly to describe slow dance music in 4/4 time, a fusion of the son and the guajira.

The guajira often sung by a single musician accompanying himself on guitar (Orovio 1981:227); see trova. The lyrics of the guajira typically extol the beauty of the Cuban countryside and the lifestyle of the guajiros (countryside peasants). (Alén 1994:64). The combination of the guajira with the rhythm of the son produced an offshoot called the guajira-son.

Contents 1 Popularity 2 Spanish version 3 See also 4 References

[edit] Popularity

Guajira was refined and popularized by the Cuban singer-songwriter and guitarist Guillermo Portabales, whose elegant style has become known as guajira de salón. From the 1930s until his death in a traffic accident in Puerto Rico in 1970, Portabales recorded and performed salon guajira throughout North and South America to tremendous popular acclaim.

[edit] Spanish version

A Spanish variant of the Guajira has evolved into a form of flamenco cante (song-type).^[4][5] [1][2].

[edit] See also

• Punto guajiro

[edit] References

• Alén, Olavo 1994. De lo afro a la salsa. [From Afrocuban music to salsa] La Habana, Ediciones ARTEX.
• Manuel, Peter 2004. The guajira between Cuba and Spain: a study in continuity and change. Latin American Music Review. 25/2, p137-62.
• Orovio, Helio 1981. Diccionario de la música cubana. La Habana, Editorial Letras Cubanas. ISBN 959-10-0048-0