Jíbaro Music
Jíbaro Music: Explain the Complex Culture of East Caribbean
Music is one of the most common topics that we talk about all the time because we all have our favorite music. Especially, Caribbean has numerous carnivals, which must have lots of different music. I always find South American music has lot of energy and passion; it makes people want to dance right the way. And, I am particularly interested in the diversity of Caribbean music. There are plenty unique musical instruments of Caribbean at second floor of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Jíbaro Guitar is one of the only known stringed instruments from 19th-century Puerto Rico, the work and other musical instruments in the same gallery are not only pieces of rare collections. They are …show more content…
It is almost the half size of a regular guitar. The color is light brown. Five strings, a small whole at the center, simple line art carved on the wooden surface. (Fig 1) It has the form of cuatro, a Latin American instrument adopted from four-string Spanish guitar. In the history, Puerto Rico was Spain’s colonial between 1493 and 1898. Spanish brought lots of cultural elements to this island. For example, decima(a ten-line stanza of poetry), Andalusian harmonies, and again, guitar-like cuatro are parts of Jíbaro music. Jíbaro Guitar has five strings, which is in the range of that cuatro; it often has more than four strings. In one of the most iconic paintings of Caribbean culture, The Wake, (Fig2) painted by Francisco Oller’s El velorio in 1893, has a scene at left where a group of people was playing music. Most of the instruments are in the Gallery 683. In the middle of the group, a Jíbaro is playing a cuatro, which looks almost like Jíbaro Guitar. As we can see, the Spain influenced musical instruments - cuatro is really popular in the Puerto Rican culture. In other words, Jíbaro Guitar has the Spanish influence in terms of the instruments function and development. At the side and back of Jíbaro Guitar, those carved decoration is an African art. Once we look at those simple lines and shape, we will easily connect it to the Kente Cloth. (Fig 3,4,5) Those straight lines are very simple, but
Music is one of the most common topics that we talk about all the time because we all have our favorite music. Especially, Caribbean has numerous carnivals, which must have lots of different music. I always find South American music has lot of energy and passion; it makes people want to dance right the way. And, I am particularly interested in the diversity of Caribbean music. There are plenty unique musical instruments of Caribbean at second floor of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Jíbaro Guitar is one of the only known stringed instruments from 19th-century Puerto Rico, the work and other musical instruments in the same gallery are not only pieces of rare collections. They are …show more content…
It is almost the half size of a regular guitar. The color is light brown. Five strings, a small whole at the center, simple line art carved on the wooden surface. (Fig 1) It has the form of cuatro, a Latin American instrument adopted from four-string Spanish guitar. In the history, Puerto Rico was Spain’s colonial between 1493 and 1898. Spanish brought lots of cultural elements to this island. For example, decima(a ten-line stanza of poetry), Andalusian harmonies, and again, guitar-like cuatro are parts of Jíbaro music. Jíbaro Guitar has five strings, which is in the range of that cuatro; it often has more than four strings. In one of the most iconic paintings of Caribbean culture, The Wake, (Fig2) painted by Francisco Oller’s El velorio in 1893, has a scene at left where a group of people was playing music. Most of the instruments are in the Gallery 683. In the middle of the group, a Jíbaro is playing a cuatro, which looks almost like Jíbaro Guitar. As we can see, the Spain influenced musical instruments - cuatro is really popular in the Puerto Rican culture. In other words, Jíbaro Guitar has the Spanish influence in terms of the instruments function and development. At the side and back of Jíbaro Guitar, those carved decoration is an African art. Once we look at those simple lines and shape, we will easily connect it to the Kente Cloth. (Fig 3,4,5) Those straight lines are very simple, but