Bolero is a genre of
song
A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...
which originated in
eastern Cuba in the late 19th century as part of the
trova
''Trova'' is a style of Cuban popular music originating in the 19th century. Trova was created by itinerant musicians known as ''trovadores'' who travelled around Cuba's Oriente province, especially Santiago de Cuba, and earned their living by s ...
tradition. Unrelated to the older
Spanish dance of the same name, bolero is characterized by sophisticated lyrics dealing with love. It has been called the "quintessential Latin American romantic song of the twentieth century".
Unlike the simpler, thematically diverse ''
canción
''Canción'' ("song") is a popular genre of Latin American music, particularly in Cuba, where many of the compositions originate.Orovio, Helio 2004. ''Cuban music from A to Z''. p42 Its roots lie in Spanish popular song forms, including tiranas, ...
'', bolero did not stem directly from the European lyrical tradition, which included Italian
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...
and
canzone
Literally "song" in Italian, a ''canzone'' (, plural: ''canzoni''; cognate with English ''to chant'') is an Italian or Provençal song or ballad. It is also used to describe a type of lyric which resembles a madrigal. Sometimes a composition w ...
, popular in urban centers like Havana at the time. Instead, it was born as a form of romantic folk poetry cultivated by a new breed of
troubadour
A troubadour (, ; oc, trobador ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a ''trobairit ...
from
Santiago de Cuba
Santiago de Cuba is the second-largest city in Cuba and the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province. It lies in the southeastern area of the island, some southeast of the Cuban capital of Havana.
The municipality extends over , and contains t ...
, the ''trovadores''.
Pepe Sánchez is considered the father of this movement and the author of the first bolero, "Tristezas", written in 1883.
Originally, boleros were sung by individual ''trovadores'' while playing
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
. Over time, it became common for trovadores to play in groups as ''dúos'', ''tríos'', ''cuartetos'', etc. Thanks to the
Trío Matamoros
The Trío Matamoros was one of the most popular Cuban trova groups. It was formed in 1925 by Miguel Matamoros (8 May 1894 in Santiago de Cuba – 15 April 1971; guitar), Rafael Cueto (14 March 1900 in Santiago de Cuba – 7 August 1991; g ...
and, later,
Trío Los Panchos, bolero achieved widespread popularity in Latin America, the United States and Spain. At the same time, Havana had become a fertile ground where bolero composers met to create compositions and improvise new tunes; it was the so-called ''
filin'' movement, which derived its name from the English word "''feeling''". Many of the genre's most enduring pieces were written then and popularized in radio and cabaret performances by singers such as
Olga Guillot
Olga Guillot (October 9, 1922 – July 12, 2010) was a Cuban singer who was known as the "Queen of Bolero". She was a native of Santiago de Cuba.
Biography
Daughter of Catalan-Jewish immigrants who moved to Cuba, her father was a tailor and her ...
and
Elena Burke
Elena Burke (born Romana Elena Burgues Gonzalez on February 28, 1928, in Havana, Cuba – June 9, 2002 in Havana, Cuba) was a revered and popular Cuban singer of boleros and romantic ballads.
Biography
She started her career by working in rad ...
, backed by orchestras and big bands.
Boleros are generally in 4/4 time and, musically, compositions and arrangements might take a variety of forms. This flexibility has enabled boleros to feature in the repertoire of Cuban
son
A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative.
Social issues
In pre-industrial societies and some current c ...
and
rumba
The term rumba may refer to a variety of unrelated music styles. Originally, "rumba" was used as a synonym for "party" in northern Cuba, and by the late 19th century it was used to denote the complex of secular music styles known as Cuban rumba ...
ensembles, as well as Spanish
copla and
flamenco
Flamenco (), in its strictest sense, is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and ...
singers, since the early 20th century. Occasionally, boleros have been merged with other forms to yield new subgenres, such as the bolero-son, popular in the 1930s and 1940s, and the bolero-cha, popular in the 1950s. In the United States, the
rhumba ballroom dance emerged as an adaptation of the bolero-son in the 1930s. Boleros can also be found in the
African rumba
Congolese rumba is a popular genre of dance music that originated in the Congo basin during the 1940s, deriving from Cuban son. The style gained popularity throughout Africa during the 1960s and 1970s.
It is known as Lingala in Kenya, Uganda, ...
repertoire of many artists from
Kinshasa
Kinshasa (; ; ln, Kinsásá), formerly Léopoldville ( nl, Leopoldstad), is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages situated along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one o ...
to
Dakar
Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital and largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 3.94 million in 2 ...
, due to the many bolero records that were distributed to radios there as part of the
G.V. Series
The G.V. Series (perhaps for ''Grabación Victor'') were a series of 10 inch 78 rpm Gramophone records produced in Europe and the United States from 1933 to 1958, and exported (or repressed on site) to colonial Tropical Africa. They are cred ...
. The popularity of the genre has also been felt as far as Vietnam, where it became a fashionable song style in
South Vietnam
South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...
before the
Fall of Saigon
The Fall of Saigon, also known as the Liberation of Saigon by North Vietnamese or Liberation of the South by the Vietnamese government, and known as Black April by anti-communist overseas Vietnamese was the capture of Saigon, the capital of ...
in 1975 and remains popular with Vietnamese.
History
Origins
In
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
, the bolero was perhaps the first great Cuban musical and vocal synthesis to win universal recognition. In time, this dance music spread to other countries, leaving behind what Ed Morales has called the "most popular lyric tradition in Latin America."
[Morales, p120]
The Cuban bolero tradition originated in
Santiago de Cuba
Santiago de Cuba is the second-largest city in Cuba and the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province. It lies in the southeastern area of the island, some southeast of the Cuban capital of Havana.
The municipality extends over , and contains t ...
in the last quarter of the 19th century; it does not owe its origin to the Spanish music and song of the same name. In the 19th century there grew up in Santiago de Cuba a group of itinerant musicians who moved around earning their living by singing and playing the guitar.
Pepe Sanchez
Pepe is a pet form of the Spanish name José (Josep). It is also a surname.
*
People
Mononyms
*Pepe (footballer, born 1935), real name José Macia, Brazilian footballer
*Pepe (footballer, born 1983), real name Képler Laveran Lima Ferreira, ...
is known as the father of the ''
trova
''Trova'' is a style of Cuban popular music originating in the 19th century. Trova was created by itinerant musicians known as ''trovadores'' who travelled around Cuba's Oriente province, especially Santiago de Cuba, and earned their living by s ...
'' style and the creator of the Cuban bolero. Untrained, but with remarkable natural talent, he composed numbers in his head and never wrote them down. As a result, most of these numbers are now lost, but two dozen or so survive because friends and students wrote them down. He was the model and teacher for the great trovadores who followed.
Spread in Latin America
![Julio jaramillo laurido2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Julio_jaramillo_laurido2.jpg)
The bolero first spread from the east of Cuba to the Dominican Republic in the year 1895, thanks to ''
trovador''
Sindo Garay
Sindo Garay (born Antonio Gumersindo Garay García; Santiago de Cuba, 12 April 1867 – Havana, 17 July 1968) was a Cuban trova musician. He was taught by Pepe Sánchez. Garay was one of the ''four greats of the trova''. He was of Spanish a ...
, who had previously brought the criolla "La Dorila" to Cuba, giving rise to a lasting interchange of lyrical styles between both islands.
In the early 20th century the bolero reached Puerto Rico and Mexico, where it was popularized by the first radio stations around 1915.
In Mexico, the genre became an essential component of the thriving
trova yucateca movement in
Yucatán
Yucatán (, also , , ; yua, Yúukatan ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán,; yua, link=no, Xóot' Noj Lu'umil Yúukatan. is one of the 31 states which comprise the political divisions of Mexico, federal entities of Mexico. I ...
alongside other Cuban forms such as the clave. It leading exponent was
Guty Cárdenas.
By the 1930s, when
Trío Matamoros
The Trío Matamoros was one of the most popular Cuban trova groups. It was formed in 1925 by Miguel Matamoros (8 May 1894 in Santiago de Cuba – 15 April 1971; guitar), Rafael Cueto (14 March 1900 in Santiago de Cuba – 7 August 1991; g ...
made famous their mix of bolero and
son cubano
Son cubano is a genre of music and dance that originated in the highlands of eastern Cuba during the late 19th century. It is a syncretic genre that blends elements of Spanish and African origin. Among its fundamental Hispanic components are th ...
known as bolero-son, the genre was a staple of the musical repertoire of most Latin American countries. In Spain, Cuban bolero was incorporated into the copla repertoire with added elements from
Andalusian music, giving rise to the so-called bolero moruno, made famous by composers such as
Carmelo Larrea
Carmelo Larrea Carricarte (16 July 1907 – 2 February 1980) was a Spanish songwriter and musician. During the 1940s and '50s he composed famous songs such as "Noche triste", "No te puedo querer", " Dos cruces" and "Camino verde".
Life and caree ...
and Quintero, León y Quiroga.
Some of the bolero's leading composers have come from nearby countries, as in the case of the prolific
Puerto Rica
Puerto, a Spanish word meaning ''seaport'', may refer to:
Places
*El Puerto de Santa María, Andalusia, Spain
*Puerto, a seaport town in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines
*Puerto Colombia, Colombia
*Puerto Cumarebo, Venezuela
*Puerto Galera, Orient ...
n composer
Rafael Hernández and the Mexican composers:
Agustín Lara
Ángel Agustín María Carlos Fausto Mariano Alfonso del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Lara y Aguirre del Pino (; October 30, 1897 – November 6, 1970), known as Agustín Lara, was a Mexican composer and performer of songs and boleros. He is recogn ...
and
María Grever
María Grever (14 September 1885 – 15 December 1951) was the first female Mexican composer to achieve international acclaim.Rodríguez, Lee M. L. María Grever: Poeta Y Compositora. Potomac, Md: Scripta Humanistica, 1994. Print. She is best kn ...
. Some Cuban composers of the bolero are primarily considered trovadores. Several lyric tenors also contributed to the popularization of the bolero throughout North and South America during the 1930s and the 1940s through live concerts and performances on international radio networks. Included in this group were the Mexican operatic tenors:
Juan Arvizu
Juan Nepomuceno Arvizu Santelices (known as Juan Arvizu; Santiago de Querétaro, May 22, 1900 - Mexico City, November 19, 1985), was an acclaimed lyric tenor in Mexico and a noted interpreter of the Latin American bolero and tango on the internati ...
and
Nestor Mesta Chayres
Néstor Mesta Cháyres (aka Nestor Chaires, Ciudad Lerdo, February 26, 1908 - Mexico City, June 29, 1971) was an acclaimed tenor in Mexico and a noted interpreter of Spanish songs, boleros and Mexican romantic music on the international concert ...
. Their collaborations in New York City with such musicians as
Alfredo Antonini
Alfredo Antonini (May 31, 1901 – November 3, 1983) was a leading Italian-American symphony conductor and composer who was active on the international concert stage as well as on the CBS radio and television networks from the 1930s through the e ...
,
Terig Tucci
Terig Tucci (June 23, 1897 – February 28, 1973) was an Argentine composer, violinist, pianist, and mandolinist.
Tucci was born in Buenos Aires, in 1897. His first composition, “Cariños de madre” was performed for a zarzuela at the ...
,
Elsa Miranda
Elsa M. Miranda (14 February 1922 – 27 April 2007) was a noted Puerto Rican singer who was featured on radio and television in the United States during the Golden Age of Radio in the 1940s. As a naturalized Argentinian, she was also active as ...
and
John Serry Sr.
John Serry Sr. (born John Serrapica; January 29, 1915 – September 14, 2003) was an American concert accordionist, arranger, composer, organist, and educator. He performed on the CBS Radio and Television networks and contributed to Voic ...
on the
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
radio show ''
Viva América
''Viva América'' was an American musical radio program which was broadcast live over the CBS radio network and to North and South America over the La Cadena de las Américas (Network of the Americas) during the 1940s (1942–1949) in support ...
'' also introduced the bolero to millions of listeners throughout the United States. Also noteworthy during the 1940s and 1950s were the performances of
Trio Los Panchos
Originally, Trio Los Panchos are a '' trío romántico'' formed in New York City in 1944 by Alfredo Gil, Chucho Navarro, and Hernando Avilés. The trio became one of the leading exponents of the bolero and the romantic ballad in Latin America. I ...
, which featured the artistry of musicians from Mexico and Puerto Rico including:
Chucho Navarro
José de Jesús Navarro Moreno, (January 20, 1913 – December 23, 1993), better known by his stage name of "Chucho" Navarro, was a Mexican singer and founding member of the Trio Los Panchos.
Chucho Navarro was born in Irapuato, Guanajuato
G ...
,
Alfredo Gil
Alfredo Bojalil Gil (August 5, 1915 in Teziutlán, Puebla – October 10, 1999 in Mexico City), also known by his nickname El güero, was a singer and the creator and principal founding member of the musical trio, Trio Los Panchos. As a member of ...
and Hernando Avilés. Boleros saw a resurgence in popularity during the 1990s when Mexican singer
Luis Miguel was credited for reviving interest in the bolero genre following the release ''
Romance
Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to:
Common meanings
* Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings
* Romance languages, ...
''.
Bolero fusions
José Loyola comments that the frequent fusions of the bolero with other Cuban rhythms is one of the reasons it has been so fertile for such a long period of time:
:"La adaptación y fusión del bolero con otros géneros de la música popular bailable ha contribuido al desarrollo del mismo, y a su vigencia y contemporaneidad."
:(The adaptation and fusion of the bolero with other types of popular dance music has contributed to their development, and to its endurance and timelessness.)
This adaptability was largely achieved by dispensing with limitations in format or instrumentation, and by an increase in syncopation (so producing a more afrocuban sound). Examples would be:
*Bolero in the ''danzón'': the advent of lyrics in the danzón to produce the ''danzonete''.
*The ''bolero-son'': long-time favourite dance music in Cuba, captured abroad under the misnomer 'rumba'.
*The ''bolero-mambo'' in which slow and beautiful lyrics were added to the sophisticated big-band arrangements of the mambo.
*The ''bolero-cha'', 1950s derivative with a chachachá rhythm.
*The
bachata, a Dominican derivative developed in the 1960s.
The lyrics of the bolero can be found throughout popular music, especially Latin dance music.
Vietnam
Bolero music has also spread to
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
. In the 1930s, the nation grew fond of modern music, which combined Western elements with traditional music. Vietnamese bolero is generally slower tempo compared to Hispanic bolero, and is similar in style to
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
enka
is a Japanese music genre considered to resemble traditional Japanese music stylistically. Modern ''enka'', however, is a relatively recent musical form, which adopts a more traditional musical style in its vocalism than ''ryūkōka'' music, p ...
and
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
trot
The trot is a ten-beat diagonal horse gait where the diagonal pairs of legs move forward at the same time with a moment of suspension between each beat. It has a wide variation in possible speeds, but averages about . A very slow trot is someti ...
. Such music was romantic, expressing concepts of feelings, love, and life in a poetic language;
this predisposition was hated by
Viet Minh
The Việt Minh (; abbreviated from , chữ Nôm and Hán tự: ; french: Ligue pour l'indépendance du Viêt Nam, ) was a national independence coalition formed at Pác Bó by Hồ Chí Minh on 19 May 1941. Also known as the Việt Minh Fro ...
, who strived towards shaping the working class at the time.
This genre became colloquially known as ''
yellow music
Yellow Music is a genre of popular music. The term has been used in China and Vietnam to describe types of music that have separate origins.
China
Yellow Music () or Yellow Songs () was a label used to describe early generations of Chinese popu ...
'', in opposition to the ''
nhạc đỏ
Nhạc đỏ or literally "Red Music" is the common name of the revolutionary music (nhạc cách mạng) genre in Vietnam. This genre of music began soon after the beginning of the 20th century during the French colonial period, advocating for in ...
'' (''red music'') endorsed by the Communist government of
Hanoi
Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...
during the era of the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
. As a result of
North Vietnam
North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...
winning the war, the music was banned in 1975. Those caught listening to ''yellow music'' would be punished, and their music confiscated. After the
Fall of Saigon
The Fall of Saigon, also known as the Liberation of Saigon by North Vietnamese or Liberation of the South by the Vietnamese government, and known as Black April by anti-communist overseas Vietnamese was the capture of Saigon, the capital of ...
, many Vietnamese migrated to the United States, taking their music with them. The ban was lightened in 1986, when love songs could be written again, but by then the music industry was killed.
The government of Vietnam also prohibited the sale of overseas Vietnamese music, including variety shows like ''Asia'' and ''
Paris by Night''. In recent years however, bolero had grown popular again, as more overseas singers performed in Vietnam. Additionally, singing competition television series like ''Boléro Idol'' have grown popular, with singers performing songs, including songs formerly banned.
Ballroom dance
International ballroom
A version of the Cuban bolero is danced throughout the
Latin dance
Latin dance is a general label, and a term in partner dance competition jargon. It refers to types of ballroom dance and folk dance that mainly originated in Latin America.
The category of Latin dances in the international dancesport competi ...
world (supervised by the
World Dance Council
The World Dance Council Ltd (WDC), is a registered limited company, the legal successor to the ''International Council of Ballroom Dancing'', and was established at a meeting organized by Phillip J. S. Richardson on 22 September 1950 in Edinburgh, ...
) under the misnomer "
rumba
The term rumba may refer to a variety of unrelated music styles. Originally, "rumba" was used as a synonym for "party" in northern Cuba, and by the late 19th century it was used to denote the complex of secular music styles known as Cuban rumba ...
", often spelled "rhumba". This came about in the early 1930s when a simple overall term was needed to market Cuban music to audiences unfamiliar with the various Cuban musical terms. The famous "
Peanut Vendor
"El manisero", known in English as "The Peanut Vendor", is a Cuban son-pregón composed by Moisés Simons. Together with "Guantanamera", it is arguably the most famous piece of music created by a Cuban musician. "The Peanut Vendor" has been recorde ...
", actually a son-pregón, was so labelled, and the label stuck for other types of Cuban music.
In Cuba, the bolero is usually written in time, elsewhere often . The tempo for dance is about 120 beats per minute. The music has a gentle Cuban rhythm related to a slow ''
son
A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative.
Social issues
In pre-industrial societies and some current c ...
'', which is the reason it may be best described as a bolero-son. Like some other Cuban dances, there are three steps to four beats, with the first step of a figure on the second beat, not the first. The ''slow'' (over the two beats four and one) is executed with a hip movement over the standing foot, with no foot-flick.
American Rhythm
The dance known as bolero is one of the
competition dance
Competitive dance is a popular, widespread sport in which competitors perform dances in any of several permitted dance styles—such as acro, ballet, contemporary, jazz, hip-hop, lyrical, modern, musical theatre, tap, and improv—before ...
s in
American Rhythm ballroom dance category. The first step is typically taken on the first beat, held during the second beat with two more steps falling on beats three and four (cued as "slow-quick-quick"). In competitive dance the music is in time and will range between 96 and 104 bpm. This dance is quite different from the other American Rhythm dances in that it not only requires
cuban motion but
rises and falls {{About, the ballroom dance technique, , Rise and Fall (disambiguation){{!Rise and Fall, Rise and Fall
Rises and falls is a category of the ballroom dance technique that refers to rises and falls of the body of a dancer achieved through actions of ...
such as found in
waltz
The waltz ( ), meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom and folk dance, normally in triple ( time), performed primarily in closed position.
History
There are many references to a sliding or gliding dance that would evolve into the wa ...
and
contra body movement
Contra body movement (CBM, sometimes called contrary body movement) is used in ballroom dances, such as waltz, foxtrot, tango, and quickstep. It comprises turning the body (hips and shoulders) against the movement of the legs: either moving forw ...
. Popular music for this dance style need not be Latin in origin. Lists of music used in competitions for American Rhythm Bolero are available.
See also
*
Canción sentimental mexicana
*
Cuplé
The cuplé was a popular risqué Spanish theatre song style in the late years of the 19th century. From 1893–1911 the songs were a feature of the "género ínfimo" (lowest type) cabaret theatre sung by solo female singers, or men in drag, and a ...
*
Latin ballad
Latin ballad ( es, balada romántica) is a sentimental ballad derived from bolero that originated in the early 1960s in Los Angeles, California and Southern California.
Some of the best known artists of the Latin ballad are Julio Iglesias, Moceda ...
*
Latin pop
Latin pop (in Spanish and in Portuguese: Pop latino) is a pop music subgenre that is a fusion of US–style music production with Latin music genres from anywhere in Latin America and Spain. Originating in Spanish-speaking musicians, Latin po ...
Notes
References
*
{{Music in Spanish
Cuban styles of music
Dance in Cuba
Mexican music
Ballroom dance
Latin dances
19th-century music genres
20th-century music genres
Latin music genres
Vietnamese music
1880s in music