Traditional mariachi is a string ensemble from western

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. Unlike the popular

mariachi Mariachi (, , ) is a genre of regional Mexican music dating back to at least the 18th century, evolving over time in the countryside of various regions of western Mexico. The usual mariachi group today consists of as many as eight violins, two ...

, this ensemble generally does not include

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

s. It consists of

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

guitarra de golpe The Guitarra de golpe is a stringed musical instrument from Mexico.''Inside the Latin@ Experience: A Latin@ Studies Reader''. United Kingdom, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. 195. It has 5 nylon strings in 5 courses. The headstock traditionally has a ...

vihuela The vihuela () is a 15th-century fretted plucked Spanish string instrument, shaped like a guitar (figure-of-eight form offering strength and portability) but tuned like a lute. It was used in 15th- and 16th-century Spain as the equivalent of t ...

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...

and guitarrón or

double bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

, and in some zones a

bass drum The bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. The instrument is typically cylindrical, with the drum's diameter usually greater than its depth, with a struck head at both ends of the cylinder. The head ...

is used. This mariachi developed from the beginning of 19th century and from this ensemble derived the mariachi with trumpets. Its repertoire generally covered ''sones abajeños'', ''sones arribeños'', ''sones costeños'' and ''jarabes'', and a wood box for dancing was widely used. Some groups have been caught performing popular music as well. This ensemble of strings is related with other ensembles of the region, like ''conjunto calentano'', ''conjunto de arpa grande'', ''conjunto de jaraberos'' and ''conjunto de son de tarima'' of the so-called Mexican son.

References

* {{cite book, first=J. Arturo , last=Chamorro Escalante, title = Mariachi antiguo, jarabe y son, year = 2000, publisher = Colegio de Jalisco, isbn = 968-6255-42-7

External links

Video - Mariachi tradicional without trumpets
Mexican styles of music