Mariachi

Mariachi

Every person who is interested in the Mexican culture must know about the most popular of its expressions: music. Mexico has a long and rich musical tradition. Of all of the musical genres found in Mexico, one of the best known is mariachi. Since the 1930s, the mariachi has been the customary Mexican folk music ensemble and has become an institution symbolic of the country’s music and culture.
The mariachi tradition began with the arrival of Europeans in the 1500s. Originally, mariachi referred to dances called jarabes or sones performed by a group of dancers on a wooden platform, or tarima, similar to the Spanish Fandango. Slowly over time mariachi progressed into a certain musical style and now for most brings to mind the classic mariachi band which plays this style of music. The exact origins of mariachis are disputed and are variously traced to the Coca Indians, the French Intervention invaders or colonial string bands, but have now come to be regarded as typically Mexican. One theory from the French Intervention period of the early 1800s associated the word mariachi with marriages, because they often play at weddings, but this theory was later disproved. The indigenous Mexican people developed this unique music using new European instruments by blending local heritage.
In the beginning, the ensembles traveled town to town singing about everyday subjects but the most common subject to sing about was love. This manner of music spread throughout Mexico and between 1860 and 1930 Gaspar Vargas began the Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, the most famous mariachi band ever. Vargas de Tecalitlán illustrates family music passed down through generations. Gaspar Vargas’ music was continued and expanded by his son Sylvestre and three more generations after that. Early band members played by ear, but later musicians read music. In the 1950s, bands began to experiment with the marimba, clarinet, accordion, and organ instruments to diversify their repertory, and...