Merengue (musical genre)

(Merengue is a dance music genre originating in the Dominican Republic at the end of the XIX century. It is very popular in the entire American continent) where it is considered, along with salsa, as one of the great danceable musical genres that identify the Hispanic American.

In its origins, the Dominican merengue was performed with string instruments (bandurria and/or guitar). Years later, the string instruments were replaced by the accordion, thus forming, together with the güira and the tambora, the instrumental structure of the typical merengue ensemble. This ensemble, with its three instruments, represents the symphony of the three cultures that made up the idiosyncrasies of Dominican culture. The European influence comes to be represented by the accordion, the African by the Dominican tambora, which is a drum with two patches, and the Taino or aboriginal by the güira.

Although in some areas of the Dominican Republic, especially in Cibao and in the Northwest sub-region, there are still typical ensembles with similar characteristics to those pioneers, this rhythm evolved throughout the 20th century. First, with the introduction of new instruments.

The evolution of merengue with decent lyrics to liven up one of your parties. From then on, it spread very quickly throughout the country. In 1875, President Ulises Francisco Espaillat (known for his writings against the merengue) began a campaign against the merengue because of its dances and explicit lyrics, but it was totally useless, since the dance had already taken over the Cibao, where it became strong to such an extent. point that is associated today with this region as the cradle of merengue.

Since educated musicians were the ones who set the musical style of the new merengue, popular musicians tried to imitate and follow this model, while the country man continued to play the merengue in its original way. This gave rise to two types of merengue: the folkloric or typical merengue, which is still found in the fields, and the salon merengue, typical of urban centers. In this way, it displaced some other typical dances such as the tumba, which required great physical and mental effort, while the merengue choreography, in which the man and the woman never let go, was quite simple, although little by little. many different figures were developed for this ballroom dance with the people. Today there is a large repertoire of this musical genre in which the so-called "street merengue" has stood out.

First style of merengue

The string merengue (guitar, accordion, güira and tambora) is the first manifestation of rhythm, in its primitive phase, but with the arrival of the accordion on the north coast from Germany, this instrument novel then and with a greater sound than the guitar, little by little it would replace it, giving way to the format that, in the northern zone, would acquire the name of "Perico Ripiao". This name comes from a place in Santiago (capital of Cibao, in the north of the island), where the peasants who moved to the city to sell their products used to spend the night, called "El Hospedaje". There were entertainment centers where mainly the groups that performed the accordion merengue performed. Among these centers the most popular was one called "Perico Ripiao". In this way, these groups acquired the name of "Perico Ripiao". The Perico Ripiao (also known as the typical merengue) was one of the first forms of merengue and its origin is in the fields of Cibao and the Northwest Line, it is played with a güira, tambora and accordion. The songs of the Perico Ripiao are different from the orchestra or band merengue. Simple lines with poetic phrases sometimes take the form of tenths or quatrains, where the third and fourth lines are repeated but in reverse order (the third line becomes the sixth and the fourth line becomes the fifth; ABCDDC). Perico Ripiao has a fast pace and is much more popular in Cibao (in the fields of Cibao) than in San Pedro , the Dominican capital.

The musical development of merengue occurred mainly after it was accepted by the social elite of the Dominican Republic. Said admission occurred fundamentally with the rise to power of a lover of rhythm, the dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo (Regime established from 1930 to 1961). Trujillo, of humble origin and knowledgeable about the genre, used merengue as part of the government's promotion strategy at the national level and made it the required National Music in social and official acts.

To achieve this introduction to the classes of intellectuality and economic power, he used the creativity of exceptional musicians such as Julio Alberto Hernández who, along with other highly trained musicians and experts in the international musical movement, transformed rural merengue or Perico Ripiao in a salon merengue structured on the basis of a large orchestra in the Big Band style, but maintaining the original rhythmic base. In this type of merengue, the Santa Cecilia and San José Orchestras stand out, as the main ones of the time. In the 1940s and 1950s, Dominican maestro Luis María Frómeta Pereira (Billo Frómeta) helped popularize the rhythm in Venezuela and Colombia.

With the fall of the Trujillo regime, the processes of influence of Anglo-Saxon music arrived, forcing merengue to become a music closer to youth. It is when two restless young musicians emerge, one from the academy and the other from the very bowels of the town: Félix del Rosario and Johnny Ventura. The first a military musician, a great connoisseur of jazz, and the other a creative charismatic and born musician. Both are in charge of making the merengue less sophisticated and adapted to what the youth of the 1960s asked for. This is the stage where the combo emerges: Orchestra of about 14 musicians with a front of dancers and choristers. The merengue thus becomes the national dance of the Dominican Republic. Merengue put its roots in the countryside in the 19th century, but now its popularity has spread across social classes. Throughout its history, it was a method of expressing social and political opinions. The merengue uses instruments such as the tambora, the güira, the accordion and the guitar. Traditionally it has two segments: the ride and the jaleo. The stanzas that accompany the merengue can be copla, seguidilla, décima or, less frequently, couplets. The choreography of the dance is simple and is very popular for this reason.

The traditional merengue survives in the countryside and rural regions. There are variations of the merengue that developed in the cities and other different areas. Pambiche, according to legend, is the name of the slow merengue jaleo that US sailors grew fond of because they couldn't dance the authentic fast merengue while stationed in the country. Cibaeño merengue, from the Cibao region, uses the accordion to replace the guitar heard in merengue from the southeast region of the country. Perico ripiao or typical merengue is the name that the rich give to the traditional rural merengue. The name "merengue" to signify the urban merengue or the hall merengue that the orchestras played.

One of the most important people in the development of merengue was the dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo. Before Trujillo's reign, merengue was associated with people from the countryside and rural regions. Juan Francisco García tried to broaden the popularity of the merengue in the upper classes by publishing the first merengue arrangement in 1918 and in 1922, the merengue was played in a social club; in both cases, the high population rejected the merengue. In the case of the club, many people left because they left angry that the 'rude music', as they labeled it, should not have been in its elegant place. When Trujillo came to power in 1930, the merengue was still the statue of the lower class. Trujillo came from a peasant family and loved merengue. During all of the campaign festivities he had an orchestra to play the merengue. Trujillo tried to force the elite to listen to merengue and they took a dislike to Trujillo because of his poor origin, his rude music and his regime. He wanted to give the impression that he was refined and cultured and for this he needed the support of the upper classes. He wanted to change the merengue to refined music for the elite. He orchestrated Luis Albertí's respectable band, Lira de Yaque, in 1932 in order to popularize merengue. Albertí added the güira and tambora to his jazz orchestra and included the merengue in his collection of songs. He turned the merengue into the national dance of the Dominican Republic. The elite approved this cultured music by Luis Albertí and also the merengue.

Trujillo influenced music from the 1930s to the 1960s with his political power. He was responsible for the development of Dominican music. He founded regional orchestras and schools where he was taught merengue and other Trujillo music. On the other hand, he rejected and suppressed African and Haitian music even though merengue had aspects of both. Trujillo caused a division between the classes of merengue, the rural and the urban and therefore between the social classes. If a musician wanted to be accepted in the DR, he had to compose songs to praise Trujillo and his regime. Musicians who wrote songs critical of Trujillo were jailed. The merengue lost its social and political voice. The music vendors had the Trujillo merengues in their stores and everyone had to have the regime's music records. This time produced thousands of meringues on Trujillo.

After the assassination of Trujillo in 1961, the merengue achieved a political and cultural opening. The merengue continued to be the national dance and the population still loved the music of the regime, but it was forbidden to play the Trujillo merengues. After 1961, international influences, which were prohibited during the Trujillo regime, were responsible for the modernization and internationalization of merengue. One of the famous people for the modernization of merengue was Johnny Ventura with his American rock'n'roll influences. Now, people like Juan Luis Guerra write radical merengues with electric guitars and keyboards with political content that were not possible during the dictatorship. The merengue after the Trujillo era is characterized by being fast and cheeky with satirical lyrics. It returned to being a method to express social and political opinions.

Her Dominican history tells of her path to the present. People like Rafael Trujillo, Luis Alberti, Joseíto Mateo, Johnny Ventura and Juan Luis Guerra had a great influence on the development of merengue. Throughout its history, the merengue had a place in politics, such as having the support of the dictator Trujillo or being a voice of the population.

The merengue is the national dance of the Dominican Republic. Merengue put its roots in the countryside in the 19th century, but now its popularity has spread across social classes. Throughout its history, it was a method of expressing social and political opinions. The merengue uses instruments such as the tambora, the güira, the accordion and the guitar. Traditionally it has two segments: the ride and the jaleo. The stanzas that accompany the merengue can be of the copla, seguidilla, décima or, less frequently, couplets. The choreography of the dance is simple and is very popular for this reason.

The traditional merengue survives in the countryside and rural regions. There are variations of the merengue that developed in the cities and other different areas. The pambiche, according to legend, is the name of the slow merengue jaleo that US sailors liked because they couldn't dance the authentic fast merengue while they were stationing the country. The cibaeño merengue, from the Cibao region, uses the accordion to replace the guitar heard in the merengue of the southeastern region of the country. Perico ripiao or typical merengue is the name that the rich give to the traditional rural merengue. The name "merengue" to signify the urban merengue or the hall merengue that the orchestras play.

One of the most important people in the development of merengue was the dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo. Before Trujillo's reign, merengue was associated with people from the countryside and rural regions. Juan Francisca García tried to broaden the popularity of merengue among the upper classes. In 1918, he published the first arrangement of the merengue. In 1922, the merengue was played at a social club. But in both cases, the high population rejected the merengue. In the case of the club, a lot of people came out because they were angry that the rude music shouldn't be in their fancy place. When Trujillo came to power in 1930, the merengue was still the statue of the lower class. Trujillo came from a peasant family and loved merengue. During all of the campaign festivities he had an orchestra to play the merengue. Trujillo tried to force the elite to listen to merengue, and the elite took a dislike to Trujillo because of his poor background, his rude music, and his regime. He wanted to give the impression that he was refined and cultured and for this he needed the support of the upper classes. In order to turn merengue into refined music for the elite, he arranged the band of Luis Albertí (a musician respected by the Dominican elite at the time) in 1932 to play merengue, in order to popularize it. Albertí added the güira and tambora to his jazz band and included the merengue in his collection of songs, making the merengue the national dance of the Dominican Republic. The elite approved this cultured music by Luis Albertí and merengue.

Trujillo influenced music from the 1930s to the 1960s with his political power. He was responsible for the development of Dominican music. He founded regional orchestras and schools to teach merengue and other Trujillo music. On the other hand, he rejected and suppressed African and Haitian music, although merengue had aspects of both. He caused a division between the two kinds of merengue, the rural and the urban; consequently, also between social classes. If a musician wanted to be accepted in the DR, he needed to write merengue songs that praise Trujillo and his regime. Musicians who wrote songs that criticized Trujillo were jailed. The merengue lost its social and political voice. All the music vendors needed to have the Trujillista merengues in their store and all the people had to have the regime's music records. This time produced thousands of meringues on Trujillo.

After Trujillo's assassination in 1961, the merengue was politically and culturally open. The merengue continued to be the national dance and the population still loved the regime's musicians, but it was forbidden to play Trujillista merengues. After 1961 international influences, which were banned during Trujillo's reign, were responsible for the modernization and internationalization of merengue. One of the famous people for the modernization of merengue was Johnny Ventura with his American rock and roll influences. Now, people like Juan Luis Guerra write radical merengues with electric guitars and keyboards with a political edge that were not possible during the dictatorship. The merengue, after the time of Trujillo, is characterized by being fast and shameless with satirical lyrics. It returned to being a method of expressing social and political opinions.

Part of the Dominican political and social history is marked by the evolution of rhythm. People like Rafael Trujillo, Luis Albertí, Johnny Ventura and Juan Luis Guerra had a great influence on the development of merengue. Throughout its history, the merengue had a place in politics, such as having the support of the dictator Trujillo or being a voice of the population.

Evolution of Merengue

Couple dancing merengue.

In the 1950s, merengue began to be an organized genre, just as music demanded internationally.

Joseíto Mateo made his debut in the music industry in very troubled times. A difficult time in which all public liberties were limited in the Dominican Republic. However, his natural charisma and his characteristic style when it came to singing were decisive in becoming a legend.

El 'devil Mateo' or 'El rey del merengue', are nicknames with which he was known as he passed through the most important stages. He began his artistic life in the era of the dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, immediately connecting with the Dominican public that did not stop dancing his contagious merengues. He did it at the El Tocón cabaret, located on the banks of the Nigua River, in San Cristóbal.

Some time later he decided to expand his music to international levels, partly because of the oppression that was experienced, for which he settled in Cuba, where he belonged to the “Sonora Matancera” and sang with Celia Cruz. After the assassination of Rafael Trujillo on May 30, 1961 and the end of his dictatorship, Joseíto decided to go and try his luck in Puerto Rico.

In 1962, Joseíto participated as a vocalist in the first tour of the “Gran Combo” in Panama, to promote the album “El Gran Combo con Joseíto Mateo”. There he met the young singers Pellín Rodríguez and Andy Montañez, who ended up replacing him in the Puerto Rican group. He also traveled through Venezuela, Curacao and Haiti, among other Latin American countries.

Mateo had to return to the country to “clear his name” as he said in an interview at the time. “El Gran Combo was very good with me, I adapted to singing plena, bomba, guaracha, boleros, but later I had to return to Santo Domingo to clear my name. Everyone who was with Trujillo was falling behind, and in the Republic they said that I was a spy and I was running away, ”he said at the time.

The first to revolutionize the genre was Johnny Ventura, who was part of Joseíto Mateo's orchestra as a guirero; with the formation in the early 1960s of El Combo Show, impregnating new colors to the rhythm and modernizing the genre in all aspects. This is verified mainly with the emergence of the "Wilfrido Vargas y Los Beduinos" orchestra, led by its producer Bienvenido Rodríguez.

With the professional level of the human staff of the structure formed by this producer, it was possible to popularize the genre among the Latino youth of the time, who were experiencing the boom of the Fania All Star in New York and La Dimensión Latina in Venezuela. It is worth noting the stellar musical contribution that the genre received from the musical composers of the Bedouin movement: Jorge Taveras, Sony Ovalle, Wilfrido Vargas and Juancho Viloria. This structure, under the Karen Records label, became the laboratory of what would become the Golden Age of Merengue: The 1980s. In this talent factory, the future leaders of merengue were discovered, since both Wilfrido and Bienvenido dedicated themselves to to attract talent and build satellite groups to the Bedouins; such is the case of Fernando Villalona, Bonny Cepeda and Los Kenton, the latter emerged from the group "Los Hijos del Rey". It is at this time that the merengue reaches its highest point, characterized by the appearance of new groups, sounds and characters that attracted attention thanks to their melodious songs.

This movement began to take shape throughout Quisqueya; At the time that Wilfrido Vargas y Los Beduinos was forming in Santo Domingo, in Puerto Rico, a group of young people, led by four university students, formed a small group known as "El Conjunto Quisqueya", which was a success resounding due to the picaresque style of its group of singers and its extremely modern arrangements for its time. While the Dominican Republic watched the "war" that took place between two great interpreters of Merengue such as Wilfrido Vargas and Johnny Ventura at that time, a new giant of the genre emerged, the maestro Cuco Valoy who came from making son montuno, guaracha in the 1960s and 70s and later internationalized the Dominican sauce to unexpected places.

The decade of the 80s began with a national effervescence of merengue, the entire Dominican Republic was flooded with merengue orchestras and the movement expanded strongly to Dominican residents in New York, where frontline groups were also formed that They influenced the rhythm a lot due to their fusions with Caribbean rhythms such as The Big Apple and The New York Band.

The growth of Cuco Valoy's orchestra (the virtuosos), presented a promising young man who would define the new path of merengue and give impetus to the boom of the genre in the mid-80s. Maestro Ramón Orlando Valoy, forged in the conservatory, became the main arranger and composer of the genre, as well as one of its most noble interpreters with his International Orchestra, which brought together the most excellent of the Dominican musical ideology.

In this time of glory of merengue, two other young arrangers who marked the modernization of the genre: Bonny Cepeda, a creative graduate of the conservatory and Manuel Tejada, also with a strong academic preparation, dominated the entire golden age with their style and were the producers musicals by the main Dominican and foreign merengue orchestras.

In the last third of the golden decade, the rhythmic base of merengue suffered a change at the hands of Ramón Orlando who simplified it musically (he baptized it, "merengue a lo maco", being popularized by & #34;Los Hermanos Rosario") and it is when the Coco Band emerged which, with a rhythmically richer merengue and a simple musical structure, achieved an extraordinary boom among Dominican youth who demanded a new musical scheme of the genre, which It had been characterized by bringing, through adaptations, internationally popular ballads, to the rhythm of merengue. This new style of merengue in the Coco Band style was characterized by presenting lyrics based on popular Dominican sayings, so its external expansion was limited. At the same time, and under the auspices or by the influence of creatives such as Jossie Esteban (with his orchestra La Patrulla 15) and Ringo Martínez, groups arose in Puerto Rico that generated a fever on the island that largely displaced the Dominican merengue, since they presented a more commercial and international style of lyric such as Caña Brava, Zona Roja, Las Nenas de Ringo y Jossie, Chantelle, Los Sabrosos del Merengue, Manny Manuel and Grupo Manía; from the latter, the international figure of the genre Elvis Crespo arose.

Some of the most outstanding artists of the genre are: Johnny Ventura, Juan Luis Guerra and 440, Milly, Jocelyn and Los Vecinos, Cuco Valoy, Wilfrido Vargas, Fernando Villalona, Sergio Vargas, Aramís Camilo, Los Hermanos Rosario, Carlos Alfredo, Toño Rosario, International Orchestra, Conjunto Quisqueya, The Big Apple, Benny Sadel "El Cacique", Dionis Fernández & The Team, El Zafiro, Bonny Cepeda, Pochy Familia & his Coco Band, Eddy Herrera, Los Kenton, Héctor Acosta, José Peña Suazo and La Banda Gorda, Rubby Pérez, Sandy Reyes, Kinito Méndez, Rikarena, Solid Gold, The New York Band, Limit-21, Sin Fronteras, Klibre, Jossie Stephen & Patrulla 15, Grupo Manía, Elvis Crespo, La Mákina, Olga Tañón and Milly Quezada, the latter known as the queen of Merengue, being the women with the most international projection of this genre from the 1990s and early 2000s..

On the other hand, but no less important, we also find hip-hop merengue, which began in the 1990s. This subgenre born from merengue had a great wave of fans and followers, most of them young. The main protagonists of hip-hop merengue were the groups “Ilegales”, “Sandy y Papo” and “Proyecto Uno”, among others. These new musical colors were introduced under the musical conceptualization of maestros Víctor Waill and Manuel Tejada, the main ideologues of this evolution that is still alive in some parts of the world.

Starting in the year 2000, Toño Rosario (previous leader of the Hermanos Rosario group) led another change in the rhythmic structure of merengue, creating the bases for the birth of street, urban, pakipá or mambo merengue. This happened when an intro to their live parties called Alegría became popular. This variant consists of the simplification of the chords and patterns of the piano (tumbao), characteristic of the traditional merengue. With this simplification of the rhythm, with the expansion of digital music and computer programs for music, some exponents of an electronic merengue emerged in the marginalized neighborhoods of Santo Domingo who accelerated the rhythm, resembling the rhythm of the comparsas of the carnival of the neighborhoods called Alibabá. In this phase, two exponents of this neighborhood merengue led the movement: Moreno Negrón and Omega. In the end, Omega stands out mainly as the undisputed leader. The emergence of Omega constitutes the most basic and simple expression of the musical evolution of the genre, what many would call involution; since it took the lyrics to a level of violent and unfiltered expression, imposing a style of live recording, without the fundamental elements of sound, required for a commercial recording. Others that also emerged during the time, mention "Amarfis, Juliana O'Neal, Julian Oro Duro, Tulile and El Capitán Ortiz. This situation, combined with the record crisis due to the bankruptcies of record companies with the appearance of digital music; The rise of the reggaeton genre, the accommodation of the traditional leaders of the rhythm, was removing merengue from the international market and from the taste of young people.

At the same time, in the last third of the 2000s, in Puerto Rico and Venezuela young exponents emerged who bet on the merengue of romantic lyrics with mergers of the Meren-house type similar to those made by groups such as Ilegales in the 90s, Rakin & Ken Y, Chino and Nacho, some supported by Dominican arrangers like Richy Peña. These exponents, who fused rhythm with urban genres, together with the constant musical work of Juan Luis Guerra, kept merengue present in the international market.

The merengue was able to adapt to the culture of other countries such as Argentina -where it merged with the quartet, creating a subgenre called El Merenteto (merengueto or Cuarterengue). There are two theories of how this sub-genre was created: some point to the introduction of wind instruments by the Chébere quartet group; the other is attributed to the singer Jean Carlos of Dominican origin, but most quarteter groups continue to play it either together with traditional quartet such as Carlitos "La Mona" Jiménez or Damian Córdoba, or groups that only sing Merenteto or simply Merengue like Banda XXI, being popular in Argentina, especially in the Province of Córdoba. Also in Honduras, Colombia, Venezuela and Spain (especially in the Canary Islands) there are musical groups with a merengue repertoire.

Another country that adopted the Dominican merengue in its style was Chile, in this country the merengue began to become popular in the mid-1980s thanks first to the visit of Johnny Ventura to the Viña del Mar festival in 1984, achieving a great reception by the public, to this would be added the versions made by the Pachuco orchestra and the Cubanacan merengues that were successful abroad, this orchestra slowed down the rhythm to achieve a rhythm closer to the Chilean people, it became so popular of this band that in 1986 were invited to the Viña Festival, at the end of that decade the arrival of merengue hits by Wilfrido Vargas and Juan Luis Guerra consolidated this rhythm in that country.

In the cradle of Merengue, the Dominican Republic, there is currently a new rhythm resurgence, led by a young exponent named Alajazá, who has managed to merge Urban Merengue, Traditional Merengue and Trap, calling it Mamwalli. This modality consists of slowing down the urban merengue (Popularized by Omega), enriching the participation of piano and bass with improvisations, including a güira pattern similar to the rhythmic pattern of Trap, using romantic, well-crafted lyrics and with good interpretation. This variable has achieved fame after the adaptation of a trap to merengue: "Mi forma de Ser" of the exponent of trap and reggaeton Farruko, who supported the version by performing a remix together with the merenguero. Said version has become, to date, the merengue that, in the shortest time, has had the greatest worldwide circulation.

Tecnomerengue deserves special mention, a fusion of merengue with Caribbean and electronic sounds created in Venezuela in the eighties and which became popular in Latin America in the nineties and still in the middle of the century XXI, is widely heard in Latin American countries.

Internationally, at present, merengue is the Latin rhythm that most fuses and adapts to the new youthful rhythmic trends since, using hip hop merengue and technomerengue as a pattern, both subgenres of the 90s, it has imbued it with vitality and new nuances that ensure its own validity generation after generation. It is also reaching different non-American countries such as Spain or Japan.