El Sonsureño, Una Rítmica de los Andes de Nariño

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to enhance the need to study the musical structure of the so called “Sonsureño”, a popular rhythm from the Department Nariño Andean region. The ethnomusical principles and proposals of the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, have served as a reference framework to achieve the present paper. By means of his comparative procedures we have been able to get to some conclusions which allow us to establish a conceptual basis useful to get down an academic discussion as far as this musical phenomenom is concerned. Two points related to this rhythm are analyzed: on one hand, its presence in the rural and urban music and, on the other, its arrival to academic music, which has been put in evidence in the music of composer Javier Fajardo Chaves, from the department of Nariño. Taking into account these two topics, some terms are defined and the object of the study is limited to a specific musical field and in this way putting it apart from the merely speculative plan in which it has been inmersed. Three variants are considered as giving it its rich sonority: Ecuadorian Andes, Colombian Andes and Pacific Coast, thus originating certain ambiguities in its rhythm and accompaniment.