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Gaita Zuliana
Gaita or Gaita Zuliana is a style of Venezuelan folk music from Maracaibo in Zulia State, Venezuela, that has since been spread torough the country. It's usually conflated with Christmas Music in Venezuela despite the genre nor being particularly Christmas-y. This is because the Gaita began as the typical music style for the celebrations of Our Lady of Chiquinquirá, Saint Patroness of Maracaibo (nicknamed "La Chinita" or "La China" by the locals), who are around mid-november, and then became ingrained with other music genres for Christmas season like aguinaldos and parrandas. While there are Christmas-themed songs, most gaita songs' themes range from humorous and love songs to protest songs to drinking songs; the most common theme on gaitas, however, when not on praise of La Chinita or about Zulian traditions and landmarks, seems to be singing to and about gaita itself.

The most characteristic instrument on gaita is the Furro or furruco, a very typical friction drum that takes the bass position. The other traditional instruments used are cuatro (a small string instrument cousin of the guitar, with as its names indicate has four strings), charrasca (a stried cooper cylinder, that is played by rubbing a metal stick over it), tambora (a long, one headed drum, that is played simultaneously in the membrane and in the wooden body) and maracas. Many other instruments can and has been added (the most common adition being the electric bass-guitar), but the furro-cuatro-tambora-maracas-charrasca configuration is deemed as the bare minimum a gaita group must have. Gaita songs have a short stanza-long chorus structure that calls for at least one soloist and a large number of backing vocalists; thusly a gaita group tends to be quite large even without accounting for extra instruments. The traditional Maracaiboan gaita has a 6x8 compass, but other varianst of gaita have different compasses

This musical became popular throughout Venezuela in the 1960s, and it fused with other styles such as salsa and merengue in the 1970s. The gaita-fusion hasn't going without hitches, however, many groups are staunch defenders of more traditional instrumentation and seen anyone who goes beyond the basic ensemble with suspicion.

Trinidad and Tobago has adopted gaita and calls it parang. It has some variation compared with the original, namely more variety of instruments.

While still very appreciated and having had declared "Intangible Patrimony of the Nation", the genre has its share of detractors. Some dislike the genre because the ubiquity (due to being associated with Christmas, they have become victims of the same Christmas creep, and where before the gaita season began at most a couple of weeks before their official kickstart in November 18 with the parties in honor of La Chiquinqurá, now you can hear gaitas in radios -out of Maracaibo!- as soon as August), while others resent the extreme provincialism of the lyrics, or the perceived repetitiveness and lack of evolution of their melodies. Venezuelan artist Enrique Enriques once went on record that to him Gaita sounded like an old washing machine in their last stertors, which is not that of an uncommon opinion.

Note that the genre is simply known as "Gaita" in Venezuela, but we have to add the "Zuliana" to differentiate it from the instrument of the same name that is known in English as "bagpipes". Note that no bagpipes of any sort are used in gaitas zulianas (not that anyone wants to try it...)


 * Ricardo Aguirre, better known as El Monumental since his songs and compositions made a before and an after in the genre. Worked only in The Sixties, and composed a lot of popular songs, including the legendary standards "La Grey Zuliana", "Maracaibo Marginada", "La Pica Pica", and "La Vivarachera". Died in 1969 at only 30 years old. Still fondly remembered.
 * Astolfo Romero, a singer, composer and musical director that was part of several groups, including Gaiteros de Pillopo, Cardenales del Éxito, Maragaita y Gran Coquivacoa. He was also a historian of the genre and tried to preserve as much of the history of it as possible. He's the author of famous songs like "Negrita Cumba Cumba", "La Taguara de Bartolo", "El Mercado de los Buchones", "Entre Palos y Alegrías", "El Burro" and "La Florecita" . He died in 2000.
 * Cardenales del Éxito: one of the oldest groups still playing. They have had a number of famous singers on composers that have worked with them at some moment. Some of their most famous song are "Negrito Fullero", "El Tren de Cardenales" (usually misnamed "Lolelolayla" after the most catchy line)
 * Rincón Morales, one of the pioneers of the genre. They were the first group on record an LP, to uniform their integrants for concerts, and to have the electric bass as a permanent instrument. Many of their songs are about the natural beauties of the country. their most famous songs are "Orinoco", "Caracas", "Gaita Gaita", and "Tarjeta de Navidad".
 * Barrio Obrero de Cabimas, better known as just Barrio Obrero, one of the legendaries groups. Famous for their protest songs, their most famous, "Así es Maracaibo", "Gaita a Cabimas" (usually miscalled as "Cabimas la Cenicienta") "Un Ojo Dimos" has become standards.
 * Gran Coquivacoa, one of the most popular groups due to they very danceable songs. Their main singer and composer for decades now has been Abdénago «Neguito» Borjas, one of the most recognizable voices of the genre. Their most famous songs is the very romantic "Sin Rencor" (the standard for breakups songs in the genre), and the "Gaita Onomatopéyica" (literally "The onomatopeic gaita" who is Exactly What It Says on the Tin), but they have earned prizes for their songs "Punta Icotea", "Las Cabras", "La Gaita de Molero" and "La Alianza".
 * Koquimba it's a relatively recent group, founded in the late 1980s (most of the groups of this list having being founded in the 1950s and 1960s). They tend to sing about modern issues and about typical gaita. Among their famous songs are" Entre Pilatos y Judas", "Por aquí se va pa' Cuba", "La Philco" and "La Gaita del Facebook".
 * Melody Gaita are very famous for their comedic, Double entendre-filled gaitas, that usually double as protest ones. Among most famous songs are "Pajarito Vola", "La Gata Blanca" (which brought them trouble on its release due to being about the secretary and lover of then president Jaime Lusinchi, which in turn inspired another gaita titled "El Perro") and "La Gallina Vieja"
 * Maracaibo 15 is probably the most archetypical gaita group and one of the most popular. Funded in the late seventies, with half of their members being marabinos and the other half being caraqueños. His most recognizable singer is their founder Betulio Medina. They are known for their Old-Year/New Year themed songs ("Viejo año", "Venga un abrazo", "El Cañonazo", "Un feliz año", "Amigo", etc.) but also for their songs directed or about beautiful women (their most famous "Amparito", "Consuelito", "La Moza", "La negra del tamunangue", "Muñeca") and their song "El 18 de Noviembre"  dedicated to La Chinita.
 * Venezuela Habla Gaiteando (VHG)One of the youngest groups, born in The Nineties.
 * Saladillo: They are mostly known within Zulia than out of there.
 * Gaiteros de Pillopo. They became famous with some of Astolfo Romero's compositions, but they have had sustained success. "La tienda de Tobías", "La piñata", "El mercado de los buchones", "Pa’ que Luis", "Los remedios", "Morrocoy", "La taguara de Bartolo",
 * Nikitao (sometimes called Niquitao after the towns of that name) is a particular case, as they are formed by people from Lara state, who musically tend to be very far from Maracaibo. Their most famous song is "Divina Pastora", dedicated to the saint patroness of Barquisimeto, the Divine Shepherdess.
 * Guaco began as a gaita group in the sixties, but by the eigthties they had became a more tropical band with an extremely distinctive sound. While nowadays they are branded more like a salsa/tropical latin band, they still sing some of their old gaita repertory in concerts during Christmastime. Gustavo Aguado is their main founder and singer, albeit they have has an array of secondary singers thorough their history. Their most famous song that it's still actually a gaita is «Venite pa’ Maracaibo».


 * "La Grey Zuliana",
 * "La Cabra Mocha"
 * "La Gaita Onomatopéyica"
 * "Sin Rencor"


 * Creator Provincialism: Very.
 * Ode to Intoxication: a frequent theme.
 * Protest Song: Barrio Obrero and Gran Coquivacoa have sang some the most famous of those in the genre, but every group have done at least one or ten. La Grey Zuliana, originally by Ricardo Agurre and first recorded by Cardenales del Éxito, is the main standard of this subgenre.
 * Self-Demonstrating Song
 * This Is a Song
 * Three Chords and the Truth: A variant: the thing defended there is not only the traditional rythm, but also the traditional 5 instruments ensemble.
 * The Wiki Rule: there are some wikis, but they are all in spanish and in dire need of wiki love.

www.esenciagaitera.com gaitaypunto.blogspot.com  saborgaitero.com