Presentation of Typical (Traditional) Instruments
An innovation to traditional Velez music performances that was introduced by Corazon Santandereano in 1985 is the Presentacion de Instrumentos Tipicos which consists of an introduction of each instrument used int eh ensemble through a textual couplet that is presented to the audience. As Blanca Maria Rivera, member of the Corazon Santandereano affirms, in 1978 when they participated in the festival of La Guabina y el tiple contest, there were no presentacions de instrumentos tipicos. She remembers that Luis F. Camacho, Velez folklorist and director of the local ensemble Escuela folclorica de Vélez introduced the group and identified each instrument when performing to audiences unfamiliar with the tradition.
Blanca Maria Rivera affirms that around 1985, the music ensemble Corazon Santandereano were pioneers in the Presentacion de Instrumentos Tipicos by incorporating poetic couplets and pauses in the performance to talk about each instrument. This addressed the audience’s interest to know the name of the instruments and the materials for their construction; as shown below, this information is contained within many of the couplets (see, for example, the couplets for alfondoque and quiribillos).
The presentation of the instruments has become a common practice with Velez music performances and is an important part of a contest portion of the Festival de la Guabina y el Tiple. For the presentation, each member of the group recites the couplet associated with the instrument they are playing, and they give a short demonstration of each instrument’s sound and playing techniques. The order of the presentation of the instruments can vary depending on each group but generally it follows the arrangement of the musicians on the stage. Typically, the musicians are positioned in a semi-circle on the stage with the chordophone instruments on the left and the percussion instruments on the right. It is important to mention that the tiple and requinto are the first instruments to be presented through a couplet and they continue to play the rhythm of the torbellino, accompanying the other musicians as they present their instruments. For the Presentacion de Instrumentos Tipicos the poetic couplet is usually recited by the musician playing the instrument and all the attention is given to that musician when they present their instrument. This practice is shown by members of the ensemble Corazon Santandereano in the YouTube video Presentacion de Instrumentos Tipicos:
The Presentacion instrumentos tipicos is a newer practice introduced to educate audiences about the tradition and instruments; in 2011, Corazon Santandereano introduced another innovation in the Presentacion de Instrumentos Tipicos for the Beca bicentenario (Santander bicentennial celebration award); they decided to delegate another member of the group to recite the couplet of another instrument rather than the person playing it to allow the featured musician to move to the front of the stage and have more attention from the audience. You can see it in the following video: