Merengue típico cibaeño

Merengue típico (also known as merengue cibaeño or colloquially as Perico ripiao) is a musical genre of the Dominican Republic, and the oldest style of merengue. Merengue típico is the term preferred by most musicians as it is more respectful and emphasizes the music's traditional nature. The Instruments that are used are the accordion, bass guitar, güira, conga, and tambora (drum)

Merengue típico is the oldest style of merengue still performed today (usually in the Dominican Republic and the United States), its origins dating back to the 1850s. It originated in the rural city of Navarrete (villa bisono), northern valley region around the city of Santiago called the Cibao, resulting in the term "merengue cibaeño". Originally played on the metal scraper called güira, the Tambora, and a stringed instrument (usually a guitar or a variant such as the tres). Stringed instruments were replaced with two-row diatonic button accordions when Germans began to travel to the island in the 1880s as part of the tobacco trade. Later, the marimbula, a bass lamellophone related to the African mbira, was added to fill out the sound

Merengue first appears in the Caribbean in the 1850s. The earliest documented evidence of merengue in the Dominican Republic are newspaper articles complaining about this "lascivious" dance's displacement of the earlier tumba.

Early merengue was played on stringed instruments, but the accordion came to the island in the 1880s, introduced by German traders, and quickly became the primary instrument in merengue.

Up until the 1930s, the music was considered immoral. Its more descriptive and colorful name, perico ripiao (literally "ripped parrot" in Spanish) is said to have been the name of a house of ill repute in Santiago where the music was played. Moralists tried to ban the music and the provocative dance that accompanied it, but with little success. Dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo brought accordionists with him on the campaign trail, and once he took power, he ensured that merengue was embraced as a national music by all classes of Dominicans.

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