Mariachi

A mariachi ensemble standardly has violins (three to six), two trumpets, a vihuela (a small five-string rhythm guitar tuned for chord stabs), a guitarrón (a six-string acoustic bass guitar with a deep convex back), and a guitar; all members sing. Repertoire crosses son jaliscense, ranchera (ballad form in 3/4 or 4/4), bolero, huapango (6/8 with hemiola), and corrido (narrative ballad). Vocals are open-throated and project hard, often with the grito — a yodeling shout — punctuating instrumental breaks. Arrangements alternate sung verses with violin and trumpet duets that trade phrases. Lyrics center on love, loss, hometowns, and drinking.

Mariachi originated in the western Mexican states of Jalisco, Nayarit, and Michoacán in the 19th century as a rural string ensemble, originally without trumpets. The trumpet was added in the 1930s, partly under the influence of Mexico City radio. Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, founded in 1898 and led by Silvestre Vargas from the 1930s, codified the modern instrumentation and arrangement style and trained most of the genre's later musical directors. From the 1940s, the Mexican film industry's "golden age" turned singers like Pedro Infante, Jorge Negrete, and later Vicente Fernández into national figures by pairing them with mariachi backings. UNESCO inscribed mariachi on its Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2011.

Listen for the guitarrón — that fat acoustic bass on the downbeats is the rhythmic floor. The vihuela's strummed chords sit just above. Violins and trumpets trade short two- or four-bar phrases between vocal lines; they rarely play in unison for long. The grito — a high, sustained yodel-shout — is an audience contribution as much as a performer one. Songs in 6/8 (sones and huapangos) feel like they're switching between 3/4 and 6/8 every other bar; that's the hemiola.

Vicente Fernández's "El Rey" (1973, written by José Alfredo Jiménez) is the genre's defining ranchera. For an album, Linda Ronstadt's Canciones de Mi Padre (1987) — recorded with Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán — is a remarkably clean introduction for non-Spanish-speaking listeners.

The trumpet, often treated as the iconic mariachi sound, was not part of the ensemble until the 1930s — its addition was contested at the time and is now considered a Mexico City modernization rather than a Jalisco original.