Historia General del Pueblo Dominicano Tomo VI

Historia general del pueblo dominicano 729 they would to a European»; 46 rural expression was far removed from the life- ways of middle and upper class urbanites. The lives of urban barrio-dwellers, however, paralleled those of rural Dominicans in many ways. Also, contact across class lines, which continued to be important tomerengue’s development, was common. The Cibao’s largest city, Santiago de los Caballeros, became a focal point for the development of merengue típico cibaeño . As we have seen, this music was sung, to the accompaniment of the button accordion, tambora, güira , and sometimes, the bombardino or alto saxophone. Often, a tight, nasal vocal technique was used. Accordionists led groups, composed, and sang; Santiago natives Francisco « Ñico» Lora and Antonio « Toño» Abreu were the best-known accordionist/bandleaders of the period and the architects of the merengue style that later gained national and transnational prominence. While one-row accordions were used in the early part of the century, two row models, capable of executing several major and minor keys, became prevalent in the twentieth century. As noted above, tamboreros now held the drum sideways in the lap and played it with a stick in the right hand and the palm of the left hand, rather than with two sticks as they had done in the nineteenth century. Also as noted, the calabash güiro fell into disuse in the beginning of the twentieth century (possibly due to a scarcity of gourds of the proper shape) and was replaced by a metal version of the instrument. Dominicans generally call the metal version güira and the calabash version güiro . 47 As in the nineteenth century, merengueros occasionally used the bombardino in emulation of salon orquestas. Groups sometimes substituted an alto saxophonist when a bombardino player was not available. The early merengue saxophone style was thus based on the bombardino style, but an approach more consonant with the saxophone’s disposition soon emerged. Saxophonist Antonio Lora, 48 who often performed with his father Ñico Lora, reports that musicians came to prefer the bright and flexible alto saxophone to the subdued and slow-speaking baritone horn; it blended better with the flashy and nimble accordion. This is not surprising, since the saxophone and accordion are both reed instruments and have similar ranges. Avelino Vásquez and Pedro « Cacú» Lora were the first saxophonists to play merengue regularly and the best saxophonists of their day. Under their influence, use of this instrument became increasingly common in merengue after about 1910, Vásquez and Lora were thus the architects of the original merengue saxophone style. 49 While the saxophone was seen as a típico, or authentic, merengue instrument, 50 it was not present in all groups and was rarely used in rural areas, being unavailable there. The urban nature of