Сuatro as a historical phenomenon of Venezuelan guitar art

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The relevance of the study is the need to deepen the analytics of Venezuelan guitar music by studying the influence of Cuatro as a historical phenomenon on the development of academic guitar art.Main objectives of the study is to research the development of the Venezuelan cuatro as a historical phenomenon, to identify genre aspects of musical use and influence on modern guitar practice.The methodology involves the use of historical, systemic, structural-functional methods (for a comprehensive analysis of historical events, studying of genre-stylistic elements of Venezuelan musical traditions), comparative and phenomenological approaches (for comparing Latin American and European instruments and their organological features). The combination of these methods and approaches provides a wide panorama of the consideration of Venezuelan cuatro as a phenomenon and its impact on the processes of developing Venezuelan musical culture in 20th century and strong relations with national guitar art.Results and conclusions. The formation and development of the cuatro as a historical phenomenon of Venezuelan guitar performance is considered. The important role of the instrument, which is considered to be a sound symbol of culture, has been identified. Contemporary information on ancient national instruments and musical traditions of Venezuela in the pre-colonial and colonial periods has been systematized. The five-century history of the cuatro is traced. Intersections of the processes of interaction between European (Spanish, Portuguese) and Latin American cultures, their influence on the formation of the sound image of Venezuela were revealed. The peculiarities of solo and ensemble music, which combines cuatro with instruments of Indian, African, Creole and European origin (Venezuelan harp, maracas, bandolina, guitar, tiple, mandolina, bandola, violin, accordion) are outlined. It has been determined that the Renaissance four-string Spanish guitar and vihuela served as the organological origin of the Venezuelan cuatro. Specificity of regional varieties of cuatro (traditional four-string cuatro, five-string cuatro “cinco cuatro”, eight-string quatro with four double rows of strings, six-string five-row cuatro with double-fifth string, Puerto Rican five-row cuatro with 10 metal strings) and constructive differences compared to other Latin American guitar instruments (Peruvian and Bolivian charango, timple, Brazilian four-string cavaquinho, Hawaiian four-string ukulele). Relations with national traditions of the Tamunange religious mysteries, genres of Venezuelan joropo, waltz, merengue and other folklore sources are outlined. The peculiarity of the Venezuelan rhythms, complex hemiol metrorhythmic structures as the initial foundations of learning the playing the cuatro is indicated. The influence of traditions of folk and professional music on the development of modern academic Venezuelan guitar repertoire is revealed.