Jarabe
Mexican folk dance in two parts: an instrumental introduction followed by a sung section.
What it means
The jarabe is a Mexican folk dance consisting of two parts: an instrumental introduction and a following sung section. Often several such sections with different melodies and rhythms are strung together into a larger dance sequence.
Musical use
The best-known jarabe is the Jarabe Tapatío, often called the “Mexican Hat Dance,” regarded as a kind of unofficial national dance of Mexico and danced by couples with pronounced footwork. The jarabe is usually accompanied by mariachi ensembles with violins, trumpets, guitars, and the deep guitarrón. The genre originally arose in the 18th and 19th centuries from various regional dance traditions of Mexico.
The jarabe should be distinguished from other Mexican dance forms such as the son, which is more a musical genre with regional variants, and from the Spanish fandango, which counts among the historical roots of Latin American dances but developed independently.
Performance practice
In the jarabe, listen for the alternation between the instrumental introduction and the sung section, and for the various sections with their own character. If you dance or accompany it, set the tempo by the dancers' pronounced footwork, which is often rhythmically leading.