The Vidala of Northwest Argentina: a compendium of silences, coplas and cosmic energies

Abstract

This text seeks to reflect on vidala as an expression of geographic space. Starting from the idea that the music, singing, melodies and sounds of a territory form the sound reminiscences of spaces, it is desired to think that vidala has a geographical anchor from several points: the singing, the caja, the coplas, the silences and the cosmos. These elements not only characterize this ancestral musical genre but are also the aspects from which this form of musical expression is linked to the land. In the first part, I describe the main instrument of this type of music: the caja. And in the second, I unfold the vidala into the three aspects that connect it with the earth: silence, the copla and the cosmos. By way of conclusion, we reflect on how vidala can evidence aspects of the geography of northwestern Argentina.

Keywords:
Sound reminiscence; Space; Singing with caja; Vidala; Northwest Argentinean