Música llanera

Música llanera is the music of the Llanos, the great plains shared by Venezuela and Colombia, built on the joropo ensemble of arpa llanera harp, cuatro, maracas and bandola. Its song forms range from the fast, virtuosic golpe and pajarillo to the slow tonada, the milking song that *Simón Díaz* raised to national art. Sung in a high, bright voice with improvised coplas, it is the soundtrack of cattle work, festivals and the competitive contrapunteo of the plains, and a shared emblem of Venezuelan and Colombian identity.