The purpose of this article is to enhance the need to study the musical structure of the so called “Sonsureño”, a popular rhythm from the Department Nariño Andean region. The ethnomusical principles and proposals of the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, have served as a reference framework to achieve the present paper. By means of his comparative procedures we have been able to get to some conclusions which allow us to establish a conceptual basis useful to get down an academic discussion as far as this musical phenomenom is concerned. Two points related to this rhythm are analyzed: on one hand, its presence in the rural and urban music and, on the other, its arrival to academic music, which has been put in evidence in the music of composer Javier Fajardo Chaves, from the department of Nariño. Taking into account these two topics, some terms are defined and the object of the study is limited to a specific musical field and in this way putting it apart from the merely speculative plan in which it has been inmersed. Three variants are considered as giving it its rich sonority: Ecuadorian Andes, Colombian Andes and Pacific Coast, thus originating certain ambiguities in its rhythm and accompaniment.
El propósito de este artículo es el de evidenciar la necesidad del estudio musicológico del sonsureño, un ritmo popular de la zona andina del Departamento de Nariño. Los principios y planteamientos etnomusicológicos del compositor húngaro Béla Bartók han servido de marco de referencia para la realización del presente escrito. Por medio de la utilización de sus procedimientos comparativos se ha podido llegar a conclusiones que permiten establecer una base conceptual apta para abordar una discusión académica en torno a este fenómeno musical. Se analizan dos aspectos relacionados con este ritmo: por un lado su presencia en la música rural y urbana y, por otro, su arribo a la música académica evidenciada en la obra del compositor nariñense Javier Fajardo Chaves. Desde estos dos tópicos se realizan precisiones terminológicas que circunscriben el objeto de estudio a un campo concreto de la musicología, desligándolo, de esta manera, del plano especulativo en el que ha estado inmerso. Se consideran tres vertientes que alimentan su rica sonoridad: andina ecuatoriana, andina colombiana y costa Pacífica. Circunstancia de la que se derivan ciertas ambigüedades en la rítmica de su acompañamiento.