What Is a Corrido? Musical Analysis and Narrative Function

Much has been written about the corrido over the past sixty-five years. Most of this work, however, is based on analyses of texts. Scholars have all but ignored the music of the corrido with the implicit suggestion that the music is too simple to be studied and thus unworthy of scholarly attention. Thus the question, "What is a corrido?" remains partly unanswered. With this in mind, this study will attempt to supply some of the missing pieces of information on the music of corridos from its origins to the present. My thesis for this study is that every element of music found in the corrido tradition has developed to support and reflect various aspects of its narrative function. My objectives are (1) to identify, through musical analysis of commercial and archival recordings, a summary of the most common musical aspects of the corrido; and (2) to determine, through musical analysis, the work that is done by the music of the corrido in order to express the goals and values of its creators and listeners.