Décima

Décima
Music of Puerto Rico
General topics
Related articles
Genres
National anthem La Borinqueña
Regional music
v · four-verse stanza followed by four ten-line stanzas). It is also called "espinela," after its founder, Vicente Gómez Martínez-Espinel (1550– 1624), a Spanish writer and musician of the Siglo de Oro.

The décima deals with a wide range of subject matter, including themes that are philosophical, religious, lyrical, and political. Humorous décimas typically would satirize an individual's weakness or foolish act. A decimero would frequently challenge the target of the satire or his/her defender to respond in kind with a décima, thereby setting up a song duel that tested the originality and wit of contending composers.[1]

Contents

Puerto Rico

The decima of Puerto Rico is a style of poetry that is octosyllabic and has 10 lines to the stanza. The rhyming scheme is ABBAACCDDC. It is spoken, sung and written throughout Latin America with variations in different countries. It is often improvised.

A person who writes or improvises décima is known as a decimista or decimero.

Given the flexible method of counting syllables in Spanish verse, where an "octosyllabic" line could easily have seven or nine syllables (as normally counted), in writing a décima in English it would seem not unreasonable to write in iambic pentameter (theoretically ten syllables), which comes more naturally to English verse.

Poetry

"Juyzio hallado y trobado"
"La vida es sueño"

Pedro Calderón de la Barca wrote in décimas some stanzas of Life is a Dream.

Nicomedes Santa Cruz made poems about Peruvian life and culture in décimas.

Songs

Many songs are in the form of décima. For example Violeta Parra's Volver a los Diecisiete and 21 son los Dolores.

Folkloric manifestation

External audio
You may listen to "Décima de los Pueblos de Puerto Rico" here.

Some poetic competitions known as payadas consists on poets improvising décimas.

Ecuador

The Ecuadorian décima is an oral poetic form that exists among the black population of the Esmeraldas Province. A décima consists of 44 lines, each of which generally has eight syllables. A décima consists of one stanza of four lines, and four more stanzas of ten lines each. Each of the four lines of the first stanza is repeated later in the poem. Sometimes when these lines are repeated, they are slightly altered. Patterns of rhyme and meter are not governed by any particular rules.[2]

During declamation, there is a pause between stanzas, as well as a pause between the fourth and fifth lines of each ten-line stanza. This is reflected in the structure of the poems as well: a transcription of a décima will invariably have a period or a semicolon at the end of the fourth line. Some older decimeros add an additional pause between the eighth and ninth line of each ten-line stanza.[2]

The structure of the décima suggests that it is derived from the Spanish glosa, which also employs eight-syllable verses and a break between the fourth and fifth verse of a ten-line stanza.[2]

Décimas are generally anonymous. Though many decimeros claim to have composed the décimas they recite, this is rarely the case. One scholar of décimas said he met only one decimero who actually composed his own décimas, and that decimeros living in different areas often claimed to have composed the same poems.[2]

References

  1. ^ Chicano Popular Culture, Que Hable el Pueblo, written by Charles M. Tatum.
  2. ^ a b c d Rahier, Jean Muteba. "Creolization and African Diaspora Cultures: The Case of the Afro-Esmeraldian Decimas". In The Ecuador Reader (Carlos de la Torre & Steve Striffler, eds.), pp. 226-236. Duke University Press (2008). ISBN 9780822343745.

Further reading

References

  • Clark, Dorothy Clotelle. "espinela." The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press,1993.
    Cuddon, J. A. A Dictionary of Literary Terms New York: Penguin, 1979.
  • Coplas y décimas de la tradición lojana, 1990. [Quito] : Centro de Difusión Cultural, Asociación Lojana, [1991?]. OCLC 27225375.
  • Juan García. La poesía negrista en el Ecuador. Esmeraldas, Ecuador: Banco Central del Ecuador, 1982. OCLC 10486497.
  • Juan García. Cuentos y decimas afro-esmeraldeñas. Quito, Ecuador : Ediciones Abya-Yala, 1992. OCLC 37807262.
  • Juan García Salazar. Los guardianes de la tradición: compositores y decimeros : décimas y argumentos de tradición oral en las comunidades afroecuatorianas de Esmeraldas. Esmeraldas, Ecuador: PRODEPINE, Proyecto de Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indigenas y Negros, 2002. OCLC 230742437.
  • Laura Hidalgo Alzamora. Décimas esmeraldeñas. Quito: Libresa, 1995. ISBN 9789978803387.
  • Ana María Kleymeyer. La décima: fusión y desarrollo cultural en el Afropacífico. Quito, Ecuador: Ediciones Abya-Yala, 2000. ISBN 9789978046098.
  • Jean Rahier. La décima : poesía oral negra del Ecuador. Quito: Ediciones Abya Yala: Centro Cultural Afro-Ecuatoriana, [1987?]. OCLC 18244100.

External links



Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Décima — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Para otros usos de este término, véase Décima (desambiguación). Genéricamente una décima en poesía es una estrofa constituida por 10 versos octosílabos. Actualmente se usa esta palabra con el sentido específico de… …   Wikipedia Español

  • decimă — DÉCIMĂ, decime, s.f. (muz.) Interval care cuprinde zece trepte, format dintr o octavă şi o terţă. ♦ Treapta a zecea de la o treaptă dată. – Din it. decima. Trimis de dante, 14.07.2004. Sursa: DEX 98  decímă (muz.) s. f., g. d. art. decímei; pl.… …   Dicționar Român

  • Decima — can refer to: Decima (mythology), a goddess in Roman mythology and one of the Parcae (Fates) Décima, a type of poetic form with roots in Spanish literature Decima Research, a Canadian polling company Decima gallery, a London based arts… …   Wikipedia

  • décima — s. f. 1. Uma das dez partes iguais em que se pode dividir uma coisa. = DÉCIMO 2. Composição poética de dez versos. 3. Tributo da décima parte de um rendimento coletável. 4. Qualquer contribuição direta00. 5.  [Música] Intervalo que compreende dez …   Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa

  • Decĭma [1] — Decĭma (Decuma, lat.), 1) der 10. Theil, z.B. des Getreides, Öls, Weins, s. u. Zehnt. Daher Decimabel (v. lat.), zehntbar …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Decĭma [2] — Decĭma (spr. Detschima), Graf Angelo della D., geb. 1752 auf Cephalonia, studirte Medicin u. Mathematik, wurde nach einander Professor der Arzneimittellehre, der Geologie u. Medicin zu Padua u. st. hier 1825; er schr. u.a.: Trattato di geologia,… …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Decima — Decima, im span. Handel früher als 1/2e Real = 10 Centimos verstanden; 1864–68 als D. de Real (Centimo) Bronzemünze von 2,5 g. Ferner Maße im frühern Königreich Neapel zu 10 Centesimi: 1/10 Palmo = 26,455 mm und 1/10 Moggio = 69,987 qm …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Decĭma — (lat., nämlich pars), der zehnte Teil, Zehnte; decimae anni, die 40tägigen Fasten …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Decima — Decīma (lat.), der zehnte Teil, Zehnt …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

  • dècima — ž 1. {{001f}}desetina, porez od desetine uroda 2. {{001f}}jez. knjiž. strofa od deset stihova 3. {{001f}}glazb. a. {{001f}}deseti stupanj dijatonske skale b. {{001f}}interval od deset dijatonskih stupnjeva c. {{001f}}pomoćni orguljski registar ✧… …   Veliki rječnik hrvatskoga jezika

  • décima — sustantivo femenino 1. Cada una de las diez partes iguales en que se divide un todo: Para aprobar me faltan tres décimas de punto. 2. Cada una de las diez partes de un grado del termómetro clínico. Frases y locuciones 1. tener (unas) décimas o …   Diccionario Salamanca de la Lengua Española

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”