Guardia Vieja

In Peru, "Guardia Vieja" is the name given to the first musical generation, between 1890 and 1910, of composers and performers who combined European, Afro-Peruvian and indigenous musical elements that constitute the germ of what is known as Peruvian Creole music. This music is characterized by the use of triple meter, sometimes composed of double time, and the lyrics consist of verses in stanzaic form with interspersed choruses. These artists, often anonymous, were concentrated in the mestizo and popular Lima neighborhoods of Rímac, Barrios Altos, and La Victoria, where they played their popular songs, mainly Peruvian waltzes, marineras, and polkas at musical evenings, neighborhood parties, and jaranas in alleys. The singers, soloists or duets, were accompanied by trilling guitars and also by the double bass and piano. These compositions were transmitted by hearsay as they did not have formal musical education or access to the mass media; They are songs that have often been forgotten and that in other cases have been rescued for the Creole repertoire of new generations of singers and groups of this musical genre. The spread of these musical rhythms by this generation of singers was a form of social vindication.