About the session: The performances involve a number of music and dance genres, including joropo, galerón (Venezuelan dance music genres), and castilian. Instrumentation is maracas, guitar, cuatro (small Venezuelan guitar), and violin. Sung texts are in Spanish. Alan Lomax's notes: "Recording was made at the home of Sotario Gomez, the outstanding expert in Spanish music in Lopinot. He is the leader of a group of players who usually travel to the surrounding villages to play for country dances and wakes (cross-wake). The songs sung are those connected with the glorification or praise of the Holy Mother and are sung in decimas or ten-line stanzas in turns by each of two contestants who compete in song supported by cuatro, bandol and marac [sic]."