Cueca Music of Chile

The cueca (which is short of zamacueca) has long been seen the most famous air of Chile, it first appeared in 1824; the cueca is always in a main key and is written in six-eight time with the accompaniment in the three-four. Also to Pedro Humberto Allende, a Chilean singer, neither the words nor the music obey any fixed rules, the different motives are freely intermixed. The number of bars is from twenty-six to thirty. And there is a usual instrumental introduction twelve to one hundred bar in length, the last note of the melody is either the third or the fifth of the scale never be the octave.

source of picture: latindancehistory.wordpress.com