Native to Puerto Rico, Calle 13 uses the clarinet in this composition, hearkening to their Latin roots. Their music is a contemporary blend of mariachi, reggae, Latin, and Caribbean music, commonly labeled as Reggaeton. The featured clarinet has a very peculiar tone color, sounding as if it almost could be a soprano saxophone. As we know, the clarinet has a wide range of possible sounds and colors, and often serves different purposes in multicultural music. In Latin music, clarinetists are much more wild with their sound, and create a very spread tone quality. In typical Western performance, however, we prefer a clarinet sound that is concentrated and highly controlled. This sound is achieved my raising the tongue in the mouth, creating a concentrated pathway for the air to travel from the mouth to the instrument. But the clarinetist performing in this piece sounds as if his tongue and jaw a dropped very low, thus producing a wider sound.
This video contains explicit lyrics and visual content:
Sources:
Calle 13 (n.d.). LastFM. Retrieved from http://www.last.fm/music/Calle+13.
