Musica Popular Mexicana; 5

And now you are Tom Stanford assistant professor in the U.S. Department of music and John Fryman. Tom our plan today is to discuss the regional music of Mexico in the one haka region on the Pacific coast. Give us some geographic and historic perspective on this area. Well the area that will be dealing with today is the area called the mistake of Baja. This is a mystic of the coast the mystic people are situated in the western part of the state of what haka extending from high in the mountains down to the coast. The particular area which we're studying is on the coast a few hundred miles south of Acapulco. So we're speaking of the main body of Mexico not the Baja Peninsula. You know Southern California this particular area was the first area that court those ordered to be conquered after he had finally dominated the Aztec people and for this purpose he said sent one of his captains Pedro the Alderman I will have to put down this group which had been one of the important groups

opposing Aztecs in the last years before the Spaniards arrived. But climate in this particular area is very hot it's tropical and the rainfall is concentrated in about 9 months of the year. There was a three months dry season when. Until recently this was the only region. The only time of the year when it was possible to get from one part of those on to another except by small aircraft. How has this affected the music of this area. Well I suppose you might say it is affected by in till recently by conserving forms and styles of dance which were introduced about a century ago and which have disappeared in the rest of Mexico. Case in point would be that of the CI Laina. This is the stronghold of the CI LN ion Mexico and as you would suspect from the

from its name the CI LN was introduced from Chile. Actually it was the quicker CI Laina which was taken to Mexico by the Chilean miners that left their homeland by ship going up the Pacific with a final destination in California during the days the gold rush. In what specific ways will we hear that this chilling differs from other music of Mexico itself. Well I don't think that you can state that it differs very basically I suppose that originally this music was a kind of an exotic influence in Mexico but at the present time this music has assimilated itself into the local culture to such an extent that there's no feeling that this is anything foreign and it's something that seems completely indigenous to the area where you find it. And it's true that field recordings from Peru will demonstrate that many

times the. She lay not as you find it there it's called the modern era. It's very similar if not almost identical. This is not nonetheless not the general rule. The first recording that we'll hear today is. A recording of the Miley Gania recorded in the town of Harmeet epic which is the county seat of the mill to peck County on the coast of the haka. It's played on a violin high around a a small five string guitar relatively small and a wooden box soap box which is beaten on with one hand and a stick. What was the vocalist saying.

Well he was singing an improvised text principly and has a refrain which I think is fairly interesting it says my son began at 9:00 this Sunday Gail a portal see what a lovely land where I was born. Now the reference to Portal C could be a reference to the San Luis Potosi in Mexico conceivably. However portal C was originally a mining community in Bolivia. It's quite conceivable that the reference would be South America rather than to any place in Mexico itself. As I say the verses are improvised there about the this woman I'm from I live I love my leg Ania. Now this I have to interject right here most of us in North America. Automated with the word Mama Gania strictly from the standpoint of the composition by Ernest Ola Konya and there it ends. Now I would be led to understand in that moment Gania there are many such songs in title not

again you know as you explain that please. Yes there are this is a generic type not only in Mexico but in Latin America in general I've been molly gain years in Mexico and Spain to understand. In Mexico the characteristic of the mom again years that usually it's sung in rather a high vocal range and frequently those falsetto involved in this get. Sings about a woman from Mali from a live guy and usually. Has frequent references to two boats into the sea. For example I'd like to put a bridge across the ocean so that my love could stop navigating things of this sort in this particular recording Lee had a verse which says my Gania my love who gave you a name so that I might call you by it. This would be that one of the typical verses which would actually give a name to the piece as it were because a first verse has to clearly mark the song as being a Molly Gania by reference to this woman. This is also in the

region in question. A CI Laina and. I have not mentioned really what the characteristics of which Elaina would be as far as how you would differentiate it from some other dance in Mexico. The chill a night is marked by its alternation and two against three continually. You can't say whether it's in triple time or in duple time because the alternating measures it goes back and forth between the two rhythms. It also is usually a major a minor key it has unexpected changes shifts and harmony in the course of the music. And in a dance you can recognize it by the handkerchief which is invariably held in the hand of each of the two members of the couple would dance together. The dance originally imitated the courtship of hand in a rooster. I think that on occasion you can still detect this origin in the dance though most of your dancers are not aware of the

origin and you love them. The next recording is another CI Laina this belongs to another generic type another one of these generic types like the Miley Gania which is distinguished by name and by subject matter this is line detail which would be the little the Indian woman. They say indeed instead of India because India sounds a little bit less objectionable and just saying flatly Indian this in this particular case is played by an orchestra. The orchestra was bump a pic I recorded it in a wedding in the haka in homage to pick one haka was recorded during the siesta of the wedding or in the church. This was recording in they recorded in the Fiesta after the church wedding. The couple had been the Indian couple had been married by the judge. The morning is if I recall correctly and a little bit later on in the morning they were married in the church.

This is the case in Mexico because not necessarily all married people are married both in the church and the civil ceremony. A great many Mexicans are only married by civil ceremony but in this particular instance both ceremonies were held the same day and this was the first dance between the bride and groom after the wedding ceremony in the church. This lane or van is a version which was played specifically for dancing and you'll notice that there is a difference and in the temple the difference in the rhythm of the words or the text to be of interest to us. Well here there are there are words to do this awesome. This is a song as well as a piece of dance music but here it is not sung it's played by an orchestra as I stated which is largely made up of brass instruments. It would be almost impossible to sing again. Time is obviously a tremendous amount of activity going on in these recordings due to

the populace just suddenly come in and begin it all or is there some organization to it. Well in the case of the weddings everyone is invited. It's an open affair. However there is another type of Fiesta organization this is where the patron saints of the towns and muse on. This is a dancing society you could call it they're called Let's take hold on it's a name which derives from the name of one of the personages in the Tiger dance which is represented in the area. But to hold on there though this is a tiger hunt which is very typical of these dancers. The next recording which we have heard in the program. Today is the rabbit dance so-called Ja Rule which is presented by these take on it. This is a dance about a very mischievous rabbit who always gets the better of all arrest of the animal of the forest even gets the better of the town president and all the

populace. He's a big tailed rabbit that eats only the finest greens and drinks the water from the clear brook according to the words of the song which is goes with this dance which is sung in the mystic Indian language. The dancers here are people who are who dance in the toilets usually from the time their children until they're relieved of their duty by the town elders which is usually at an age when they're unable because the strenuous ness of the activity continue or because of other obligations which are important to the community. This recording is a company on a violin and as I said the other voices are in the stack. With

thing. Tom I've been most posers in a delicate way to say it. These people who only recordings don't know.

At all times seem like they are completely in their proper senses what about us. Well as a rule there they're very ceremoniously drunk and there's an erroneous couple ceremoniously and ceremonially drunk because it would appear that liquor is something which is inseparable from these events. Sometimes you would wonder how they can continue fulfilling the ceremonial requirements of the community and be as drunk as they are. But somehow or other they always seem to come through. Are these people proud of their particular musical heritage. Well it's interesting to note that if you were to ask them if they have any music they would tell you they don't have any. And the rationale behind this is that it is a little bit complicated but basically it derives from two factors. First of all that in their own language they have no word which really means music. The word that they have which can be interpreted to mean music actually

means the whole ceremony includes the dance and includes the drama. The word this word is yah. The other point is that for them music is something which would be written down on paper and and. Which might be played over or might be heard played on a transistor radio or or on a six string guitar or some other sort of instrument which is not really their own because they would not be able to afford it. So that was at first quite frustrating to me before when I was starting work in this particular zone because the fact that the Indians insisted that they had no music. And yet when I had worked a little bit farther I was able to discover they have a considerable wealth. The next recording which will hear is dance ya son Thiago it's to to the Catholic saint Santiago the patron saint of Spain who saved Spain from

the moors at a turning point in the battles of the movies. Worse it's accompanied by a flute and a drum. Tom I was impressed by what appears to be a definite increase of musicianship in this

last recording when I compare it to the one just before it. Yes well in the previous case we had had to record it toward the end of a fiesta after the musicians had performed their ceremonial obligations and by this time they'd had quite a bit to drink. In this latter case I was a close friend of the two Indians who who performed in this recording. And I was able to schedule him to play for me out of season as it were. There was no ceremonial occasion and they had not had anything to drink. They were stone sober. The next recording is is a recording of the sort of music they used for funerals This is called a bin you at the bottom of the sign says be of Innuit for All Saints Day. This would be played either for the funeral of a child or it would be played on All

Saints Day in the graveyard. It's played on a violin accompanied by a small guitar. I think you might suspect that the venue it is would be a minuet. Originally it probably was though it's in duple time here and not in the triple time you'd expect for a minuet. The music to me sounds as if it might have had a composer there or the musicians are not aware of its having been composed. But we can keep in mind that in many of these regions of Mexico it was not very long ago that people were still playing colonial music from the cathedrals and central part of Mexico itself. And thought. Oh am. I to. Be. A thief

for. For. The nth.

TIME Where will our explorations take us on the next programme. Next programme will start out with a few of the myths mestizo chilliness from the same region and continue to talk about another dance type which is general in Mexico which of the song will we still be in one. I will be in one hock in the first part of the programme. That is a production of communication center of the universe at Austin selection of music and commentary in this are under the supervision of Stanford assistant professor in the Department of Fine field recordings are drawn from the sound archives of the necks of anthropology and the Center for intro study.

The National Education at work.