Musica Popular Mexicana; 7

And now here are Tom Stanford assistant professor in the U.S. Department of music and John Fineman. Tom in our last program we became quite involved with a mariachi for are we going to continue that today. Yes the first election today is selection for money Archie with trumpet the selections that we heard in the last program were all without trumpet which is actually the preferred form in the smaller towns in the state of how the school around Guadalajara will this be more of the usual rapid tempo that we were accustomed to. Yes this is a little bit faster tempo. I think we should remember at this point again that the trumpet in the mariachi was an introduction and probably somewhere in the late 1930s which was popularized by the motion picture industry in Mexico and by radio and later television. It's reached the point now where practically every Monte ARCI group in the state of Holly's skull feels obliged to have a trumpet even though they don't like to play with

trumpets. The end result of the introduction of the trumpet to this ensemble has been and what I've called an atrophy of the violins because usually the violins can't be heard you know against the competition of a trumpet and the result is that they play in a very sloppy fashion and often don't do much more than just diddle around a little bit with their boat was an out of tune if you had to hear them you'd prefer that you didn't. However in this particular recording I had sent the trumpet about 30 feet away from the microphone so as to not over bear the violins and perhaps the trumpet is not quite as strong in this recording as it ought to be. Matter of fact one of the verses in this particular song which is at the top of the National. Is poking fun at the presumption of many Mexicans who like to claim that they come from faraway places. It says I come from far away lands I come from San Luis Potosi which of course is a town which is

probably a couple of hundred miles from from any point in you and in the state of holy school. We might. And here the next election. Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.

Yeah yeah yeah yeah. There's no doubt in the fact that the Temple of that mariachi was much

increased over the previous one and we had heard yes I think that in all probability this particular sign was composed rather recently about the Copley know who would be. A man who goes out to harvest copper lenience and many trees. I see that the next corps we will discuss will be to her Robbie. The word itself is an interesting word where does the word rabbit come from. Well I believe that no one perhaps had noticed the fact before but there is in Peru. From the time the sixteenth century a song type which has a name which is so similar to this that I think that in all probability it it would explain the origin of the term in Mexican song and dance in that it was hot. No way originally meant at the time to conquest a kind of lament. It was a sad song among the Incas.

Now probably this is another case of I mean of cultural exchange in Latin America the sort of cultural exchange was an important factor and not only just within Latin America but always also as regards forms which were current in Spain and even at times the low countries of Europe. At the time that that Spain dominated the lowlands of Europe and the total of the Italian boot which also was controlled by the Spanish crown during the sixteenth and part of the seventeenth century. Half the eighteenth century. The hobby in Mexico was theater form. The first mention that I have found out of it was in 1790 when it was being presented in theatre in Mexico and this and that and to be nice it was being these were dances and short entertainment acts that were presented between many

acts of the larger drama which was being presented in the theater and it was described as a song like yeah which would mean translate in English as a song from the country. Now if it had been Suppose that this meant that it was from Mexico but I believe that what it really means is from the provinces from some remote corner of someplace and in this particular case I presume that it actually meant that it was from Peru. The hobby became the theme song you might say of the insurrection and the wars of independence in Mexico around 1810. And was associated with the rise of a social class that of the Cina and the charter of the Charter was a Mexican cowboy and that Sheena is a woman of very gay apparel.

In the early mid 19th century a very questionable morals dread dressed with a low cut neckline and short sleeves at a time when people completely covered their bodies generally in the style of clothing that was customary. We had Abi originally had something like 14 or 15 sections of the dance and these often alternated between dance which was some yahoo with a great deal of footwork and sit and song which would not be dance but rather the dancers were pacing around the dance area catching their breath. It is bliss so how big is a song in that it does represent the courtship of a hand in a rooster the same as the song. Of a quake I did. And in this particular case the one sung verse which you will hear states that he who loves and doesn't make love cannot reap in jealousy.

You have referred to the her Robbie as being a song and we've used this

word so often in the last few programs. What are the variations of various types of this form. Well I'll mention a few of them. The hobby which we just heard the CI Laina then there are a number of types which are really more literary variations and anything else that as a say they are so honest which have a special type of song text like for example a Quando. The word quanta means when the group stole the word still has something to with pleasure in both of these cases all its necessary for the song to conform to this particular form is for the text to use one of these two words tones delist Casey put in all these d guess quando to tell I'd tell all the man yes but don't tell him. When is this word always accented in the text it might be accented Yes but it's not invariable or in the case of the store would be.

Dami Gustave the meow you noted audio to give me pleasure my love and I'll give you another bit. The mom again you know of course here you have the the matter of mentioning a woman from my locker and I'm out again you might say mama again or they may be the dreamy Candy about the soul. Again you know my love tell me who baptized you who gave you your name so that I might call you by it. The indeed this is. And an Indian woman said. This indeed is usually Agosto too. In fact it would they say unless India spoke it's on top of us. I like the Indians because they're so hardworking. Indian women. Now another variant which you find of a song as they say on the subject Yeah here would be a piece in which you have the fast footwork from beginning to end. Now usual song has sections between the verses in the song.

When the dancers will will dance with more fury and this fast footwork would of course cover up. The melody if they were to sing and sing and such. Do you have the same time. These are not by any means all of the variants that you find of the song. Another variant which just comes to mind rapidly is the one on go which is found in the northern part of Veracruz the north Gulf Coast of Mexico. The term what bongo in our walk in the language of the s Aztecs means the raised platform upon which a song is it's danced sucked out the next selection that will hear. Here's El total he caught again. As in the preceding case recording from Hot Country me to a con which would be somewhere about halfway between Acapulco and Guadalajara Mexico. The way the songs and dances and so have been simple

dramas regarding both whites and Mexico are very common. And this is another song one in which shot. The theme is the bowl him self and the cop what I like. The corporal who is going to go out and and lasso him and bring him. Tom as we progress through these programs I have become increasingly interested in the

acoustics and the dynamics of the marimba and I see that we've got members appearing again in the next recording. Yes this is another recording a recording of a song on for dancing from Chiapas. It's interesting to note that though the marimba was has been an indigenous instrument in the rest of Central America. And actually I think that the point of origin of Marimba in this hemisphere after its introduction by negro slaves from Africa was undoubtedly somewhere farther south of Mexico. Bah wires at the present time is Guatemala probably. But as an indigenous or negro instrument you might see an instrument which is in association with negroid cultures. In Mexico however it is a mestizo instrument and it's absolutely out of the economic means beyond the economic means of the Mexican Indian to possess one of these things as a rule. And interestingly enough

the marimba in Mexico though I play for indigenous groups is played by Misty so is usually. And such is the case in a selection which we'll hear next. I think that the average American as a matter of fact even the average Mexican has no idea what one of these members is really like. It's a it's a very impressive thing it's a huge instrument. And when the ensemble is complete the orchestra as they call it there is every second marimba which is somewhat smaller plays back to back with the main instrument. In a recording that we're going to hear now there are actually nine musicians playing on these two members. They have huge resonating boxes under each of the keys. And at the bass end of the instruments these boxes are so long and so wide that they don't fit under the instrument but they sort of spill out on one side and they extend out at an

angle maybe. Three feet beyond the end of the instrument in order to fit in. When I use my memory correct it seems like I have seen pictures of gourds used for this purpose and some are embers it was just so. Yes this is true in Africa for example and in Guatemala you can find Gori and bamboo marinas in Mexico I have not seen these However the marimba in Mexico is in my city so instrument. Unlike the case in Guatemala it's a chromatic instrument the black keys were added to it. Traditionally they were added actually in the town where this next recording was made and a new standard got around sun in Mexico a town which was formally called Sun but the little maid at Oceana was and was the town where the famous costs us Las Casas Sunkist dollars cost us for example was this is one of the important towns in the early days of Mexican history.

This next song is you know an old. One of the older rhythmic patterns deriving even from medieval rhythmic mode alternating between triple and duple time in successive measures. It's accompanied bass besides the tumor embers by a double bass and a battery. Tom that recording seemed awfully busy What was the environmental noise that we heard along with it.

Well there were couples of Indians dancing in the background this is the sort of music that would be played at an Indian wedding here actually I had made arrangements with the musicians to play for me. But the Indians that were there lived in close proximity there began showing up at the recording session and began dancing and this was the background that you did. We spent. Now these last two programs speaking specifically about the sun. What would you say in retrospect would be the principal characteristics of this type. Well I would say that there are two or three principal characteristics of a song as a musical type in Mexico. One would be of course the couplet verse form associated with it. And the content of this which is notoriously filled with sexual connotations double meanings.

The second characteristic would be the instrumental grouping the mariachi type grouping originally but later more recently other groupings. And of course. And the last characteristic would that be that of the somebody out of a fast footwork in the dance itself. And what about our subject for the next program next program we'll devote ourselves to the Indian groups the my O's and Yankees of northwestern Mexico. That is a production of communication center the University of Texas at Austin selection of music and commentary in this series are under the supervision of Stanford assistant professor in the Department of Fine field recordings were drawn from the sound archives of the Mexican

National Museum of Anthropology and the Center for Internet study or an oral history at the University of Texas at Austin. For the national educational radio network.