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Communication Center the University of Texas at Austin. The programs we explore the culture of these programs are presented in cooperation with the Department of music and the Center for Internet culture in folklore and oral history at the University of Texas at Austin. And now here are Tom Stanford assistant professor in the Utah Department of music and John fireman. Tom throughout this program series we seem to have alternated between music of the cantina and music in the church. And I see today they were back in the church music. We're just discussed today is the media. What is this
type of music and when and where is it played. Well it should be me or it is a Spanish name for the shawm of the 16th and 17th centuries in modern terminology which the average layman would understand it's a kind of a primitive obal has somewhat a larger bore than an oboe however a larger double reed. And the oboe. In modern usage in Latin America however this name also applies to an instrumental grouping frequently which plays during the Lenten season and Easter week sometimes is a flute in a drum sometimes as the actual cheating me you know with a drum or even cheating me alone or a number of shitty Mia's sometimes is a combination that includes flute trumpet and drum. This is music which I believe was probably originally almost certainly originally associated with the plays of the passion of our Lord. It was the music that accompanied the Roman soldiers on
their march up to Calvary. It would be originally that is to say in a medieval concept of military music. At the present day however the cheating me is not recognised usually by the Indian groups in Latin America has military. Well when you speak of these passion dramas are you speaking of the European antecedents or those I would have thought Mexico of the European. Because the CI to me was an instrument which was used in all of Europe. And it was called variously in different languages as I mention in English it was called a Shaw. Also there were types of flutes which were probably more Asian origin which are still to be found in Mexico and which were common in all of Europe. The first selection which we'll hear today I think is almost a prototype of this music which can be found in quite a few parts of Mexico and is frequently easily identifiable especially in that the chitty Mia and the drum don't play simultaneously. The Chitty Mia plays
first and then there's a long measured silence in this particular recording. Then the drum answers with some very measured very paused isolated drum beats and then long pauses all on every hand so very lagu Briest very sad music which is announcing Easter week in the church. This music would be played outside of the church in the patio in the church yard at a time when the bells the church are in mourning they're wrapped up in black cloth frequently and in some of the towns and the drum substitute for the bells of the church. So when mass is to be called you hear this music playing in the patio of the church to call people to mass. There was a recording made in Mexico where this particular recording was done to expound how
lease go this is a little town that's the number of hours south of Guadalupe. The next recording which will hear is from a town in the isthmus of to want to pick a Lula one haka. This is an unusual little town it was a town where the Dominican set up a convent in the 16th century a small town in the 16th century the same as it is today apparently about five thousand three hundred inhabitants. An interesting comment here on the side is we found a very interesting archive of colonial music dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries in that town. In spite of the fact there's not the slightest trace of the original convent and the only church they have there now is of modern construction and almost ready to fall again because of the local earthquakes where these old manuscripts that you get music manuscripts Yes especially music by DSA composers chapel master in the cathedral one
Haka in the mid 17th century in whose music has not appeared in transcription nor apparently been generally made available anyplace up to now. The selection that we'll hear next is a recording made in a procession during the passion ceremonies in this particular town. These passion ceremonies start on Palm Sunday and enact the whole passion of our Lord exactly as the Bible tells us of it. The particular procession is that of the encounter when Mary of the soul of that of. Goes out around one side of the town. The image her image is taken out of the church and the image of Christ on the cross is taken out of the church and goes around the other side of the town and they encounter at a small chapel near the south edge of the town. They are accompanied especially Christ who is going up to Calvary by the Roman soldiers here as well as by the
disciples and the inhabitants of the town in general a large proportion of the inhabitants of the town actually are participating in an active sense in these dramas. You'll hear two musics which are being played simultaneously one is played on a brass band and the other is that of a flute with a drum alternating. Tom this sounded to me like one of the more complicated sound tapestries we've heard do
these people rehearse these together. Yes they do. There is a certain amount of improvisation in the usual Mexican music. These particular musicians can read music however on the processions they they played this these selections time and time again during a period perhaps of an hour an hour and a half. This particular procession lasted as it went through price B all the streets of the time. However the you'll notice that the melody instruments are are playing the same melody virtually But there aren't quite synchronizes what musicologist might call had are often me who are not all the instruments arrive at the same note at the same time this kind of a lag about that's what gives it the complicated aspect. Is this so planned or is it because of the amatory quality of the musicians. You know the musicians I don't think we should consider amateurs. This is intentional. The next selection that we'll hear is played on what the local
inhabitants of a town in the cost of a haka. Farther north from Wyoming Lou it's the town of San Pedro aptly yok close to the border of the state of get out a lot toward the haka. Up toward Acapulco now they call these instruments cheating Mia's but they were not cheating me as actually they they were too long Heraldo the trumpets of the sort that you would see banners hanging from me in medieval pageantry and the paintings of these 15th 16th centuries. One of these trumpets I had an inscription on it that said Paris 1850. The trumpets were in very bad condition. They had been flattened and straightened and repaired with solder I recall of the sort that a radio technician would use. These two instruments had played originally in the Church of the town before it was destroyed by an earthquake. They played from opposite ends of the
sanctuary and answered each other and also in the patio of the church to call people to mass during Easter week. And. And.
At. The trumpeter appeared to have a special type vibe Rado that he used.
Yes they shook the whole instrument up and down violently while they were playing music that caused these uncontrolled wide vibratos they were produced on the instrument. It appears to me that this music in this case may very well be descended from a pre Hispanic type of Indian music the sort that might well have been played on conch shells and which shells you can find represented in previous bank representations of religious processions for example and when I'm POC you'll find these conch shells represented and in some of the codex is principally in museums in Europe. Now this type of music has of course in the long history that it has in Mexico changed evolved to a considerable extent in many of the regions where you find it. Sometimes I think that it's even a little bit hard to be sure that the music that one finds associated with it with these Easter customs
is actually related to these prototypes. It's such a case would be the next selection that we'll hear from soccer at their local and Skyla. The state of France scarlet to the east of Mexico City was one of the first regions dominated by Cortez and the conquest of Mexico and the class Celtic Indians were his most important allies during the succeeding stages of the conquest of Mexico. This I think is important to keep in mind because the reason region of class scholar which is one of the most densely populated of Mexico is also the region which fell under the sway of Spanish culture it first among all regions in Mexico. It was the first region to be converted to Christianity the first region to take on the Spanish ways of life and though you will find Spanish speakers in this region today really
the inhabitants are not Indians they live a typical Spanish typical Mexican way of life. You feel sometimes that you never left Mexico City even though you're in a small rural indigenous town. This music is played on a cheetah me-I with the accompaniment of two drums. One of them is a mere military drum with a snare which the player has hanging around his waist. The other one is an Indian drum of a Prius panic type which should properly be called away wet but which the local Indians have confused with another type of Prius back drum and call a temple nastily. Here again the music substitutes for the bells but the recording if you're going to hear it was made on Saturday of Holy Week. Saturday of Glory is as the translation Spanish expression would be. And the bells were no longer in mourning. That
music had a definite martial atmosphere to it didn't it. Yes it seems to me that it does now. Which would of course or could of course reflect the original use of this music which was accompanying the Roman soldiers in many processions. This particular region the region Toskala in Mexico. Interestingly enough does not conserve any pagan customs at all. If I may use the word pagan except those of Carnival Carnival is the only time of the year when they have dances and when they have the festivity of the sort that you spoke of a several times of this music being played from the church patio there's every church have the patio in where is it located in relation to the sanctuary. Well it's located just in front of the main door of the church itself. Sometimes it goes around the sides of the church
too. In this particular case it was in front of the church. Now the next selection that we'll hear is an olive bottle to a saint in the newsstand in the highlands of choppiness again. And this music is played on a flute a bamboo flute which the local inhabitants call a flout a gray sign this would be a thick flute. It has six finger holes and is a very large bore for the length of the instrument so that it produces a sound which can be varied pitch wise quite easily just by blowing hard you're pushing the instrument a little bit as it were and as in the case for example of the very first selection that we heard on this program. You'll notice this kind of oriental or or I think Arabic type intonation. You'll hear pitches which are not accidents by any means but which are
outside of our concept of the diatonic scale. Outside the European concept the diatonic scale. This music is played in the plaza of the town. And you might say it's played to the four winds the plans of this particular town is high on a hill on the top of a hill over looking over the surrounding plain. And this music is played at the different edges of the plaza all every day during the Lenten season and during Easter week. Probably played every hour or two maybe three hours depending upon the musicians. But it's played day and night. And as I look back on today's music time we have heard no vocalizing his characteristic of that YOU
TO ME. Well the witchetty me you know is this music which you've been hearing today in music of the cheating media is a music associated with Easter Week a time of mourning in the church. And in this particular case the type of music which is associated with processions which are processions taken by the folks as being a tragedy is a very sad matter and all this music is not sung not of words are being sung I think would be completely out of character. Where do we go next week in this for that expiration next week's program is going to take on a very large topic for one single program the subject of conquests dances. This is the music that came in with Cortez and his people. Well it was a kind of music which was instituted by the Spaniards in 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 Tom Stanford assistant professor in the Department of Fine field recordings are drawn from the sound archives of the Mexican National Museum of Anthropology and the Center for intra study folklore and oral history at the University of Texas at Austin. Or the National Education Network.
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Series
Musica Popular Mexicana
Episode Number
12
Contributing Organization
University of Maryland (College Park, Maryland)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/500-9g5gg38p
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Description
Series Description
Musica Popular Mexicana is a series of programs which explores traditional regional music and dance forms of Mexico, with a special emphasis given to the history and culture of the Mexican people. Each episode focuses on specific regions and forms, with commentary from Mexican musicology expert Thomas Stanford. The program is produced in cooperation with the Department of Music and the Center for Intercultural Studies in Folklore and Oral History at the University of Texas Austin, and is distributed by the National Education Radio Network. Sound recordings are provided by the Center for Intercultural Studies as well as the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico.
Topics
Music
Media type
Sound
Duration
00:27:11
Credits
AAPB Contributor Holdings
University of Maryland
Identifier: 69-26-12 (National Association of Educational Broadcasters)
Format: 1/4 inch audio tape
Duration: 00:27:07
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Citations
Chicago: “Musica Popular Mexicana; 12,” University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 28, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-9g5gg38p.
MLA: “Musica Popular Mexicana; 12.” University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 28, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-9g5gg38p>.
APA: Musica Popular Mexicana; 12. Boston, MA: University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-9g5gg38p