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Communication Center the University of Texas at Austin. The programs we explore the music and dance forms are given to the history and culture of the Mexican people. These programs are presented in cooperation with the department and the Center for Internet culture folklore and oral history at the University of Texas at Austin. And now you are Tom Stanford assistant professor in the Utah Department of music and John Fryman. Time for the many years that high fidelity and stereo have been on the scene as instruments of entertainment I've always been fascinated by their recordings of processions. And I see that today's program begins with a procession.
Yes John it's a religious procession in the Church of the new Stana conference and the state of Chiapas in Mexico since independence. Religious processions have been illegal. Through the streets of the towns and for this reason in larger towns usually the processions are either confined to the grounds of the church itself or within the church itself as in this case. In this recording We'll hear two different musics that are sounding simultaneously one of them is four flute and two drums a large tomboy a bass drum and a small military type drum with a snare and the other music is for three trumpets. Actually they're not valid to modern trumpets there. What would have been called in the last century and Mexico thrown pass their natural trumpets. In three different keys the trumpets
interesting Lee enough. And again. Now is this traditional music that has been carefully worked out through many repeated playings to work together at the same time or is it quite a bit extemporaneous. What happens when all the first music is called by them the music of The Passion of our Lord which is the music which is played in the town square during the Lenten season. It's played day and night during the whole season. It the town is on the top of a hill which faces out in three cardinal directions over a valley which is a wealthy Valley. Harvesting sugar cane principly and this music is played out as it were to the three cardinal directions across the valley from the town square on top of the hill. The other music is the music of the mire though most the members of the religious hierarchy of the church itself and this music is not only played during
during this procession but it's also played during all of the festivities of the church in the style in which they mire though most have part. Besides these two musics will hear litanies sung by the parishioners in the procession will hear the bell of the sacristan who heads the procession with the priest and we will hear bull riders that are sounding up in the choir loft. Now this is a machine that makes the sound of the bull roar. Well they had two kinds of bull roars. One of them is what you would. Well there both of them what you would call in Spanish to rock us. One of them is that it is the sort of a thing which says here in the states in the United States children used sometimes on the Fourth of July a wooden instrument that they who are little or the how to wean quicker. That's right just that sort of an instrument and the others who are are with those who are making this scandal up in the choir loft just have two pieces of wood that they're
slapping together. With thanks. Thanks. Thanks. If Thanks thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks.
Field. Thank. Field. Thank you. If if. If. If. Feel if. If.
If if. IF IF IF IF IF. Thought I see among the various instrumentation we did not mention firecrackers on that right. Yes these are verifiable by us that they were. The lighting outside
of the church they sound as if they were inside the church isolating. This would conclude the material that we're going to present. The indigenous material that we're going to present for chaffed us the rest of the program today will be devoted to mestizo of music. The next selection which we'll hear is a bolero from the town of Kami. This is a very beautiful town one of the most beautiful regions in you know and Mexico. The town the complete name is called me on the last floor and all of the neighboring towns. I have names of flowers like LOST MY GOD eat us and so forth. The song itself is called Call Me ton the last FLOTUS. It's played mandolin and guitar a Septima 14 string guitar played by a misty So you know is this the same type we get out of cept in my we as we had on the last program.
Well this is a guitar a Septima made by Misty so's an old instrument dating from the last century. Actually some investigators have felt that the Indian instruments are descendants of medieval instruments which they probably are in a sense of the medieval view Whalen for example or seek out owning some of these medieval instruments which have not been much in use in Europe since the first half of the 17th century. In reality the recent history of these instruments is somewhat different from what one might expect to get out of a Septima was popular. At least in the last half of the 19th century among the mestizos of this particular zone and presumably the Indians are still using this type of instrument because they display a kind of a cultural leg they have not yet because of lack of especially because of lack of financial resources been able to buy the marimba switch the Mestizos are using at the present time which are expensive
instruments that cost a number of hundreds of dollars or nor have they been able to buy say six string guitars which cost on the order of 30 or 40 dollars frequently. They are manufacturing their own instruments which are still modeled after the type of instrument that the mestizos were using at the turn of the century. This particular song was composed according to the tradition the local tradition by travelling salesmen who arrived in call me Don and fell in love with one of the local girls. The text says in effect call me on the last floor to this or where I found my loved ones where I found The One and Only who I will never forget though I be far away. With. It than.
With you. Yes. I am I am
Bandung Tetlow was on the. Board. For one thing I am. I am OK to eat eat. Eat eat eat. I am meek already. Married. Yes I am weak.
I am. I am. I see that marimbas play a part on the next election to be heard. Were these in any way related to the long Rimbaud's that are played by several persons at once in the Central American countries. Yes the marimba in Mexico is MSD so instrument however as I think pretty well known in the marimba almost certainly originated in Africa. Apparently it was introduced in the Caribbean area and particularly stuck in in Central America.
It evidently arrived from Central America and Mexico. In Guatemala it's typically and Indian instrument and there are several types of marimbas for example are instruments that are made out of gourds. There are other instruments are made out of bamboo in Mexico however the instrument is strictly a mestizo instrument and very rarely do you find it in Indian communities. In one particular town the new standard got around so it's curious to note that the Indians do use the instrument but they hire Misty so as to play their own music to them on the instrument. The Indians themselves do not play the instrument. Tom I've always wondered in construction of an instrument like this Indian marimba are the pieces of wood that are struck. Are they placed half tones apart as we do in this country in the manufacture of these instruments or do they go quarter tones or different distances. Well according to local tradition in venues John a kind around such oppositely chromatic marimba originated in that town. This may may or may
not be so. I'm not really absolutely convinced. However the marimba has a chromatic instrument is not the common thing in Guatemala. But the North American or European marimba player would feel somewhat at home. AC Well these marimbas from Chiapas would be of our of the sort which you would find use even in orchestras here in the United States and in Europe and it would appear that there is some evidence to the effect that the marimba in Europe and in the United States originated in Chiapas. I see that to say this was the center of its diffusion and as far as Mexico is concerned this is definitely the case. Now one piece of evidence to support this even for Europe is the fact that there is a kind of a membrane which is used at the bottom of the resonator boxes which is taken from the intestine of a pig. And this is the only place where this is manufactured is in
been used to knock out rounds in Chiapas and from there it's sold in Europe and it's sold in the United States and it's sold locally on the markets in Mexico. Now the particular recording that we're going to hear is a medley of sourness for marimba from the highlands of Chiapas in Barcelona she mean that's a plural of the word song of the word song and yes I think we won't go into exactly what the song means here. We'll have on another occasion an adequate opportunity to go into that. We'll devote a program to that subject but suffice it to say here that these songs are mestizo dances and that each one of them represents a different town in the highlands of Chiapas where there is a mestizo community. These are songs as well as Dances However they're not sung in this recording. The marimba gate here is a large marimba is as you referred to of the marimba as a large instrument it's a marimba with a sort of team that are making
toys a smaller marimba which is placed back to back with a large one and there are four players on the large marimba and three on the taking. So you can see that it is a large affair in effect. It's also accompanied with a battery and a double bass. And there. You.
Go. Tom I'm fascinated by the marvelous dynamics of volume
that previous group just used is there a conductor for these groups or do they just follow one another. Well the group actually is kind of a family affair and most of the members are. From one family and the the director the artistic director you might say is usually the head of the family the oldest the father perhaps. However there's no conductor as such I mean they play together. So with such frequency they know perfectly what they're going to do beforehand. However one remarkable thing about these members who are there are huge resonating boxes under the keys in the rather larger keys and than you would normally see even in Mexico itself is a tremendous resonance and the tremendous volume which they're capable of producing without the least bit of stridency. Sometimes when I was feeling recording this music that he was playing around with a volume control because there's no change in tone quality as the volume increases over a tremendous dynamic.
That's what I was noticing as well as from today asked the question about the dynamic. The next song which we'll hear is a romantic song to get meat that constant D that you might say my my favorite little blonde haired girl. This is a serenade a true serenade. And by the way even the word serenade I wonder how many actually realized what the derivation of the word is. Set a note means in Spanish the night dew or the night air which carries the do with it. And of course the Serenade is a song to be sung at night. The song is composed by a young Misty so in Siena conked on one of the two or three mestizo families living in that town which is predominantly Indian and it is accompanied by the by the same composer on a six string guitar. The text of the song says Good evening. They had a seat awake if you're asleep and hear my the
wail and how it's singing to you. Come to your balcony and hear my love song. Tom a question that occurs to me throughout all of this music. Is it an art.
Well I believe that folk music is art and I think that it actually the even the term to my own way of thinking folk music is kind of a misnomer because we try in this way to separate the music which belongs to the folks from art music which I don't think is necessarily the case. This song is sung by a person who is an amateur musician Usenet not had any professional training you never was a professional in any sense of the word. And yet I feel that he has a considerable amount of already in his way of playing in his way of singing and even in the composition which of course has some sort of grotesque parsing of words in the Spanish and even rather kind of a naive literary sense and in parts of the text. But even so I think. I has a considerable attractiveness to it from an
artistic point of view. This type of song is very common in the south of Mexico I might had I would say that you've got Don and chop us the peninsula of Yucatan and the state of Chiapas or the bar words of a romantic song in Mexico at the present day. Most of the rest of Mexico has been taken up in the flurry of song type music which is very rhythmic and quite fast and have quite a different nature whereas in this particular region in Mexico you still find conserved types of songs which belong to the HAVA Nana tradition the island and a tradition which was common in the whole Caribbean area at least by the beginning of the 19th century. What have you got planned for us next week. Next week we will hear some recordings from
an Indigenous community in the isthmus of to want to pick up. Lucy is a production of communication center the University of Texas at Austin selection of music and commentary in the series are under the supervision of Tom Stanford assistant professor in the department of the interviewer is John Prine field recordings are drawn from the sound archives of the Mexican National Museum of Anthropology and the Center for intercultural study in folklore and oral history at the University of Texas at Austin. Ne are the national educational radio network.
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Series
Musica Popular Mexicana
Episode Number
3
Contributing Organization
University of Maryland (College Park, Maryland)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/500-n00ztj94
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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
00:29:21
Credits
AAPB Contributor Holdings
University of Maryland
Identifier: 69-26-3 (National Association of Educational Broadcasters)
Format: 1/4 inch audio tape
Duration: 00:29:30
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Citations
Chicago: “Musica Popular Mexicana; 3,” University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 29, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-n00ztj94.
MLA: “Musica Popular Mexicana; 3.” University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 29, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-n00ztj94>.
APA: Musica Popular Mexicana; 3. 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-n00ztj94