Musica Popular Mexicana #7 Mariachi
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And now here are Tom Stanford assistant professor in the U.S. Department of music and
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John Fineman.
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Tom in our last program we became quite involved with a mariachi
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for are we going to continue that today.
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Yes the first election today is selection for money Archie with trumpet
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the selections that we heard in the last program were all without trumpet which is
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actually the preferred form in the smaller towns in the state of how the school
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around Guadalajara will this be more of the usual rapid tempo that
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we were accustomed to. Yes this is a little bit faster tempo.
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I think we should remember at this point again that the
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trumpet in the mariachi was an introduction and probably somewhere in the late
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1930s which was popularized by the motion picture industry in
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Mexico and by radio and later television. It's
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reached the point now where practically every Monte ARCI group in the state of
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Holly's skull feels obliged to have a trumpet even though they don't like to play with
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trumpets. The end result of the introduction of the trumpet to this
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ensemble has been and what I've called an atrophy of the violins because
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usually the violins can't be heard you know against the competition of a trumpet
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and the result is that they play in a very sloppy fashion and often don't do
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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
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prefer that you didn't. However in this particular recording I had sent the
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trumpet about 30 feet away from the microphone so as to not over bear the
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violins and perhaps the trumpet is not quite as strong in this recording as
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it ought to be. Matter of fact one of the verses in this
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particular song which is at the top of the National. Is
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poking fun at the presumption of many Mexicans who like to claim
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that they come from faraway places. It says I come from
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far away lands I come from San Luis Potosi which of course is a town which is
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probably a couple of hundred miles from from any point in you and
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in the state of holy school.
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We might. And here the next election.
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Yeah yeah yeah yeah
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yeah.
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Yeah yeah yeah
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yeah.
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There's no doubt in the fact that the Temple of that mariachi was much
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increased over the previous one and we had heard yes I think that in all probability this
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particular sign was composed rather recently about the Copley
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know who would be. A man who goes out to harvest copper lenience and many
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trees.
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I see that the next corps we will discuss will be to her Robbie. The
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word itself is an interesting word where does the word rabbit come from.
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Well I believe that no one perhaps had noticed the fact before but there is
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in Peru. From the time the sixteenth century a song type which has a
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name which is so similar to this that I think that in all probability it
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it would explain the origin of the term in Mexican song and
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dance in that it was hot.
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No way originally meant at the time to conquest a kind
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of lament. It was a sad song
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among the Incas.
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Now probably this is another case of I mean of cultural exchange
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in Latin America the sort of cultural exchange was an important factor
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and not only just within Latin America but always also as regards
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forms which were current in Spain and even at times the low countries of
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Europe.
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At the time that that Spain dominated the lowlands of Europe and
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the total of the Italian boot which also was controlled by the
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Spanish crown during the sixteenth and part of the seventeenth
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century. Half the eighteenth century.
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The hobby in Mexico was theater form.
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The first mention that I have found out of it was in 1790 when
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it was being presented in theatre in Mexico
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and this and that and to be nice it was being these were dances
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and short entertainment acts that were presented between many
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acts of the larger drama which was being presented in the theater
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and it was described as a
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song like yeah which would mean translate in English as a song
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from the country. Now if it had been Suppose that this meant that it
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was from Mexico but I believe that what it really means is from the provinces from some
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remote corner of someplace and in this particular case I
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presume that it actually meant that it was from Peru.
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The hobby became the theme song you might say of
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the insurrection and the wars of independence in
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Mexico around 1810. And was
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associated with the rise of a social class that of the
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Cina and the charter of the Charter was a Mexican cowboy and that Sheena
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is a woman of very gay apparel.
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In the early mid 19th century a very questionable morals
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dread dressed with a low cut neckline and short sleeves at a time
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when people completely covered their bodies generally in
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the style of clothing that was customary.
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We had Abi originally had something like 14 or 15 sections of the dance
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and these often alternated between dance which was some yahoo with a great
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deal of footwork and sit and song which would not be dance but rather the
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dancers were pacing around the dance area catching their breath.
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It is bliss so how big is a song in that it does represent
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the courtship of a hand in a rooster the same as the
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song. Of a quake I did. And in this particular
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case the one sung verse which you will hear states that he who
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loves and doesn't make love cannot reap in jealousy.
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You have referred to the her Robbie as being a song and we've used this
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word so often in the last few programs. What are the
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variations of various types of this form.
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Well I'll mention a few of them.
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The hobby which we just heard the CI Laina
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then there are a number of types which are really more literary variations and
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anything else that as a say they are so honest which have a special type of song text
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like for example a Quando.
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The word quanta means when the group stole the word still has
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something to with pleasure in both of these cases all its necessary for the
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song to conform to this particular form is for the text to
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use one of these two words tones delist Casey put in all these d guess
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quando to tell I'd tell all the man yes but don't tell
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him.
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When is this word always accented in the text it might be
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accented Yes but it's not invariable or in the case of the store would be.
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Dami Gustave the meow you noted audio to give me pleasure my love and I'll give
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you another bit. The mom again you know of course here you have the
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the matter of mentioning a woman from my locker and I'm out again you might say mama again
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or they may be the dreamy Candy about the soul. Again you know my
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love tell me who baptized you who gave you your name so that I might call you by it.
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The indeed this is. And an Indian woman said.
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This indeed is usually Agosto too. In fact it would they say
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unless India spoke it's on top of us. I like the Indians because they're so
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hardworking. Indian women.
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Now another variant which you find of a song as they say on the subject Yeah
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here would be a piece in which you have the fast footwork
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from beginning to end.
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Now usual song has sections between the verses in the song.
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When the dancers will will dance with more fury and
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this fast footwork would of course cover up. The melody if they were to
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sing and sing and such. Do you have the same time. These are
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not by any means all of the variants that you find of the song. Another
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variant which just comes to mind rapidly is the one on go which is found in the
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northern part of Veracruz the north Gulf Coast of Mexico. The term what
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bongo in our walk in the language of the s Aztecs means the raised platform
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upon which a song is it's danced sucked out
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the next selection that will hear.
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Here's El total he caught again.
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As in the preceding case recording from Hot Country me to a con which would
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be somewhere about halfway between Acapulco and Guadalajara
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Mexico.
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The way the songs and dances and so have been simple
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dramas regarding both whites and Mexico are very common. And
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this is another song one in which shot.
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The theme is the bowl him self and the cop what I like.
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The corporal who is going to go out and and lasso him and bring him.
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Tom as we progress through these programs I have become increasingly interested in the
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acoustics and the dynamics of the marimba and I see that we've got
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members appearing again in the next recording.
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Yes this is another recording a recording of a song on for dancing from
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Chiapas. It's interesting to note that though the marimba was has
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been an indigenous instrument in the rest of Central America. And actually I think that the point of
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origin of Marimba in this hemisphere after its introduction by negro
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slaves from Africa was undoubtedly somewhere farther south of
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Mexico. Bah wires at the present time is Guatemala
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probably. But as an indigenous or negro
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instrument you might see an instrument which is in association with negroid cultures.
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In Mexico however it is a mestizo instrument and it's absolutely
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out of the economic means beyond the economic means of the Mexican Indian to
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possess one of these things as a rule. And interestingly enough
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the marimba in Mexico though I
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play for indigenous groups is played by Misty so is usually.
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And such is the case in a selection which we'll hear next.
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I think that the average American as a matter of fact even the average Mexican has no idea
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what one of these members is really like. It's a it's a very impressive thing it's a
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huge instrument. And when the ensemble is complete
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the orchestra as they call it there is every second marimba which is somewhat
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smaller plays back to back with the main instrument. In a recording that we're going to hear now there
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are actually nine musicians playing on these two members.
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They have huge resonating boxes under each of the keys.
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And at the bass end of the instruments these boxes are so long and so wide that they don't fit
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under the instrument but they sort of spill out on one side and they extend out at an
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angle maybe.
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Three feet beyond the end of the instrument in order to fit in.
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When I use my memory correct it seems like I have seen pictures of gourds used for this
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purpose and some are embers it was just so.
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Yes this is true in Africa for example and in
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Guatemala you can find Gori and bamboo marinas
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in Mexico I have not seen these However the marimba in Mexico is in my city so instrument.
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Unlike the case in Guatemala it's a chromatic instrument the black keys were added to it.
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Traditionally they were added actually in the town where this next recording was made and a new
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standard got around sun in Mexico a town which was formally called Sun but the
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little maid at Oceana was and was the town where the famous
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costs us Las Casas Sunkist dollars cost us for example was
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this is one of the important towns in the early days of
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Mexican history.
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This next song is you know an old.
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One of the older rhythmic patterns deriving even from
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medieval rhythmic mode alternating between
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triple and duple time in successive measures. It's
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accompanied bass besides the tumor embers by a double bass and a battery.
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Tom that recording seemed awfully busy What was the environmental noise that we heard along with it.
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Well there were couples of Indians dancing in the background this is the sort of music that would
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be played at an Indian wedding here actually I had made
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arrangements with the musicians to play for me. But the Indians that
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were there lived in close proximity there began showing up at the
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recording session and began dancing and this was the background that you did.
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We spent. Now these last two programs speaking specifically about the sun.
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What would you say in retrospect would be the principal characteristics of this
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type.
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Well I would say that there are two or three principal characteristics of a song as
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a musical type in Mexico. One would be of course the couplet
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verse form associated with it. And the content of this
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which is notoriously filled with sexual connotations
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double meanings.
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The second characteristic would be the instrumental grouping the
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mariachi type grouping originally but later more recently other groupings.
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And of course. And the last characteristic would that be that of the somebody out of a
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fast footwork in the dance itself. And what about our subject for
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the next program next program we'll devote ourselves to the Indian
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groups the my O's and Yankees of northwestern Mexico.
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That is a production of communication center the University of Texas at
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Austin selection of music and commentary in this series are under
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the supervision of Stanford assistant professor in the Department of
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Fine field recordings were drawn from the sound archives of the Mexican
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National Museum of Anthropology and the Center for Internet
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study or an oral history at the University of Texas at
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Austin.
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For the national educational radio network.
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