Folk music of Mexico

Marimba Mexican orchestra.

The folk music of Mexico is a manifestation that is the result of the miscegenation that occurred between the many European, American and African traditions, among others. Mexican music is extremely varied and includes various styles determined by the geographical region of origin. Some of the traditional songs of Mexico are known to the world. Various types of musical instruments of mestizo origin are played, in addition to the European ones that are very popular.

Origin of the term folklore

William John Thoms.

Folklore was born in the middle of the 19th century. English scholar William John Thoms proposed the term for the word on August 22, 1846 to refer to popular antiquities of lore. There were two cultural movements that promoted the emergence of folklore: romanticism and the people as a society. Both movements exalted the artistic sensibility of the town, which was perceived as a new protagonist immersed in themes to express.p

In Mexico, folklore penetrated at the end of the XIX century. In the year 1885, Joaquín García Icazbalceta gave a speech at the Mexican Academy of Language where he defined folklore as & # 34; the expression of the feelings of the people in the form of legends or tales, and particularly in anonymous couplets or ditties, sometimes full of grace and often notable for the accuracy or depth of thought".

However, it was not until the early years of the XX century that the first efforts to promote folkloric research in Mexico appeared.. In the first decades you can find the participation of Valentín F. Frías who published Queretaro legends and traditions, there is also Nicolás León who was a notable precursor of folklore.

During the following decade (1920-1930) publications dedicated to folklore appeared, thus stimulating interest and publishing books such as El folklore y la música mexicana, edited by the Ministry of Public Education (SEP) in the year 1928 under the government of Plutarco Elías Calles.

The nationalist feeling that grew during the following decades, until the government of Lázaro Cárdenas del Río (1934-1940) represented great importance in the development of folklore as an object of study, since it received resources from the government to develop research as well as a better artistic development.

Pre-Hispanic music

Xochipilli, Mesoamerican deity of music and dance.

Very little is known about the pre-Hispanic music of Mexico, although there are many groups that claim this tradition throughout the country.

The indigenous people lacked string instruments among others, and their music was based on percussion and wind instruments. There are very few historical and archaeological references that allow us to even guess the type of music that the natives cultivated before the arrival of the Spanish, however it is presumed that it was of an imitative and warlike type, that is to say that they sought to recreate the sounds of nature with the instruments that they made with mud, reeds, skins and others, as well as rhythms that accompanied the warrior dances and rituals.

From the last period of Mesoamerican civilization, it is known that there was a patron deity of singing, music and games. Her name was Xochipilli, the Flower Prince .

Currently, pre-Hispanic music has been taken to the level of ethnoelectronic music, in which the fusion of native instruments with modern rhythms such as house and minimal prevails, as the Wicholly Broders and Zompantli collective does.

Currently, some composers have used pre-Hispanic instruments, such is the case of Carlos Chávez in the Indian symphony and in the ballets, they have also been used to reconstruct music sounds.

The instruments were made of reed, wood, turtle shells, these were some of the materials used.

Post-Hispanic indigenous music

The music performed by indigenous peoples in the Mexican Republic has influences from European and mestizo music, such as the use of stringed instruments, drums with ropes, and the use of chords. An instrumental example is the drum-flute unit, where the performer plays the flute with one hand and the drum with the other hand, whose tradition was introduced by the Spanish in the XVII. In pre-Hispanic times, the flutist and the drummer played separately. There are also flutist and drum duets, similar to those of mestizo music and traditional European music.

Music and traditions

The use of music is an essential characteristic, especially in religious festivals, although its use is not limited to them, but also to recreation and enjoyment of the spirit. On some occasions they play an important role, since every time the traditions of remote events carried out by certain tribes were sung, they described important events such as: cataclysms produced by nature, epidemics, wars, victories and failures, feats of illustrious ancestors, among others.

Mestizo music

Internationally known is the mariachi ensemble, associated with the great figures of "Mexican song" ranchera, which flourished between the 1940s and 1970s. It is a very interesting case because a typical regional ensemble became a national symbol.

Mariachi at the Teatro de la Ciudad Esperanza Iris in Mexico City.

The Mariachi originates from western Mexico, specifically from the states of Nayarit, Colima and Jalisco, which dispute its paternity. The truth is that at first, the mariachi was a popular and indigenous orchestra, and their clothing had nothing to do with that of the charro (that is, the suit of the rich ranchers) and they played the "mariachi sones& #3. 4;. An interesting note is that these musical ensembles arrived in Mexico City before the capital of Jalisco. From the first decade of the XX century they begin to transform: they wear the charro suit (the same one that the typical orchestras already used from the Porfiriato), and expand their repertoire with pieces from different regions of the Republic: sones abajeños, jarabes, corridos, huapangos and wild songs, in the style of Lucha Reyes. They also added the trumpet as an essential instrument.

With the rise of Mexican cinema, the films of Tito Guízar, Jorge Negrete, Pedro Infante and Javier Solís, made known the mariachi as well as an idealized rural Mexico.

The son is a music in which indigenous, Spanish and African influences are mixed, even Asian in some cases. It is a genre with a 6/8 rhythm, whose instrumentation varies from region to region. A set of sones is called syrup, and of this type, there are the Tapatío, Mixteco, del Valle, Tlaxcalteca, Michoacano, etc. syrups. In addition to the already mentioned mariachi sounds, there are son jarocho, huapango, son abajeño and many more. Genres of later appearance are the jarana and the Yucatecan trova, which are cultivated in the Yucatan peninsula, and which received Caribbean influence (especially Cuban son) and even Andean (Colombian bambuco); the Chilean, originally from the states of Guerrero and Oaxaca, and which received the influence of the Chilean cueca and the Peruvian marinera. Likewise, the rondalla arose, in the popular urban student social classes, in those who could not acquire the instruments of the student.

Sinaloan band.

The Banda Sinaloense or Tambora Sinaloense is a type of musical ensemble, of traditional and popular musical genre, which is culturally established in the early twenties in the State of Sinaloa, north-western region of Mexico. It is a genre with European remnants of the organological style of the European fanfare, it interprets a varied repertoire in musical forms, in which traditional sones, rancheras, corridos, polkas, waltzes, mazurkas, chotis, everything predominate. it adapted to the sensitivity of the inhabitants of this Mexican region; as well as popular music such as romantic ballads and cumbia.

At the end of the XIX century, in all regions of Mexico there were ensembles of wind instruments and piano, which played in military regiments, town festivals and religious processions, adding the latest metal alloy instruments to the ensembles.

Man playing accordion playing northern music in Monterrey.

Group essences, folkloric musical ensemble in northeast Mexico.

Norteña música is a genre of folk and popular music from Mexico, performed by a norteño ensemble, consisting of an accordion and bajo sexto instrumentation (in some regions known as fara -fara), with the addition of double bass (also known in Mexico as tololoche), also includes snare drum and occasionally saxophone. More modern ensembles often use drums and electric bass instead of the traditional double bass and snare drum. Some of the best-known groups of this musical genre are: Ramón Ayala, Los Cadetes de Linares, Los Tigres Del Norte, Los Invasores de Nuevo León, Carlos y José, Grupo Pesado, Intocable, Los Huracanes Del Norte, Los Cardenales de Nuevo León, Grupo Duelo and Los Tucanes de Tijuana. Its repertoire includes sung and instrumental musical forms that come from both the Mexican musical tradition (canción ranchera, corrido, bolero ranchero, huapango) and from the European one of the century XIX (polka, chotis, redova) and Colombian as cumbia. Although originally from rural areas of northeastern Mexico, norteño music is today extremely popular in both urban and rural areas.

The huapango is a Mexican musical genre based on ternary compass, interpreted in various ways, the best known are three variants: the typical huapango or son huasteco, interpreted by the huasteco trio; the huapango norteño, performed by the norteño ensemble and the huapango by mariachi.

The word huapango seems to be derived from the Nahuatl word 'cuauhpanco', from cuahuitl, log of wood or tree,pan and co, both locative suffixes that make the first word a locative. That is to say, in synthesis on the stage or on the stage. Huastec revelry. It is also known by the term are huasteco. In the beginning there was a differentiation between the terms, being the huapangos the songs with fixed lyrics and the Huasteco sones the pieces to trovar, to write verses. It is played in the regions of Veracruz, San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo, Tamaulipas, Puebla, Guanajuato and Querétaro.

The marimba music is the music interpreted either by one, two or more people (a performer in the area of bass or bass sounds) or by a marimba orchestra, to which add electric bass or double bass, drums, and a wind instrument. Its traditional repertoire is of sones and songs from the southeast, as well as other typical musical forms of the country.

In Chiapas, Marimba music is very versatile. The taste for this musical instrument in Chiapas is such that it is in this state where the marimba has been perfected. In Chiapas it is interpreted in Marimba, Zapateados, Sones Chiapanecos, Waltzes, Paso Doble, Classical Music, Contemporary Classical Music, Ranchera Music, Northern Music, etc.

The Son Jarocho is the musical expression typical of the Jarocho culture (part of the states of Oaxaca, Tabasco and Veracruz). It is practiced essentially in the traditional party of the jarochos called fandango jarocho, where it is combined with the zapateada dance and sung poetry. This artistic expression is also widely practiced by performers who are not of Jarocho origin. The music has a harmonic rhythm, generally sesquiáltero, with syncopations and setbacks, the lyrics have changing couplets called "versos" and the dance is based on the zapateado with a similar character in some regions of Mexico.

List of folk music forms:

Folk dances

Dance of the old ones.

The songs and the praise of the gods, heroes and rulers were the main manifestation of music among the primitive settlers of Mexico; although the songs to the heroes were only in praise of the gods, thanking them for the victories obtained by those, asking them to continue favoring them with their gifts for the glory of their people, so we can say that the music was almost exclusively religious.

United to the songs almost always to mystical ceremonies, they were no less so than the dances, a picturesque variety, which even today, the vast majority having been lost and many of the rest being modified by the influence that promoted the Catholic religion, many of them survive.

Dance of the deer

Dance of the deer.

The first historians of Mexico, especially the religious ones, saw in those songs and dances works of the devil, expressing himself with a childish candor, in a mystical tone, very typical of the time. The songs and dances accommodated all circumstances. There were cheerful and happy, as well as monotonous and sad.

Dance in indigenous societies is closely linked to the ritual of music; Around each dance there is some event of a community type, of the life cycle or of an incidental nature. In turn, a high percentage of indigenous music is linked to dance. The music of a dance can be considered from several points of view: there are those that have their own music and those that are made using compositions that are not exclusive to them; some dances are practiced according to a defined number of melodies and others do so without being subject to a determined number of pieces.

The Nahua dance Aztecatzitzin has four parts: the "mañanitas" to the Virgin, the "Songs of offering", the "Sones de marchas" and the "Sones de bailes y brincos"; thus while the first part is constant, the songs and the two types of sones change in number from one performance to another. Among the Yumans there are various cycles of songs; one of them consists of five songs performed in strict sequence, from sunset until the next morning. The simple number of melodies for the dances is very varied: the Huave dance of the Swordfish comprises five pieces, the popoluca of the Tiger, eight; the Zapotec of Fanged Blacks, 10; the Nahua of Tocotines, 14; the chatina of Swords 15; the Nahua from Tecuàn, eight pieces from la travesía and 14 from the Toreada, Totonac from Negritos, no less 32; the amuzgo of the Conquest, more than 50, etc.

Folk music is a spiritual need of a determined community, this could be composed by a person, folk music is not affected by fashions since this music interprets the feelings of a people and makes them remain and identify with the spirit of the people.

Mexican folk music is a mixture of different traditions such as European, American and African, plus the style is determined depending on the geographical location where it comes from. They are performed with various types of musical instruments, music has been present in all periods of Mexican history as well as Mexico has preserved a unique space in terms of sound representations, singing or playing instruments, music helps to create an identity to express yourself as a society or people as well as being a fundamental component in the life of Mexicans.

A fixed folk dance is traditional choreography performed to a specific piece of music.

Examples:

• They're from forgiveness.
• They're from the junction.

Mexican musical ensembles and their instruments

Traditional ensembles and instruments

The human body and other sound instruments

Teponaztli.

The human voice is an omnipresent instrument in the production of artistically patterned sounds among the peoples of Mexico, although with a lower percentage of occurrence. Something similar can be said of the feet, but not of the hands, which rather than sound by themselves are used to play instruments. In turn, all societies have different instruments that may be of American origin, such as the percussion instrument better known by its Nahuatl names, teponaztli and Maya, tunkul; either of European origin, like the guitar, or of African descent, like the marimba. None of the indigenous peoples use the dozens of existing instruments, while the distribution of each of them is very uneven.

Of the large number of organological aspects and the use of the instruments, we focus on referring to only a few select cases, such as the kiliwa or paipái practice of tuning their rattles through small holes. The Yaqui-Mayo instrumental of the Dance of the deer requires the elaboration of strings of dried butterfly cocoons filled with pebbles from the tingling, a bull placed upside down in a tray with water and struck with a mallet covered with corn leaves, as well like scrapers resting on resonant bulls turned upside down on the ground.

There are also the wooden elements on which you tap your feet, such as the seri table or the cora platform; or the existence among the pames of kazoo flutes, whose vibrating membrane is made of a certain spider web; the clay drums of the Lacandones or the kikapu drum that carries water inside; the musical arc of the Cora and Tepehuan mitotes, among many other cases.

Another important aspect of musical instruments is the iconography that they sometimes present, as well as the symbolism to which some of them are associated. In the first instance are the rattles adorned with feathers or painted, mirrors attached to the arms of the harp and string pullers with wavy contours of the guitars. On the other hand, musical instruments are forces or animated beings or simply representations of something, among other things. Thus, the Yumans use rattles made with small turtle carapaces, whose lines represent maps of the world. For the Otomi, the shaking of rattles is an invocation to the clouds, and a call to thunder and rain; The Mazahuas also call the rain with dances, in which sticks with bells are struck on the ground. In various indigenous societies, musical instruments have a soul: the Tlahuicas, from the State of Mexico, keep an ancient teponaztli in their church, who have even fled to join their mother, who is in Morelos; the huastecos give burial to rattles, jaranas and other instruments that are breaking; and the Totonacs give violins and guitars aguardiente to drink before using them. Musical instruments also come to embody certain dualities, such as the "female" (of larger dimensions) and "male" (of small dimensions) of the Tabasco Chontal ensemble of the Drummers, Some of them exist in two forms of complementary employment, such as in a Huichol society that uses the canari (a kind of guitar of small proportions) all year round and only during Holy Week they employ its counterpart: a guitar-shaped noisemaker.

Finally, in several of the indigenous peoples they consider musical instruments as the genuine emitters of perfect sounds, of divine origin.

Mixe funeral music

In various places and moments, music is invariably linked to the life of the mixes, in joys as in sadness, both in civic, social and religious acts, as well as in collective and family moments; Therefore, there are various forms of musical expression according to the moments that the people of the Mixe town go through. The music that accompanies the people of this town and their final resting place are rhythmic marches and a slow beat that reflect the sorrow that family members and friends have for the death that comes to a certain house.

Thus the funeral marches are performed by the town band in the house of the deceased and on the way to their last resting place. It is listened to with respect, and although it is usually associated with sadness, it is also a great encouragement to listen to it in the house where mourning is received, because it is known that one is not alone in difficult times because of what the family.

The next day, shortly before leaving, the band arrives again at the house to say goodbye to the deceased, later he is accompanied to the church of his creed and from there to the pantheon. For the band there is no religion at that time, and basically their presence depends on the decision of the relatives.

The following works are usually heard:

• Goodbye forever
• Three Marys
• Eternal rest
• In peace rest
• Soul sighs
• March to eternity
• Your memories
• Last goodbye
• At the foot of the cross
• With God they stay
• Lie on your coffin
• Last trip

Bibliographic references

• National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples: Fonoteca: http://www.cdi.gob.mx/index.php?id_seccion=474