Plena (Puerto Rico)
Plena is a genre of music, singing and dance originating from Puerto Rico. Its birth is located at the beginning of the 20th century.
History
The origin of plena is located around the city of Ponce at the end of the 1880s, and in 1910 it was heard for the first time in "Joyas del Castillo", a town made up of mostly by immigrants from Saint Kitts, Tortola, and Saint Thomas, established on the island since the late 1800s.
A migrant couple from those islands, Vielka George and Titon Clark, brought a guitar and a tambourine in their luggage and with these instruments they performed a musical rhythm very similar to the calypso of the Caribbean. At first, it was an instrumental expression that used the guitar, accordion and tambourine until singing was added in 1907. The musicians and friends of the couple accompanied them and added new instruments such as sansa, cuatro and güiro. This was creating the foundations of the plena boricua.[citation required] However, Puerto Rican historians such as Ricardo Alegría consider this thesis as an urban legend.
Like thebomba, another popular musical style of Puerto Rico, the roots of the Plena are in the slaves and sugarcane workers, farmers and other migrants to urban areas of Puerto Rico. The style incorporates characteristics of many cultures, such as West African, Spanish and Cuban. In popular environments. The plena is often considered a "sung newspaper" since its lyrical content can reflect news, gossip and historical events.
Many instruments have contributed to the development of the plena sound. Percussion instruments such as tambourines (similar to a small tambourine, without the metal 'jingles'), güiros, congas, timbales, maracas, as well as the accordion, the cuatro and even large orchestras.
Importance and evolution of plena
Plena is one of the most important indigenous expressions of Puerto Rican music, covering the entire territory of the island, even becoming stronger in Puerto Rican circles outside the country. The plena together with thebomba, the jíbara trova and the Danza make up the four pillars of native Puerto Rican music.
Its first exponents at an international level are Manuel "Canario" Jiménez, Rafael Hernández Marín and Efraín 'Mon' Rivera Castillo, among others. Later, more modern musicians such as César Concepción, Rafael Cortijo with Ismael Rivera and La Orquesta Panamericana gave a new twist to plena, adding new sounds and taking it to luxury lounges in hotels and nightclubs.
The plena began to be played with tambourines and instruments purely native to Borinquen such as the 'seguidor', 'punteador' and 'punteador' drums. and "fifth" or "requinto", with low, medium and high tunings. During the 1970s the "Pleneros del Quinto Olivo" They revolutionized the sound of the genre, forever changing the way the requinto is played.
To this day, plena has been performed in modern arrangements with the most varied instruments, from violas and violins, to piano, flute and all types of drums and wind brass.
Starting at the end of the seventies, except for sporadic productions by Rafael Cortijo, Mon Rivera and the recording by Lalo Rodríguez "The boy, the dreamer and the crazy&# 34;, the plena and the bomb practically disappeared from the mass media, with the exception of the occasional topic that enjoyed some diffusion, especially during the Christmas periods.
However, the plena and the bomb remained part of the island's culture thanks to the work of folklore groups such as Los Pleneros de la 23 Abajo, Areito, the Ayala and Cepeda families and the Pleneros de la 21. Esa Dissemination work is carried out both in Puerto Rico and in the United States.
Contemporary groups, such as Viento de Agua and the Plena Libre group, innovated in the plena sound by including instruments such as the drums. In the city of Ponce there are the groups Bomplené, Tres Panderos, among others, who have projected plena at an international level. The 'Esencia' group was founded in the La Cuarta neighborhood. It is an Orchestra with trombones founded in 1997 by Ángel "Papote" Alvarado. They mainly record plena, as well asbomba and salsa.
Singers like Héctor Lavoe, Pete "El Conde" Rodríguez, Ismael Quintana with Eddie Palmieri, Tito Allen with Louie Ramírez, Celia Cruz with Johnny Pacheco, Andy Montañez, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Julito Alvarado and "Del Sur al Norte", and Bobby Cruz with Richie Ray recorded bombs and full. Orchestras such as "La Sonora Ponceña", Roberto Roena and the "Congrupo La Perla" They have also recorded Bomba and Plena. Special mention must be made of the singer-songwriter Roberto Angleró and his group 'Tierra Negra'.
Many of these songs were even heard on the radio and were musical hits: "If God were black" (by Roberto Angleró) (bomb) by Tierra Negra; "Who does not feel patriotic" (full) by Andy Montañez; "Little seed of culture" (full) by Lalo Rodríguez, "Bomba de corazón" by Ismael Quintana with Eddie Palmieri; "Let's dance my bomb" (by Arsenio Rodríguez) by Sammy González with Roberto Roena; "Carambomb Bomb" (by Rafael Cortijo) by Luigui Texidor with La Sonora Ponceña; "Don't leave me alone" (by Jorge Luis Piloto) (bomb) by Gilberto Santa Rosa; "No Mercedes" (bomb) (by Tite Curet Alonso) by Celia Cruz with Johnny Pacheco.
In August 2011, Mr. Pedro Arroyo from the salsa radio station "Z93" launched the bomb "Boricuas Unidos" (by Hernam "Nal" Santos Ortiz) performed by Julito Alvarado's Del Sur al Norte orchestra (CD: Perseverancia). The song is performed by Héctor Giovanni, Luisito Carrión and Julio Voltio.
In 2009 Richie Ray & Bobby Cruz in the production Let the music come back recorded the instrumental bomb "Fantasía Boriqueña" This being an example of the level to which the interpretation of the bomb, as well as the plena, can be taken.
In 2015 Wilfrido Soto De Arce composed “Arecibo, La Joya de Borinquén” with the collaboration of musical arranger Guillermo Calderón, in a plena that, like many others, sings of the beauties of the towns and cities of the “Island of Enchantment.” 34;, such as San Germán, Yauco, Aguada, Guánica, Salinas, Mayagüez.