Music in Puerto Rico: A Reader's Anthology

154 Pages·2002·7.33 MB·English

by  Donald Thompson

Music in Puerto Rico
A Reader's Anthology
Edited and translated by
Donald Thompson
j
The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
Lanham, Maryland, and London
2002
SCARECROW PRESS, INC.
Published in the United States of America
by Scarecrow Press, Inc.
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www .scarecrowpress.com
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Copyright © 2002 by Donald Thompson
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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ISBN 978-0-8108-3914-4
e...,.
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CoNTENTs
PREFACE VII
1. CHRONICLERS OF CoNQUEST: ABORIGINAL Music OBsERVED AND
ENVISIONED
A Taino Musical Instrument. "La Relaci6n de Fray
Ramon" (1495-1498?) 2
An Early Chronicler. Fray Bartolome de Las Casas:
Apologetica historia de las Indias (1527-1550) 3
The Areito. 3
Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes: Historia general
y natural de las Indias (1535) 3
Pietro Martire d' Anghiera: Decadas del Nuevo
Mundo (1511-1530) 5
Francisco L6pez de G6mara: Hispania victrix (1552) 7
Fray Ramon Revisited. Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas:
Historia general de los hechos de los castellanos
(1601-1615) 8
2. MoUNTAIN, PLAIN, AND ToWN: TRADITIONAL FoLK AND
POPULAR Music 11
A Dance. Fray lii.igo Abbad y Lasierra: Historia geogr(ifica.
civil y politica de Ia isla de San Juan Bautista de
Puerto Rico (1788) 12
Slave Life. "Reglamento. Sobre Ia educaci6n, trato y
a
ocupaciones que deben dar sus esclavos los dueiios
y mayordomos en esta Isla" (1826) 13
Puerto Rican Dances and Native Musical Instruments.
Manuel A. Alonso: El gibaro (1849) 14
Carnival. Luis Bonafoux: "El Camaval en las Antillas"
(1879) 20
iii
iv Contents
Folk Instruments and the De~line of Traditional Dan~es.
Francisco del Valle Atiles: El campesino puertorri-
queiio (1887) 21
A Professional Musi~ian's View. Julio Carlos de Arteaga:
"Breve memoria sobre los cantos populares de
Puerto-Rico" (1893) 23
A Folk Dan~e. Manuel Fernandez Juncos: "El seis enojao"
(1922) 26
3. NINETEENrH-CENrURY MusicAL LIFE 31
A Visiting Virtuoso Honored: Gotts~halk in Pon~e.
"Baile" (1858) 32
Saint John's Day Mass in the Cathedral. Federico
Asenjo y Arteaga: Las Fiestas de San Juan (1868) 34
An Italian Opera Company. R.S.: "Revista y critica
teatra1" (1877) 36
A Competition: The Pon~e Exposition. Jose Ramon Abad:
Puerto Rico en Ia Feria-Exposici6n de Ponce en 1882.
Memoria redacta da de orden de Ia junta directiva
de Ia misma (1885) 38
The Philharmoni~ Society. Alejandro Tapia y Rivera:
Mis memorias [ 1880) 40
The San Juan Muni~ipal Theater. Manuel Fernandez
Juncos: "El Teatro" (1883) 42
Musi~ and Advertising in Nineteenth-Century San Juan.
Edgardo Diaz Diaz: "Musica para anunciar en Ia
sociedad sanjuanera del siglo XIX" ( 1987) 44
4. THE PuERTO RicAN DANZA 57
The Danza Controversy: An Early Skirmish. Letters to
the Editor, El Ponceiio (1853) 57
The Dangerous Danza. Carlos Pefiaranda: Carta s
puerto-riqueiias dirigidas al celebre poeta don
Ventura Ruiz Aguilera (1878-1880) 62
The Danza: The Traditional View. Amaury Veray:
"La misi6n social de Ia danza de Juan Morel Campos" 64
Contents v
The Danza: A Sociopolitical View. Angel G. Quintero
Rivera: "Ponce, Ia danza y lo nacional: apuntes para
una sociologia de Ia musica puertorriquefia" (1986) 71
5. THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 85
Concert Life
Musical Culture at the Turn ofthe Century. La Hija del
Caribe (Trinidad Padilla de Sanz): ''Notas musicales"
(1906) 86
1898 and the Change of Government. Fernando
Callejo Ferrer: MW.ica y mW.icos portorriquenos (1915) 87
The Revival of a Tradition: Concerts on the Plaza.
"Tamb ien los musicos son hijos de Dios" (1934) 89
A Plea for Music in the Schools. Aristides Chavier: "Dis-
quisiciones musicales" (1936) 90
A Government-Sponsored Symphony Orchestra. Alfredo
Matilla Jimeno: "La Sinf6nica y Ia 'Sinfonieta"' (1948) 92
A Twentieth-Century Opera. Samuel B. Cherson:
"Estreno plateado de 'EI mensajero de plata"' (1986) 95
The Avant Garde. Francis Schwartz: "Grupo Fluxus de
Puerto Rico" (1990) 98
The Puerto Rico Casals Festival:
Views and Controversies
Early Hopes and High Ideals. Rafael Montanez: "EI
significado del Festival Casals" (1957) 99
1957: The Inaugural Concert. Alfredo Matilla Jimeno:
"El mejor tributo a Casals" ( 1957) 101
A Divergent Opinion. Rafael Aponte-Ledee: "Casals:
un agente para Ia penetraci6n cultural" (1972) 102
A Composer Speaks. [Francis Schwartz]: "Un festival
que se llama Casals" (1973) 104
Pablo Casals in Puerto Rico: An Overview and a
Conclusion. Donald Thompson: "Pablo Casals,
1876-1973" (1994) 106
vi Contents
Urban Popular and Commercial Music
The Songs of Rafael Hernandez. Margot Arce: "Puerto
Rico en las canciones de Rafael Hernandez" ( 1939) l 08
"Jibaro" Dances. Miguel Melendez Munoz: "Los
'bailes jibaros"' (1963) 112
Salsa: Two Early Views (1973) 114
Manuel Silva Casanova: "jSalsa!" 114
Manuel Silva Casanova: "Salsa no es nada nuevo:
Curet Alonso" 119
The Passing of a Pioneer. Edgardo Rodriguez Julia:
El entierro de Cortijo (1983) 120
6. THE PASSING PANORAMA 129
Music Criticism in Puerto Rico. Sylvia Lamoutte de
Iglesias: "La critica musical: origen y desarrollo"
(1997) 129
INDEX 137
ABoUT THE AUTHOR 145
PREFACE
The recorded history of the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico begins at the
end oft he fifteenth century, when Christopher Columbus came upon the
island of Boriken during his second voyage to what would become
known as the New World. Accompanying the Columbus expedition was
Fray Ramon Pane, a self-characterized humble friar whose report of the
beliefs and customs of the aboriginal inhabitants of the neighboring is
land of Hispaniola (today's Haiti and the Dominican Republic) is con
ventionally taken as valid for Boriken (t<xiay's Puerto Rico) as well. That
premise accepted, Fray Ramon's writings were the first of a long line of
comments, descriptions, and studies of Puerto Rican life, including the
lively arts of music and dance. The earliest reports, as well as writings
extending into the nineteenth century, tended to describe only those as
pects which were found exotic, strange, or reprehensible by European
commentators. Only in the nineteenth century did native writers, as well
as transplanted peninsular Spaniards and other observers, tum their at
tention directly toward matters of social life, but again often focusing on
what the city-bred writers found exotic or primitive in the customs and
behavior of rural islanders.
A new element was introduced early in the nineteenth century by the
many traveling lyric theater companies and individual performers who
visited the island on their way to South America from Europe and the
United States. The reviewing of concerts, operas, and zarzuelas began in
the Puerto Rican press, while debates over the propriety of the native
danza became both contentious and widespread.
The twentieth century brought many changes to Puerto Rico, not the
least of which were traumatic shifts caused by the change of political
sovereignty, from Spain to the United States, that occurred in 1898 at the
end of the Spanish-American War. A period of deep economic depres
sion, lasting for decades, was accompanied by a realignment of political
forces and cultural energies. Further changes occurred in the 1950s,
when the insular government, riding an unprecedented wave of eco-
vii
viii Preface
nomic progress and industrial development, first became heavily in
volved in the arts, in realms of policy and production as well as in sharp
ly focused large-scale support and promotion. The Puerto Rico Casals
Festival, conceived in 1956 and launched the following year, represented
an early and pivotal flowering of this singular governmental initiative.
Vastly improved means of transportation and communication with the
broader world have further transformed Puerto Rican life during subse
quent decades, and it is essentially a new Puerto Rico which faces the
twenty-first century.
Five centuries of musical life in Puerto Rico have been recorded by
writers beginning with the observations ofe arly Spanish chroniclers and,
especially during the past century and a half, in an expanding literature
embracing the work of romanticizing regionalists, visiting folklorists,
newspaper and magazine writers, researchers and scholars, and more re
cently, the authors of masters' theses and doctoral dissertations. Some of
this writing, especially during recent decades, has been conceived and
published in English. However, the great bulk of significant writing
about music in Puerto Rico exists only in Spanish, with a small quantity
in French and other languages.
Those in search of original sources can find the nineteenth century
Puerto Rican newspapers and magazines quoted here in the Puerto Rican
Collection of the University of Puerto Rico General Library (Rio Pied
ras); the same library's Josefina del Toro Rare Books Collection
possesses a number of first editions of the early Spanish chroniclers and
historians. More recent books cited here can be seen in many university
libraries with extensive Latin American collections.
Little of the early writing is easily accessible through the more ac
customed routes of bibliographic search. It thus escapes the notice of
many of those who might profit most by its study: anglophone scholars,
teachers, students, members of the Puerto Rican diaspora, and others
interested in this vital aspect of Puerto Rican life. The present anthology,
representing a small fraction of what has been written about music in
Puerto Rico, is offered in that spirit.
1
CHRONICLERS OF CONQUEST:
Music
ABORIGINAL OBSERVED
AND ENVISIONED
Direct knowledge of the music and dance of the aboriginal inhabitants of
the island of Puerto Rico is nonexistent, for reports based on direct ob
servation at the time of the Spanish conquest are lacking and the indige
nous population was effectively obliterated within a few years. However,
it is believed, on the basis of early reports supported by archeological
evidence, that the aboriginal Puerto Ricans were of the same Taino race
as their neighbors on the other islands of the Greater Antilles: Hispan
iola, Cuba, and Jamaica. Early descriptions of music, dance and ritual on
those islands are not plentiful but they do exist, providing a basis for
surmise regarding Puerto Rico. These accounts must be treated with
caution, for most descriptions have simply repeated and elaborated mate
rial composed by earlier writers in an unquestioning chain going back to
the first chroniclers themselves. In addition, the early chroniclers and
historians viewed their subject through their own conceptual lenses and
relying upon descriptive language which could only draw upon compari
sons with what they had seen or heard of in Europe. Too, writers tended
to freely mix reports from the Antilles with information originating in
Central America and the South American mainland.
And finally, the earliest writers-Pane, Las Casas, Oviedo-had
particular interests to advance. Although this would not necessarily af
fect their description of musical instruments and other sound-producers,
depictions already affected by the factors just mentioned, it could very
definitely affect their accounts of rituals and other communal activities,
particularly those perceived as religious in nature. The sixteenth century,
we must remember, was not an age of scientific reporting.1