Week 7: Canciones Viejas: Dos Fuentes

Mariachi "anónimo" (1908-09)

Manuel Ponce

Pensando en lo que podemos saber del pasado, aquí las tienen dos fotos del mismo tiempo--una del músico y compositor bien conocido--Manuel Ponce. Y la otra--un músico "anónimo" del Cuarteto Coculense (quienes hicen las primeras grabaciones de música mariachi). Ponce nos dío versiones formales de las canciones viejas (y muchas veces del pueblo), como "Cielito lindo," "La pajarera" "La orilla de un palmar,"  "El desterrado," "La paloma," "Marchita el alma," "La valentina, " y " La cucaracha." Todas hoy bien conocidas como si fueran las versiones originales--pero de veras son versiones de Ponce mismo. El era la fuente. Interestingly, we think of them as the originals--where in fact, they've been standardized through Ponce's arrangements. Note that his musical studies included a period in the conservatory in Berlin, and that Ponce was the author of an extensive classical (European-based) repertory. There's also the great irony that his best known composition-- "Estrellita" is a song that's recognized the world over--but rarely associated with an individual composer. As if it were"anonymous."

What does it mean to say that the mariachi pictured remains anonymous?  And consider the difference in focus between the two photographs--significant in itself.

Here's a set of the older songs you can listen to, each discussed by Yolando Moreno Rivas in her Historia. (She has a condensed sidebar on each of the musicians--well worth reading. To use an index--that is a find sesarch--you'll need to download the pdf. Find does not work in the online version. Go to my Download Links posted in January. By the way, you can find Gloria Anzaldua there as well.) The versions below are generally from YouTube:
  
Marchita el alma (Zuñiga, 1876?):     
Pedro Infante
Alfredo Kraus (1959) 

La paloma (arr. Ponce)
Jaun Arvizu
La Paloma (Sebastián de Iradier y Salaverri) - Olimpia Delgado Herbert, Soprano 

La orilla de un palmar (arr. Ponce)  
Antonio Bribiesca (1962) - YouTube

La borrachita (Fernández Esperón (Tata Nacho), 1916) 
Antonio Bribiesca (ya la tienen en el S&P cancionero download) /  CANCIONERO
Pedro Infante 

Canción Mixteca (Alavez)                      CANTAMOS ESTA JUNTOS!
Cuco Sánchez 
and this "downhome" version by Gilberto Tovar:
Cancion Mixteca y Paso del Norte - Gilberto Tovar

Adiós Mariquita linda (Marcos A. Jiménez)
Pedro Vargas
Los Panchos

Rayando el sol (arr. Ponce) 
Antonio Bribiesca (1961)

Adios mi chaparrita   Ignacio Fernández Esperón (Tata Nacho)
De Tata Nacho "Adiós mi Chaparrita" - YouTube   (canta Guty Cárdenas) /  CANCIONERO
Mariachi Mexico de Pepe Villa Adios Mi Chaparrita - YouTube

Ignacio Fernández Esperón (Tata Nacho)

__________

Y de la otra tradición, más bien del pueblo.  I'll include this here (for example, the early recording below--Cuarteto Coculense) because it's so important to recognize that it's these two streams together--popular culture as it's formalized in the work of (dedicated!) artistas mexicanas like Ponce--and at the same time, the way it continues to be represented in popular tradition--often anónymous, and much farther removed from music as commercial presentation. (In today's world, of course, everything is potentially commercial--so the distinction is harder to maintain. That said, it's still important to recognize the way the two streams (as I'm calling them) inter-relate. When Octavio Paz writes that he speaks to a "particular" group of Mexicanos, he invokes the distinction. And when some of you (Fernanda, Vero, Jennifer) refer to your families on ranchos or in pueblos pequeños--we get living hints of the second stream... I'd say that to understand México in all her (?) complexity, we need to follow both streams and see how they intertwine... (We'll see much more of this with Bonfil Batalla's México Profundo.)

For this week, I want you to concentrate on the songs above--we'll devote more time to the tradición publerina más adelante en el semestre. Van a ver!  Here's a sample:

Cuarteto Coculense Las Abajeñas (1908-09)

And here's the full recording--published by Arhoolie Records--a cd you should purchase from them directly for your own collection: 

https://berkeley.box.com/s/jtskinje44mmaq254ku4ct6jj5yeclok

Also--be aware of Pasajero, an excellent film made by Los Cenzontles, the Bay Area group who have focused on this older mariachi music (along with many other folk styles de México). Here's an excerpt:
Mariachi Roots
Adriãn nos puede decir mas de los sones--y de sus clases an el East Bay Center for the Performing Arts.

PROJECT. Take one or more of these older songs, above, look into it's history (via YMR or online sources) and use it as point of departure for this week's work. Consider both music and lyrics--and connections to "la historia cultural de México..."

READING. Continue with don Octavio, Conquista y Colonia, as discussed in class... There also inadvertant reference to the themes above all throughout don Octavio--which is (in part) why we're reading him so closely. Y la "soledad"--or separation--that he invokes has to do with his personal relation to this bifurcated history ("las cicunstancias históricas explican nuestro carácter en la medida que nuestro careacter las explica a ellas." (p. 79)