Title: Patria Borinquena
Performer: Los Pleneros de la 21
Culture: Puerto Rican plena
Orchestration: cuatro, guiro, guitar,
seguidor, segunda, requinto, bass, piano, voices
This piece of music is of traditional
Afro Puerto-Rican culture and is called plena. The group that is performing this music
focuses on traditional Puerto Rican music such as the plena and bomba. The readings in this module have focused on
authenticity. Wade (2013) describes
authenticity in regards to folk music as a process of oral transmission,
continuity from the present to the past, variation from the creative impulse,
and the selection by the community as to which music survives. The performers of this specific piece are
considered authentic performers because they are representing their own
culture’s music and preserving so that future generations will be exposed to
the music. In regards to variation, the
group has added the bass, piano, and cuatro which are thought of not to be
standard instrumentation in a plena. The
addition of these instruments gives the music a more current sound, yet still
preserves the history of the folk music.
Koops (2010), however, believes that in order for a performance to
authentic it needs to be performed exactly how it was historically done. In this instance are we to say that this
performance is not authentic because of the addition of instruments to the
plena song form? Would it make a difference if a performer without a Puerto
Rican background performed it the same exact way? I think most would agree that
Los Pleneros de la 21 have performed authentically since they are representing
their own culture, but do these creative differences make it un-authentic?
There seems to be differing ideas regarding authenticity and exactly to what
extent something is considered authentic.
You raise some interesting questions in regards to the authenticity of this piece. I understand the viewpoint of the readings that express that music can only be authentic when it coincides with the exact historical and cultural methods through which it was composed. However, I do agree with you on the fact that the authenticity of this song is not hindered by the audition of instruments. Based on the readings, I believe it is safe to assume that authenticity is an opinion. Yes, there are certain aspects of the culture and history that should be preserved, but does it necessarily have to be performed the exact same way as it's original conception? Is that even possible?
ReplyDeleteThere is a very fine line between "real" and "fake" authentic music. Yes, I do feel that music can be altered in a drastic way that completely steels its authenticity (just like a book can be mistranslated between generations and languages). However, I also feel that there is a way to modernize authentic works while maintaining the cultural and historical aspects of the initial composition.
The type of absolute authenticity you seem to be calling for was only presented by Koop as one of four different approaches to this question. One of the things I took from the reading is that no musical culture is completely fixed and that all of them change somewhat over time. Even those traditional cultures which highly value the past still do adapt and change - just some more slowly than others. So the real question becomes exactly WHICH expression is the truly "authentic" one that should be preserved at all costs?
ReplyDeleteThanks for clarifying this, Steve.
DeleteYou are asking all the right questions and the other comments seem to reflect the tension related to this issue of authenticity. I wonder if even our base assumption, that music is supposed to be reproduced in some exact way, is a valid assumption for all cultural music. I think that music, even western notated music, has left room for interpretation. Are we supposed to reproduce a song simply because we have one recording of a song that has been deemed "authentic." Would it not be a better assumption to say that music is constantly changing and so we can study what it was like (authentically) at one point in time but also allow for changes that may have come over time. I am not advocating for a disney-fied or mu-zak version of a song, but something that takes the core of the music and allows for interpretation, updating and even arranging. Maybe in our classrooms we should be doing both instead of one or the other. This would help our students listen, interpret, analyze, understand and then create based on their interpretation. If this is our understanding than I think that this piece is a fine example of authentic afro-cuban music.
ReplyDeleteYou are all bringing up excellent points - I love to see this dialogue! When it comes to authenticity I believe honesty is the best policy, meaning that we need to do the best we can to use music/sources of the highest quality, work to discover all of the contextually information we can provide, and then be truthful about what we do not know or have altered after careful consideration.
ReplyDelete