Pasatono Orquesta

Last updated
Pasatono Orquesta
GenresTraditional music of Oaxaca
Years active1998 (1998)– present
Website pasatono.com

Pasatono Orquesta (Orchestra) is an eight-member ensemble of ethnomusicologists dedicated to rescuing and performing traditional Oaxacan music, especially that of the Mixtec region, and to promote it by adding more modern arrangements and influences. It was founded by three Oaxacan students at the Escuela Nacional de Música (National Music School) in Mexico City, who found that their traditional music was not taught at the school. They have been promoted by Lila Downs, have released four albums, and have toured the United States, playing in venues such as Lincoln Center in New York and Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. In Mexico, they have played in venues in Mexico City and Oaxaca, as well as the Festival Internacional Cervantino.

Contents

The ensemble

With a name that refers to a kind of violin maker in Oaxaca, [1] the ensemble's purpose is to rescue, preserve and reinterpret the sounds of indigenous village bands in the state of Oaxaca, especially those of the Mixtec people. [2] [3] [4] They play traditional instruments such as violins, clarinets, trumpets, guitars as well as local instruments in danger of disappearing such as the bajo fondo, a ten-stringed guitar made in only a few villages in Oaxaca and the Oaxaca jarana, which differs from the better-known Veracruz version. It is smaller with five strings, most often used to play chilenas. [1] [4]

Pasatono recreates the rural orchestra that was popular from the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th. [4] All members are ethnomusicologists, and are dedicated to researching traditional Oaxacan and Mixtec music, as well as performance, compositions and the dissemination of knowledge about native musical traditions. [2] [5] Much of this research involves traveling to rural communities in Oaxaca, as well as Mixtec communities in neighboring Guerrero and Puebla. [5] [6]

The rural village orchestra was once very common in rural Mexico, [7] with those in Oaxaca mixing indigenous, European and African musical traditions. [4] Much of it is based on European melodies instruments introduced during the colonial period, but African and indigenous rhythms can also be heard. [3] [4] In addition, these bands were also influenced by musical innovations of the 19th and early 20th century, for example the American jazz that was heard when wireless radio reached Oaxaca in the 1920s and 1930s. [7] In total, pieces played by these ensembles can have influences from danzón, rumba, gypsy music, polka, pasodoble, marching bands, mazurka, swing, big band and foxtrot. [1] [4] Many of these influences have remained here long after going out of fashion in their places of origin. [8] However, this music is in danger of disappearing as more modern musical styles do not use these instruments, and younger generations learn to play it or the instruments. [4]

Current members of the ensemble include:

Repertoire

Their music is festive with a touch of nostalgia, with works that generally focus more on instrumentals than voice. [9] [10] To keep this music relevant, Pasatono plays new arrangements of traditional works as well as new compositions, adding more modern influences. [3] [5] [10] The 2014 album Maroma, shows a very wide mix which includes jazz, chilena, polka and cumbia. The Maroma album is dedicated to the music of one-man circuses, called maromas, that roamed late 19th century rural Mexico. Basically the act consisted of single clowns who told jokes, juggled, performed some acrobatics, and sometimes even recited poetry. The music for these shows was played by local village string bands, and these compositions are recreated on the album. [2] [10]

They have also worked with other artists of other traditions, such as the New York-based group Golem, which describes itself as an Eastern European folk-punk band. [8] They have produced music videos and live concerts have had elements of performance, e.g. working with a marmero clown and a tightrope walker. However, not all support their efforts at reinterpretation, feeling that traditional music should not be changed. [3] [4]

History

The Pasatono Orquesta began as simply Pasatono, founded by Rubén Luengas, his wife Patricia Garcia and Edgar Serralde as a trio in 1998. [3] [8] [9] The three were ethnomusicology students at the Escuela Nacional de Música in Mexico City, with the aim of being researchers, not performers. [8] Here Luengas noticed that the school taught various traditional music styles, but nothing from the state of Oaxaca, so the three friends started playing the music they grew up with in Oaxaca, finding it a respite from the hustle and bustle of Mexico City. [1] [11] Ten years later, they reorganized and added new members and instruments from the original three (violin, bajo quinto and cántaro), changing the name to Pasatono Orquesta, adding a full traditional orchestra of rural Oaxaca. [3] [5] [9]

Their first album was Yaa Sii, which means “happy music,” [11] and since then, they have been discovered and promoted by Oaxacan artist Lila Downs. [8] Pasatonos has had the most success playing in the United States, Mexico City and their native Oaxaca. [4] They have performed at venues such as Lincoln Center in New York, Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Centro Nacional de las Artes Mexico City, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Henestrosa Library and the Macedonio Alcalá Theater in Oaxaca, as well as Mixtec communities in Oaxaca such as El jicaral, Coicoyán de las Flores and Yucuquimi de Ocampo. [4] [6] [7] In 2014, they performed at the Festival Internacional Cervantino. [11]

The band and its work were featured on a television program called Tocando tierra on Mexico's Canal 22. [11]

Discography

Related Research Articles

The term conjunto refers to several types of small musical ensembles present in different Latin American musical traditions, mainly in Mexico and Cuba. While Mexican conjuntos play styles such as norteño and tejano, Cuban conjuntos specialize in the son, as well as its derivations such as salsa.

Oaxaca State of Mexico

Oaxaca, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca, is one of the 32 states that compose the Federative Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 570 municipalities, of which 418 are governed by the system of usos y costumbres with recognized local forms of self-governance. Its capital city is Oaxaca de Juárez.

Mixtec Ethnic group

The Mixtecs, or Mixtecos, are indigenous Mesoamerican peoples of Mexico inhabiting the region known as La Mixteca of Oaxaca and Puebla as well as the state of Guerrero's Región Montañas, and Región Costa Chica, which covers parts of the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Guerrero and Puebla.

Lila Downs

Ana Lila Downs Sánchez is a Mexican singer-songwriter and actress. She performs her own compositions and the works of others in multiple genres, as well as tapping into Mexican traditional and popular music. She also incorporates indigenous Mexican influences and has recorded songs in many indigenous languages such as Mixtec, Zapotec, Mayan, Nahuatl and Purépecha. Born and raised in Oaxaca, she primarily studied at the Institute of Arts by Oaxaca and briefly attended University of Minnesota, before withdrawing to focus on her musical career. She soon began performing in the traditional music scene of Oaxaca City.

Norteño (music) Genre of Mexican music

Norteño or Norteña, also música norteña, is a genre of Regional Mexican music from Northern Mexico, hence the name. The music is most often based on duple and triple metre and its lyrics often deal with socially relevant topics, although there are also many norteño love songs. The accordion and the bajo sexto are traditional norteño's most characteristic instruments. Norteña music developed in the late 19th century, as a mixture between local Mexican music and German/Austrian/Czech folk music.

Bajo sexto Mexican string instrument

Bajo sexto is a Mexican string instrument from the guitar family with 12 strings in six double courses. A closely related instrument is the bajo quinto which has 10 strings in five double courses.

Regional styles of Mexican music vary greatly vary from state to state. Norteño, banda, duranguense, Son mexicano and other Mexican country music genres are often known as regional Mexican music because each state produces different musical sounds and lyrics.

Huajuapan de León Municipality and city in Oaxaca, Mexico

Heroica Ciudad de Huajuapan de León[waˈxwapan de leˈon] is a city with a surrounding municipality located in the northwestern part of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It is part of the Huajuapan District in the north of the Mixteca Region. It has a population of about 45,321, the sixth-largest community in the state in population. It is located at the intersection of Federal Highways 125 and 190. The name of Huajuapan comes from the Nahuatl words huaxin = huaje, ohtli = road, and apan = river. Literally, River of the huajes. The town was elevated to an honorary Mexican status in June 1843 in remembrance of The siege of Huajuapan, a battle between the royal army and the insurgents led by José María Morelos. The battle was won by the insurgents. The city was named after Antonio de León, a hero of the Mexican War of Independence.

Pelota mixteca

Pelota mixteca is a team sport similar to a net-less tennis game. The players wear sturdy, elaborately decorated gloves affixed to a heavy flat striking surface, using them to strike a small solid ball. The game has roots extending back hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of years.

Ronald Spores

Ronald M. Spores is an American academic anthropologist, archaeologist and ethnohistorian, whose research career has centered on the pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica. He is Professor Emeritus of anthropology at Vanderbilt University's College of Arts and Science, where he has been a faculty member for over four decades. Spores is most renowned for his scholarship conducted on the cultural history of the Oaxacan region in southwestern Mexico. In particular, he has made many contributions on the Mixtec culture, investigating its archaeological sites, ethnohistorical documents, political economies, and ethnohistory in both the pre-Columbian and Colonial eras. He was Co-Director of the Proyecto Arqueológico de la Ciudad Yucundaa Pueblo Viejo de Teposcolula, Oaxaca, sponsored by the Fundación Alfredo Harp Helu, the National Geographic Society, and INAH (2004–2010), and currently (2017) directs research on the sixteenth century Casa del Cacique de Yanhuitlan, Oaxaca, and related investigation of the surrounding Prehispanic-Colonial city and region. He is also Research Associate at the American Museum of Natural History, New York, and at the University of Oregon and investigator on the Proyecto Geoparque de la Mixteca Alta, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México/UNESCO, centered at Yanhuitlan, Oaxaca (2016-2017). Recent research relates to the colonial Manila Galleon trade between the Philippines and Acapulco.

San Juan Achiutla Municipality and town in Oaxaca, Mexico

San Juan Achiutla is a town and municipality in Oaxaca in south-western Mexico. The municipality covers an area of 49.76 km2. It is located in a mountain range, between the hills Negro to the East, Yucuquise to the Northwest, Cuate to the North and Totolote to the South. It is crossed by the river Los Sabinos and has a dam called Cahuayande. Its weather is temperate. It is in the Mixteca Alta, one of the three parties that make up the Mixteca region and in the Mixteca Alta is part of what was Achiutla, the significant Prehispanic place.

San Martín Peras Municipality and town in Oaxaca, Mexico

San Martín Peras is a town and municipality in Oaxaca about 157 mi south of Mexico City which is the country's capital city. The municipality covers an area of 237.31km2 and is part of the Juxtlahuaca district of the Mixteca Region. The local time zone is named "America/Mexico City" with a UTC offset of -6 hours.

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Indigenous people of Oaxaca

The Indigenous people of Oaxaca are descendants of the inhabitants of what is now the state of Oaxaca, Mexico who were present before the Spanish invasion. Several cultures flourished in the ancient region of Oaxaca from as far back as 2000 BC, of whom the Zapotecs and Mixtecs were perhaps the most advanced, with complex social organization and sophisticated arts.

Demographics of Oaxaca

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Mixteca Alta Formative Project (2003–present) is an archaeological project directed by Andrew Balkansky that focuses on the Mixtec of Oaxaca, Mexico. The project, which is funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Society, and the H. John Heinz III Fund, seeks to understand Mixtec origins and their transition to urbanism. Excavations are currently taking place at the ancient site of Tayata.

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Juana Coralia López Valdés was a Cuban pianist, bandleader and composer. Between 1940 and 1956 she directed her own charanga danzonera, being the first woman to direct any such orchestra in Cuba. During her career she composed many popular danzones such as "Llegó Manolo", "El bajo que come chivo", "Los jóvenes del agua fria" and the famous "Isora Club", which became a standard in the Latin music repertoire.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Victoria Infante (October 7, 2012). "Pasatono recupera y resguarda la música tradicional de la mixteca oaxaqueña". The Huffington Post. Retrieved May 23, 2015.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  2. 1 2 3 Feliz Contreras (May 11, 2014). "First Listen: Pasatono Orquesta, 'Maroma'". Washington, DC: NPR. Retrieved May 23, 2015.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Catalina Maria Johnson (December 18, 2014). "Beat Latino: La fiesta musical mixteca". Mexico City: Vive Lo Hoy. Archived from the original on September 27, 2015. Retrieved May 23, 2015.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Pasatono Orquesta revalora el circo y la música de la Mixteca". Mexico: Government of Oaxaca. Retrieved May 23, 2015.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "Biografía" . Retrieved May 23, 2015.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  6. 1 2 "Pasatono Orquesta". The Kennedy Center. Archived from the original on February 3, 2013. Retrieved May 23, 2015.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  7. 1 2 3 "Getty's Sounds of L.A. Welcomes Oaxaca-Based Pasatono Orquesta". The J. Paul Getty Trust. Archived from the original on October 6, 2015. Retrieved May 23, 2015.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Andrew Gilbert (December 12, 2014). "Sounds of Oaxaca: Pasatono Orquesta play Berkeley". Berkeley, CA: Berkeleyside. Retrieved May 23, 2015.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  9. 1 2 3 Betto Arcos (June 26, 2014). "The circus music of Oaxaca's Pasatono Orquesta is magical". Minneapolis: PRI's The World. Retrieved May 23, 2015.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  10. 1 2 3 Aarik Danielsen (May 18, 2014). "Waking up to wonderful sounds". New York: Colombia Tribune. Retrieved May 23, 2015.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  11. 1 2 3 4 Nidia Rosales Moreno. "Pasatono: música de la mixteca oaxaqueña". Mexicoi: CONACULTA. Archived from the original on October 26, 2014. Retrieved May 23, 2015.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
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