Azul Barrientos and Mexican Folk Music

Mexican Folk music is a genre that I never really thought about growing up. I grew up surrounded by rancheras, boleros, corridos and many other forms of Mexican folk music but it wasn’t something I really payed much attention to. Azul Barrientos helped foster my interest and assisted in navigating me through the beauty of my culture. Azul Barrientos is an incredibly talented Mexican musician. She was born in Mexico City, Mexico but now lives here is San Antonio, Texas. She is known primarily for singing traditional Mexican folk music. I first saw Mrs. Barrientos at The University of the Incarnate Word. She was performing in the new concert hall during a special water themed event that preceded the Noh play that was soon to be featured at UIW. She came out in a beautiful vestido folclórico. Her hair was done up in a ribbon similar to the way Frida Kahlo was known to wear her hair. She came out with her guitar and her jarana and just accompanied herself. I remember that her voice filled the room. Her voice was warm, powerful, and sultry. I decided that for this project I would look at the songs “Tu recuerdo y yo” which is a ranchera written by Jose Alfredo Jimenez, and “Obsesion” which is a bolero written by Pedro Flores. I chose these songs because I feel that they represent two big aspects the culture that she is sharing and I really enjoy the way she presents these songs. Both of these songs can be found on her soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/azulbarrientos

1)         Many of the questions I asked Mrs. Barrientos revealed the deep rooted ideas of music that she has. I asked her one question in particular, “What message are you looking to send with your music?”  Her response was: “That’s an interesting question especially during times like this. I think there are three things that I am trying to say when I am on stage. One is for the culture to kind of thrive (sustainability) for all of us that see themselves in me to thrive and remember that we are royal and beautiful and, you know culturally royal that’s what I mean, and of course for the little girls to know that they are beautiful too. I think the second one is of resistance that we are where we are because we have been here for many many many many years. And lastly as a woman I think it’s also important for me to send a message of love and unity.” The response to this question demonstrated to me that she believes music is powerful force. It is useful for humankind in many ways. It can sustain cultures, give people worth, endure through the ages, and unite people. Another question that revealed a lot regarding her beliefs in music was the question, “Why did you choose Mexican Folk music?” “I think it started out of nostalgia just listening to the music, but once I started you know how it is like you’re listening to something and then you try to play it and something connects in you and it kind of stays. It kind of chooses you rather than me choosing it, you know you’re just kind of messing with it but I feel like it chose me and I kind of blossomed within [it].” This response echoed the ideas and the voices heard in the Africa chapter in Worlds of Music; The belief that music has the power to call and choose people.

Aesthetics of music

I love Azul’s voice. She has richness to her voice that is soothing and makes boleros like “Obsesion” which already have a sultry aspect to them even more so. She also mentioned that she enjoys hearing an acoustic sound in her songs. I feel like that expresses itself in the relaxed and honest sound that she emits in most of the songs I have heard her perform. I noticed that the warmness of sound expressed itself even further during the instrumental section of “Obsesion”. The solo was being played on what sounds like a bass or the bass strings of a guitar. She adds the same richness to her rancheras.

Contexts for Music

I understood more about the contexts for music in her life when I asked her to tell me about her life in music. “My family is very musical. Music education started in the womb. My parents are very musical they sang traditional songs… When I was 3 or 4 they sent me to piano classes, this is where I began learning to read music and do solfege (solfeo).” This was her beginning she began with classical music. As time passed she began taking different classes in high school. In high school she entered the national school of music. She also told me about her father. “It was a regular thing [My father] would have musical friends over and they would play.” Sometimes her family would go and watch music at different places where you could still listen to folkloric music. Her parents would take her to see those musicians, but most of her special musical experiences were at home. These stories express that music in her life was fluid. It was seen everywhere; in school, at home, with friends of the family. Music was something intimate that her family did together and it was also something that she purses and has performed in a professional context for many years.

History of Music

Folk music can be a bit of an ambiguous term. I understood it as music that a lot of people in an area grow up listening to and enjoying, but A History of Western Music defines it as a type of popular music that drew on folk traditions, which included both genuine folk songs and popular songs. European influence had a big impact on Mexican music. There was of course the time before the Spanish conquest, and music did play a big role in the lives of the regional tribes, but both of the genres I will be discussing drew influence primarily from European encounters. A lot of the folk music in Mexico has this in common. Initially these encounters were centered around Spanish missionaries trying to enculturate the indigenous population with the Roman Catholic way of thinking using music (the colonial period (1521-1810). In the Independence period (1810-1910) a lot of European music was influencing Mexico. Since Spain was out of the picture more emphasis was placed on secular music. Then during the twentieth century (after 1910) there was a post-revolutionary period this was characterized by a big emphasis (by the government) to go back to the roots of Mexican music, although in reality music had already been influenced by European forces greatly so it wasn’t really authentic. Media became big during this time, and this is when both genres I will be discussing really became popular. The film industry also had a big influence on making certain types of national music popular.

Boleros were originally a popular Spanish dance or song. The name could have come from the word volar which means to fly or from the gypsy women that probably first danced the songs. They were known as boleras because of the little gold balls found on their dresses. The original was in triple meter. It was usually performed by one couple although it could be performed by up to 8 couples. The dancers usually accompany themselves by singing, but they even did it on the guitar and tambourine.

The boleros that gained traction in Latin America are the ones that originated in Cuba. It is a binary song that is in duple meter. It is a dance that has connections to the habanera and Afro-Cuban musical styles. It was originally sung by two voices either in thirds or sixths. It became popular in Mexico through the use of mass media. It was especially popular in trios. I found a video that demonstrated this style on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sthX45uZqc4

Rancheras or country songs are a Mexican song and dance tradition. It developed from the Spanish Cancion. This music is usually in simple duple or triple meter. The chord progressions are pretty standard. The chords used tend to be the I, IV, and V. This genre seems to be influenced by Italian Opera. The style that many people use to sing this genre is a bel canto opera. The voices are expected to be passionate, direct and fluid. This emphasizes the impact that Europe had on Mexican style music. The independence period is when this genre is thought to have been created because of the strains of Italian Opera, the influence of European romanticism, and the rise of the middle class that occurred during this time. The ranchera became popular when people began migrating to the urban areas of Mexico after the revolution.  Media and the popularity of folk groups that perform this type of song, like the mariachi helped to spread its sound.

2) Repertories of Music

Style

The bolero “Obsesion” is in a slow duple meter. The song is in binary form. And Azul Barrientos plays it in G minor. She sings all of the lyrics the first time she goes through it, but the second time in place of the second verse she includes an instrumental solo. She arpeggiates the chords in certain parts which adds to the overall mysterious feel of the song. At the end of certain phrases there is a harmonization that seems to be drawing on the tradition of duets and trios that formed part of the boleros past. 

The ranchera “Tu recuerdo y yo” begins in a slow duple meter, but she speeds it up and switches it to a triple meter waltz long-short-short rhythm in the second verse and stays there for the rest of the song. This song is performed in G# Major and the entire thing is played on the I-IV-V chords. It is very typical of what a ranchera sounds like. It is simple just a woman and her guitar. I asked her in the interview what was one of her favorite genres to play and her response reflected just that "I think my most favorite is definitely rancheras. Just because it’s so simple it’s kind of like the blues you know it’s so direct to the soul like from the song to the soul to the soul it doesn’t have, anything in between I think, so I like that rawness." 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUcDJ_H-jDU

Genres

The two genres of the songs I focused on for Azul Barrientos is the bolero and the ranchera. The general characteristics of these genres can be found under history.

Texts

Boleros are known as love songs. Obsesión is no exception. The language spoken is Spanish and the translation would be:

No matter how high the sky is in the world, how deep the sea is,

There’s no barrier in the world, that my profound love will not break for you.

Love is the bread of life, love is the divine drink, love is something without a name, that makes a man obsessed for a woman.

I am obsessed with you, and the world is a witness of my frenzy, even if destiny is opposed, you will be mine.

Por alto esté el cielo en el mundo, por hondo que es el mar profundo,
no habrá una barrera en el mundo, que mi amor profundo, no rompa por ti.

Amor es el pan de la vida, amor es la copa divina, amor es un algo sin nombre, que obsesiona al hombre, por una mujer.

Yo vivo obsesionado contigo, y el mundo es testigo de mi frenesí, por más que se oponga el destino, serás para mí, para mi. 

In the history of boleros that I looked into the authors mentioned that Agustin Lara had a big effect on the creation of boleros. He is the one that began the emphasis on lovelorn lyrics. I feel like this description fits the song pretty well. The man singing is clearly in love with this woman, but there is a sense of desperation especially near the end when he says, “you will be mine.” It seems like this woman isn’t that interested and his love driven obsession is driving him mad.

The ranchera usually deals with themes of love and drinking. They are commonly found together like in the ranchera I worked on. But there are other common themes like pride in your hometown and nostalgia. The language once again is Spanish.

Estoy en el rincón de una cantina, oyendo una canción que yo pedí, me están sirviendo ahorita mi tequila, ya va mi pensamiento rumbo a ti.

Yo sé que tu recuerdo es, mi desgracia, y vengo aquí nomás pa recordar, que amarga son las cosas que nos pasan, cuando hay un corazón que paga mal.

Quien no sabe en esta vida la traición, tan conocida, que nos deja un mal amor.

Quien no llega a la cantina, exigiendo su tequila y exigiendo su canción, me están sirviendo ya la del estribo, ahorita ya no sé si tengo fe.

Ahorita solamente, yo les pido que toquen otra vez la que se fue. 

Translation:
I’m in the corner of a bar, listening to the song that I requested, they’re serving me my tequila, and my thoughts are headed in your direction.

I know that your memory is my misfortune, and I come here just to remember, how bitter the things are that happen to us, when there is a heart that pays badly.

Who in this world doesn’t know betrayal, so familiar, that leaves us with a bad love.

Who doesn’t come to the bar, demanding their tequila and demanding their song, they are already serving me the stirrup (or the one for support), right now I’m not sure if I have faith.

Right now all I ask is that you play again “la que se fue” (the woman that left)

The man in this song is just lamenting the loss of a love. There is clearly an emphasis placed on alcohol for the mending of a broken heart, or a type of numbing. The lyrics place a lot of blame on the other party. There is still a clear love for the woman, but the passionate pain reflected could be leaning more towards a hate.

Composition

In the modern folk tradition it is common for there to be one composer for many big songs. Composers are very well known in Mexico. They gain a lot of fame not only for the songs they sing themselves, but it is usually well-known when they compose the song of another big artist.

Pedro Flores is the composer that wrote Obsesión. He is from Puerto Rico. He was a bandleader, composer, and teacher. He didn’t have much musical experience, but his boleros spoke to many working class Latin Americans because they depicted ordinary life.

Jose Alfredo Jimenez is the man that composed “Tu recuerdo y yo” along with about 400 other songs, most of which were rancheras. According to all of the sources I looked at he is the greatest and most influential ranchera composer in history. Many of his songs deal with a destructive love and alcohol use. He died of cirrhosis of the liver. 

Transmission

I asked Azul Barrientos about how she learns her music. When she was younger she took piano lessons. She was taught to read music and solfedge. She said that she could go there if it was necessary but she said, “It’s faster for me to listen to the song a couple of times learn it and then start playing… with the chords that I can play on the guitar or jarana and then just starting to make my version of it and see how close I can get, and if I like it. I always record myself when I am learning a song so that I can see if I like it.” This demonstrates that she uses the oral tradition of leaning new music, but she also heavily incorporates technology to facilitate the effort it takes to orally learn a song.

Movement

 Both of the songs that I discussed aren't typically danced to. They are usually performed in a listening or in the case of the ranchera a bar environment. 

3) Material culture of music

The material culture involved with her type of music is definitely a guitar. I asked her a question about when she had received her first instrument and the response I received reveled some of her ideas regarding material culture.  She began with, “I think it was a guitar.” She began getting interested in the guitar. Even though her father played, he never really taught her how to play. “It was more like I would watch him, and I liked it but I never really was interested. My only interest was singing. It wasn’t until I realized that I had to… somebody had to accompany me in order for me to sing so I realized that I can’t or I couldn’t at that time… or really you never can in life rely on someone as much as you can rely on yourself, so I started to teach myself how to play and when this really really dear friend of mine realized this he gave me a guitar.” This showed me that in her music the material culture mainly serves as support for the singing. She learned to play the guitar out of a need to find an accompaniment. I also know that the jarana is a big part of the material culture of her music. The jarana is a regional guitar. The name comes from the word “merrymaking”. It is traditionaly only used for rhythm and chords. 

4) Sustainability of Music

I feel like the effort that Mrs. Barrientos is putting into her work in order to keep the culture alive is pretty extensive. She is currently recording an album that will feature a lot of traditional Mexican music and some of her own world music. Efforts like this keep this music culture relevant. Her post as resident musician for The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center has given her a great opportunity for sustainability that I feel she has taken full advantage of. Every month she has a performance based off of different themes relating to Latin American history. For our interview I asked “Why did you choose to stay at Esperanza Peace and justice Center?” Her response was: “I think it’s been a very interesting journey we started with Noche Azul out of…I came up with the idea going through different moments of history not only of Mexico, but of Latin American history and other worldly moments that have been so important for the history of music or the history of that country or the history in general. And I wanted to do it…I mean I know how much it resonates with me, history when it’s connected to music and I realize that I am not the only one so I came up with this way of reintroducing different things and it has evolved or changed and moved in so many ways now that I think that I decided to just follow that movement and to stay to see what was going to happen with it and how it was going to evolve and I think that I am still there.” In this short excerpt we find that she is making an effort  to present music in a historical context in order to enrich the meaning behind these songs and hopefully develop a deep respect for the music and the culture for people within the culture but also outside of the culture. 

                                                                   References
Sheehy, Daniel E. "Mexico." In The Garland Handbook of Latin American Music, edited by Dale A. Olsen & Daniel E. Sheehy, p. 181-207. New York, NY: Garland Publishing, 2008

Sheehy, Daniel E. "Popular Mexican Musical Traditions" In Music in Latin American Culture,     edited by John M. Schechter, p. 71-72. New York, NY: Schirmer Books, 1999

Tition, Jeff Todd. Worlds of Music. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning, 2015

Burkholder, J. Peter, and Grout, Donald Jay, and Palisca, Claude V. A History of Western Music, 9th edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014.

Brenda M. Romero, "Ranchera music.", Oxford Music Online, Jan. 31, 2014. http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/A2257176?q=ranchera&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit 

"Jiménez, José Alfredo.", Oxford Music Online, July 4, 2006. 
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/epm/13863?q=ranchera&search=quick&pos=25&_start=1#firsthit 

Daniel Party, "Bolero", Oxford Music Online, Oct. 16, 2013. http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/A2248419?q=bolero&search=quick&pos=2&_start=1#firsthit 

Willi Kahl and Israel J. Katz., "Bolero.", Oxford Music Online, 2007-2016. http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/03444?q=bolero&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit 

Lise Waxer., "Flores, Pedro.", Oxford Music Online, 2007-2016. http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/49878?q=Pedro+Flores&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit 

Jeff Todd Titon, "Sustainability" Sustainable Music, September 2, 2010- Oct. 31, 2016. http://sustainablemusic.blogspot.com/search/label/sustainability 

Carlos, Tu Recuerdo Y Yo- Jose Alfredo Jimenez, (Sony BMG, 2003) from Youtube, Album, 3:17, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUcDJ_H-jDU 

Panchofilo8, LOS PANCHOS (Julito Rodríguez) - OBSESIÓN - 1953, from Youtube, Film, 3:02, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sthX45uZqc4 

I also interviewed Azul Barrientos, the interview is found on a separate blog entry. 

The music I used was on:  https://soundcloud.com/azulbarrientos 

Pedro Flores, Azul Barrientos, "Obsesion" 2012. Soundcloud.

Jose Alfredo, Jimenez, "Tu Recuerdo Y Yo" 2012. Soundcloud.