Friday, September 17, 2004
Bachata
I've been gravitating to this form of Latin music more and more lately. The ethereal beauty of the guitar melodies evoke the purest and most achingly rarified moods.
It was surprising to me how the history of the music would seem to reflect the opposite:
In the Dominican Republic, a cabaret is a brothel, and the brothel came to be bachata’s primary venue. Dominican guitar musicians from pre-bachata generations relate that the guitar was always the instrument most closely associated with drinking and prostitution, and indeed that is the case throughout Latin America. But perhaps in no other guitar style has the cabaret taken such a central role. While guitar music may be the music of choice for the Latin American carouser, bachateros did not willingly stake out their territory in the brothel. Rather they were driven there, sometimes by social conditions and market forces, and sometimes quite intentionally by promoters of other kinds of music. From its beginning, bachata was the preferred music in the campos [country]. After [President]Trujillo’s death a massive migration took place from the campo to the city, where campesinos lived in the poorest and most marginalized neighborhoods, often without water, electricity, or any kind of public amenities...Quite naturally, the music began to reflect the environment in which it was being performed. A whole generation of bachateros sing about lovers who are prostitutes, fights and jealousy over lovers, poverty and the problems of living in the worst, most dangerous barrios in the city, despair and debauchery.
Music experts tell us that bachata has its roots in Cuban bolero and son but the guitarwork reminds me sometimes of West African pop.Chords are plucked out arpeggio-style to a Caribbean backbeat similar to cumbia. But none of this explains how how such an exquisite sound came out of such desolation.
But music and the human heart harbor many such mysteries...
It was surprising to me how the history of the music would seem to reflect the opposite:
In the Dominican Republic, a cabaret is a brothel, and the brothel came to be bachata’s primary venue. Dominican guitar musicians from pre-bachata generations relate that the guitar was always the instrument most closely associated with drinking and prostitution, and indeed that is the case throughout Latin America. But perhaps in no other guitar style has the cabaret taken such a central role. While guitar music may be the music of choice for the Latin American carouser, bachateros did not willingly stake out their territory in the brothel. Rather they were driven there, sometimes by social conditions and market forces, and sometimes quite intentionally by promoters of other kinds of music. From its beginning, bachata was the preferred music in the campos [country]. After [President]Trujillo’s death a massive migration took place from the campo to the city, where campesinos lived in the poorest and most marginalized neighborhoods, often without water, electricity, or any kind of public amenities...Quite naturally, the music began to reflect the environment in which it was being performed. A whole generation of bachateros sing about lovers who are prostitutes, fights and jealousy over lovers, poverty and the problems of living in the worst, most dangerous barrios in the city, despair and debauchery.
Music experts tell us that bachata has its roots in Cuban bolero and son but the guitarwork reminds me sometimes of West African pop.Chords are plucked out arpeggio-style to a Caribbean backbeat similar to cumbia. But none of this explains how how such an exquisite sound came out of such desolation.
But music and the human heart harbor many such mysteries...
papijoe 3:20 PM
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