/ARTS WEEKLY/ VENEZUELA: A Native Musical Treasure-Trove

By Humberto Márquez Reprint | | Print |

Humberto Márquez

CARACAS, Nov 4 2003 (IPS) - The largest collection of native Latin America musical instruments is found in Venezuela, where a group of musicologists and anthropologists have maintained an orchestra dedicated to disseminating and teaching the region’s ethnic music – and to keeping it alive.

The Orchestra of Latin American Instruments (ODILA), which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year with a series of concerts, is home to some 400 instruments, most originating from aboriginal traditions, such as tortoise shells (the ‘ayotetl’ of Central America) and burro jawbone (the ‘charrasca’ of Colombia and the ‘crasnapat’ of the Miskito culture).

The orchestra, which emerged under the auspices of the Inter-American Institute for Ethnomusicology and Folklore, has not only sought to collect, preserve and utilise instruments of Latin America’s cultural heritage, but also to disseminate musical expression throughout the region and to train musicians and instrument-makers to ensure the tradition continues.

More than 60 musicians have received training through ODILA’s courses, and the orchestra has just inaugurated an ethno-music workshop as part of the preparatory courses at the recently created Bolivarian University of Caracas, Israel Girón, the group’s director, told IPS.

The workshop, taught to 2,000 students, "brings them closer to music from a variety of perspectives. We explain that the laws of physics determine how sound is generated… and they learn that a drum is something to beat, but they also learn that this drum is sounded in a community for a specific reason," Girón said.

"Classes are also taught on theory and reading music, and it is explained that this corresponds to a tradition and a history," he said.

The ODILA collection has wind instruments, like the pre-Colombian ocarina, deer horns, pan flutes and Indian reed flutes, or ‘quenas’. Percussion instruments include calypso, Mapuche, Barlovento and ‘tumbadora’ drums, and chord instruments include ‘cuatros’, ‘charangos’ and ‘bandolas’.

"The orchestra presents indigenous, aboriginal and Western instruments because our musical tradition is the result of the mixing of different cultures. For example, when we hear the melodic phrases of a bandola of the Venezuelan plains we note the Arab-Spanish influence," the director said.

The orchestra, initially performing with 40 musicians, today has just nine. The problem is financing.

"We have adapted and we have arrived at working in interdisciplinary studies," explained Girón. In other words, each ODILA musician must play at least 10 instruments. And sing.

The only similar effort in Latin America is that of the Bolivian Experimental Orchestra of Native Instruments, founded in 1979 and directed by Cergio Prudencio.

However, interest in aboriginal music has not disappeared, and in recent years there has been a growing trend of introducing ethnic instruments into other musical contexts, says Venezuelan musicologist Emilio Mendoza.

Among these new approaches, he mentioned a concert for maracas and symphony orchestra.

The most common has been the use of ethnic percussion instruments in traditional symphony orchestras, he said.

"Of the 89 orchestral composers living today in Venezuela, 26 have used ethnic instruments in their compositions… This tells us that ethnic music is a concrete and living movement," said Mendoza.

Huáscar Barrandas, one of the Venezuelan musicians who in recent years has dedicated himself to these combinations of autochthonous and European instruments, told IPS that the former produce "very interesting and very beautiful sounds, which are also the expression of a past that we must not forget."

"It is about giving life to instruments that were played a thousand years ago and were in danger of disappearing," he said.

Barrandas studied the traditional flute, and currently specialises in the ‘sawawa’, a type of flute belonging to the Wayúu peoples, also known as ‘Guajiros’, residents of the Colombia-Venezuelan border region. He also plays the ocarina and clay horn from Colombia.

About his experience as a student of these instruments, he said he has learned by imitating. "The Wayúu do not have a written language, much less written music. But that is not an inconvenience. For centuries we have played Afro-Caribbean instruments, and there was no formal study of those either."