The Sounds of Puerto Rico - Puerto Rico - page 477

PUERTO RICAN FOLK
The earliest folk music on the island started with the percussion and wind instruments of
the Taíno, and grew to incorporate elements as disparate as the island's ethnic composi-
tion: Spanish guitars, European parlor music and drums, and rhythms from West Africa. All
are evident in the DNA of the island's contemporary music, but the long, varied identity
of Puerto Rican music incorporates a number of curious indigenous styles and instruments,
notably including at least half a dozen guitar-like string instruments that are native to the
island, such as the aptly named four-string guitar-like cuatro .
In the mountains, sentimental and twangy folk music was played on cuatros by rural
troubadours, called jíbaros, whose costume often includes a ragged straw hat. A number
of traditional jíbaro songs - mostly rooted in some kind of Western European parlor music
- are still popular at island weddings and family gatherings. Of these, the two most worth
checking out are the décima and aguinaldo . The décima uses 10-line verses in a tricky
rhyme scheme to transform, in the lines of one famous self-referential example, a 'stone into
the jewel.' An expert jíbaro, such as Florencio Morales Ramos, would be able to improve
these on the spot. An aguinaldo is sung by groups of wandering carolers at Christmastime,
with lyrics that often explain the traditions of the holiday (perhaps unsurprisingly, many of
the most famous ones include singing about pork).
Puerto Rico's national anthem, 'La Borinqueña,' is actually a danza that was later subtly altered in order to make it sound more
grandiose and anthem-like.
Perhaps the most structurally complex of the island's folk music, danza is considered
Puerto Rico's classical music. Danza 's exact lineage is unknown, but it's generally con-
sidered to be modeled after contradanza, a social music and dance from Europe. Danza pop-
ularity blossomed in 1840 when it incorporated new music and dance steps called habaner-
as (another export of Cuba), which freed the style of movements. Its expressive nature was
wildly popular with youth but quite taboo with parents, and so it was banned for a period.
Composer Juan Morel Campos is the national hero of the form; he wrote more than 300 ex-
pressive danzas before he died at the age of 38.
Probably the most appealing colonial-era music found on the island is the décima - the
vehicle through which the jíbaros express joy and sorrow.
A décima is based on a 10-line poem and requires multiple instruments - the three-, four-
and six-stringed guitars known appropriately enough as the tres, cuatro and seis , and a
rhythm section usually comprised of güiro and drums. Like other music of the island, a de-
gree of wit and improvisation is expected of the singers. Often a band will have two lead