Wooden
crates are music to my ears...
When
slave masters in colonial Peru banned drums, their slaves found
new and innovative ways to preserve their outlawed rhythms, using
a variety of substitute materials at hand - a wooden crate, a
tithing box and a donkey jawbone - to perpetuate a vital part
of their culture.
Peru
Negro
The 30-member ensemble Peru Negro brings this distinctive and
high-energy form of music and dance to the Earlham College campus
for a performance at 7:30 p.m. Friday October 29, in Carpenter
Hall’s Goddard Auditorium.
“The
performance showcases the music and dance traditions of black
Peruvians,” said Juan Morillo, manager of Peru Negro. “The
music reflects the contact of African, Spanish and indigenous
idioms in Peru.”
Slavery
in Peru differed from elsewhere in the Americas in that slaves
were brought from a wide variety of regions in Africa, making
cultural continuity impossible.
“Peru
was the capital of the Spanish empire in South America and also
home to the Inquisition, which fiercely persecuted all pagan practices,”
Morillo said. “Skin drums and African dances were banned
as they were deemed immoral and sometimes associated with devil
worshipping.”
The
bans, however, had an effect opposite of their intent. Instead
of eradicating the old rhythms and rituals, Spanish church and
civil authorities helped create a new genre -- the music of black
Peru.
Among
the innovative instruments that Peru Negro features in its performances,
perhaps the most interesting is the quijada de burro.
“It
is a real donkey’s jaw that in the old days was discarded
and someone figured out that it could be used as a scratcher and
a rattle instrument,” Morillo said.
The
side of a dried-out donkey jawbone is beaten with the player’s
palm, which resonates the tuning-fork shape causing all the loosened
teeth to vibrate. The wooden crate sounds like a drum when a player
straddles the crate and bends down to beat the box by hand. The
small, lidded tithing box used for collections in Catholic churches
becomes a musical instrument when one hand claps the lid open
and closed while the other hand beats the side of the box with
a stick.
This
percussive backbone is joined by guitar, singing, colorful costumes,
sensual dances and historic verses that were often preserved through
oral tradition.
Peru
Negro, which formed in 1969, has been appointed Cultural Ambassadors
of Black Peru.
This
performance is supported by the Artist and Lecture Series Endowed
Fund.
