Listen in on this Class
 

Hagedorn: ... I apologize for the really schmancy outfit. I’m going to the opera after class. Some of your eyes bugged out. (Laughter.) I promise, you don’t have to dress for class. ... (Plays recording.) Hagedorn: Did you recognize the clave? Noah: Yeah.

Hagedorn: Which rumba is it?

Noah: The one we did last time. Guaguanco.

Hagedorn: So if we notate it, how do we do it? First we have to determine what it is. It either fits in a compound or duple meter. Can you guys imitate it?

Megan: Bu, bu, bu-bu-bu. 1, 2, 1-2-3.

Hagedorn: Is that in 12/8? Can someone play it for me? Megan? (Sound of clave, another student on chekere.)

Hagedorn: You have to keep the tempo up. One of the things the chekere is going to do is remind you of the tempo. This is difficult to play. Are you righthanded or left-handed? Right-handed. Start with your left hand, so all your left hand is doing is keeping time. That’s much better. (Conga drums join in.)

Hagedorn: These are all hard instruments. You think that you can just tap, tap, tap or hit stuff, but to get it just right is difficult. We start with the clave. Megan, try it again, keep the tempo up. Victoria you stand with Megan and Elicia, crack the whip. If they’re not in line, give them that look. And the rest of you, as you’re absorbing the rhythms, can you stand up and dance with me? (Rumba percussion, followed by applause.)

Hagedorn: We’re reading about the three different types of rumba—Yambu, Guaguanco and Columbia. The tempo at which we were performing is more typical of yambu. More sedate. I don’t know if I’d call it a dance of seduction—more likely a dance of affection, done with couples.

Megan: That’s why we looked so awkward. (Laughter.)

Noah: When I think of the origins of the pantomime dances, it seems it would have been a spur of the moment improvisation on the part of the dancers. It’s funny they’re so standardized now. Now I’m a rooster. Now I’m a window washer and you’re the—

Hagedorn:—window? (Laughter.) I think what has been lost is the urge to improvise. A staged performance is going to be well rehearsed and standardized, and that wasn’t the case as much before the revolution. It should make you think about why it is we need to control the evolution of a performance genre in order for it to be an appropriate public representation of a group of people. Why did rumba become so tightly controlled after the revolution when it was put in the service of a people’s national identity?

Victoria: If you’re presenting it to the rest of the world, maybe you want it to be in a standardized way, something that people will remember and recognize.

Hagedorn: That’s a good point. In other words, the performative emphasis shifts from an inward to an outward focus for a public that might not otherwise know us.

Leanne: When you standardize something, it filters out people who are not as good in terms of the standard you set.

Hagedorn: What you’re referring to is professionalization. So standardized becomes professionalized. With that in mind, I want to play you a pair of examples. I want you to listen to them with new ears since you’ve played some of the instruments used in these pieces. Think about standardization and professionalization. (Plays two recordings.)

Hagedorn: ... What are the differences?

Elicia: The second one is more polished.

Hagedorn: More professional. What makes it more polished?

Megan: The vocals. The first one felt more spontaneous. Someone started and then the others joined in.

Hagedorn: ... The first is a recording of older gentlemen playing in Matanzas, just getting together singing what they’ve sung for a long time. They’re using boxes—called cajones— and getting all sorts of compelling timbres that sound amazingly like what you might hear from conga drums. It was professionally recorded but not in a studio. The second version, which was recorded in Los Angeles, is of a group of famous musicians playing an old tune of Afro-Cuban origins. ... And with that, hand in your journals, and then I need a couple of volunteers to carry the drums downstairs. ...