Musical Change and Cultural Resistance in the Central Andes of Peru

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Musical Change and Cultural Resistance in the Central Andes of PeruAuthor(s): Raúl R. RomeroSource: Latin American Music Review / Revista de Música Latinoamericana, Vol. 11, No. 1(Spring - Summer, 1990), pp. 1-35Published by: University of Texas PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/780356

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Raul R. Romero Musical Change and

Cultural Resistance in the

Central Andes of Peru

Introduction

A widespread assumption concerningthe effects of modernization upon traditional music is that modernization

is the beginning of the end for tradition, an implacable barrier for its

continuity. This essay describes a case in which this encounter is not

necessarily lethal. The common and simplistic assumption regarding

modernity does not account for the variety of cultural responses that canarise when rural communities confront a process of integration into a

wider national network. In the case presented here it can be observed

that, while particular musical traditions do resist external change-manytimes at the cost of their own existence-others adapt to the circum-

stances, incorporating new elements, or else evolve into different per-formance styles although without completely abandoning their deepestroots.1

This study does not suggest that capitalist expansion into rural areas

and its frequent consequence of cultural disintegration are fictitious pro-cesses. In presenting a description of the principal levels of music-makingin the region, this article attempts to show, on a general level, that, while

dominant forces of change can determine in most cases the underminingof traditional musical cultures, these negative effects are not necessarilyunavoidable. Consequently, the ethnomusicologist can expect, under cer-

tain conditions, that the persistence of traditional music-or its success-

ful adaptation into new forms without losing its essence-within a con-

text of modernization and economic integration is feasible. However, it

must be stressed that the main purpose of this article is not to addressthe issue of musical change at a theoretical level but to present a context-

sensitive case study. Nor do we intend to generalize on the different

Latin AmericanMusic Review, Volume 11, Number 1, June 1990'1990 by the University of Texas Press



2 : Raul R. Romero

types or levels of musical change, taking into consideration the difficul-

ties in

distinguishingunequivocally between them

(Behague 1986:17).The case of the Mantaro Valley in the Peruvian central Andes is use-

ful and particularly important in this regard because the area, more than

any other Andean region in Peru, experienced early in the century the

effects of urbanization and modernization. The region has gone throughan intense process of economic integration into the national context, but

this process has not been followed by cultural deterioration. On the con-

trary, key aspects of its traditional culture-such as the fiesta system, for

instance-experienced a previously unknown surge and revival, causingas a result the

appearanceand

growthof numerous musical and dance

groups in every town of the region.2A central methodological premise of this article is that the causes for

these peculiar and varied responses of cultural resistance in central Peru

are to be found not only on the musical level as such but also in the

unique social and economic evolution of the valley's peasantry and in

the specific way in which the region articulates itself within the national

context. As a result, the inhabitants of the valley developed a mentalitythat permitted them not only to proudly maintain traditional values and

cultural identity against the new forces of change but also to develop anddisseminate them by using the same elements introduced by the urban

world.

Musical change in the Mantaro Valley appears as a process that re-

affirms traditional values, rather than being their extinction. It also ap-

pears as the only way by which the basic traits of musical tradition could

manage to persist in modern Peru. If traditional musical culture did not

change, it would indeed disappear under the forces of the modern mar-

ket and the national economy. In fact, the latter has been the case of

many musical traditions that have resisted external change in the Man-taro Valley. Musical change is, therefore, an important strategy by which

musical tradition may transform itself and adapt its external forms and

styles to a new context. If traditional musical cultures are to evolve within

a context of modernity-and this seems an inevitable alternative in many

parts of the Peruvian Andes-this case is an example of a successful

attempt of cultural adaptation carried out by the Andean peasantry despitethe processes of cultural homogenization and standardization that gowith capitalism.

The Region, the People

The Mantaro Valley is located in the central Andes of Peru, in the de-

partment of Junin. The area, situated about three hundred kilometers



Musical Changeand CulturalResistance : 3

from the capital city, Lima, encompasses three provinces: Jauja, Con-

cepci6n, and Huancayo. The valley, which is encircled by two mountain

ranges-the cordilleraoccidentaland the cordillera entral-is approximately

sixty kilometers long and lies at an altitude between 3,000 and 3,500

meters above sea level. Its economy is primarily based on agriculture,which is highly productive, and raising livestock.

The region called Mantaro Valley here not only refers to the actual

valley itself-the plains surrounding the river-but also to its highlandareas. Several districts are located in those areas that emerge on the

margins of the Mantaro River's tributaries. These towns lie between

3,500 and 4,000 meters above sea level. Above them there is an even

higher ecological zone rising over 4,000 meters that surrounds the valley,a high plateau (puna) that mainly consists of pastures with little or no

agricultural activity (Mayer 1981).The region is populated by some 410,740 inhabitants of which 115,000

live in the city of Huancayo, the main urban and commercial center of

the valley. The rest are distributed in the city capitals of Concepci6n and

Jauja and in eighty-four rural districts dispersed around the valley (Longand Roberts 1978:8).

The regionof the Mantaro

Valleyhas

experiencedintense social and

economic change since the beginnings of the present century. Arguedas

(1953:118) has listed four principal factors for this process: (1) the exis-

tence of large-scale mining centers in nearby zones as poles of develop-ment and migration; (2) the construction early in the century of the

central railroad and highway that linked the valley with Lima; (3) the

proximity of the Mantaro Valley with the city capital of the country;and (4) the agricultural richness of the valley and the absence of a feudal

haciendasystem in the region. As a result of these factors, the valley's

economy-primarily based on its agricultural production-became in-tegrated into the national context with great success. Its inhabitants, the

majority of them small landholders, became the main beneficiaries.3

Through this economic integration and prosperity, the social and eth-

nic structure of the valley began to change. Since the end of the nine-

teenth century the peasant sectors associated with an indigenous culture

began to experience the repercussions of the socio-cultural changes that

affected the region. Well into the twentieth century, mestizo populationwas already predominant in the Mantaro Valley (Tschopik 1947; Argue-

das 1953; Adams 1959). What exactly defines mestizo vis a vis an indi-genous culture continues to be a debatable issue in Andean anthropo-

logical literature (see Cotler 1969; Fuenzalida 1970; Ossio 1978). In the

Mantaro Valley itself the ethnic issue has not been thoroughly treated,

although it is one of the best-documented Andean regions in anthropo-

logical literature (see for example Tschopik 1947; Arguedas 1953, 1957;



ECUADORI.

COLOMBIA

f.

r(

j BRAZIL

\.

( \ B

kWA~

PACIFIC

OCEAN

V"



Musical Changeand Cultural Resistance : 5

QuijadaJara 1957; Adams 1959; Hutchinson 1973; Alberti and Sanchez

1974; Escobar 1974; Long and Roberts 1978; Celestino and Meyers

1981; Mayer 1981; Mallon 1983).

Arguedas depicts indigenous culture by its religious relationship with

the land and collectivistic notion of social relations. When those values

are substituted by Western ideals-such as private property, remunerated

labor, and individualism-and when the Indian becomes integrated into

the national economic system, then the Indian initiates a process of

change that culminates in becoming a mestizo (Arguedas 1953:121-122).What actually distinguished the mestizo of the Mantaro Valley from

other mestizos is that, while in other regions mestizos were "tormented,unstable and solitary" individuals and cultural outcasts, in the Mantaro

Valley the mestizo evolved into a social class. The mestizo "not onlydoes not deny his status, but is proud of it. He is a culturally well-ad-

justed type despite the complex elements he has integrated" (Arguedas

1953:122). In the Mantaro Valley the resultant mestizo has combined

traits from indigenous culture with Western values and practices. The

mestizo peasantry accepts the rules of the capitalistic market and con-

fronts it with an aggressive and modern entrepreneur spirit, but without

losingits sense of

solidarity, community living, customs,and cultural

traditions (Arguedas 1953:123).Adams (1959), though, in documenting the local perceptions of the

inhabitants of the district of Muquiyauyo in the province of Jauja, em-

phasizes more pragmatic factors that distinguished indigenous from mes-

tizo status in the valley at the end of the nineteenth century. An Indian

would, for instance, speak only Quechua, use peasant clothes, and retain

the right to use communal lands but would earn a lower income and en-

joy a lower social status than mestizos. These would use European clothes,

would speak Spanish as well as Quechua, and would be able to hold officein the district government, own private land, and have higher educa-

tional opportunities, among other factors (Adams 1959:83). Differences

between these segments were to dissolve throughout the present century,and "the events in which Indians and mestizos had previously been

separated either died out or were changed to permit joint participation.

Customs, such as clothing, language, and occupations, ceased to serve

as distinctive features" (Adams 1959:92).The valley's peasantry, therefore, can be currently categorized as en-

tirely mestizo. It has adapted harmonically and successfully to a chang-ing world in which commerce, migration, and industrialization are daily

phenomena. Today, most of the peasantry is bilingual; new sources of

income complement agricultural activities; most of the villages adjacentto the central highway enjoy urban services and facilities; and migrationto urban poles is an important vehicle for cultural transmission. However,



6: Raul R. Romero

the cultural configuration of the mestizo peasantry of the Mantaro Valleyrests strongly on cultural traditions that have not been forgotten despite

the presence of modernity in its many forms.An important implication of the ethnic configuration of the peasantry

of the Mantaro Valley explained above is that the population is culturally

homogeneous. The above-mentioned literature, which has examined the

valley as a homogeneous geographical-cultural whole, supports this no-

tion. However, the fact that we cannot apply the classical Indian vs.

mestizo dichotomy in the Mantaro Valley does not mean that there are

no cultural differences among its population. One of these fundamental

differences is that while the districts of the lower valley have benefited

the most from urbanization, the communities of higher altitudes main-

tain a more traditional status, perhaps due to their relative isolation

from the main urban poles of the region, the cities of Huancayo and

Jauja. Ritual and communal labor, for example, are more alive in the

higher towns than in the lower districts. Also, the fiesta system appearsin its best form in the lower districts, while in the higher communities,which have generally fewer economic resources, the fiesta system keepsa low profile. This geographical and ecological determination of cultural

differencesamong

Andeanpeoples

has also been noted for other Andean

regions. Towns and villages near the main roads seem to experiencemore intense social and economic change than the ones away from them

(Van den Bergue and Primov 1977:123). In the Mantaro Valley, the

communities located in a higher altitude have, in fact, limited access to

the main roads and the urban centers of the valley and are therefore

economically backward. They have experienced at a slower pace the

effects of urbanization and modernization and consequently have main-

tained some musical and cultural traditions that have already disappeared

from the districts of the lower valley.4The absence of an indigenous segment in the valley and the predomi-nance of a mestizo population, however, leaves us with a problem of

terminology when addressing the diversity of musical expressions in the

region. The opposition between indigenous and mestizo music has guidedfor decades the interpretation of Andean music as a whole (Romero

1985:232). Arguedas used to include the dimension of "musica senorial"

when referring to musical expressions of the Western sectors (landlordsor liberal professionals) that existed in the important capitals of the Pe-

ruvian Andes. However, Arguedas noted that only in Ayacucho had thissocial sector produced a musical style of its own (1976:240). Some au-

thors, such as Turino (1984), prefer to use the dichotomy "peasant"and "urban mestizo" music in the case of some instrumental styles in

the southern Andes. These categories could not be applied, however, to

the Mantaro Valley where the mestizo is also a peasant, a small land-




holder who may reside either in a rural context or in an urbanized town

of the valley. The crux of the matter in this case is that, while the peas-

antry of the Mantaro Valley is predominantly mestizo, there are some

musical expressions in the region that would not be adequately described

as such. There are many musical manifestations in the valley that follow

ancient prehispanic and colonial models and continue to resist external

changes. This is the case, for example, of ritual and communal labor

music. One could describe these genres as indigenous, but such a de-

scription could be misleading because it would describe the musical sound

only and not the producers of these sounds. In any event, this is not the

onlycase in the Peruvian Andes in which mestizos

adoptand

preserveindigenous musical expressions. Arguedas had noted that "mestizo popu-lar art is based upon the purest indigenous origin: in regard to songs,for example, mestizossing as their own the indigenous waynos" (1989:

14). Taking into account this cultural paradox and the ambiguity of

existing terminology regarding ethnic and social differentiation of musi-

cal expressions in the Andes, the internal organization of this article will

be based on performance contexts, thus avoiding the standard ethnic

terminology-with the sole exception of the term mestizo, which if used

in this case could be misleading.Three different levels of music-making can be distinguished in the

Mantaro Valley: (1) musical expressions that can be seen as a continua-

tion of prehispanic and colonial models that have resisted external change,

refuged within the context of the closed community and ritual; (2) musi-

cal manifestations that are mestizo re-creations of regional musical tra-

ditions, dynamically driven by the fiesta system; and (3) new musical

styles that have evolved from the previous levels, having the city capitalof Lima as their principal operation center and the radio and record

media as their main communicative vehicles. These three levels of music-making in the Mantaro Valley correspond to different cultural reactions

of Andean peoples to modernity: resistance, adaptation, and evolution.

We will see how these responses appear in the different musical mani-

festations of the region.

Music and Ritual

Ritual has been defined as any kind of set formalized behavior (Leach1972). However, in this section my concern is on ritual as a formal

behavior exclusively related to mythical beings or powers (Turner 1967).The ritual in the Mantaro Valley that fits in this definition is the ubiqui-tous branding of animals, or herranza,a private event-celebrated by the

families who own cattle-associated with animal fertility and with the



8 : Raul R. Romero

wamani, an Andean deity associated with the mountains. He is thoughtto be the owner of the crops and the cattle of the region and is revered

and feared by the peasants who believe in him. Belief in the wamani is,

however, not universal. In the Mantaro Valley not all the villagers be-

lieve in his existence. The herranzaoccurs every July 25 in coincidence

with the Catholic anniversary of Fray Santiago. Some communities delayits celebration until the octavaon August 1, and a few others celebrate

the ritual on any day of the month of August. The herranzas hat I ob-

served in the Mantaro Valley are similar to those described for the south-

ern departments of Huancavelica (Fuenzalida 1980) and Ayacucho (Isbell

1978; Quispe 1969).The

placeof music in the ritual is of

supremeim-

portance. Each step of the ceremony has a special music, and music is

an essential element of the event. The fact that this specialized music

only appears in this ritual context reaffirms the idea that the herranza

ritual is an indivisible unit of action and sound.

The following description is based on the direct observation of the

actual ritual in three different villages in the Mantaro Valley (Hauncan,

Huayucachi, and Masmachicche) and on interviews and solicited record-

ings of harranzamusicians from two other villages (Masma and Paria-

huanca). The ritual can be divided into two parts: the vespers and theactual branding, which takes place the next day of celebration. The fol-

lowing scheme presents a synthesis of the sequence of the herranzarituals

observed in those villages:

VESPERS: BUILDING OF RITUAL TABLE

CHAUPI-MESA: periodicalrest periods

CHAUPI-TUTA: all night generaldance and

visits to friends and relatives

KOKA-KINTU: ritual of the coca leaves

LUCI-LUCI: ritual chase of animals with fire

at dawn

CENTRAL DAY: BRANDING OF ANIMALS (SONG FOR

DIVERSE ANIMALS AND FOR THEOWNERS, OR PATRONES)

KOKA-KINTU

CHICO-CHICO: despedida,r farewell




Fuenzalida (1980) and Quispe (1969) have thoroughly described the

various steps of the ritual, and their reproduction here would be repeti-

tive. Many of the steps described by them are also valid for the case ofthe Mantaro Valley, hence I will just briefly describe here what is rele-

vant for our purposes. After a ritual offering to the wamani, if applicable,the host family and their guests proceed to prepare the ritual table, or

mesa. On the mesaall the ritual objects are deposited, such as an imageof Santiago, figures of animals, mountain herbs and flowers, stones,earth and minerals, wine, sugar, and the instruments that will be used

in the branding. After the preparation of the ritual table, or armazdnde

mesa, is completed, the participants gather around it, drinking and danc-

ing. They also visit other relatives and friends in the town, activities

that last all night until dawn of the next day.

Special tunes, or tonadas, are performed for each step of the ritual.

Tunes for dancing (chaupi-tuta)are usually called zapateo. The term pasa-

calle, literally meaning "along the roads," as well as paseo or visitacha,is used when the musicians walk through the streets with other partici-

pants to visit homes, where they dance for a while before leaving to visit

other families. In between these events are resting periods during which

theparticipants gather

themselves around the maintable,

calledchaupi-mesa. In one of these periods the koka-kintu s performed. A specific

amount of coca leaves is given to all the participants so they can choose

those that are not broken. Each coca leaf represents a previously desig-nated amount of cattle (for instance, one leaf equals one hundred heads

of cattle). The participants are required to find the expected number of

leaves to satisfy the requirements for that year. If they cannot find the

adequate number, then it is believed and predicted that their cattle are

not going to have a good year.5 All these activities last through the night

until the luci-luci, a ceremonial chasing of the animals with fire, leadingthem out from the corral to the place where they are going to be marked.

After this ceremony, the participants go to sleep and rest for the next

day.The central day is dedicated mainly to the actual branding. Several

animals may be marked: cattle, sheep, llamas, horses, and even donkeys.There is a tonada-which can be labeled as tangra, marca, herranza,or

sefalay-for each animal. The marking is done with ribbons of different

colors, depending on the animal branded. The colored ribbons, or cintas,

permit the owner to point out the characteristics of the animals.In some communities an offering to the wamani takes place before the

initiation of the vespers. This payment is done by the head of the familywho goes to the mountain where the wamani is believed to live and offers

him produce in return for his protection. In Chuschi, Ayacucho, this

payment is offered after the actual branding (Isbell 1978). In the Mantaro



10 : Raul R. Romero

Valley, however, belief in the wamani has disappeared in the lower dis-

tricts and only persists in some communities of the higher altitudes.

However, the ritual of the herranza,even without belief in the wamani,

persists as a reproductive ritual for cattle, made for and dedicated to the

animals. As one informant said: "It is a fiesta for the animals, not for

the people." In the communities in which belief in the wamani still pre-

vails, the coincidence of the Catholic celebration of Santiago with the

celebration of the wamani does not contradict the actual ritual. As Fuen-

zalida has stated (1980), both symbols interact in the Andean mentality:

Santiago is associated with war while the wamani is related to a mythicalbird also linked with

war; Santiagois "son of the thunder" while the

wamani had connections with lightning (Fuenzalida 1980:160).Music and ritual in the case of herranzaare indivisible, for each period

of the ritual takes place with a specific type of music, or tonada. A local

author in the valley has cited up to eighteen different types of tonadas

corresponding to an equal number of periods of the ritual.6 The instru-

mental group of the herranzaconsists of one or two wakrapukus spiral-

shaped horn trumpet), a violin, and a tinya (small Andean hand drum).The singer, or cantora,is always a woman, and the instrumentalists are

always men. The participation of this group is mandatory for the ritualand this music is performed only in this context. In no other context or

event in the year can the traditional herranzamusic be heard. If a familycannot find an herranzagroup in its own village, it hires a group from

another town. Each section of the herranzahas a special tonada,but there

are several melodies for each tonadain the repertoires of the musicians.

The music consists in a melodic line performed in heterophony by the

violin and the voice, the regular pulse of the tinya, and the periodical

participation of the wakrapukus.The melodies are based on a tritonic

scale constructed upon the major triad and very rarely on the minortriad. Only in exceptional cases are other scales-pentatonic and tetra-

tonic-found in the music of the herranza.Upon an analysis of tonadas

from four different districts, I found that all were in a two-part form

(AB), part A repeated once and part B repeated several times. Example1 shows a tritonic (G-B-D) "song for the patron" from the town of Mas-

machicche with the characteristics mentioned above.

A complete version of an herranzarendition is shown in Example 2,which includes a violin introduction always characterizing each tonada.

Despite the fact that the introduction is generally the same for all thetunes in almost all the cases observed-with slight variations-the tonadas

themselves are original and distinctive from each other.7

The herranzamusicians are generally from the higher communities of

the valley. In the districts of the lower valley, the ritual persists but few

musicians know how to perform the music. These families therefore hire



Example 1(A)

Voice

i: fi f ?rt- r r r f r rtIl

inya r r r r r r r r

-f r r r J J ; i -r r t rald1

r11

(B)

Example 2

Violin (introduction)

tinya r r r r r r r r

~ J ;~, CcJ6o, r , I

Voice (A)

(B)

4 W - r l f r l.- r r rt-



12 : Rau'lR. Romero

musicians, at a relatively high cost, from the communities of higheraltitudes to perform in their own ritual. In only a few cases have I seen

families using a record or cassette player as a substitute, and in thesecases the families involved did not carry out a complete herranzaritual.

In these cases the families were conscious that they did this because theycould not find musicians to hire, which they would have preferred.

The herrenza, herefore, is a unity of sound and action in which the

music exists as an integral part of the ritual. This unity is further reaf-

firmed because the music of the ritual cannot be reproduced in any other

context or occasion. Even the wakrapuku s considered a ritual instrument

to be used only on that occasion, with few exceptions. When the epochof the ritual is near, the owner of a wakrapukuhas to ritually "prepare"the instrument after a whole year of being kept unused. Musical style is

also unique and ascribed only to the ritual. Music plays not only a func-

tional role in ritual-for dancing and for emotional intensity-but is also

a way to express demands and opinions that otherwise would be impossi-ble to verbalize. Such is the case of the "songs for the patron," for in-

stance, in which the herders sing their demands to the owners of cattle,

and in many cases, the song texts include strong insults.8 No section in

the herranzaritual is without music.Absolutely

allparts

of the event cor-

respond to a musical piece that has no special title but adopts the name

of the ritual section itself. This is another sign of unity between sound

and ritual action.

Wakrapukuperformers during an herranzaritual in Masmacchiche, Jauja.




Music and ritual of the herranza n the Mantaro Valley has resisted

change despite its ritual and religious character that would apparentlymake it a vulnerable target, likely to fall under the advancement of mod-

ernity. The people from the lower valley, dwellers of urbanized small

towns with access to the main road and other communications, are as

respectful participants of the ritual as are the peasants from the higherdistricts and towns, who are more isolated and enjoy fewer material

resources. Despite the absence of belief in the wamani deity in the lower

valley and in many districts of the higher towns, the structure of the

ritual, and its music, is similar throughout all of the Mantaro Valley.The fact that it remains more

prestigiousto have a traditional

groupfor

the ritual, instead of any other substitute ensemble, reaffirms the notion

that the ritual is consciously maintained and experienced and is relativelyclosed to external changes and innovations by the peasantry of the valley.

Why has this ritual and its music been able to achieve continuity and

resist the usual effects of modernity and urbanization? Why has the

peasantry of the Mantaro Valley, who has changed so much in other

levels, maintained a traditional ritual like this unchanged, despite an

intense process of integration into the national economy? Part of the

explanation for this resistance can be found in the argument cited byMerriam (1964:307) and Nettl (1983:178), which refers to musical ex-

pressions associated exclusively with particular contexts being less vul-

nerable to change than, for example, recreational or social music. In

this line, Merriam argues that religious or ritual music, for example,could not change without altering other aspects of the ritual itself (1964:

308). However, this reasoning could only explain why musical sound

does not change and leaves untouched the issue of why the ritual itself-

as a whole entity of sound and action-and the values implicit in it, has

resisted change, maintaining a central position in the lives of the peopleof the valley. The truth of the matter remains that mestizo peasantryin the region, capable of accepting and adopting the benefits of mod-

ernization and urbanization and already inserted in the national economy,is still linked to traditional rituals such as the herranza,through which the

peasants communicate with abstract forces to ask for animal fertility. In

the practicality of daily life in the valley, there seems to be no contra-

diction between modernity and ritual beliefs.

Music and Labor

Ceremonial labor, an activity that combines productive work with music

and related activities, is a tradition that has disappeared from manycommunities in the Mantaro Valley, persisting in very few of them. As



14 : Raul R. Romero

a result, musicians who master this musical repertoire are very difficult

to locate and encounter. In the region there is a tradition of communal

labor for agricultural tasks and for the building of private or communaledifices.

For agricultural labor music we were able to find and study the cases

of performers from the districts of Paccha, San Antonio de Ocopa, Mas-

machicche, and Huanchar. In each of these towns only one musician

knew the repertoire, and without exception all of the musicians com-

plained of a lack of disciples who could learn and continue the tradition.

All the performers interviewd expressed their pride in being the guar-dians of such an ancient repertoire that, they said, had remained un-

changed throughout time. One of them told us that their music was

"from Inca times."

In one particular town that I visited a year earlier (Llacuari), the

town's only musician had died a few months before, and his only son,

suddenly conscious of the importance of this music because of our in-

terest in it, dramatically expressed his grief and repentance for not hav-

ing learned the complete repertoire before his father's death. Despitethe sincere laments from the few guardians of this particular tradition,the music for communal labor continues to

disappearin the

region.Arguedas (1953) collected a variety of testimonies from schoolteachers

of the region, documenting this tradition in many districts of the valley.One can conclude after reading these testimonies that forty years agothe tradition of ceremonial communal labor still prevailed in the valley.The reasons for its cultural extinction during the last four decades is

explained in part by the disappearance of communal lands and the mech-

anization of agricultural tasks. Only in a few higher-altitude communi-

ties does the tradition persist, linked with the existence of communal

lands and a sense of communal solidarity. In the districts of the lowervalley, this practice has perished and can no longer be found. As a re-

sult, some communities send their authorities to other villages to hire

performers of this music in order to continue their traditions of cere-

monial labor in the fields. Unfortunately, not all towns can afford the

expense and the time to make this effort.

Communal labor in the fields is a special event reserved for specificmoments of the agricultural calendar, requiring total participation of the

villagers: for the barbecho, r volteo(turning of the soil); during the cultivo

(first tillage of the land); and for the siega (harvest) of cereals. Music forthe communal labor is provided by a three-hole pincullo (vertical cane

flute) and the tinya (this time a regular-sized Andean drum, bigger than

the one used by the cantora n herranzamusic). One single musician playsboth instruments simultaneously. Communal labor, orfaena comunal, in

the field lasts all day. It begins with a general meeting at the central




A performer of a three-hole pincullo and tinya during communal labor

in Paccha, Jauja.

plaza of the village, after which workers walk to the land where theywork the whole day. The musician plays during the wholefaena and

during the rest periods. Drinking chicha(beer) and dancing can also be

part of this event, during the resting periods, or mishkipas.'Different tonadas are used during the ceremonial labor day. They have

different names in each village, but the repertoire follows a similar struc-

ture. There is a tune to congregate the villagers, or comuneros, arly in themorning, and another-generally named pasacalle-performed while the

workers walk to the field. For the labor day itself, there are several tunes,

varying between faster and slower tempos according to the type of labor

required. Each of these tunes has a descriptive name given by the per-former. At the end of the day, there is a farewell tune, or despedida.For

the mishkipas, the performer plays huaynos, a genre that is considered

recreational music suitable to entertain the participants and interruptthe ceremonial sequence for a few moments.

One of the performers from the town of Huanchar in the province ofConcepci6n plays this music on two different occasions throughout the

year: during the volteoand the cultivo. Only on exceptional occasions is

he hired to play this repertoire by private owners who use wage labor.

An analysis of his repertoire reveals that it does not essentially differ

from that of other performers of the valley. There are six basic tunes



16 : Raul R. Romero

in his repertoire. Three are pentatonic, two tritonic on the major triad,and one tetratonic.

Only the initial tune, a pentatonic melody for goingto the fields, shown in Example 3, is an ABAB form:

Example 3

Pincullo (A)

^r--r~ r \r-Jl r rP- I ' J J \ \tiiiyrr L r rr c r trr irr cnr Lrr r

r rr rr r rr r L r r r r r r r rlr.r r r r,r

r rr r(B)

y*1 ?~- JJ ri, p. j ~ _ . r.r r

'r r r r r r r r

r r r r r r r r r r r r r r

His other tunes are based on a single part A repeated several times with

slight variations each time. Example 4 shows a tritonic tune called "Santa

Catalina," a slow melody performed when "the workers in the field

are tired:"

Example 4Pincullo

tinyainya r r r r. r _r . r r r

$"1 ; :-tjgf ; 7 p- tt m j I

r r r r r r r' r r r

r Lrr urr rc_jr r r Lrr r r




Another repertoire linked with agricultural communal labor is the trilla

nocturna,or nocturnal threshing of cereals. This is a communal ceremonial

gathering that had almost disappeared in the Mantaro Valley by the

decade of the 1950s (Arguedas 1953:237). But its musical repertoire,

strictly vocal, is still remembered in contemporary times by the old men

and women who used to participate in this communal gathering when

they were young. The nocturnal harrowing of cereals, also called way-

llarsh, was enacted by young single men and women who would singand dance throughout the night on top of a mound of cereals. While

singing and dancing, these young men and women threshed the cereals,

separating the seeds from the husks. The trilla nocturnawas an occasional

ceremony, performed mainly by low-income families. The normal har-

rowing of cereals would be perfomed in plain daylight, using animal

force.

Arguedas (1953) has published the testimony of participants in these

labor ceremonies, describing the events. The participants would be con-

voked by the owner of the harvest usually on nights with a full moon.

The single men and women would then begin recreational activities that

consisted mainly of rounds, games, and singing. In between these ac-

tivities,there would be

mishkipasduringwhich the owner would invite

the participants to hot beverages and food, but no liquor. After a resting

period, the singing, dancing, and games would begin again.The second type of communal labor tradition in the region is related

to the construction of buildings, or pirkansa, but its musical repertoirehas almost disappeared. The event takes place when the walls of an edi-

fice are being built. In general, the labor day for the pirkansais similar

in its structure to the types previously mentioned. The working day is

interspersed with mishkipas,drinking chicha, smoking cigarettes, and

dancing huaynos. The same instruments used during agricultural laborare also used in the pirkansa, that is, the pincullo and the tinya.

Contrary to the case of the herranzaritual, during the present centurythe music for communal labor in the Mantaro Valley has been experi-

encing an irreversible process of disappearance. It would not be adven-

turous to assert that this repertoire will definitely be forgotten duringthe next few years, together with the physical disappearance of the few

carriers of this tradition. However, as with ritual herranzamusic, this

repertoire has been transmitted from generation to generation, resisting

external change despite the pressures of "national integration." Why is,then, this musical universe being forgotten by the peasantry of the val-

ley? Is it not true that this is a musical expression related exclusively to

a specific context just as in the case of the herranzaritual? Part of the

answer to these questions is the disappearance of communal lands in

favor of private property in most of the valley. The economic pressures



18 : Raul R. Romero

of the capitalist market must influence the peasantry to harvest and com-

mercialize their produce more rapidly than before. Communal labor in

the fields is indeed a social necessity when mechanical means are notavailable. But when a tractor guided by one single driver can harvest

an average-sized field in two hours while all the work-capable villagerswould have to dedicate a whole day of physically demanding effort, then

ceremonial communal labor becomes impractical. It goes without sayingthat the ceremonial circumstance and the reciprocity links established

in that occasion become inevitably lost.

But these material causes cannot explain by themselves the announced

death of a musical tradition. Mechanical means are impossible to use

for agricultural purposes in the higher towns where cultivated lands are

located on the inclined slopes of nearby mountains. Here, communal

labor is a common strategy for cultivating the land. Notwithstanding,this tradition is also disappearing from these villages. Aesthetic and cul-

tural factors, therefore, must also be taken into consideration in explain-

ing why, for example, the younger generations of the valley's peasantrydo not want to learn this repertoire. Some of these factors are to be

reviewed later in this article.

A typical orchestra of saxophones, clarinets, violins, and a harp in

Zapallanga, Huancayo.




Music and the Life Cycle

In the Mantaro Valley, the only ceremonial event that commemoratesthe life cycle with special music as part of its structure is the funeral.

Baptism and cortapelo first ritual cutting of a child's hair) have al-

ready disappeared, and traditional music for marriage has evolved into

a mestizo style performed by the orquesta ipica. Currently, the central

act of marriage in the Mantaro Valley is a celebration that follows the

Catholic ritual. The social side of marriage takes place afterwards in a

house of one of the spouse's relatives. On that occasion the music con-

sists of huaynosand mulizas, song genres free from contextual constraints

and usually performed in the Mantaro Valley for periods of leisure and

diversion or for a moment of nostalgia or contemplation, as in the case

of the muliza.9 One of the most important phases of the celebration oc-

curs when the brides are honored with presents, in a section called the

palpay, which is also the only section of the marriage celebration havinga special tune-a variant of the huayno.

Funeral music has remained more attached to traditional expressivemeans, retained by the responseros, pecialized singers who offer their

servicesduring

the entireyear,

for funerals butespecially

on November

2, Day of the Dead. The repertoire consists of a variety of vocal tunes.

In many of them it is inevitable to note the influence of Catholic liturgical

responsorial chants. Their texts are in Quechua,Spanish, or even Latin.

Example 5 shows the pentatonic melody of a responso:

Example 5

Voice

~btt~ ', o l ,a

$?~~~~~~~~~~7~~~~~R~~~~~ ~~~~nL~~~~~.

Why is funeral music the only survival of a musical tradition related

to the life cycle, while other related ceremonial events have disappearedin the Mantaro Valley? Informants related to us that music from corta

pelo was performed long ago by guitars and mandolins, both instrument,

already vanished from the regional traditions in the valley. Music for

marriage, however, was taken up by the dynamic mestizo orchestra as

early as the 1930s (Barrantes: 1940). Does this mean that if music for



20 : Raul R. Romero

the cortapelo had been incorporated into the orchestra repertoire, the

music-and the celebration-would have avoided cultural extinction?

Music and the Fiesta System

The fiesta system is one of the most important performance contexts for

traditional music in the Mantaro Valley. Specific musical expressions

appear only in the fiesta complex: dance-drama and its musical counter-

parts, expressions that accompany "festive rites"-ceremonial and recrea-

tional events occurring only in festivities such as bullfighting, fireworks,and others-and liturgical music for the ubiquitous processions.

The annual fiesta calendar in the Mantaro Valley is evenly distributed

throughout the year among the numerous districts and villages. The Man-

taro fiesta system has experienced an unexpected growth while in other

Andean regions the system has decreased in intensity. This has been

partly due to the peasantry's economic prosperity that allowed them to

afford the high expenses of fiesta organization and its paraphernalia (Ar-

guedas 1953:123). The role of temporal peasant migration to the nearby

miningcenters since the first decades of the

centuryhas also been an im-

portant factor in this regard. These migrants organized the first voluntaryassociations to finance fiestas and present dances in their native towns

(Mendoza 1989:508). This growth also benefited the musical organiza-tion built around the fiesta complex. The diversity and relatively high

frequency of fiesta activity in the valley has created the material condi-

tions for the professionalization of musicians. The mestizo peasantryof the valley now considers the music profession as a profitable one and

the number of orchestras and brass bands continuously increases. Cur-

rently, most of the members of the main instrumental ensembles thatperform in fiestas make a living from this activity (Hutchinson 1973;Sanchez 1987). 0

There are two fundamental instrumental groups-with rare exceptions-in the fiesta system: the orquestazpica typical orchestra) and the banda

de musica(brass band).11 Both ensembles consist of European instruments

and have recent origins that can be traced back to the beginnings of this

century. The orquestaipica includes saxophones, clarinets, violins, and

a diatonic harp. The violin and the harp were introduced to the Andes

during the colonial times, but the first saxophones and clarinets arrivedin the valley at the turn of the twentieth century. A chronology of the

evolution of the orquestaipicahas been proposed by Valenzuela in his

as yet unpublished thesis on the topic (Valenzuela: 1984). The author

states that in the nineteenth century the predecessor of the orchestra was

called conjunto,which consisted of the ubiquitous Andean quenas notched




flutes), mandolins, guitars, harp, violins, and a tinya. Early in the present

century the quenas, mandolins, and the guitar had already disappearedfrom the conjuntoand from the Mantaro Valley at large. In the 1910sthe clarinet was added to the group, and a decade later the saxophone-

especially the alto and tenor-was also introduced.

An orchestra's fiesta repertoire currently consists of music for dance-

dramas and music for the numerous ceremonies and events that occurwithin the fiesta complex, such as the ever-present cortamonte(carnival-associated ceremony also related to fiestas consisting of the ritual cuttingof a tree) or the ofrezo part of the fiesta in which the participants make

offeringsto the

sponsors).The total acceptance of the saxophone and the clarinet by the mestizo

peasantry of the region is clear evidence of their capacity to adopt mod-

ern elements without rejecting their traditional roots. In fact, and despitethe relatively recent introduction of these European instruments, the

orquestaipica performs exclusively a traditional regional repertoire. More-

over, the instrumental color of these instruments is unique and deter-

mined by regional styles. An intense use of vibrato and a tense and

metallic timbre characterize the performances of the different types of

saxophones and clarinets used in the valley. These traits can even beeasily recognized by the average Western listener and distinguished from

the European performance style of those instruments.

If the orchestra in the valley is linked with a regional repertoire, the

brass band then represents for the inhabitant of the Mantaro Valley aclear option in favor of modern and foreign musical influences. While

the orchestra performs traditional mestizo repertoire, the bandanot only

performs this type of repertoire but also is open to, and is socially per-mitted to perform, other genres, such as creole and popular commercial

ones. Notwithstanding their differences, both instrumental ensemblesinteract in the fiesta system, although fulfilling different functions.

The band includes brass instruments such as trumpets, trombones,

tubas, drums, and cymbals. In the Mantaro Valley saxophones and

clarinets may also be included. The brass band was introduced in the

Peruvian Andes around the second decade of the twentieth century as a

direct result of the mandatory military service, which affected principallythe peasant sectors of the country. It was in military musical bands

where young Andean conscripts from the Mantaro Valley learned to

master brass instruments, only to later introduce them to their nativevillages (Romero 1985:250). The brass band repertoire consists in music

for dance-dramas and for specific events of the fiesta context such as

processional music, music for bullfighting (pasodoblesand marineras),and

for the toril (a festive play in the vespers of a fiesta during which a pa-pier-mache bull "attacks" the participants).



22 : Ral R. Romero

Members of a brass band in the town of Santa Rosa de Ocopa,

Concepcion.

The orquestazpico nd the banda, ogether with commerce and wagelabor, constitute the principalmeans of extra income for peasantry inthe valley other than agriculture. The richness of the valley fiesta sys-tem permits musicians of these instrumentalgroups to work steadilythroughout the year. They are hired through a written contract that is

sold in every little store of the valley's villages, a sign of the intensityof demand for musicians in the valley. Orchestras and bands have theirmain operation centers inJuaja and Huancayo, but their members arerecruited from the rural districts, where they normally reside. Despitetheir professionalism, members of these groups are at the same timesmall landholders. Even the most prosperousmusicians do not abandontheir residence districts nor their landholdings, to which they dedicatetheir free time during sowing or harvest seasons, unless they leave rela-tives in charge of the land. Music for fiestas is, therefore, a specializa-

tion and a very important extra income source, but it never involvesthe total abandonment of material and familial links with the rural com-

munity.Why did the peasantryof the valley-in the beginning of the present

century-incorporate European instruments such as the saxophone, the

clarinet, and other brass instruments into their most traditional instru-




mental groups? The musicians themselves offer several interpretations.The physical and acoustic characteristics of the instruments are often

cited by the performers as important reasons to have adopted them ("theysound better"). Along this line, Valenzuela further explains that the

tradition of competition among the musical groups from the different

villages in the region prompted many performers to seek more volume

intensity as an aesthetic ideal to achieve. Thus, instruments with a highervolume and brilliant color were preferred to others. It goes without say-

ing that instruments such as the saxophone and the clarinet fulfilled this

requirement, to the detriment of indigenous ones.

There are alsolegendary

storiesbeing

told about thisprocess

ofadop-tion. An old retired musician from the district of Acolla gave me the

following testimony: a "gringo" from a mining center of Cerro de Pasco

sold a saxophone to Mr. Rojas Chucas, the first saxophone player in

Junin. Mr. Rojas, then, tested the instrument in his orchestra and found

out that it "filled the vacuum." From then on, the saxophone was in-

corporated into the orchestra. This story, repeated by other old musicians,is not totally imaginary. It is a fact that when migrants returned to their

native villages from the mining centers, or from Lima, they broughtwith them new

influences-and artifacts such as musical instruments-into the valley. On the other hand, Rojas Chucas is the name of a well-

known musician from the province of Jauja in the early part of the cen-

tury and, in fact, was one of the first to introduce the instrument in

the region (Valenzuela 1984).As it has been stated above, the core of the repertoire of the instru-

mental ensembles reviewed in this section consists of music for dance-

dramas. The dance-drama is the central event in the fiesta. No other

fiesta event, such as the mass or the procession, can challenge its role

expressing the deepest popular feelings toward mestizo identity and his-tory or equal the emotional climax that it provokes. During the research

period in the region, more than thirty different dances were observed

and recorded, and at least ten more were documented from oral sources.

Dance-dramas in the Mantaro Valley are characterized by a structured

choreography, the presence of theatrical elements, the protagonistic role

of a costumed and masked dancer, and an oral tradition that providesa mythical or legendary storyline to the symbolic action of the enact-

ment. 2

The dance-drama is a single unit that consists in choreographic move-ment, on the one hand, and musical sound related to action, on the

other. In the Mantaro Valley the dance-drama always consists of two

to six different sections. Each section has a specific musical expression,

independent from the others, each having its own tempo, rhythm, form,and structure. The melody of the majority of the dances in the valley is



24 : Raul R. Romero

ideally expected to remain unchanged year after year. The tunes for

other dances, however, are supposed to be composed during the vespers

of the central day of the fiesta. For that occasion, the musicians of the

orchestra, or the brass band, are supposed to collectively compose new

tunes each year the fiesta is celebrated. This composition exercise, how-

ever, takes place within the strict limits of traditional form and style. Col-

lective composition, however, cannot be fulfilled in all the districts, because

the musicians, unlike the dancers, are specialized performers who travel

from village to village, from fiesta to fiesta. It is frequent, therefore, for

instrumental ensembles to take the same tunes from village to village.The music of the fiesta

systemhas

experiencedan intense

processof

musical change since the beginning of the century, the most strikingtransformation process being the incorporation of European instruments.

It could be stated that the few traditional instrumental ensembles that

persist in the fiesta system-ensembles including the harp and the violin,

also European but introduced during the colonial times-will be shortlysubstituted by the ubiquitous orchestra or the brass band. Despite these

foreign adoptions, however, fiesta music has remained attached to musi-

cal regional traditions, and its dynamic and expansive character has

further reinforced these traditions rather than abandoning them. It is inthe fiesta system where the main suggestion of this article appears in its

clearest form, that is, that modernization does not necessarily account

for the disappearance of musical traditions. On the contrary, the adop-tion of external musical influences and the benefits from economic pros-

perity that in turn favored the frequency of the fiesta system have caused

an upsurge of more intense traditional musical activity in the region.

From Ritual to Festival: The Trends of Musical Change

Which are the current trends of musical change in the Mantaro Valley?The process, through which most of the musical traditions reviewed here

have gone, could be illustrated by the following chart inspired by Ar-

guedas' own view of cultural change in the region (Arguedas 1968):

Musical activities at the level of the rural community are mainly of a

ritual character, such as the music of the herranza,of communal labor,




and of specific moments of the life cycle of the peasantry. Music in the

community context is closely linked with daily life and the ceremonial

cycles of community inhabitants. Many of these musical expressions,

however, have been taken out of their original contexts-and in manycases have been deprived of their original meanings-to be inserted within

the fiesta system, which has a regional significance. As such, the fiesta

system serves as an ideal vehicle to disseminate this musical expression

throughout the valley. When processes of migration become intense and

waves of inhabitants flow to urban and mining centers, the most popularmusical expressions of the valley gain access to the record medium. From

then on, the record industry popularizes this musical expression throughthe radio to all regions of the country, giving it national coverage and

commercial success with migrant consumers.

There are many examples that could illustrate this process. The way-

llarsh, for instance, originally an agricultural ritual, began to be drama-

tized and performed during carnival festivities in the valley's towns and

districts. Rapidly gaining vast popularity in the region, it was commer-

cially recorded and then distributed throughout the nation under its

Spanish term: huaylas(Arguedas 1968). Another example is the santiago,a

popularmusical

genrethat has

developedfrom the ritual music of the

herranza.As we have seen, the branding of animals, or herranza,music

is only performed during that ceremony. The ubiquitous orquesta ipicas,

however, are performing herranza unes they have named santiagoswithin

the fiesta system of the valley. Currently, it is not rare to encounter

santiagoson commercial records nationwide. The determinant role of

instrumental ensembles such as the orchestra and the brass band in dis-

seminating and popularizing some ceremonial music previously relevant

only to specific communities cannot be overlooked. Music such as the

palpay (for weddings), for example, or the zafacasa(for the celebration ofthe finishing of a house's roof), which in past decades was celebrated byand within each community, achieves a unique regional style in detri-

ment to local peculiarities once incorporated into the repertoire of the

typical orchestra.

These examples are not, however, the regional musical genres that

the record industry prefers. The most popular are two song genres: the

huaynoand, to a lesser degree, the muliza. The popularity of these song

genres-with the accompaniment of the typical orquestra-in the record

medium is partially explained by their nonritual or nonceremonial char-acter, which allows these genres to be performed in a variety of contexts

and on various occasions.13 While other musical expressions of the valleyare also included on commercial records, they are found with much

less frequency than those previously mentioned (see Romero 1989b).The impact of the record industry on the popularity of the musical



26 : Raul R. Romero

traditions of the Mantaro Valley is probably more important than in anyother Andean region, considering that the first records featuring Andean

music to be produced in Lima were based on music from the Mantaro

Valley (Arguedas 1975:125).When Andean regional genres enter the record industry, they tend

to abandon their original performance styles in favor of a new urban-

oriented style. The urban commercially recorded huayno, for example,features a performance combination never represented in the Mantaro

Valley, that is, a singer and an orquesta ipica. The reason such a com-

bination was never used is that only amplified sound can make possiblethis uneven mixture. Without

amplifiedelectrical

equipmentthe voice

of the singer would be obscured by the saxophones and clarinets of the

orchestra. Other changes in style are also noticeable, such as the vocal

quality of the singer, who tends to soften and temper the characteristic

tense, nasal, and high-pitched singing style of the Andean peasant.But perhaps it is in the realm of musical composition that the forces

of musical change can be more clearly seen. The specialized songwriter

was already institutionalized in the valley as early as 1937, when song-writer Jose Hidalgo published a book of seven hundred mulizas with

Spanish text (Arguedas 1976:204). The passage of the huaynoand themuliza of the Mantaro Valley through the record medium has brought

popularity to socially recognized songwriters such as Tiburcio Mallau-

poma and Zenobio Daga (Romero 1985:268). The latter, despite being

nationally recognized and formally registered in professional songwriters'associations in Lima, still performed in the fiesta system with his orchestra

throughout the Mantaro Valley during the research period for this article.

Implied in the process of musical change in the Mantaro Valley are

two major events that symbolize central attitudes toward that change.

The surge of the festival and the contest (concurso)symbolizes the accep-tance of urban values such as individualism over collectivism and reci-

procity. If it is true that competitiveness has been an essential trait in

Andean culture (Montoya 1987), the modern concurso s guided by dif-

ferent criteria than traditional Andean competitions. The purpose of

traditional Andean competition was to encourage social productivity and

social solidarity (Montoya 1987:11). Traditional competition in the

Mantaro Valley in the case of communal labor, for example, consisted

of a ceremonial labor day that culminated in the election of the best

worker, he who had worked the land faster and better. The ultimategoal was to make workers increase social productivity for the benefit of

the community. The concurso,on the contrary, focuses on external and

formal elements. Dances and rituals are taken out of context to competein the urban theater or stadium, and competition is based solely on for-

mal and ornamental criteria (best dress, best dance, best performance).




The festival, on the other hand, is a public performance in which

several musical and dance groups perform from a stage in front of an

audience. Although no prize is at stake in the festival, there is a com-

petition among performers for applause and audience recognition. Both

the contest and the festival are musical events in which the musical or

dance group is separated from its original contexts. Music and dance

abandon their original contexts to achieve lives of their own, and in this

context they compete for supremacy. Both phenomena are the effects

of the urban world upon traditional music.

In the Mantaro Valley the concursoand, to a lesser degree, the festival

are widely spread throughout the rural districts. Festivals are not too

frequent because they generally require a larger organization. This is

because while a concursocan be held within the community, a festival

generally involves neighboring towns. Even in the fiesta system there

are small-scale contests at specific moments in which a jury of selected

personalities chooses the best musical and dance group. Modernity pene-trates the rural musical life through the concurso nd the festival, frequently

determining formal and stylistic changes. In the case of the huaylas, for

example, one of the principal reasons for this dance's regional and na-

tionalpopularity

was thefrequency

of the concursodehuaylas,

which mo-

tivated the massive preference for the genre.The most recent musical encounter between modernity and tradition in

the Mantaro Valley is a new musical expression associated with younger

generations: the so-called chicha music. A blend between the Andean

huaynoand the cumbia from Colombia, performed by electric guitars,electric organ, and Latin percussion, chichamusic emerged as one of the

most popular musical genres in the nation in the late 1960s. Much has

been written about the manifestations of chichamusic in the national

capital in recent years (see bibliography in Romero 1988). What is rele-vant to mention here, however, is that chicha music in the Mantaro Val-

ley has achieved since its beginnings an unexpected popularity. The

usual performance context of chichamusic in the Mantaro Valley is the

baile social (social dance) in a public building, a dance which requires paidadmission and which is almost exclusively attended by young single men

and women. Most of these social dances occur at night during the re-

gional fiestas.

The case of the town of Paccha, which I have extensively treated else-

where (Romero 1989a), reveals some interesting aspects regarding howyoung participants in chicha social dances relate their preferences for

chicha dances to traditional culture. In Paccha the single young men and

women would differentiate themselves from the rest of the communitywhen attending the bailes at night, whereas during the daytime theywould participate in the traditional fiesta with the entire community.



28 : Raul R. Romero

However, the young informants said that they preferred chicha instead

of fiesta music because the traditional fiesta system would burden them

with the cargo system, the obligation of reciprocity expenses, the rigid

regime of an annual calendar, and the dance-dramas that did not permitfree interaction with the opposite sex. Conversely, chicha music functioned

as a courting ritual, did not demand heavy expenses, and could be en-

joyed at any period of the year.14

A most important factor regarding the attitude of the young toward

chichamusic is that it represents a regional and national style, domains

which the young inhabitant of Paccha, and of the valley at large, wants

toidentify

with.Conversely,

the fiestasystem represents only regionaltraditions. Despite the explicit preference by the younger generation

for chicha music instead of the other musical traditions, it was observed

that, in reality, the young did participate in the fiesta, even as masked

dancers. All of the interviewed participants in the bailes socialeshad, at

one time or another, joined in traditional dance-dramas. Hence, rather

than being a departure from regional traditions, chichamusic appearsas a result of the need to change without completely abandoning tradi-

tional roots. The musical form and style of chichamusic tend to confirm

this notion: it is basically an Andean huaynowith a rhythmic structureborrowed from the Colombian cumbiaand with electronic instruments.

In that sense, chicha music appears as a similar response to modernity as

the one represented by the emergence of the orchestra and the brass

band in the valley. They were the results of processes of musical change,without abandoning completely musical regional traditions.

Summary and Conclusions

The main goal of this essay has been to show that the encounter in the

central Andes of Peru between capitalism-with its derivative processof modernization, urbanization, and migration-and traditional musical

culture has not necessarily been fatal for the latter. The case study pre-sented here has permitted us to show how the peasantry of a specificAndean area can experience a strong process of insertion into the na-

tional market economy without abandoning their links with the land,the village, and their cultural-musical heritage.

The responses of the inhabitants of the Mantaro Valley to such aprocess, however, are not homogenous. The ways in which the musical

traditions react to external influences are diverse and varied. Music for

the different types of communal labor in the valley has resisted change,but in so doing it has closed itself to new options of existence. Consider-

ing the impact of social and cultural change upon the valley's peasantry,




such a contention could be seen as an announced declaration of a cultural

death. In fact, the process of disappearance of communal labor music

in the valley is almost completed. This musical tradition is not being

replaced by any other, nor is it evolving into a new musical style.The case of mestizo orchestras and brass bands in the valley, however,

shows that change can be a defense rather than a disadvantage for the

continuity of a musical tradition. In incorporating foreign instruments

and constantly re-creating their repertoires, both regional ensembles

have been permeable to the new expectations of the valley's peasantry.Further expressions of the permeability of a musical style have recently

developed in musical styles such as the commercially recorded Andean

song genres and chichamusic. These styles, ultimately based on recog-nizable traditional musical elements of the region, represent the capacityof the valley's musicians to go beyond the strategy of mere adaptability,to evolve into new musical styles in completely new, different, and even

hostile contexts-the capital city and the record industry.At this point, it would be rather easy to deduce that the main trend

in Andean musical culture is that ancient traditions incapable of changeare likely to disappear while more dynamic and open musical expressionswill achieve

continuity.In the Mantaro

Valley, however,the case of

ritual herranzamusic would defy this interpretation. This expression has

resisted change and not only merely survives but is one of the most ubi-

quitous and powerful traditions in the Mantaro Valley.The issue of musical change and continuity in the Andes, therefore,

is far more complex than the average belief in modernity would lead us

to think. Why is ritual herranzamusic still performed in the valley while

communal labor music is on the verge of disappearance? In previous

sections, I mentioned some material factors that could partially provide

answers to this question. Livestock in the valley is an important eco-nomic resource second only to agriculture. Would this explain its rituali-

zation and the permanence of its musical counterpart? In many regionsof the Peruvian Andes livestock raising is also a fundamental activitybut no ritual branding of animals exists. Further, the introduction of

mechanical means for agricultural labor and the disappearance of com-

munal lands in the lower valley are obvious facts in the Mantaro Valley.

Why then has communal labor, and its musical repertoire, vanished

from villages where the tractors cannot enter and communal lands still

exist?It may be concluded that material factors cannot explain by them-

selves the complex processes of musical change in the Peruvian central

Andes. An exploration into the processes ruling the aesthetic, cultural,and musical choices of an individual will provide the ethnomusicologistwith the necessary analytical tools to decipher why modernity may coexist



30 : Raul R. Romero

with tradition in a specific region: that is to say, why and how a peasantfrom the Mantaro

Valley maybe able to

participate alternativelyin a

traditional branding ritual, wear a costume and a mask in the dance-

dramas of the fiesta cycle of his native village, and attend a chichamusic

social dance. It might also be possible, then, to explain why and how

particular musical expressions are dismissed while others are kept within

a context of constant transformations and changes.

Notes

1. These levels of musical change do not necessarily need to correspondwith those suggested by Nettl, who has distinguished the following

degrees of musical change: "substitution of one system of music for

another; radical change of a system; gradual, normal change; and

allowable variation" (1983:178). The purpose of this article is to

present a culture-specific account and not to generalize on a wider

scale on the possibilities and alternatives of musical change.2. Field research for this article was conducted in the Mantaro Valley

during the year 1985 with the support of the Ford Foundation as

part of a larger musical documentation and preservation projectundertaken by the Catholic University of Peru, Instituto Riva-Agfiero.Fieldwork activities were undertaken jointly by the author and byManuel Raez Retamozo, whose help and outstanding initiative dur-

ing that time I gratefully acknowledge. I would also like to thank

Zoila Mendoza and Grady Hillman for their helpful comments on

the article. A total of eighty hours of field recordings were obtainedduring research, all of which are deposited at the Archive of Tradi-tional Andean Music of the Catholic University of Peru, Instituto

Riva-Agiiero.3. Arguedas (1957) emphasizes the lack of the haciendasystem (large

landholdings or estates) in the valley as the principal historical factorfor the unique situation of the peasantry in the Mantaro Valley.

According to Arguedas, this absence is explained by the early al-

liance between the huancas(the local ethnic group that inhabited the

valley) and the Spanish conquerors. The huancasdesired to free them-selves from Inca rule and to recover their regional power. In return,

they were allowed by the victorious Spaniards to maintain their landunder a privileged status. Mallon, however, states that another ex-

planation for the absence of the haciendasystem is the ecology of the




area, that is, that the valley lands were not easily adaptable to the

extensive agricultural methods of the great state (1983:39).4. A second although less fundamental element of differentiation within

the valley's peasantry is the opposition between the two main re-

gional development poles in the valley: Huancayo and Jauja. This

opposition can be seen only through certain forms of artistic mani-

festations, such as dance. Not one single dance from the numerous

ones existing in the valley is shared by both poles. Each provincehas its own dances that it does not share with the other. This oppo-

sition, however, cannot be seen in any other musical, cultural, social,

or economic form. Atleast

it hasnot been documented to date.

Consequently, references to that opposition in this article will not be

necessarily addressed.

5. This description of the kintu was given to us by Paulino Porta of the

district of Huancan near Huancayo during a branding ceremony.6. Marcelino Garcia Palomino, Historia de la Herranza. Huancayo. Un-

published essay.7. Musical performance usually begins with the opening of the violin

upon which the wakrapukus uggest the melody of the song, empha-

sizing their main harmonic sounds: the tonic and the fifth. Whentwo wakrapukusare used-"cacho primero" and "cacho segundo"-

they usually play in intervals of thirds. For that reason, a pair of

instruments are always chosen accordingly. Not always, however,can the horn-trumpets be tuned with the violin. In two of the four

cases analyzed, the wakrapukusplayed in a different key from that

of the violin and the singer. This unevenness was also observed in

the community of Masmachicche, where different pairs of wakrapukuswere participating. Each pair would perform alternatively the main

melody, but each pair would render it in a different pitch. The pitchof the wakrapukudepends on the number and sizes of the horns uti-

lized, which determine the overall length and width of the instru-

ment. Being a specialized instrument and hard to find, it is possiblethat the chosen pair would not necessarily coincide in general tuning.

8. See Quijada Jara 1957 for an anthology of song texts from the herranza

ritual.

9. The ubiquitous huaynois one of the most diffused song and dance

genres in the Peruvian Andes. It is a two-part form (AB) in duple

meter, generally followed by a relatively faster closing section called

fuga or gawachan. The muliza is a lyrical song and dance genre from

the Peruvian central Andes (department of Junin and Cerro de Pasco)

that, like the huayno, is in duple meter and consists of two musical

phrases (AB). After two or three stanzas, however, a third phrase



32 : Raul R. Romero

is introduced immediately after which appears afuga de huaynoas a

closing section. One of the most distinctivedifferences between both

genres is that while the basic accompanimental pattern of the huaynoconsists in an eighth- and two sixteenths-note figure, the basic rhyth-mic pattern of the muliza is a regular pulse in eighth-notes.

10. The demand for educational opportunities in music in the regionhas been such that the Peruvian government decided in 1963 to

establish a regional base of the National School of Music in the dis-

trict of Acolla. The curricula of the school was rapidly adapted to

the specific needs of the region. The local authorities established

that, in the "musical ensemble" course, the orquesta ipica and thebandawould be included side by side with Western choruses and

camera orchestras. In 1985 the school, which was locally built thanks

to communal labor, had 140 students from Acolla and several dis-

tricts of the Mantaro Valley.11. It should be mentioned, however, that there are other instrumental

ensembles that appear in the fiesta system, as musical accompani-ment to the dance-drama. However rare in appearance, ensembles

featuring the harp and violin and the pincullo are still found in a few

cases. In dances such as corcovados nd chacranegros, arp and violinensembles do appear. In some Christmas dances such as the huayljz'a,the pincullos are added to the orchestra. In the carnavalmarquefothe

wakrapuku s added to the typical orchestra. See Romero (1986) for

a complete listing of these rare but still existent appearances.12. A complete report of the complex universe of the dance-drama in

the Mantaro Valley should be the topic of a future publication. Here,I limit myself to present a brief synthesis of the more general aspectsof dance-dramas in the valley.

13. Most of the musical expressions of the Mantaro Valley are linkedwith a specific context and cannot be performed outside this context.

But there are musical genres that are free of any fixed contextual

constraints, such as the already mentioned huaynoand muliza. A

classification of genres and musical forms in the Peruvian Andes,

also applicable to the Mantaro Valley, can be found in Romero

1989c.

14. Only in the rural districts are the chicha social dances organized dur-

ing fiestas. In Huancayo and Jauja, the two most important urban

centers of the valley, the social dances mostly occur during the week-

ends and holidays.




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Musical Change and Cultural Resistance in the Central Andes of Peru

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