August 24. Back to school! Teaching traditional music, educational offer by Muziekpublique & + #74

August 24. Back to school! Teaching traditional music, educational offer by Muziekpublique & + #74

Summary 👇 

🔸Editorial. Back to school!

🔸The educational offer by Muziekpublique, with Marie Devlieger, coordinator of the academy and Peter Van Rompaey, artistic director

🔸Juan Antonio Vázquez brings his Mil Mundos to Radio 5 – National Radio of Spain

🔸European Folk Network annual conference: the complete program

🔸Brief news from the media, charts and sister projects 

🔸Open calls: European Folk Day update, Afro Pepites

🔸Discover the first moving images of Spanish dance: espefically, jota

🔸Meet me at ✈️ 

➡️ This is the link for subscription

 

Hello, how are you?

I hope well. I am very well. This picture is from Thursday 22nd of August in Plasencia, on the occasion of the concert by Vigüela in Folk Plasencia. And he is Wafir Shaikheldin, musician from Sudan, settled in Spain for more than half of his life.

I have explained on several occasions that the first concert sold under the brand of Mapamundi Música was by Cherno More, the trio with the brothers Nasco and Ivo Hristov and Wafir. We haven’t met in person since before the pandemic. Wafir performed with Tamar Ilana & Ventanas. It was really nice to see him again.

Back to school! Learning the traditional music

And back to the topic of the subject. I talked with Peter Van Rompaey before. There is an extensive interview with him in this previous edition. The last weeks I started to see their posts about the educational offer of music and dance from Muziekpublique. Peter and his team have all my admiration, and I wanted to learn more about their educational approach. Below, you’ll find their statements on the subject.

A couple of weeks ago, Juan Antonio Torres from Vigüela was telling me about a very special experience in Almería with Antonio Mirón, who teaches in the villages around his house, which is here. Mirón is a farmer, plays and sings, and also makes instruments. He doesn’t live in the town itself, but in the “rambla” of Oria. The “ramblas” are dry riverbeds, paths formed by water when it rains, which is rare there. Normally, these ramblas are used as roads, and communication between localities often takes place along these ramblas, beyond the small formal roads. I invite you to take a look on Google Maps and use Street View. For example, here you can cross the locality of Los Cerricos. This is more or less the center of the locality:


Juan Antonio told me how he accompanied Mirón through ramblas to teach traditional music to children in several villages, and how in some of them there isn’t even a formal classroom. They hold the class in the village square. In Los Cerricos, an old lady from the village went to dance during the lessons.

Almería is known for its tourist spots on the coast, but the interior is rugged and dry. Every milliliter of water is used to grow vegetables in the orchards. Mirón explained to me that their area is like an oasis because it is irrigated; there is water for irrigation, but the surrounding environment is almost desert-like. The use of water in Spain has a history spanning millennia, just like traditional music and the rituals often associated with it. In this region, around Murcia, southern Albacete, and Almería, traditional music has a significant ritualistic connection, with pre-Christian origins that were later instrumentaliced by the church. I believe this is a process that has happened in many other places.

This is Mirón’s cover picture of his Facebook profile. I met him on the occasion of a dance workshop so here he is how I met him: dancing. 

I met Mirón in Riopar, on February of 2020. Yes, shortly before the pandemic. I never forgot a phrase from him: “Now they form cuadrillas that have no ritual”. The cuadrillas are groups of people who join to play and sing. In the tradition, the cuadrillas are connected to a ritual. Mainly around Christmas. He explains that there are cuadrillas that just play one mass in the year. Nothing else. That mass is the purpose of the cuadrilla. In the tradition, the cuadrillas were connected to ritualistic events, not to make concerts on the stage. Mirón is not a religious person. All this is not about religion.

Mirón has explained to me that he teaches in 6 locations of 4 different municipalities. Some of the local governments support economically all the cost, others support it partly. Mirón makes this to transmit the tradition to the newest generations. He has students even from 5 years old. He explained to me that there is a huge generation, who are now around 60 years old, who haven’t experienced the tradition, and it is meaningless for them. Nevertheless, he is managing to keep these groups of pupils.

About the rituals related to music and about Antonio Mirón, I found this video. If you don’t speak Spanish you won’t understand much. Antonio is the man in green. They are holding a bidding to see who will pay the most to open the dance. Whoever wins the bid gets to choose what dance will be performed. At 2:24, the music and dancing begin. This is not a show. It is a social event. On this occasion they made it with play money but this ritual is still done with real money in some places. The money that is collected was traditionally a donation for the religious brotherhood, but nowadays they give the money to charitable causes as the group deems appropriate. The video is from the Youtube channel of Manuel Sánchez Martínez, which is very recommendable.

A few months ago, I learned that Codarts, the renowned Rotterdam school known for its world music programs, might close its world music department. In April, they announced a redesign of their world music offerings, as detailed on their website of Codarts News. In recent years, they have been offering training in Latin, Turkish Music, and Argentine Tango. Previously, they also provided training in flamenco and Indian music, among other genres. However, in the upcoming academic year, they will not be accepting new students for any of these specializations.

A few weeks ago, I discussed with a musician from outside Europe the rationale behind studying the music of her homeland in Rotterdam rather than in her own country, where there are likely more masters of the tradition. She explained that, for an musician of her origin, coming to study in Europe opens many doors for her professional future. My question then was: What sense would it make for an European musician to study flamenco in Rotterdam instead of, for example, in Jerez de la Frontera?

What is the process of teaching a traditional musical style in a place like Codarts? I don’t know. What I do know is that learning in the traditional way takes years if you haven’t grown up with it. Even if you have grown up with it, it still takes years, but it develops more naturally—though excellence cannot be achieved without great dedication.

In any case, I believe there is interest in learning this music… I’m not sure what to call it. Folk? Juan Antonio from Vigüela has been offering themed workshops, and over the past few months, he has repeatedly worked with groups that already had a prior interest, as they are amateur ensembles with a strong desire to learn. His approach to music is the closest to tradition that you can imagine. During the years, he has developed his own methodology and terminology to be able to teach the musicians who join the band.

On the other hand, the Escuela de Música Creativa, a higher education institution, is offering an Official Master’s Degree in Folklore Performance of the Iberian Peninsula. However, I would change the word “Folklore” to “Folk.” I understand the concept of “folk” as more urban and with an artistic goal in itself. Folklore, at least in Spain, doesn’t have as much of an artistic purpose but rather serves as a means of social articulation. Many of the instructors of this Master’s Degree come from the music industry rather than from traditional music or folklore and their musical language is the one of the modern music, not the one from the traditional music.

To complicate matters further, Juan Antonio from Vigüela explains that the way we hear music is biased by the music we listen to all the time, which is created from a rhythmic perspective. I have witnessed for more than 10 years the process of learning a new interpretive language—the language of traditional music (different from that of academic music)—that the group has gone through once they realized this. So, is it possible and realistic to learn traditional music then? I don’t think I have the answer. What I do know is that, despite the difficulty, music captivates, generates passion, and many people are not content just consuming it. They want to be part of the performance, even though many of them have no intention of becoming professionals.

Going back to Muziekpublique’s offerings, I think it’s wonderful that they have 53 disciplines and have students for all or almost all of them. Oops, that’s a bit of a spoiler for what Peter Van Rompaey shares below. I won’t go on any longer and I’ll let you hear from him.

Remember: if you have any news of interest for our community, let me know. Thank you very much for your attention. Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi Música | +34 676 30 28 82 

 

THE EDUCATIONAL OFFER BY MUZIEKPUBLIQUE

With Marie Devlieger, coordinator of the academy and Peter Van Rompaey, artistic director of Muziekpublique

Muziekpublique is a not-for-profit association which keeps music and dance traditions alive and kicking in Brussels through an ambitious programme of concerts, courses, and projects. They organice concerts in the Molière Theatre and several festivals in Brussels, they release albums, they make bookings for artists to perform all over the world and they have a huge educational offer of music and dance. 

They are undoubtedly one of the leading references in Europe when it comes to promoting musical diversity. As I mentioned earlier, I did an extensive interview with Peter Van Rompaey a couple of years ago (it is here). Now, we focus on discussing their educational offerings, also with Marie Devlieger, the coordinator.

MM: If I counted well, you are offering 53 different courses of dance and music. Do you have students for all of these!?

MP: We do indeed have 53 different dance and music lessons. With this we try to be complementary to the existing range of music lessons in Belgium, which is mainly focused on classical music, and to a lesser extent also on jazz.

For some very specific instruments it is not easy to have many students. The instruments are not very well known to the general public and it is difficult to get an instrument. That is why we do very targeted promotion to target groups from the different communities that Brussels and by extension Belgium is rich in. You should know that Brussels is the second most diverse city in the world, after Dubai where 84 percent of the population was born outside the borders. Brussels has 184 different nationalities, out of 193 member states that the UN recognizes. For example, we promote the tar and setar lessons to the Iranian community or, in addition to the general public, we target the community from North Africa or the Middle East for the qanun lessons, and West Africa for the kora or n’goni.

But even with this targeted promotion, it sometimes happens that we do not find enough students to continue the lessons, although this is rather exceptional.

MM: How many students will you have for 2024-25?

MP: Registrations are still ongoing. So it is difficult to say how many students will be taking classes in 2024-2025. Last year, about 750 students took classes. In recent years, the number of students has been increasing every year. In 2022-2023, we had just over 650 students. We hope that this evolution will continue this year.

MM: Do your students have any kind or kinds of profiles or anything in common between them? I think that if a school offered so many topics here in Spain, only a 10% would have students enough, so I wonder if the citizens of Brussels have something special. 

MP: As we said, Brussels is a very international city. Furthermore, Muziekpublique has a special profile because, in addition to the academy, we are also a concert organizer, with 80 to 100 concerts per year and also a few festivals plus label and management of artists such as Tamala, Las Lloronas, Toasaves, Jawa, Peixe e Limao,… Thanks to our other activities, the academy is becoming better known and that also works the other way around. Thanks to the academy, we attract an audience for our concerts. We are also seen in Belgium as a quality label for traditional music. We are particularly proud of the level of the artists who teach with us. It is therefore no coincidence that a lot of the teachers can also be found on our label.

MM: This educational offer seems to be very demanding in terms of administration and coordination and of course, there must be much cost. How do you guys manage to organise all these and how is the financing structure?

MP: We get a small base funding for the organization, which pays for overheads like rent, promotion and coordination. The rest of the funding comes from registration fees.

MM: Finally, share an insight for the readers about which is or are the benefits of getting into traditional styles of music or instruments, even if they don’t have the purpose of becoming professional artists.

MP: Our academy is not necessarily aimed at students who want to become professional musicians, although there are always a number of students who became professional musicans. For example, our teachers of body percussion, East-West Ensemble, qanun and diatonic accordion used to take lessons with us and some other teachers are both teachers and students at the same time. There are also artists at the label who were once students.

The entire philosophy of the academy ties in with our name, Muziekpublique. We try to create a direct link between the music (musicians) and the audience. If you learn to play an instrument from a certain culture, you get much more than just the music. It is simply a privilege to receive lessons from such artists, who give you a vision of life, countless experiences, a unique view of their culture, etc. Moreover, you gain much more insight into musical traditions and instruments. For example, our duduk students from Vardan Hovanissian listen to Armenian music in a different way than non-students. The academy is also a way for us to create an audience for our concerts. Finally, we give work to artists who cannot find work in regular education. It is not easy to make a living as an artist from concerts alone. Teaching provides an additional income and you also create a bit of a fan base. The students are the best ambassadors of their teacher.

These pictures, by Jean-Jacques Saive, are of the end of Season Festival, the festival of the classes

Thank you very much, Marie and Peter!! All the best for the new academic year! 

NEW SPACE FOR THE DISSEMINATION OF WORLD MUSICS

Juan Antonio Vázquez Brings His Mil Mundos to Radio 5 – National Radio of Spain

 Juan Antonio has been doing Mil Mundos (A Thousand Worlds) on Radio Clásica, the classical music channel of the national radio of Spain already for three seasons and he will start again in October. You can check all the previous editions, here.

The news are that Mil Mundos stays in Radio Clásica and that a new small show will have place on another channel: Radio 5, the channel dedicated to news and general information. There will be two weekly editions where Juan Antonio will have a window to the general public.

This is the description of the new show:

“Mil mundos that aren’t a thousand, because they are countless. An invitation to discover and enjoy the music of the world’s cultures. The roots and the new territories to be explored, created by the most restless and authentic musicians. A sister program to Mil Mundos on Radio Clásica.”

 

EUROPEAN FOLK NETWORK ANNUAL CONFERENCE

The complete program

I already talked about this in the previous editions. Now you can check the complete program and the registration’s deadline is Monday 9 September at 17.00 CET.

I am very excited about this. Some of the panelists have been interviewed here. For instance, Alan Ibrahim, from Music for Identity (interview here); Birgit Ellinghaus (interview here).

Check all the details, here.

 

BRIEF NEWS FROM THE MEDIA, CHARTS AND SISTER PROJECTS

  • Mundofonías: we have been on holidays during August, so no favourites this month. 

 

OPEN CALLS 

This section is open for news. It is free of charge. You can let me know if you have any open call of relevance to the community.

  • European Folk Day again in 2024! Already present in the newsletter before + update

Right now there are 62 events registered in 11 countries already on the website of the European Folk Day. The participation is open to anyone, like in the first edition. There are many ideas on how to participate, on the website.

And the Music Repository is been developed again for this 2024 edition. To submit the music, the artists or label can send a song or tune in mp3 to media@europeanfolkday.eu. Tell them your name, where the piece is from and a statement that you have the rights and you allow them to share it on the website www.europeanfolkday.eu

 

The 14th casting of the Afro Pepites Show (The Trade Show) is open until 30 Sept. 2024! The registration process is here. It is a call for many kinds of arts, not just music. “The casting is open to all artists (musicians, painters, dancers, photographers, fashion-designers, sculptors, story-tellers, humorists, poets, directors of short movies and actors of solidary-based actions), who are from Africa, the Caribbean, Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba, etc. and to all artists inspired by Africa.”

The 3 selected projects (The Pepites) will be integrated into their platform and will benefit from support in communication and possibly in management.

THIS EVENING…

Discover the first moving images of Spanish dance: spefically, jota

According to Tina Paterson in this post on X (https://x.com/latinapaterson/status/1825888162083696668) , “Alexandre Jean Louis Promio (Lyon, 1868-1927), the pioneering cameraman for the Lumière brothers, recorded the first moving images of Spanish dance in history. It happened in Vicálvaro (Madrid) between June 12th and 22nd, 1896, while filming views of military maneuvers.”

Whether or not maneuvers took place, what we do know is that they performed some jotas. Today, Wednesday, September 28th, Vigüela will perform in Vicálvaro, 128 years later. The jota will be played, and if you wish, danced! We hope to see you there!

I made this symple edition of the video and it has already 64 thousands of visualizations and more than 300 sharings.

Thanks to Tina for spreading this and to Juan Antonio Vázquez for showing it to me.

Click to watch it:

MEET ME AT

If you happen to attend these events, drop me a line. They are international events to which some of the readers may attend. If you are not, they can be interesting for you too in any case.

  • 24-25 September: Kaustinen. Finland. Annual meeting of the European Folk Network.
  • 10-13 October, Fira Mediterrània de Manresa.
  • 23-27 October: WOMEX in Manchester (UK).
  • 19-22 November: Mundial Montreal (Canada).

WHO WE ARE AND SISTER PROJECTS 

Mapamundi Música is an agency of management and booking. Learn more here. Check our proposals at our website.

We also offer you our Mundofonías radio show, probably the leader about world music in Spanish language (on 50 stations in 18 countries). We produce the Transglobal World Music Chart with our partner Ángel Romero from WorldMusicCentral.com.

Feel free to request info if you wish. For further information about us, get in touch by email, telephone (+34 676 30 28 82), our website or at our Facebook.