Tag Archives: identity

The Quinceañera Tradition and its Latinx Identity in Music

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Quinceanera Father-Daughter Dances That'll Make You Cry

Quinceañeras have been a part of the Latinx tradition in celebrating the coming of age of typically, a young woman. However, more recently they have been used to celebrate the coming of age of young men as well. Celebrations for the coming of age of youth is not only designated to the Latinx community. In America and Canada we often see a take on the Quinceañera through the celebration of a sweet sixteen, and the bat mitzvah ceremony to celebrate the coming of age of 12 -13 year old youth is big in the Jewish community.

Knowing this, a key motif in a Quinceañera is the father daughter dance, where they often dance to Los Baron “La Ultima Muñeca” and “Ya No Crescas Mas” by Tercer Cielo as a symbol of the last doll that the father will give their daughter before becoming a woman.

Gradually, Quinceañeras have become more progressive by being inclusive of all genders including those who identify as nonbinary or queer. Something that remains the same in Latinx Quinceañeras is the type of music played to dance. From bachata, merengue, cumbia, salsa, norteñas, corridos, etc. Depending on what region of Latin America the family is based from determines the customs and music they choose to use.

At my Quinceañera, I wore the dress that my Grandmother chose for my Mother to wear at her Quinceañera. It was a vintage blush pink dress that my Mother passed down to me. This was very special because my Grandmother had it custom made for my Mother and it held sentimental value. One day I hope to pass it down to my daughter. The theme for my Quinceañera was Faith, Family, and Friends, which was also the same theme that my younger Brother had and which we plan my youngest Brother will also have when he turns 15. In some ways, we created our own traditions by celebrating all of my siblings and not only the girls, as well as dancing with each of our parents what would otherwise be known as the father daughter dance.

In some ways traditions can be maintained by making the overarching theme of the celebration of coming of age of the youth. Families choose the music based on their background and geographic ties as well as their upbringing. Though they can draw ties from Indigenous activities as is mentioned in the article below.

“In the early 15th century, before Spaniards invaded and colonized Latin America, Indigenous groups held ceremonies that commemorated the coming of age of both boys and girls" <1>

"Davalos, Karen Mary. 2021. “Quinceañera Style: Social Belonging and Latinx Consumer Identities.” Journal of American Folklore 134 (533): 355–57. https://doi.org/10.5406/jamerfolk.134.533.0355"<2>.
"Deiter, Kristen. 2002. “From Church Blessing to Quinceanera Barbie: America as ‘Spiritual Benefactor’ on La Quinceanera.” Christian Scholar’s Review 32 (1): 31–"<3>.
"Risling Baldy, Cutcha. 2018. We Are Dancing for You : Native Feminisms and the Revitalization of Women’s Coming-of-Age Ceremonies. Seattle: University of Washington Press" <4>.

How Posters Communicate Musical Identity

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Musicians’ public reception begins before they play a single note. The advertisements for their performances preview who they are and what kind of music they make. I was captivated by a poster for a Fisk Jubilee Singers concert between 1910 and 1950, designed by Winold Reiss. The artwork offers insight into who they were performing for and what themes the performance might have had.

Winold Reiss, “[Graphic Design for Fisk Jubilee Singers.] [Concert Poster with Harp and Mask Motif],” still image, last modified 1910, accessed October 4, 2021, https://www.loc.gov/pictures/ resource/ppmsca.64409.

Before I sought recordings from the performance, I researched Winold Reiss, the poster’s creator. Reiss immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1913, three years after the earliest possible date this advertisement was published.1
While the Library of Congress lists 1910 as the earliest potential date of publication, the fact that Reiss had not yet moved to America makes this improbable. Still, he was devoted to non-white subjects, known for his portraits of the Blackfoot and Blood Indians of Canada and the northwestern United States. The Reiss Partnership summarizes the perspective he brought to his art, stating that,

“His idealism challenges the notion that as Americans we are anything less than “us,” a totality that includes rather than excludes.”2

To be clear, Reiss should not be seen as a sort of white savior just for making art that centers Black and Indigenous folks. However, his idea of creating an inclusive American identity mirrors the Fisk Jubilee Singers’ history, and later, this poster.

Continue reading →

Humanizing Narratives of Incan Musical Practices

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We understand music through the lens of our identity and lived experiences. Musical narratives differ, and the predominantly-known history of music is written by those whose identities hold power by associating their idea of musical skill with the self.

I thought of Neil Rosenberg’s book on the development of bluegrass, which focused on the impact of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys. 1 Rhiannon Giddens offers a more holistic perspective and insists that bluegrass is a blend of African, European, and Native traditions. 2

Musical histories like these are even harder to uncover when their records are further removed from the present and written by colonizers. One of those histories is that of the pre-Columbian Incan Empire in present-day “Peru.”  Continue reading →

A Copland in Paris finds American sound

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I grew up on a farm. I have a recognizable Minnesota accent. I only call it “duck duck grey duck.”

These are not things I would have described as distinctive about myself as I was growing up. This is because I was surrounded by it. I felt no need to assert it as part of my identity – everyone around me also possessed these factors of identity. However, when I came to St. Olaf, a school where I am often surrounded by students from Oregon, New Jersey, Texas, and even other countries, my friends and peers informed me just how identifying these things about me are. I went to a place where I was no longer surrounded by people from my same background, and people pointed out things about me that made me distinctive to them. That made me all the more aware of my identity.

Similarly, in post-WWI America, Copland found himself studying in a new place entirely surrounded by something different: Paris. He grew up in New York at the turn of the century, the son of Russian immigrants, and he was thoroughly surrounded by the American soundscape. When he arrived in Paris, excited and determined to learn and make a living, he began working with Nadia Boulanger, respected and revered composer at the time.

Image result for Aaron Copland nadia boulanger

Unlike Virgil Thomson, who pursued American music sound after being rejected from the Parisian music scene (saying it would be better to try and cultivate American sound than try to even break into the European scene), Copland turned to the American sound at the strong encouragement of his teacher, Nadia Boulanger.

One of the other students working in this class, Brandon Cash, also posted on this topic in 2015. Cash successfully outlines the strong relationship between Boulanger and Copland, especially highlighting the doors she opened for him in meeting other composers.

Compositionally, too, Boulanger’s abstract approach to jazz, which removed it from its cultural context and saw it as a purely compositional force, carried on into Copland’s work.

Image result for Aaron Copland nadia boulanger

Source: Library of Congress

However, it is important to understand her importance in Copland’s development not as a middle woman between him and Stravinsky, for example, but as a valuable contributor in her own right. She encouraged him to define his American sound – otherwise he would crash and burn. Her blunt, heavily honest advice drove him to really define what he was trying to achieve in creating “American” music. Most importantly, she helped him realize that he had a unique identity in being American and having American sound, so he needed to focus and cultivate that. Like me, he didn’t realize he had certain distinctive aspects of his identity until he was in an entirely different place and someone else told him.

It is ironic that the vessel through which he found his American sound is in a Western European country. However, this is not surprising, given that the outside view of American music can give valuable insight just as the view from within. Boulanger did, indeed, encourage him to listen to other composers’ works, and after he heard Milhaud, Stravinsky, Ravel, and Debussy dabble in Jazz, he incorporated it into several of his works. These include Rondino, Symphony for Organ and Orchestra, Music for the Theater, Dance Symphony, and Piano Concerto.

Below, these letters show Copland’s excitement at being in Paris and finding success and his correspondence with Nadia Boulanger.

Letter from Nadia Boulanger to Aaron Copland

Letter from Copland to Boulanger

Letter from Copland to his parents detailing his excitement at selling his first two compositions in Paris

Carole Jean Harris, “The French connection: The neoclassical influence of Stravinsky, through Boulanger, on the music of Copland, Talma and Piston.” State University of New York at Buffalo, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2002.

Annegret Fauser, “Aaron Copland, Nadia Boulanger, and the Making of an “American” Composer.” The Musical Quarterly, Volume 89, Issue 4, 1 December 2006, Pages 524–554.