Mexico’s Día de los
Muertos holiday is a family focused celebration honoring ancestors and
inviting them back to this world. The members of the University of
Delaware’s campus community honored cultural and artistic ancestors with
the multidisciplinary Chicana Art Song Project performance at Bayard
Sharp Hall.
Noël Archambeault, an associate professor in the School of Music, began the evening in early November by reading UD’s Living Land Acknowledgement:
a statement recognizing that the University occupies land originally
populated by Lenni-Lenape and Nanticoke nations. “The recognition of
this is especially poignant with our own program this evening as it is a
response to decolonizing traditional music and giving a more accurate
representation of cultural history,” Archambeault said.
The impact of European colonization resonates with Archambeault. A
native Texan of Mexican heritage, Archambeault said that as a voice
student she was given songs from the Classical repertoire from Spain,
and even Sephardic songs in a Spanish-Judeo language. The language was
so different from the Spanish that Archambeault and her family knew that
family members couldn’t understand her Spanish-language sets at
recitals. When she finished her doctorate in musical arts, Archambeault
asked herself, “Okay, what is it that you, me, Noel, would like to do
with this? What is meaningful to me? And it didn’t exist … so I began to
dream of a fusion of my training and upbringing to sort of satisfy both
worlds.”
The Chicana Art Song Project began as an effort to create that fusion
and to tell stories that have been neglected and omitted by traditional
Classical music, bringing voice to female Mexican American, also known
as Chicana, artists and initiating a new genre of Classical vocal art
song for future artists to explore. The musical style is a fusion as
well, bringing elements from Mexican musical traditions, like cumbia,
mariachi, ranchera and Tejano styles, to Classical art song form, a
Western style that typically features a single voice with piano
accompaniment and is often a poem or other text set to music. Many of
the songs in the Chicana Art Song Project reflect this through
additional instrumentation for double bass, guitar and percussion
instruments including claves, shaker, congas and cajòn.
Archambeault tapped composer Edna Alejandra Longoria and visual
artist Melissa Arangua-Johnson to collaborate on the project, which
began in 2014 and was funded in part through a General University
Research Grant, the University of Delaware’s Cultural Activities and
Public Events Committee, the Luminaria Artist Foundation and an Arts and
Culture grant from the City of San Antonio.
Archambeault and Longoria selected texts from writers including Xelena González, Carmen Tafolla, Pat Mora and Sandra Cisneros. Arangua-Johnson provided images to accompany each song, deepening the storytelling and presentation of Chicana cultura.
Along with Archambeault, the evening’s performers included guests
Cynthia Longoria, soprano, and Sirapat Jittapirom, piano, along with UD
faculty members Tim Broscious, assistant professor of percussion, and
Blake Smith, associate professor of voice and opera; UD students Connor
Bruce, Maya Díaz-Portalatín, Alondra Gonzalez, Bri Keller, Casey Morris,
Zach Odom, Jacob Rylko, Mairin Srygley; and alumni Kevin J. Cope and
Kaitlyn Tierney. Not every performer identifies as Latinx, but all
approached the project with respect. “As we've become more aware and
mindful about appropriation vs. appreciation when it comes to performing
works of different cultures and races, I am lucky to be amongst faculty
and students who have embraced this philosophy,” Archambeault said.
“When asked to be a part of this concert, there were some insightful
conversations about recognizing white privilege and making sure their
performance of these works had the approval of these under-represented
groups. While neither I nor the composer can speak for all people in
this category, we felt that it was important to have these stories told,
so long as they were given reverence for their intent.”
