At the southern end of the Mexican Republic we find the peculiar sound of “trova”, a song style that reached its peak popularity in the early 20th century. This tradition began in eastern Cuba, but it developed simultaneously in several Latin American countries, including Puerto Rico, Colombia and Mexico. Serenades were in fashion at the time and singing in duets with a guitar accompaniment eventually evolved into a true form of folk art.
Imbued of the rich romanticism of the late 19th century, trova songs combined lyric poetry with sensuous Caribbean rhythms such as “clave”, “bolero” and “bambuco”. Before the invention of radio, traveling troubadours wrote and sang these vernacular songs. Some of these composers and singers became legendary figures in the history of Latin American popular music.
In Mexico, the tradition of trova takes the form of songs originated in the Yucatan peninsula, and generally known as “trova yucateca” or Yucatecan trova. These songs are considered a true national treasure. They were the result of a literary and musical cultural movement that took place in Merida between 1900 and 1940. During this period, serenades and musical soirees were a key part of social life in the city.
Unlike popular songs in the rest of Mexico, most Yucatecan trova songs were composed in Cuban rhythms, such as “clave”, “bolero”, “habanera” and in the Colombian “bambuco”.
In 1909, Luis Rosado Vega, one of the most renown Meridan poets published the first songbook featuring only Yucatecan compositions, including music and lyrics for 31 songs. Some of these “Yucatecan” songs were actually the result of collaborations between Yucatecan and Colombian songwriters, which reflected the parallel development of the trova genre in Yucatan and Colombia. Indeed, the lyrics of some Colombian popular songs were actually written by Yucatecan poets.
Cuba was also an important participant in this salient musical exchange with the Yucatan peninsula, as Havana was the nearest foreign urban center of yesteryear Merida.
Cuban trova was then at its heyday and composers like Manuel Corona, Sindo Garay, Alberto Villalon, Eusebio Delfin and Rosendo Ruiz created hundreds of inspired songs that constantly reached Yucatecan troubadours who included them in their repertoires. Yucatecan trova reached its peak in the 1920s, a time when a generation of composers, poets and singers with deep roots in the literary and musical tradition of the peninsula, achieved great feats of artistic creativity.
Merida experienced an explosion of musical creativity when composers like Ricardo Palmerin Pavia, Pepe Dominguez Zaldivar, Enrique Galaz Chacon and Guty Cardenas Pinelo combined their talents with those of the best poets in the region: Rosario Sansores Pren, Ermilo Padron Lopez, Ricardo Lopez Mendez, Manuel Diaz Massa and Jose Diaz Bolio, to name just a few. Trova songs were sung in duets, a style completely different to that of the Panamerican trios that became so popular in the 1950s.
In traditional trova, the melody was divided in two voices, with the second voice taking a prominent place as it developed a melodic line to support the first voice. As the style developed, songs were sometimes composed for two voices, with two different melodies and in some cases with two different lyrics to be sung at the same time. Singers were recognized by their ability as a first or second voice, while others stood out as accompanying guitarists.
To get a feel of what Yucatecan trova is about, listen to the following pieces:
(The following audio samples are in .wav format and may be listened to on Windows Media Player).
"Para olvidarte a ti" downloaded from www.dzunum.com
