Historia General del Pueblo Dominicano Tomo VI

719 Capítulo 15 Popular Music and Identity since the Nineteenth Century Paul Austerlitz This chapter considers Dominican music in relation to discourse about Dominican national identity since the middle of the nineteenth century, arguing that popular music has fomented African-derived cultural practices in the context of a Eurocentric dominant culture. The chapter focuses on merengue because of its centrality to debates about Dominican identity, also attending to genres such as palos , gagá , and bachata . 1 The music of the Dominican Republic reflects its Afro-Hispanic ethnicity. A plethora of highly African-influenced forms, indispensable to rural religious ceremonies, predominate. These include 1) palos, congos , and sarandunga drumming of the Afro-Dominican religious fraternal organizations; 2) the salve , a folkloric religiousmusic performed both a capella andwithdrumacmpaniment throughout the country; 3) a celebratory processional form called gagá , strongly influenced by Haitian rara , played on one-note bamboo horns called fututos and percussion during Holy Week; and 4) the guloya repertoire, influenced by immigrants from the English Antilles. Less prevalent than the neo-African forms, highly European-influenced musics such as the improvised sung poems called chuines and tonadas are also significant in the soundscape. Lying between the extremes of African and European influence is a large repertory of syncretic secular musics such as merengue and mangulina . Considered a national symbol since mid-century, merengue played a significant role in the development of racial and national identity in the Dominican Republic. It is likely that the growth of merengue eclipsed the popularity of other secular dance forms until the emergence of bachata in the late twentieth century, which eventually