Historia General del Pueblo Dominicano Tomo VI

732 Popular Music and Identity since the Nineteenth Century which are improvised; merengue accordion and saxophone playing consists largely of inventando (inventing) jaleos. The other type of merengue típico cibaeño, the pambiche , features cinquillo-related tambora rhythms, major tonic and dominant harmonies, and a melody repeated many times with improvised variations. An often-told story attributes the pambiche’s origin to the period of the U.S. occupation. 57 Merengue innovator Luis Alberti, however, affirms that what is called the pambiche today already existed before the U.S. occupation, and that the name pambiche was merely applied to a pre-existing single-sectioned merengue form in that period. 58 The pambiche origin theory, then, is most valuable as an indication of merengue’s symbolic significance. As the story goes, the occupying Marines sometimes attended local fiestas but were unable to dance correctly, combining the North American dances such as the one-step and fox-trot with merengue. Imitating the North Americans, Dominicans in the northern town of Puerto Plata created a dance called merengue estilo yanqui (Yankee-style merengue). A song about a fabric called « Palm-Beach» was associated with the dance: Palm-Beach es mejor que el dril, y es mejor que el casimir. Con él yo voy a fiestar, y con mi novia a bailar. 59 Adistinctive tambora rhythmaccompanied this song and the estilo yanqui choreography, and the style came to be called pambiche, a Dominicanization of the Americanism Palm Beach. It was said that merengue estilo yanqui was called pambiche because, just as the Palm Beach fabric is neither cashmere nor drill, pambiche is neither merengue nor fox-trot. 60 The anecdote subverts occupation-era power-relations: Dominican creativity not only spawned « lithe and delicate merengue rhythms» that the enforcers of U.S. hegemony could not contend with, but even generated a new expressive form from the Marines’ incompetence. This story is still often recounted today, perhaps because its anti-imperialist message remains relevant. 61 A similar spirit of nationalism was expressed in a movement spearheaded by Cibao art music composers. Although they were social worlds away from rural and barrio life, young middle and upper-class art music composers were inspired by típico music. The earliest merengue composed for concert performance was Juan Francisco « Pancho» García’s rondo entitled « Ecos del Cibao» ( « Echoes of the Cibao»), published in 1918 and premiered at Santiago’s