Historia General del Pueblo Dominicano Tomo VI

Historia general del pueblo dominicano 733 Teatro Colón in the following year. 62 Many elite Dominicans continued to look down on local music, so in hopes of precluding an unfavorable reaction, García identified the work as a collection of « danzas típicas » instead of as merengue. 63 In spite of these concerns, however, García suspected that cosmopolitan Dominicans might enjoy merengue; he once said that he had used it in his music to prevent people fromgetting bored at concerts. 64 But García’s purposes went beyond a desire to keep listeners’ ears perked up; as his protégé Julio Alberto Hernández told me, « this was the beginning of the propagation of Dominicanism» (interview). Other composers, including Hernández, Esteban Peña Morel, and Emilio Arté began to write concert music based on local themes. Later called the « national school» of Dominican music, 65 this movement developed in tandem with folkloristic research. Many composers were folk music collectors, and scholars encouraged composers to use local material: in 1927, folklorist Arzeño wrote that « [w]e must abandon exotic rhythms and be Dominican musicians» and that « [w]hen true love of country increases... the stability of the Republic grows, and the Fatherland thrives». 66 The danza, waltz, and other cosmopolitan genres were favored by Cibao socialites at the outset of the occupation. Shunned at high society dances prior to the U.S. invasion, native music became popular in ballrooms as the nationalist cultural movement took shape. This musical movement developed alongside a strategy of non-cooperation with the United States. Encouraging the open display of patriotism, cultural nationalism made it difficult for those few Dominicans who would have liked to cooperate with the U.S. to do so openly, thus depriving the U.S.-controlled military government of Dominican collaborators. In 1912, García played a merengue theme at a high society ball. Daring not identify it as típico music, he disguised it as the final section of a Cuban danzón. 67 The most popular Santiago salon band in the late 1910s was led by clarinetist and composer Juan Bautista Espínola Reyes. Formed in 1917, Espínola’s group specialized in the danzón and was comprised of two clarinets, one saxophone, two baritone horns, tuba, string bass, timbaletas (a small version of the timbales ), and other percussion. 68 Perhaps inspired by García’s innovations, Espínola took an interest in local music. Like García’s concert merengues, Espínola’s ballroom merengues omitted the tambora and accordion and thus bore greater similarity to the elegant danza than to rustic merengue típico cibaeño. Performances of Espínola’s merengues « Terapéutica» and « Mi entusisasmo» at the Casino Central in La Vega in 1922 met an enthusiastic reception; the public asked for them to be repeated many times. 69 Merengue eventually found a permanent, though small, place