Cartas a Chimbote; Arguedas and music.

"Accompanying quietly the melody of the song, i remembered the fields and stones, squares and temples, small rivers where is was happy", said Jose María Arguedas, the famous peruvian poet, who inspired the play "Cartas de Chimbote", by Yuyachkani. In this play, the actors remembered the poet, and used several songs in both Spanish and Quechua, to evoke a sense of patriotism and memorial to the late Jose María Arguedas.

In the play, after reading some passages of Arguedas' letters, the actors began singing in Quechua, several songs that were related to the passage and thus Arguedas' life. The unison of the actors signing together created a sense of belonging and unity, as they were together signing for the late poet, and collaborating as one to remember and tribute him. Arguedas' was very patriotic, and believed in a working a united country, thus the characters evoke his ideal on stage by singing together to honor him. The main effect they were trying to explore was to evoke the memory of Arguedas; as he was recognize for spreading the Quechua literature and culture in his work. Moreover, when signing together in Quechua, they were trying to bring his memory to life through his work, for the audience to hear his songs and remember him, know his life work.

Several times, it was one actor the one who began singing, and slowly, the other actors joined in one by one, until all of them where singing. This approach to the convention of music creates the effect of inspiration, furthering the idea of Arguedas' memory. The poet's literary works brought a lot of inspiration to the peruvian community, as well as leaving a mark in peruvian literary history. Therefore, when the characters read the passages of Arguedas' letters, one of them would tend to feel inspired and moved by what he wrote, thus he or she began to sing. As a backlash, the other character's became inspired by the singing, and join altogether.
After the first half of the play, the characters began singing in Spanish, having a total of about four songs in this language, yet still alternating with Quechua. This changes into a different language create the sense of cultural knowledge, which fits into Arguedas' background as a poet in both languages. In a way, the alternating languages evoke the cultural diversity in Peru that Arguedas explores and imposes in his literary works. Additionally, the actors further bring his image to live as a Quechua and Spanish author.
It is interesting to notice that, probably none of the viewers know Quechua, and thus they are unaware of what the characters are singing. Moreover, it creates a sense of the unknown, of mystery in what Arguedas and the characters are trying to say, which reflects on Arguedas' very complicated and secretive life, ending in suicide.
The audience is aimed to be moved and touched by the songs, which the actors express their feelings to honor the late poet with, The songs mainly support what the read letters said, and make the audience understand more about his cultural greatness.
In the play, most of the music was live, and using only the voices of the actors. Such decision creates a sense of personal approach, of privacy, as it makes the memory of Arguedas more personal and alive. The singing characters, without the use of music connect with the audience more, and emphasises the idea of the group of people who are tributing the late poet.
However, some melodies are used to evoke an atmosphere in very specific moments of the play. For example, when the actors where only moving, and there was no specific talking or reading, the music created the atmosphere of memorial, honor, and even grief, through the soft tunes.
Also, it is noticeable that there where two main moments in which the actors played live music with instruments. The first one happened, when reading a letter from Arguedas about the industrial revolution in Chimbote, when a masked woman appeared on stage. She wore plastic bags as a cape, and a mask forming a skull, for which she represented the death of the sea. She was playing a white violin, playing sad and rythmic tunes, very peruvian like. The tunes emphazised the death of the sea, and the grief Arguedas explained in his letters. Additionally, the characters began tapping their feet with the floor, and set a strong repetitive rhythm. Such melody seeked to evoke the effect of the factories that where on Chimbote, reinforcing the Death of the Sea character and her grieving music.
The second moment,happened towards the end of the play, where the characters of the Upper fox and the Lower fox present themselves and talk about their lives and role in Arguedas' life and novel. The female characters used several traditional Peruvian instruments, such as the flute and the conch, among others. They played strong yet short melodies, with a very cutting rhythm, which emphasized the fight, or rather discussion, between the foxes. However, being traditional and cultural instruments, they created reinforced the cultural views of the representations of the foxes, and served as a cultural call to hear what the foxes had to say.

In Kathakali, music is feautured by the singing actors, instead of dialogue, and the drums that are played and carried by characters. In "Cartas de Chimbote", music was a major factor to evoke the memory and honor of Arguedas, and similarly, in Kathakali, music is one of the two most important factors to tell the stories and guide the dances and choreographs that make up the play. In both cases, music is presented live, and the actors are the ones to sing, even though in Kathakali there is no dialogue whatsoever. One major difference, is that there is a major, if not entirely, use of percussion in Kathakali to reinforce the strong actions and sequences, whereas in Yuyachkani's play, there was almost no percussion used, to create the opposite effect of calmness and memory. One great similarity between the two, is the use of traditional instruments from the local culture, which create a sense of patriotism and belonging, to bring to life the memory and honor either a late poet or a religion, both for the sake of cultural tradition.

On the other hand, our play has a different approach to the use of music. Given we are following Kathalali as a starting point, all of the songs will feature percussion, to emphasize the strenght of the characters, the situations and the action sequences. However, we are not using the traditional instrument, unlike Kathakali and "Cartas de Chimbote", as we cannot afford to buy them nor find them in time. Still, just like Yuyachkani's play, we will feature live music, but no pre recorded music whatsoever. Our school bad and orchestra will be playing the instruments and the melodies, instead of the actors, as we are not trained to play major instruments, as well as taking focus from the main action of the play. The live music seeks to create a much more vivid effect of the play, for it to feel more real to the audience, by creating different atmospheres that collaborate with the other design elements. Our music will remain Indian to create the atmosphere of the setting of the play, and thus reinforce the cultural value we are trying to present.
Another great difference is that of the number of songs played during the play. In our case, we will only feauture around 5 or 6 main songs, which will be repeated for their own purposes, for example there will be a song for every demon appearance, and a song for the palaces. This idea serves for the audience to relate the song to the characters, for them to undestand better which character is which, as well as being familiar with the atmosphere of the plot, according to the scene. Additionally, none of this songs will have singing in them, contrary to the tradition and to "Cartas de Chimbote", as our actors are not trained to sing, much less in Sanskrit. However, the lack of singing will draw more attention on the physicallity of the characters, and the dialogue. which is of major importance for the audience to understand the plot.

After the play ended, i realized that the music they played, was very similar to what we were looking for in ours. The ideal of keeping tradition alive, as Arguedas wanted, and making the audience feel the rhythm, and be moved by it. To be proud and to spread the word about the culture. We are following, to a certain extent, a theatre tradition that has hundreds of years, to keep this tradition alive and show it to the peruvian society, to our school's society. Now, in terms of music, we don't have the main instruments, the traditional drums, to achieve the esscence of Kathakali music. Thus i wonder, how can we keep the esscence of the music, without the main instruments? Yuyachkani managed to do it by singing in Quechua and then playing traditional instruments. And even though Kathakali is just our starting point and we are drifting a bit from the tradition to adapt to our availability, how will we manage to keep it "indian enough"? Will a couple of drums and violins do? Should we use pre recorded music at some moments, to mantain a more traditional atmosphere? Or should we copy original Kathakali music and adapt it to our instruments? Wouldn't that take out from the creative process of the musicians?