Composer for Every Country: Equatorial Guinea

Reading the colonial history of Equatorial Guinea's island, Bioko, is a little bit like that skit in Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail where the dude is recounting his attempts to build a castle in a swamp. Successive centuries of colonial failures largely left the island untouched by either plantations or slavery until the mid-18th century. Europe's first contact with the island was made by the Portuguese explorer Fernando Pó in 1472 and, like any self-respecting colonial power would do, the Portuguese immediately set about trying to figure out how to make money off of it. They settled colonies in 1474, and by 1507 were attempting to farm sugarcane on the island, emphasis on "attempting." Between the local Bubi tribes putting up stiff resistance and diseases including (but not limited to) smallpox, yellow fever, and African trypanosomiasis (see: tsetse flies), this attempt marked the first castle falling into the swamp.

Another attempt wouldn't be made until after 1778, when the Portuguese gave up on the island and handed it to Spain in the Treaty of El Pardo. Spain picked Brigadier Felipe José to set up the second castle that would fall in the swamp. In this case, he didn't last long, dying of fever pretty much the day of arrival, along with a whopping 80% of the crew. Naturally, they mutinied and left for São Tomé where they were imprisoned by the Portuguese. The mortality rate was too high for Spain's taste, and they left the island as a stopping point for slave ships for a good while (note: the Bubi were still fighting strong at this point, and not really subject to slaving themselves).

It wouldn't be for another hundred years until somebody had the bright idea to move the administration of the island away from the disease filled coasts and up to the highlands where, much to everybody's surprise, people didn't die of fever every five days. Granted, this wasn't as much an improved standard of living as it was an improved standard of not-dying. Ethnographer and explorer Mary Kingsley said the island was "a more uncomfortable form of execution" for people sent there. Not really a glowing recommendation. In any case, this marked a turning point for the island and it didn't take long for cocoa to be established as a key crop for export.

Most of the history reading I was able to find focused on Bioko, but just at the last minute, I did come across a fantastically detailed article Adriana Chira, Assistant Professor at Emory University, who wrote an excellent summary of the entire country: https://www.europenowjournal.org/2018/02/28/a-forgotten-colony-equatorial-guinea-and-spain/ Currently, Equatorial Guinea is listed as on the the worst of the worst countries in the world by measures of political freedom. The country is rife with corruption made worse by an oil boom in the 1990's, resulting in extreme wealth inequality. The current president, Teodoro Obiang, is busy building a cult of personality around himself, but might still be considered a step up from his uncle, Macias Nguema, who claimed to be a sorcerer and collected human skulls. You know, as you do.

Culturally, the mainland is a thin layer of Spanish plastered over a number of Bantu speaking tribes, primarily the Fang. They are known in the art world for their wooden reliquary figures, and also for their religious ceremonies involving puppet theater. One artist who reached international fame was Don Leandro Mbomio Nsue whose sculptures are heavily influenced by Fang art. Music and dance are tied at the hip, with the balélé coming from Bubi and the ibanga from the Fang. The primary melodic instrument is a kind of harp called the mvet, whose main proponent was a man named Ekong Eyi Mone. There's not much of a music industry in Equatorial Guinea, and many of the musicians who want to make a name for themselves have had to travel elsewhere, usually to Spain.

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Speaking of musicians who expatriated to Spain, today's composer is the travador urbano, Barón Ya Búk-Lu (b.1967). An Equatoguinean of Fang heritage, Mr. Búk-Lu (I assume that's an appropriate title? Maybe "Ya" is already a title. Quick! Somebody get angry at me on the internet so I can stand corrected!) is a singer, actor, activist, and is also a producer. That last job title was out of necessity. After immigrating to Spain, Búk-Lu found it difficult to attract the interest of record labels, who found his music either "too African," or "not African enough," or that he was singing in the wrong language (spoilers: there was no right language for him to sing in). In addition to self-producing his three records, Ya Búk-Lu is the driving force behind the Festival Africanos en Leganés, a music festival featuring African artists and various fusions of local Spanish styles. The link is to the title track of his third album, Fangolosofia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AjPqaAUYMg&list=OLAK5uy_k4KvWzzZkJaD1PUj9q9JRQuvATDxQZx-8&index=3

Hits: 1724

Composer for Every Country: Cameroon

At some time in 1472, the Lepidophthalmus turneranus (or ghost shrimp, if you're a plebian (not to be confused with the other two species of shrimp called ghost shrimp)) had one of their massive swarms they have every 3 to 5 years, bursting out of the mud for a grand shellfish orgy in the Wouri River. It was a grand time to be a ghost shrimp. At the same time, a group of Portuguese sailors arrived on the coast, made their way into the river, and couldn't help but notice the piles of copulating shrimp, and decided to name the river Rio dos Camarões, or "Shrimp River." This marked the beginning of a less than grand time to be African in the area which English speakers would mispronounce as "Cameroon."

Before we get to that colonial Cameroon, there are two human groups which formed the first cultures in the area. The first, the Baka peoples (or "Pygmies," but you'd do well to avoid using the term) settled the area probably 5000 years ago, or so. Hunter-gatherers of the Central African rainforest, their culture is undergoing rapid change due to increasing deforestation. They are also excellent fishers, and if you want to learn more about Baka fishing practices than you'd ever imaging, you can click on this link.

Afterwards, and alongside them, came a number of Bantu migrations, leading eventually to the Bornu Empire. This empire lasted from about 700AD to 1900AD, encompassing areas of Chad, Niger, and Sudan. The history of the Bornu Kingdom is known mostly through a text called the Girgam, or Royal Chronical. The long-lived kingdom finally fell in 1900 when the French won a decisive victory against warlord Rabih az-Zubayr in the Battle of Kousséri and captured the capital, Dikwa.

Is there much can be said about the region before 1800? Yes. Can I easily find that information? No. But the 1800s saw two big events - Modibo Adama led the Fulani people in a jihad and established the Adamawa Emirate, causing a large redistribution of the population in the area; and Sultan Ibrahim Njoya invented what is called Shumom, or the Bamum script, a written language that compressed the whole range of script evolution, from pictographs to phonetic script, in 14 years. The time was otherwise rather dark for many people in the area because the German colonizers ran a system of forced labor (I don't know why Wikipedia doesn't call it slavery) to lay down railroads, and introduce industry. The treatment of local Africans got so bad, one governor, Jesko von Puttkamer, was relieved of his duties. But don't worry, Wikipedia tells us he at least left a "splendid residential manor" behind.

Wikipedia was less than helpful with Cameroonian art. Literature is divided between colonial writers and post-independence (1960) writers. The city Yaoundé is rising as a center of various visual and performative arts exploring nature, ecology, and colonial fallout. Standout musical genres (beyond traditional music) are the enormously popular makossa and a dance craze called bikutsi. 

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Our composer today is Francis Bebey (1929-2001). Poet, guitarist, composer, mathematician, radio broadcaster... He had many talents. As a guitarist, he was influenced by Andrés Segovia while in Paris, and was hired by UNESCO to travel and document music of Central Africa. Stylistically, he blended elements of African, Latin American, and European classical music, leading many to consider him a pioneer of the world music genre.

A good introductory song to his pop-oriented style is The Coffee Cola Song. 

Hits: 1001

Composer for Every Country: Nigeria

Editorial Note: I've decided to change my approach to writing these essays. If you've been a regular reader, you'll notice a lot of hotlinks. I don't intend, or even recommend, for the reader click and follow the links. They are mostly there for reference and to provide the reader an easy way to find non-Wikipedia articles for points of interest. If they prove too distracting, I'll move them to end-notes. I've also stopped embedding the music videos, and included them as a link only, because of copyright concerns I hadn't considered before. These blogs take a good amount of work, so if you feel like supporting the project, consider joining my Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/creator-home. Thanks for reading!

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Here in the States, Nigeria has a bit of a reputation because of the infamous "Nigerian Prince" email scam. It's true, there are a lot of Nigerian scammers. But Nigeria also is home to the earliest evidence for iron smelting in West Africa, thanks to the Nok culture. The Nok date back to about 1500BC, and also created a number of terracotta figures that date back to 500BC, right around when they started iron smelting. The prevailing Medieval ethnicities in the area include the Igbo, who founded the kingdom of Nri, and the Yoruba peoples, who founded the Ife and Oyo kingdoms.  Of great cultural significance to the Hausa people is the Kano Chronicle, a collection of stories about the founding and list of kings of the city-state, Kano. Its authorship and date of collection remain in doubt, although at least one author thinks the work was written down in the 17th-century. Regardless, the Kano Chronicle stands as a rich source of tradition and literature.

After European contact, the germination of the slave trade led to a number of port cities in the Bight of Biafra. The 17th-18th centuries were a tumultuous time for the region, with infighting among the Hausa groups leading to the rise and settling of the Fulani, a previously nomadic Sahelian tribe. This political shift culminated in the 19th century when Fulani religious leader Usman dan Fodio led a successful jihad against the Hausa and established the Sokoto Caliphate, a kingdom lasting from 1804 until 1904 when it was broken up by the British. The firm establishment of Islam in the area also had clear artistic influence, which can be seen in fashion and visual iconography. 

British occupation and rule of Nigeria was established in 1914 and lasted until Nigeria's independence in 1960. The establishment of the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria joined two previously established protectorates, Northern and Southern, as well as Lagos Colony, a port in southern Nigeria. This occupation brought a number of large scale changes to the culture. First, it led to the choice of English as the national language allowing communication and commerce across the nearly 500 different languages in Nigeria. Second, it brought Christian missionaries to the area which have culminated in a near 50/50 demographic split between Christian and Muslim Nigerians which, in turn, has dramatic implications for the country's politics. Finally, European style education, which had been introduced long before, was firmly established, leaving long roots in Nigeria's literature, art, and music. 

Since independence, Nigeria has vacillated between democratic and military rule and is quickly growing in economy and political influence. Musically (as artistically and culturally), Nigeria is so diverse that summary is impossible. Traditional music continues to flourish among the Igbo, Yoruba, and Hausa. Popular styles include palm wine, jùjú, apala, afrobeat... the list goes on.

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Our composer for today is Joshua Uzoigwe. Starting music very early, he drummed and played the oja flute as a child. He attended King's College Secondary School in Lagos, studying piano with Major J. J. Allen, winning prizes for his playing. He studied ethnomusicology under John Blacking at Queen's University at Belfast, and as a composer joined Nigerian, European classical, and a variety of other African influences to fuse a singular style. Mr. Uzoigwe was also a poet, and has a collection of memoirs detailing his life and work The Joshua Uzoigwe African Spirit Award is given in his honor.

Here is the first movement of his piano work, "Talking Drums," in which Mr. Uzoigwe applies his knowledge of Igbo drumming to the keyboard, performed here at Boston Conservatory in Berklee by pianist Kevin Madison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZgIvLZiMsI

Hits: 1012

Composer for Every Country: Malaysia

Reading the etymology of "Malaysia" on Wikipedia, I'm not sure I've ever seen so many words used to say "we dunno." The country's name is a combination of "Malay," which is the name of the majority ethnicity, and the suffix "-sia," meaning "land." So, "Malay Land." Ok, so far so good. But whence Malay? Well, could be Sanskrit. Could be Javanese. Could be Tamil. Regardless, by the time Europe found them, the locals called the Malaysian peninsula "Tanah Melayu," or... "Malay Land." Seems humans are human when it comes to naming conventions, after all. (Can I take an aside here and suggest that Disney Land was so named because they were attempting to create their own country? It seems like there's a lot of countries whose names come out to "something-or-other land," is all I'm saying.)

Human habitation of the Malay peninsula is old, going back 40,000 years or so. There are a few different indigenous peoples, locally grouped as Orang Asil, which include the Semang, the Lanoh, the Jahai, and a number of others. Most of the tribes are part of a larger group labelled "Negritos." Wait... Really? That's what we're going with? Sigh... ok. These tribes are in danger of extinction. In at least one case, the Jahai, study of their language has helped explore elements of human perception, specifically, smell. Their religion includes supernatural forces called "Karei," which can be attracted or repelled with various odors. Their language includes a rich vocabulary or scent words, and they consistently show superior ability to identify specific scents. One must assume this ability comes in handy for hunter-gatherer lifestyles.

Located at a crossroads area on mainland Asia, Malaysia is demographically diverse, with the Malay ethnicity being the majority, and substantial minority populations of Chinese and Indian (specifically, Tamil) groups. The culture is strongly influences by two of the kingdoms discussed in my blog on Indonesia: the Buddhist Srivijaya Kingdom, and the Hindustani Majapahit Kingdom. More particular to the Malaysian peninsula was the Malacca Sultanate, founded by Parameswara in 1400 (by tradition). Who was he? Well, he was a King of Singapore for a time, although whether legitimately or by usurpation depends on who you ask. The local account of the Malacca Sultanate is written in the Sejarah Melayu, or "The Malay Annals." The kingdom lasted until 1511, when the Portuguese took the capital, and it was during that century that the Malaysian people began converting to Islam.

With the Indonesia blog, I didn't quite have space to get into a particularly terrible time for Southeast Asia's modern history: the Japanese occupation. For whatever reason, the Japanese during World War II exhibited appallingly brutal behavior pretty much wherever they went. As a person with relatively close Japanese ancestry (my maternal grand-mother), the Pacific Theater of World War II is a point of great ambivalence in my head-space. But we don't overcome history by ignoring it. The Japanese occupation of Malaysia affected everybody, especially Chinese, whose resistance efforts are largely forgotten in the popular understandings of local history. 

On to more pleasant topics: music in the country is so diverse it defies generalization, but like Indonesia, music and dance are intimately related. Instruments come from all manner of geographic locations, and although percussion ensembles form the backbone of much Malaysian music (including the two-headed gendang, a tambourine-like instrument called kompang, a variety gongs, xylophones...) other a huge variety of other instruments are prominent as well. These include instruments from Persia (the rebab), India (the serunai), Europe (the violin and accordion), and China (full Chinese orchestras are not uncommon). There are more genres than I can go over in this space, but many of them are still living traditions, ranging from the ghazal, an Arabic poetry of strict form, to dondang sayang, a song form with two singers alternating verses, and a whole litany of dance forms, like dikir barat, performed by seated dancers, or nobat, or mak yong, or... 

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My composer for today is Valerie Ross (b.1958). Biographical information is rather scarce. She was born in Kuala Lampur, and attended University of London for a Bachelor's Degree in Music, University of Australia for a Master's in Education and a Doctorate in Philosophy. Her music explores the varieties of cultural elements inherent to Malaysia and her global travels, and she has a particular interest in electronic music. Among her projects is MuSIT, short for "Music for Sensory Integration Therapy," in which she collaborated with occupational therapists. The music was written "to enhance neurological processing based on sensory integration, a theory of brain-behavior relationships developed by Jean Ayers." The composition linked below is her work "Sixty-Three Dimensions," premiered by the Frahm-Lewis Trio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eqXFwEO6iA

Hits: 1369

A Composer for Every Country: Indonesia

The island nation of Indonesia is a tough one to write about succinctly. Not only is the country expansive, but every island has its own unique culture, and there are a LOT of islands. 17,500 of them, in fact, and 6,000 of them are inhabited. It's also a bit tough to find information on Indonesia in English. Not only is Indonesia apparently a bit of a lightning rod for "alternative histories" involving Atlantis, Lemuria, and cryptids, but the country's rich archaeological sites prove problematic for young earthers who search for creationist explanations for the Java Man. Also, there's a Java Man coffee house which sucks up a lot of prime Google pages, in case you want to learn more. The internet never fails to surprise.

In any case, fossilized Homo erectus skeletons suggest inhabitation started between 500,000 and 2 million years ago. Heck of a margin of error, but that's how archaeology do sometimes. For modern humans, there are two major groups of note - the Austronesian people showing up around 2,000 BCE and known for their pottery and woodcarvings, and the Melanesian people who were displaced by the Austronesian migrations.

As far as large scale kingdoms go, Indonesia is largely shaped first by Hinduism and Buddhism, and then by Islam. The Srivijaya kingdom really took off in the 7th century CE. Two kingdoms highlight the religious influences: the Saliendra kingdom, who were Buddhist and are primarily known today for the Borobudur Temple; and the Mataram dynasty, who are largely known for the Prambanan Temple. In the late 1200s, the Hindu Majapahit kingdom spread across Java, leaving a large body of terracotta works. The spread of Islam into the archipelago was slow, a process occurring over several hundred years. 

As one might expect, these religious roots had a dramatic influence on the arts of the kingdom, informing art with Buddhist and Hindu styles from India and south China. The influence of Islamic art is, for some reason, less well studied, but is present nonetheless. The influence can also be found in architecture, as can be seen in the candi structures on Bali or the temples in Java.

Christianity was brought by Europeans in the 1500s. While the Portuguese made first contact with the Indonesians, it was ultimately the Dutch East India Trading Company that became the dominant European force in the area. Not that they had an easy time of it. Rebellions against Dutch presence were frequent, and several leaders, like Prince Diponegoro, Tuanku Imam Bonjol, and Kapitan Pattimura have been canonized as national heroes and are pictured on their currency.

Getting into music, traditions are markedly different from island to island. Indonesia's biggest claim to musical fame is the gamelan, an orchestra of gongs and drums, but the styles of Javanese gamelan differ from the Balinese. Bali also has a traditional ceremony called the kecak, a ritual telling of the Hindu epic, Ramayana. Another distinct tradition is Sundanese folk music, from a minority group on the island of Java. Music and dance are often (almost always?) tied together, and two notable examples include the saman "Dance of a Thousand Hands" and the dances of the Mirangkabau peoples. Many of these musical traditions are still living, with new compositions being written for them, but Indonesia also has its own genre of popular music called dangdut which blends many of the traditional instruments with electronic instruments, while adopting a modern pop style.

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Today's composer is Dr. Gumgum Gumbira Tirasondjaja (1945-2020), a Sundanese musician, choreographer, and orchestra leader from Bandung, West Java. Dr. Tirasondjaja's music is a 20th-century reimagining of rural dance rituals. His compositional direction was dramatically influenced by Indonesian President Sukarno who, in 1961, prohibited Western popular music like rock and roll and pushed for a renewal of local traditional music. The most popular result of Dr. Tirasondjaja's studies was a dance called Jaipongang, combining influences from the Indonesian martial art, Pencak Silat, the masked dance, Topeng, and Wayang shadow puppet theater.

Apparently, Jaipongang wasn't the "right" Indonesian art, because the government did try to suppress it after its debut in 1974, but it survived and continues to survive to this day, although rather reduced in popularity. Here is a solo dance, Keser Bojang, which, due to my illiteracy in Indonesian and total lack of information in English, I can't find much to say about. The little I've been able to find tell it is a dance of "moving," that is "moving from one position to a better, more precise position." Given the sung accompaniment, I would guess the movements are also a form of pantomime.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aEWmmbaCKU

Hits: 1158

Interview: Washington Plada

The following is an interview I conducted with Washington Plada back in August. The transcript has been edited for clarity, but since English is Washington's second language, I decided to keep his idiosyncratic grammar to better preserve the flow of his speaking and thoughts. As usual, if you are interested in financially supporting these interviews, you can follow me at my Patreon, linked below.

https://www.patreon.com/SoundOfTheTone

Adam Eason: Okay, it should be going. All right. So this is Washington Plada. He's a composer, also a guitarist from Uruguay and he's joining us for an interview today. So thanks for coming in. 

Washington Plada: Thanks for inviting me.

Adam Eason: Yeah, so I think to kick off with how many people have you met so far in Oregon who know where Uruguay is?

Washington Plada: Very few to be honest. And well, that's been a constant throughout the states. I think it's such a small country that it makes sense that not a lot of people know it. It's only three and a half million people. What are the chances that you meet somebody from Uruguay in the States? Small. 

Adam Eason: Yeah. Yeah pretty tight.

Washington Plada: A lot of people know us because of soccer. So soccer fans tend to know where it is and know the famous soccer players from there. Lately a few years ago the country was in the news, too, because of the Progressive President. It was maybe five six years ago when this president that was very progressive passed a lot of laws, like they legalize weed. They legalized abortion and gay marriage the same day. So that was kind of a big deal and it's always interesting when somebody asks me where I'm from and to listen, let them know and kind of spread my spread my heritage a little bit. 

Adam Eason: Yeah. So what's the musical education like in the country? How did you start with music? 

Washington Plada: It's not as widespread as it is in the States. I find it fascinating that here it's how, since a very young age they're for the most part introduced to music through Elementary School. I didn't have any classes of elementary school, in elementary school. I mean music classes. So I had something in... what is it? Like last year of middle school. We have only one class. That was all we had through middle school and high school as a music class. They told us about some composers and that was it. Yeah, no real music playing. No instrument playing or any of that.

Adam Eason: I got you. Yeah, it's music appreciation kind of thing.

Washington Plada: Yeah. Music appreciation. And then some of my friends played and I picked up a guitar and that's how I started rock and roll, had my own like cover band and then grunge, and my own grunge songs. Oh, yeah, so I play bass for that band. I'm not... I started with guitar and I'll call myself more a guitar player, but I always end up playing bass because now I want to. We always need a bass player and its like, "Ok, I'll do it."

Adam Eason: What's the music scene like there? I mean if you're doing like a rock band grunge band kind of stuff. 

Washington Plada: There's a lot. People play like, we all, I would say like 99% of the people, but everybody plays. Some more, some less but like there's always a guitar there and everywhere you go, to a party, you go to wherever your friends and there's somebody that plays and... music is... it's a very important part of our culture and yeah. I was always interested in classical music. I will go to every concert I could even though I lived in a very small city. Around like 30,000 people. So we didn't have many chances but I took all the chances I could but I didn't take the chance to study. Just any music more formal education in... When I was older after High School and I started, I went to a different city just for some days just to take classes in violin. I took violin classes for over a year and then I came to the States, so I couldn't continue. Yeah. Easier for me to continue my education here and started from the ground up going to Community College getting my... all the music theory and all this stuff. So that's how.

Adam Eason: Okay. So what what brought you to the states in the first place? Was it for music education or were there other reasons?

Washington Plada: No. No, it was love.

Adam Eason: Okay!

Washington Plada: Yeah it was... I was in Argentina. I was just doing some backpacking and I met some girl and we kind of hit it off, fell in love and spend some time there, travelling together. Well after, she was from here. So after a while we were like, well this internet thing is not working we'll move in together. And I decided to come to the States.

Adam Eason: All right, and that was to Oregon?

Washington Plada: No, it was to California, was in Santa Cruz. It's a small town like south from San Francisco? 

Adam Eason: Okay. Yeah.

Washington Plada: It's a beautiful beach town, beautiful. 

Adam Eason: Yeah, how long ago was that? Like, how old were you?

Washington Plada: It was 11 years ago? 2009. 

Adam Eason: Okay. Gotcha. And then you stayed in Santa Cruz for a while and you're just kind of hanging around like working there. 

Washington Plada: Yeah, I lived there. Primarily there, then a couple years in the Bay Area, San Francisco. 2017 I moved to Oregon. I came to Western Oregon University to finish my bachelor's degree. Now at the moment, I'm living in Eugene, Oregon. 

Adam Eason: Okay. Yeah. 

Washington Plada: I just finished my first year of the master program in composition here at the University of Oregon. 

Adam Eason: Okay, cool. So where did you go before Western Oregon University?  You were studying down in California at the time.

Washington Plada: Yeah, down in Santa Cruz I did a Community College. That's called Cabrillo, Cabrillo Community College. So I did my first two years there and then I transferred to Western Oregon and I finish those the remainder 2 years to get my bachelor's there. 

Adam Eason: Yeah, and that was for music as well?

Washington Plada: Yeah, that was for music composition. Yes, it was a cool program, gaining knowledge not only to classical composition but also to film music and jazz arranging. Very good program, it was very interesting. 

Adam Eason: Who was your teacher there in, California? 

Washington Plada: We had many teachers. What happens is when you go to a community college in California for the first few years, even if you go, you don't have private lessons. So I didn't have any composition lessons until I came to Oregon. So the first two years mainly was music theory and like, aural skills and music history. Yeah, nothing nothing... Nothing in composition. 

Adam Eason: Okay, was it kind of strange? Making the musical shift, I mean, because if you're playing in garage bands and pick up rock and roll bands and kind of things like that, I imagine most of that's by ear. And then going to something where it's all notated and then having to think maybe more abstractly rather than more aurally... was that kind of a difficult shift for you, or did you just kind of... sink into it? 

Washington Plada: Um, it was... it wasn't difficult. It was different. It was very different. But I think the training that I got from playing in rock bands actually helped a lot, because it's... I think it's a really good complement to what you see, mixing the oral tradition with or the listening tradition with the visual. I think it's more, it's more powerful and in my case it kind of like complemented each other. I didn't say that "Oh, wow. This is two separate things that they don't really like connect." I think they connect really well and even though like this, at least the little that I was studying, there was no room for playing by ear. It still helped. Yeah, but I didn't know anything when I started. So what can you imagine one little first year of violin? Like I knew the duration of the notes and not much more. Yeah, the interesting thing was that the little bit I studied, I studied in Spanish. So I had to learn all the names for the note durations for everything. I think that's that was the most difficult part. 

Adam Eason: That was the hardest part, the language part?

Washington Plada: The language. Yes. It's the new language. Yeah, but I caught up very fast. Yeah, it's fascinating, I mean, when you're studying something that you love, I think it's even if it's a little bit complex, you're excited to do it.

Adam Eason: Yeah. Sure. 

Washington Plada: Yeah it was, it was a good... It was a good challenge.

Adam Eason: Cool. And then you came up to Western Oregon University and you started studying... I'm sorry, I forget the professor's name that I met.

Washington Plada: I studied with mainly with Kevin Walczyk. He's a very well-known name in the band world. He's one of the... one of the top composers for the band world today in the in the US. 

Adam Eason: Okay. What drew you up to Western Oregon University. Was it him or another connection maybe? 

Washington Plada: Yeah, I... before I start, a friend came to me and said go to him. I really like the program because first it was a small school and, honestly, coming from a community college I was a little bit afraid to... a little bit afraid to land in a big school and fall through the cracks and not find my way. I was kind of used to a community college like when you have small community, everybody knows each other. The professors know the students it's kind of like it was an environment that I felt safe. This school I thought that would provide me that, that was one of the reasons but the other one was I'm very interested in different aspects of music. So this school program, I mean, like I said before like with the classical instruction plus the film plus jazz arranging and then they have Latin ensembles to play. It fulfilled a lot of... a lot of my interests. I thought it was... I visited other schools and they didn't really caught my attention like this one did and I can say that was a very... I made the right decision because I'm really happy about the education I got and all the things that were offered to me. 

Adam Eason: Yeah, it sounds like it was all kind of right up your alley. 

Washington Plada: Yeah, I loved it. It was great. I learned a lot. A bunch of really cool and dedicated amazing professors and also students that we keep in touch today. I know that I'm going to have some players for life if I need like finding some players to collaborate, and that's great. 

Adam Eason: Yeah for sure. So what kind of compositions did you start writing at Western Oregon University? How did you begin with your private lessons?

Washington Plada: So the first thing I brought to a lesson was some compositions that I had done on my own with guitar. But they weren't... they weren't notated. I had some software on my computer and I was like, plug my guitar in and started playing and get some rhythm going and then come and do the lead or some melody with another guitar. So that's what I... what I did was to, I transcribe that to a notation software. And what I did was instead of the lead guitar with the melody, I decided (audio glitch) instead. And with the help of the professor, I reworked it from there, from a more classical standpoint. So my first composition was this short piece for guitar and flute. 

Adam Eason: Okay. Yeah and were these still kind of... I'm trying to figure out how to segue into this because I know I asked for a commission from you while you were still at Western Oregon University and you wrote some cello and piano pieces that were based on kind of Uruguayan I guess... traditional musics? Like tangos and milongas and things like that. Were your first compositions sort of slanting in that direction already or were they just sort of naturally coming from that source?

Washington Plada: Yeah, so a big inspiration of my music. My idea when composing is to fuse traditional western music that we call classic, classical music with world music, the music from different parts of the world and... One of the music that I know the most is the music from my own country, the music, the most popular music there, it's tango that we share with Argentina, milongas and candombes. Candombe is the only one that is only from Uruguay. 

So a lot of my inspiration even unconsciously sometimes just slips in my music because these are... this is my musical heritage. So it's hard to know (glitch) that the music doesn't get involved when I'm writing. But I also do like the composition that you commission for me because the theme was Latin American Music, the concert you were putting on, I drew more influences using some of the rhythms and from those styles that I just mentioned in and using like, the rhythm or some kind of aspect in building, building upon those or as a source of inspiration for each of the pieces. 

Adam Eason: Okay. 

Washington Plada: That's kind of what I want to do with my music. It's so all the music kind of has some kind of World Music association, even if it is from the music or from the feelings or from the thoughts or bring some kind of mundane aspect if you can say that.

Adam Eason: Sure that makes sense. I'm kind of curious because I know that my piano partner and I, Dianne, had a little bit... it took a little while to kind of click into especially the condombe rhythms. I'm curious if you have found it difficult translating some of the stuff that happens naturally by ears. Sometimes there's a lot of details that get lost when you try to write it down. So I'm curious how you approach that problem, especially because if you try to hyper notate everything like some of Bartok's pieces, he tried to get every little nuance in there and it just looks kind of crazy. So I'm curious how you approach that issue. 

Washington Plada: Well, I... this is, this very... it's a very new process for me to kinda like translate things from one culture to the other, and mixing cultures so I learned a couple things through the process and even like working with your piece and with a previous piece that I also drew something from condombes. Condombes... It's a... It's an Afro rhythm. So it started as a dance and music that was playing with these three distinct drums. So they can become very complex rhythms that interlock when the three drums are played. So if you played one drum by itself, it doesn't make a lot of sense, but what you put the three together, the rhythms compliment each other. When they are not playing all together (glitch). 

For example, the chico that's being played is the first beat so the downbeat so it's like (demonstrates rhythm). So if you play by yourself, it doesn't make sense. But if you're playing with the other ones, for example, the bigger drum that place the down beats with the boom boom and when you play them together its (demonstrates rhythm). 

And what I tried to translate some of those rhythms to different instruments like piano, it can be really complicated to play because as Westerners with downbeats, for example, and that's something that is very, very strong in the western culture. And if you're not that familiar with us, you tend to kind of always want to give like a nod to the downbeat. So for example, if I give you the chico drum that doesn't have the down beat, I had experienced this before and when I had written some music kind of condombe using that rhythm, that people tend to grab the first note and give it to the downbeat it can be... the ensemble can be a little bit not on the same page. Yeah, so I've learned that things are very difficult to translate literally or there are ways to get the same effect but you can avoid the confusing notation or the confusing rhythms. It's a very fascinating experience how you sometimes you had to rework things. Of course, you don't think about this until it happens, right? Because it's like well... and then you realize that it's much more than just notation. 

You can have the best, the best player playing that and it's not that they cannot play, they can, but there's much more to they don't know, a certain feeling, there's the knowledge behind this, the culture that all that makes the music's not just notes on the staff. And a good player, this much more that you need sometimes to express what you really want to tell through their music and I think people that are trained in different traditions might, like... It might not come naturally for them. So I think you... you for example, you're a composer, too, so as a composer we have to build a bridge between what do you want to say and who's going to say it and make the link as a smooth as you can so the performer can catch without a lot of information or detail. Without writing an essay about what you want them to come to play. I think that's what we're doing, this show is when the players can play what's behind your mind without have to have a meeting for two hours telling them what you want, right? 

Adam Eason: Yeah, for sure. So kind of taking a little bit of a sidetrack. You also have some compositions that you sent to me that are sort of like meditation-centric sort of relaxation musics. And you said you've written them with like yoga or like massage or just kind of different things along those lines and it looks like you have those tracks up on Spotify. So what kind of drew you in that direction? And when did that happen? Like was this while you're at school before you're in school for anything? 

Washington Plada: This is a very, at least to me, is a very interesting story. So this is that's how my... How can I say this? My approaching music started predominant time in my life? So I was a professional cyclist back in Uruguay, and when I was 18 years old, I had an accident when I broke a couple vertebraes on my body and I have difficult to walk and I had like a two-year-long recovery with doctors, chiropractors a lot of stuff. Before that I had a contract to come and race for a professional team in Kansas in the US. And I didn't do that of course because I just couldn't come when they wanted me to come. So I couldn't do much during those two years, were a little bit, like, me in bed, me walking a little bit in the house. This was mainly when I need to do something else than cycling and I couldn't do much with my life.

So that's kind of when I found music, I found playing music for myself was a little bit of relief for my life, kind of a little bit mentally like, just to put my... my energy on something else and at the same time I started, I grab the guitar for the first time and that's what my first approach to music was like... Music made me feel better. It made me, kind of, give me a purpose. And at the same time when I was listening or practicing the guitar, laying down in bed or sitting down... my pain would go away. Maybe it wasn't... it wasn't really away. But my mind wasn't focusing on that, right? So that was the first time I realized the power of music and how music can be more than entertainment. It could take your pain away, either really physically or just distracting your mind.

But I didn't have any knowledge more than my own experience so that led me to start playing the guitar and then all the rock bands and whatever I told you they playing festivals and stuff like that, but I always been interested in how music can affect your... your mind, your body and so when I came to the states, when I was living in San Francisco, I found this kind of more internet University that taught a year-long certificate that's called Sound, Voice, and Music Healing. It's a one-year certificate and through CIIS is that it's a university in San Francisco. And there the education that we got it was... it went from very new age all like "woo, woo" to like scientific and everything in between, you know. We got new age people. We got monks. We got scientist, we got all kind of musicians. So we were exposed to many different modalities and different approaches, which was great, you know, because you pick or they're like, oh go deeper in the one that you really liked or wanted

So during the time I was having a lot of problems sleeping, and we had to get a final project going to graduate from the class for the certificate. My idea was to do something with music that I could play or something. So I started to compose music to try to help me sleep. I would go to a computer, write music and then at night go and try with myself. Yeah, it was like, "Oh, these are distracting, I don't like that. Those bells they're too loud." Okay, and go the next day. I adjust it, remove instrument, play another instruments and I came up with a set of seven songs that I presented as a CD together with no intention of anything else, just, that was something for me, to help me. And then after a while I was like, "Well, why not share it with the world?" So I decided to press like a hundred CDs and it turned out that a lot of people liked it and they went from New Age studios on the east coast in Buenos Aires, for example to yoga teachers and practitioners and massage therapists and like, at the time, I put in some promotion, put it on CD Baby and people were writing emails from different parts of the world saying, "Hey! Like, I like what you're doing."

So yeah, that's always been a big part of my big interest in music so it kind of goes parallel with my more academic music composing. I hadn't done anything yet applying all my new knowledge or my academic knowledge, though. Those songs are pre-music education. Yeah, it doesn't mean that it's not good because it's a different approach. So I'm gonna write piano, it's not like I write a thousand notes like in one second because that's not what it's about. It's more about an experience and I did trying it on myself with the the goal of relaxation and yeah. Yeah, I'm very interested right now I'm researching. I want to write an article... no, more than an article, it's a paper. How music can be used for... to help with stress and anxiety.

Adam Eason: Yeah. A music therapy sort of thing. 

Washington Plada: Yeah. I kind of really like, (unclear) being made and for many years and I'm, I want to back all that up with science and experiments. I found a lot of experiments done by universities on how music can help with postoperatory like pain, for many different reasons, so I kind of wanna (unclear) a little bit like everything I do and bring some research behind it maybe. I'm thinking that might become a book in the future and also bring my composition expertise and me, with all the all the science behind it. Maybe bring my composition expertise and to guide other people that want to make music with that purpose.

Adam Eason: I see. 

Washington Plada: Kind of tie it all together. Okay, that's kind of like still an idea that maybe... it's kind of a strong idea. So I don't know when that might happen, but I'm in the research phase right now. We're collecting papers, reading and just starting from from (glitch).

Adam Eason: Nice, so currently though you're at University of Oregon and for your master's program and are you studying with David Crumb? 

Washington Plada: I am, yeah, I'm studying with David Crumb. And also with Robert Kyr. 

Adam Eason: Okay, both. 

Washington Plada: Yeah with both. Yes, so when you start this program you have to have a year with each. Okay, and then at the end of your two years you pick... you pick one or kind of like, it defaults to the professor that has more more expertise in the area that you want to develop your thesis or your your big project. So yeah. Already it's been a fantastic experience. They are both like great composers and great educators. They both have tremendous experience, great composers it's been, like, wonderful. 

Adam Eason: Yeah. I know that David crumb is George Crumb's son. George Crumb, the kind of Avant-garde composer, and I haven't heard a lot of Robert Kyr's music but you and I met at the Oregon Bach Festival Composer Symposium, and he had I think one or two samples of his music played there and he seemed a little bit more... I guess romantic kind of feeling? How would you describe the differences between their styles and have you been gravitating more towards one or you trying to tie them together? 

Washington Plada: Actually their styles are very different. So their approach to composition is... I would say that in some level is very opposite, but not... It's not this is better than the other, but they're just different and they are both really good. So what I notice from the classes is that Robert Kyr focuses a lot on the emotions, what's the story behind what you want to write, how you can project all those feelings and emotions to the piece and maybe that ties a lot to what you're saying about the Romanticism in this case. I think that's what a lot of like romantic music comes from is all of... all these big emotions. And experience with Crumb is more focused on like the purpose of each note. There in a more like... How can I describe it? It's more... it's not so much all these stories more about like well, that's these notes go together here, is more like...

Adam Eason: Like how its constructed I guess?

Washington Plada: Yeah. I don't want to call it intellectual, but it's more... The approach is it's more about what's the purpose of each note there? How do I tie together how this relates to that, it's more about like the music and not so much like bringing this story into it. So I'm fascinated by both worlds and trying to put those two together, because I think if I can do that, that would be amazing. For me, I'm not saying that I'm going to be the best composer. I'm saying that I love both approach in there. So like but the good thing is that they both have very different approaches, but both of their music is amazing. There's no one way of doing things but I want to bring the best of those worlds and like have a purpose behind each note I put on my paper that is deliberately put there for a reason. And that note can bring the best emotional effect that I can bring. So I think that's if I can convey that I'll be happy. 

Adam Eason: Yeah, I saw you posted... I think it was the Delgani String Quartet? Is that right? You wrote something for for them. Can you tell me what can you tell us a little bit about that work? Kind of what brought it about and... yeah. 

Washington Plada: So through the University, through this program that I'm currently doing, they bring us amazing artists to work with. I really like that. So the Delgani String Quartet started working with us, so we had the possibility to write for them and we started writing the pieces and then came for... they work with us throughout the whole process. So since the inception of the song until the performance, we wrote elements like a little bit more than sketches, like an advanced sketch lets say, and then they came and they played it. We told them about the story of the our piece and what we're going to convey: what, why, where everything else, all the details. And then they played what we had so far. There was like between 20 and 40 measures for the first time we got together. And they gave us feedback about this work that doesn't work. Or you can do these to translate better your ideas. 

It was like an amazing experience. They are great people, amazing musicians and they're like wonderful to work with. It was really cool. So it was a group setting, they came, everybody presented their piece. And it's really nice not only to hear your piece, but you hear your classmate pieces because you're learning from that, too. What they're saying may apply to other pieces if it does not apply to this one. I'm sure you'd apply it to your next one that you are writing. So then they came a couple more times. One time they came at the 50% of the piece, and they came at the... a few weeks before the concert. So we had to have the piece completed and they went through to make last minor details and and then we have rehearsal with them. 

And the piece was performed. All that process was very eye-opening and wonderful to work with. As a composer, you don't have all the time, that input. So you, your commission, or you're writing something on your own and you don't have all the players there. Like, the feedback like from the cello players and viola, from the violins, they're each giving you specific things about how their instrument work, how you can notate it better, how you can make it sound better. That's amazing because it's bulletproof then, your piece. At the end of that process you have something of really good quality that, you know, that can be played. Yeah, of course, then we have different categories of players but that's a whole different story. 

Adam Eason: What's the story? What's the story behind the piece? 

Washington Plada: The Spanish title translates to "Never Again." This... that phrase was used during the dictatorship in South America in the 70s until early 80s. Mostly all Latin America went through a dictatorship and they were very sad and scary times. Lots of people disappear, a lot of torture, lot of no good things happen and the militaries were in charge and everything that they didn't like, it was severely punished. Even just for having, like books that they didn't like at home, you know? They would come and it was very sad and "Nunca Más" is started as a saying like, never again, never again.

We don't want that again. Last year, 2019, a lot of riots and protests against the government were happening in many countries in South America, in (Chile), in Colombia, in Bolivia. And there was this collective fear because all that was done with the military that were going to streets, and again we were seeing in Chile many people disappear. A lot of people got killed and seriously injured like with because the militaries were like shooting them on the streets. Like, Big Brother's here. It was very sad and happened in many countries.

And there was this Collective fear of the 70s again. Yeah, and people were really afraid that they were going to take over the government and there's a lot of people that are alive right now they're in the 60s that they went through like, their mom, their dad, their cousins, disappear then themselves. Like I had friends, my parents friends. They were tortured, some of them disappeared. So that fear is still very strong. So I titled that piece "Nunca Más" because it was hard for me to see all this happening in my, like, only happening in my country but happening in other countries that I had, like, a very strong connection to so what's my way of letting participating in saying "No" say "Nunca Más" to that from being in the states. I cannot fly there and go to fight because that's not possible for me right now. So my fight is through music and through music can be heard. To a lot of people, and it's my way of like contributing to Chili's fight. So that's what the piece talks about. 

So the piece in the first, in the beginning of the piece is very chaotic and it kind of wants to translate a little bit what's going on in the street. Is this fight, is this bombs, is this fighting between people, police like, trying to survive yelling and screaming for your rights? And that's what the piece tells about. The middle of the piece, it changes completely the mood goes to, like, very quiet and almost delicate sound. What I wanted to translate there it was what's going on in the... in the mind, it the heart of some person that is looking. They're kind of like, aside from all the chaos, but it's looking at everything how you see how everything gets destroyed, how your family, your friends get beat up, they die, and it's a reflection of like what's going on, you know, yeah. By the end of the piece, the chaos comes back and is the guy is like kind of wakes up is like whoa, like I need to like, you know, the realities here around me again, you know, he wakes up from the dream state, let's say. And the piece finishes in this fury. Really fast and and loud and the piece ends as the quartet playing as loud as they can on their instrument. Just like, that's kind of an end to that fight, but the same time the moment is the fight itself. Yeah. 

Adam Eason: Okay, that's 

Washington Plada: That's a really strong piece.

Adam Eason: It's pretty heavy. 

Washington Plada: Yeah, I'm really happy how it turned out.

Adam Eason: I was very struck by its expressivity when I watched the video of it. 

Washington Plada: Yeah people seem to like it a lot, I'm very happy with it. It was not an easy piece, it was challenging and the performers, the Delgani String Quartet, did such an outstanding job, they can take whatever you throw at them. They get it. They play every single note how it needed to be, it was like perfect. I couldn't ask for more. 

Adam Eason: Yeah, they they definitely killed it at the performance. It was pretty awesome. Okay. Well, we're being up at the end of time, actually. It's always a little surprising how fast these hours can go. So I guess I'll just end with if you were to name a musician or a composer that like you think basically every Uruguayan would know. Like, maybe they don't like them, but they just know them. Who do you think that composer or musician would be?

Washington Plada: Does it have to be from my country, or...? 

Adam Eason: I mean just like just as a general like oh, yeah, everybody's heard of this person. 

Washington Plada: Wow. I didn't see that coming. That's a good question, it makes me... I don't know, it's not easy, but... Wow. Well, I would say definitely Carlos Gardel. 

Adam Eason: Gardel. Okay. Yeah.

Washington Plada: Yeah, he's a tango singer. Everybody knows him. That's kind of an icon of Uruguay, Argentina, South America. When you talk about tango, it's hard to not talk about him because he, in the singing tango, he is... He's the best. Yeah, even though he died like a long time ago, even if you asked to young people, they would know who he is. 

Adam Eason: Yeah, he did a Por Una Cabeza, right? 

Washington Plada: Yeah. And many many more. Yeah. Yeah. Well known all over the world, known in Uruguay, but a lot of people know him. If you know tango, you probably think about two and I think those two are probably Gardel in the singing style and Piazzolla in the instrumental tango, those are kind of like... Of course, there are more in the instrumental tango, but if you set up a he's probably one of the most well-known. Yeah, so he brings kind of like more classical. 

Adam Eason: Right, right. Also jazz and stuff.

Washington Plada: Jazz and stuff. So I think it covers more ground. The other people that play tango that they are great orchestras, that's only like in that style.

Adam Eason: Gotcha. Cool. All right. Well, I guess that's that's all for today. Thanks for joining us. It's been a really good talk with you. 

Washington Plada: Yeah, thank you for inviting me in, this is great. And I love talking about, like, mostly about my heritage and my country, it's nice to like, be are an ambassador. Yeah. Be a humble ambassador for my country and my music. Thank you. It's a pleasure. And let's see if we can collaborate soon enough. 

Adam Eason: Yeah, of course! Yeah, do something together.

Washington Plada: I know that I have to say that I love the collaboration we did together. That concert is still going to happen? Like when the Latin American concert. Are you still thinking about it? When all this clears up? 

Adam Eason: Yeah, it's a little bit hard to say. We did most of the program that we wanted to do. So it ended up being like 75% We had like the Piazzola, your pieces, Ginastera, a little bit of Ponce, but we didn't quite have enough time at that... Like this was early/late December and we were going to do a couple more pieces and then covid hit so we had to kind of shelve some things but we got most of the programming we wanted. 

Washington Plada: Well, maybe if you do another one maybe I'll come up with something new for that. 

Adam Eason: Yeah that we are. All right. 

Washington Plada: And thank you. 

Adam Eason: Thank you. 

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