Captain Víctor Pacheco Arias, a veteran of the War of Independence, clarinetist, composer and director of musical groups, founded the insurgent Banda Libertad de Cuba in the Third Corps of the Liberation Army. In the same way, the San Fernando Academy with musicians of conga heritage was raised under his baton, and on July 4th, 1902 he founded the Musical Center Instruction and Recreation Association.

Antecedent and mambí legacy

The San Fernando Orchestra was made up of musicians of conga heritage, participants in the liberation feat, tres players Víctor Lángara and Patricio Ballagas and the Libertad Band.

Likewise, the Pla and Minueses families form groups of different formats, duos, trios, quartets, with programs of danzones, romances, songs, sones, among other genres —on occasions accompanied by the violin teacher Diego Bringas, whose themes allude to the Homeland, Cuban nature, the palm, family love, referenced in the own press in fixed sections with the pen of the journalist Nicolás Guillén Urra. Among the soloists is the sones singer Ms. Esperanza Villavicencio.

Musical rhythms and other arts forged during the war of independence are incorporated into the legitimizing spaces of good art. Captain Víctor Pacheco Arias appears in the hegemonic press recognized for the level of his performance. Thus, what is despised and peripheral is located at the center of cultural legitimacy.

The themes about Cuban nature, the royal palm, the fields and dramas alluding to their unfinished present place these men and women in the capacity of political subjects beyond war. Likewise, the learning processes prepare them for the sector of specialized services, denied under discriminatory legislation -training them not only in favor of their peers, but at the service of society in general.

However, in this context, orchestras, groups of different formats organized by blacks and mestizos, men and women, perform Cuban music, such as danzón, son, songs with themes related to Cubanness and in turn are part of the sociocultural life of Camagüey, in theaters like El Principal, in different Bands of the Province and in the instruction of this art at a social level.

In this context, the Musical Center developed an important educational-musical work.

Regulations of the Musical Center

The Regulations of the Center note that its objective is to put in contact, motivate and advance the musical elements of the town by providing them with all kinds of rhythms that are not at odds with morality, except for dances that under no circumstances may be performed in the institution.

Rehearsals

In the same way, the rehearsals that the partners agree upon may be carried out in the society, either as a general group, or by the different orchestras of the town, or separately.

Schedules

The salons were open every day from six in the morning to eleven at night. For the orchestras that work within this society, they will freely exercise their artistic functions without the Board of Directors having jurisdiction over them.

Partners

The society recognizes three types of members: number or professionals, those who exercise the musical profession while educating, and those who wish to receive the Center’s philharmonic education.

Professional members had to pay 50 Spanish silver cents in advance, students doubled and one peso for everyone as an entrance fee.

It is noted that no partner could invite ladies or young ladies.

Musical context

The orchestras of this period in its beginnings are reorganized led by mambises in the 1995 War, which were part of the first AIRNM such as the Víctor Pacheco Arias Orchestra, the San Fernando Orchestra, the Military Band, the Libertad Band, the Ángel Mola International Orchestra and the Children’s Band, the children of the musicians.

The fox trop and other rhythms are introduced

In addition to the danzón, the sones, boleros, the song, rhythms and dances of the North American black are introduced: the fox trop, founded in the 1910s, in the south of the United States by African-Americans and reaches its peak in 1930. Similarly origin of the Black botton dance, the Charleston, the feeling style song.

In this sense, the systemic and the interaction with the macro, meso and local ecosystem are noted, the Musical Youth Band is founded, which in turn serves as the official volunteer Band of the Fire Department, are musicians in turn belonging to the Maceo, Victory and Progress associations.

Important to know

This feedback process with the environment and cultural self-emancipation placed them as the axes of official musical practices in the context of the first three decades of the 20th century.

Bibliography

– Henry Knight, Kezia Zabrina (2020) Asociaciones de negros y mestizos en la ciudad de Camagüey (1879-1961) Sus aportes al desarrollo social. Editorial Ácana, Camagüey, Cuba.

Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García