Reyes

Combining playing, dancing, and singing from Puerto Rico, this bomba workshop will offer a holistic understanding of the music. Attendees will be provided with practical experiences and material they can employ in their practice.

Bombapuertorriqueña is a four-dimensional musical expression from Puerto Rico that combines singing, music-playing, and dancing in a gregarious setting. Created by the African slave population, bomba has endured a marginalized path in Puerto Rican society. Nevertheless, it has served as a space for catharsis and celebration of the human condition. This workshop will focus on the musical, contextual, and historical aspects of Puerto Rican bomba.

On the musical side, we will engage with the five basic styles of bomba and how to play them in both bomba drums (the subidor, and buleador), the cuás, and the maracas.  While the buleador keeps a steady pattern of play, the subidor is an improvisatory instrument within the musical expression, as it freely improvises during a song or interprets the movements of a dancer. The maraca is held by the primary singer, and the cuás complement the barrels. Aside from music-playing, participants will engage in a call and response singing dynamic germane to bomba music. The repertoire will be a mix of centuries-old songs as well as contemporary compositions.

The musical aspect will give way to contextualizing each of the musical styles by situating participants in the origins of bomba across Puerto Rico, teaching them how to build a soberao—the setting where the music is played— and the basic steps of each of the styles. The facilitator will provide literature that explains activities attendees can employ in their praxis with school children of all ages.

Dr. Francisco Reyes, a doctoral alumni of McGill University, is a Music Education Professor at the University of Washington. Francisco has presented at conferences in North America and Europe, and published in the Canadian Journal of Music Education, Research Studies in Music Education, and the International Journal of Music Education.‍