Using Multimedia to Expand the Audience of ... - Richard Repp

Using Multimedia 10
its cultural context.
Editors Dale Olsen and Daniel Sheehy of The Garland Encyclopedia of World
Music, Volume 2, South America, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, (1998)
provide a section titled “The Music of Mexico’s Native People” (pp. 548-625), which
documents an extensive variety of native musical traditions and musical instruments, but
does not provide evidence of the Huichol music. They include photographs of different
musicians annotated with a description of instrumentation influenced by region. The
information identifies musical styles and popular music, such as the mestizo son (p. 605-
608), among various demographics of Mexico. The book presents information to the
audience in sections combining historical, geographical, and cultural background of
indigenous and folk music. A section on “Folk-derived popular music” (p. 619) and
“Other folk-derived popular musics” (p. 622) explains historical transformations of the
Mexican musical culture into the voice of the mestizo, including mariachi, ranchera,
banda, and orquesta típica (p. 621-622). Popular musical groups called mariachis are
strolling folk orchestras found originally in the western Mexican states of Colima,
Nayarit, and Jalisco. Mariachi orchestras have acquired much fame in the capital city of
Guadalajara, Jalisco. The encyclopedia includes a plethora of useful bibliographic
information and guides to film, video, and sound recordings.
The article “The Many Forms and Styles of the Mexican Fiddle” by Ana Zarina
Palafox Méndez, Fiddler Magazine (Fall 1998), reprinted as an internet article “Mexican
violin styles”, relates information that concurs theoretically with the previously
mentioned source. The author establishes an historical connection with the European
fiddle-like instrument to what the Huichol musicians adopted for their own. She