About Us
Raíces y Evolución
La Música de Puerto Rico: Raíces y Evolución (The Music of Puerto Rico: Roots and Evolution) is an educational musical project produced by William Cepeda. This project stems from a desire to document our native music and Puerto Rican cultural traditions, as well as promote their development and explore their potential
The project explores four musical traditions that have been fundamental in the historical evolution of Puerto Rico: Jíbaro music, Bomba, Danza, and Plena.
Essays are presented for each musical tradition, and songbooks, videos, and traditional and experimental music corresponding to each genre are included, collected in four concerts held at the Nuestra Música en Dos Tiempos festival. This musical banquet brings together talented musicians from the courtyard who cultivate each genre in their traditional versions, and the AfroRican Jazz group, directed by William Cepeda. In addition, in a series of educational videos, the project collects the collective and individual experiences of people prominent in the four musical traditions, and offers demonstrations of the instruments, singing, and dancing.
With the purpose of adapting to the educational needs of our system, a curricular activity guide is included for each of the musical genres. The result of the collaboration of musicians, composers, performers, research exponents, and supporters of each genre constitutes the content of the La Música de Puerto Rico: Raíces y Evolución project. This project is aimed at a wide audience and provides educational support resources, mainly for students and educators (but not limited to)."
A folk musical genre from Puerto Rico that is sung, danced, and played to the beat of drums with various rhythms.
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Puerto Rican folk music that is distinguished by call-and-response type singing to the rhythm of panderos and güiro.
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Music that employs seises and aguinaldos, décimas and decimillas accompanied by cuatro, guitar, and güiro.
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A musical genre from Puerto Rico closely associated with dancing and particular rhythms.
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