Jaime Bofil / Conservatory of Music
July 2018
Dr. Jaime Bofill Calero received his Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology and Music Theory from the University of Arizona. Dr. Bofill currently serves as Assistant Professor at the Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico, where he also directs the Instituto de Investigación Musical de Puerto Rico y del Caribe and the academic journal Musiké. His interdisciplinary research is now focused on creating awareness on the relationships between music, sound, and the environment. This past April 2018, Bofill organized “Conscious Soundscapes: Music, Art & Climate Change after Hurricane María”, a symposium which brought together scholars, artists, and environmentalists from different parts of the globe to discuss the pressing issues surrounding climate change. He is currently producing the film "Bajando por la montaña: Ecology of Colombian Gaita Music".
Transcript
JB (0:17): On the island of Puerto Rico, part of our sonic memory, part of what we identify with, are the natural sounds. It’s tropical, it’s lush so we definitely have a lot of vegetation. The sound of the vegetation; the sound of the trees; the ocean brushing up on the sand, caressing the sand, you know? The wind definitely also comes to mind.
JB (0:43): The Coquí frog, it’s a small toad that sings only at nighttime. [Whistles, mimicking Coquí] A lone coquí makes [Whistles] and another one will respond because it’s a mating call. Or, if you’re lucky, you’ll get a whole orchestra, and that’s the beautiful thing because it’s like a symphony. A symphony of like [Multiple whistles]. And, you know, all the other, like, insects–it’s quite noisy outside. But it’s something that is naturally occurring, and it’s something our ears are accustomed to here in Puerto Rico, and that we’ve been living with since–since we were born.
JB (1:20): My name is Jaime Bofill and I am an Ethnomusicologist in the Conservatory of Music. I basically teach music in historical content, music as culture. As musicians, as artists, the driving force behind a lot of these projects is because we want people to know that art can make change.
JB (2:00): During the nighttime, Hurricane Maria hits Puerto Rico. It’s more an auditory experience than it is a visual one. The only thing I was paying attention to is the wind [wind noises with mouth], and also listening to what would happen to our roof, the [more mouth noises, then a boom]. Completely gone. So you were listening towards these things and you sort of got a sonic picture from within your home of what was going on outside. So that natural soundscape, if you want to say, that was completely altered. Definitely the birds, and all of this, you couldn’t hear. And that’s very disturbing. At the same time, there’s a beauty also, about the force. The force of, maybe, 100 miles per hour wind hitting up against your house. It’s aweing.
JB (3:01): When Hurricane Maria finally hits the island, people learn that we have to count on our neighbor, we have to count on the community. You can’t depend on FEMA; you can’t depend on the US government; you can’t depend on external things to come bring back the power, water…We have to count on ourselves.
[Street music begins to play]
JB (3:24): Hurricane Maria did not create a lot of the problems that we have here in Puerto Rico. A lot of the problems that we have here in Puerto Rico, as part of our colonial history, are long-standing problems. So I ask myself, “Are we just going to get back on the same track and do as we had done before? Or are we going to try and create a change? Music definitely formed part of how we reinvent ourselves as a community. We started making music in new ways.
JB (4:10): Based on previous hurricane experiences, there’s a famous song from Puerto Rico that’s from the beginning of the 20th Century called “Temporal”. It’s a plena, “Temporal, temporal. Alla viene el temporal. ¿Qué será de Puerto Rico? Cuando pase el temporal.”
JB (4:31): Alfonso Fuentes, he’s one of the most renowned composers of his generation. He started improvising “Temporal”. To take these sounds and to recreate it again when Maria had just devastated Puerto Rico, was very moving for everyone who was witnessing what he was doing on the piano. He just has that gift to take something very small and make it something quite vast. That’s art. That’s music, right? AF (4:58): I live in Trujillo Alto in the mountains, because I love the sound of the insects. The coquís and chicharras and everything. After the hurricane, I heard no birds. No nocturnal insect. I also didn’t hear El Baile de las hojas (Ollas?) because there were no winds. Everything was quiet. So it was very strange, not listening to that beautiful sound of the night that I love. After that, I needed to express myself because there were a lot of emotions going on in my heart. So I had a little portable battery piano, and with my head lamp in the night, I was immersed in that emotion to improvise about “Temporal”. This time, in relation with Maria.
(6:06:) [Alfonso approaches the piano, sits down, and begins to play “Temporal”]
(9:46): [Credits begin to roll]
