DANIEL GODÍNEZ NIVÓN

Asamblea Musical | Centro Cultural Universitario Tlatelolco, Ciudad de México | 18 de junio, 2011

A process of dialogue and musical improvisation was carried out on Saturday, June 18th, in the hall of Centro Cultural Universitario Tlatelolco, an interchange of ideas and knowledge about music, inspired in the “tequio”, that is a way of community work of a collective benefit. The Indigenous Infant Band of Mexico City, the sound art collective “Radiador” and the Luis Pantoja percussion ensemble participated. These groups belong to different manifestations of music, and had never seen each other before. The first part of the event consisted on an assembly in which the following questions were discussed in a collective way: What do you think music is? Is music useful? What do we feel when we play? How do we understand improvisation? Each question set for discussion and the opinions ere drawn, these drawings would work as diagrams – musical score for the collective improvisation. The audience also participated an was a key element for the assembly knowing the thoughts of people related to things out of the fields of music or visual arts. For the second part of the event – the musical execution-, we had four musical diagrams, as a result of the questions an previous assembly, and the collective improvisation began. Each ensemble took a few minutes to discuss the way they would interpret the drawings, keeping a relation with the previous discussion. Then they began to play, giving life and shape to an emotive and dynamic music that kept the balance between the different bands. And so, improvisation turned into a conversation between bands that lasted about two hours. Thanks to this experience, we considered music as a system of lasting organization that allowed free interpretation. Our scores made visible the “tequio” as a work system and a musical improvisation method, that can be interpreted anywhere in the world.