Music of the People

By Hillary Harder

This week in Quito our group experienced a very different type of “guest lecture” – a musical presentation by a band called the Banda de Pueblo Urbano! The banda de pueblo is a long-standing musical tradition in Ecuador dating back to the 1800’s. Meaning both “band of the town” and “band of the people,” bandas de pueblo are community-based musical ensembles that can be found in nearly all small towns across the sierra and coastal regions of Ecuador. Typically comprised of a mix of Western/European instruments (trumpet, trombone, saxophone, snare drum) and Andean instruments (bombo drum, auxiliary percussion instruments like platillos and timbales), the banda de pueblo is a musical manifestation of the syncretism between European and Andean cultures that can be seen all across Ecuador. In every festival, holiday, wedding, or event in their town, the banda de pueblo will be there to set the mood and get everyone dancing!

The band members explained that their banda de pueblo is a bit different, for several reasons. First, most of these ensembles are family bands made up of relatives from the same town. However, their group consists of friends and one married couple who met as students at the Universidad Central del Ecuador, the biggest university in the country, located in Quito. Second, while these bands are usually fixtures of rural communities and small towns, this group is based in Quito, hence their name – Banda de Pueblo Urbano. Each band member spoke eloquently about their desire to preserve this rich musical tradition and bring a bit of the pueblo to the big city.

And then they began to play! The music was instantly infectious, and while we were tapping our feet and bobbing our heads, the band quickly called out, “Go ahead and dance! This music is for dancing!” So – we did! It was easy to see why this music is inseparable from dancing – the traditional rhythms we had just learned about such as the San Juanito, pascalle, and bomba were far too lively to fully experience sitting down. When the band realized that Micah is a percussionist (the students may have helped), they called him up to play with them!

Best of all, we shared this experience with many of our Ecuadorian friends and partners who joined in the fun – our dear local coordinator, Klever; our Spanish professor and interpreter, Fernanda; our Indigenous Nationalities and Peoples teacher, Julian, who had arrived early just in time to join us; and even some of the amazing staff from la Casa de Espiritualidad, who serve us delicious meals day in and day out, heard the music from the kitchen and came to dance with us! This was one of our favorite afternoons yet and brought to life the idea that bandas de pueblo exist to bring people together and carry forward a beautiful history and tradition.

All photos and videos shared with permission of musicians and participants.