Alrededor del arpa. Diálogos y encuentros musicales entre la UNAM y la Sorbona

Within the framework of the strategic agreement between UNAM and Sorbonne Université, from June 17 to July 3, 2023, the second phase of the project An Instrument for Everyone: A Cardboard Harp? was carried out. This activity in which a multidisciplinary group of students and professors collaborated with their French peers, is an academic initiative focused on different characteristics of the harp in France and Mexico: its history, construction, repertoire, sociological aspects, and training. The coordinators of this initiative, supported by UNAM’s International Affairs Head Office (CRAI, Spanish initials) and the Center for Mexican Studies UNAM-France, were Dr. Frédéric Billiet and the author.

A complete program of academic and cultural activities on making cardboard harps designed by the Pop’Harpe Association was organized during these two weeks, including concerts, conferences, round tables, workshops, and cultural visits. Furthermore, the book Danza de Moctezuma: Homenaje al arpista nahua Joselito Hernández (Moctezuma’s Dance: A Tribute to Nahua Harpist Joselito Hernández) published by UNAM’s Faculty of Music (FaM) and music graduate programs, the Collegium Musicae of the Sorbonne, and The National Sound Library was presented in the Maison du Mexique in the International University City of Paris (read the entire program here: https://rb.gy/mhy6q6).

The harp-making workshops were held in the Clignancourt University Center during the first week of activities. Led by wooden-instruments maker Pascal Bernard and harpist Verónique Musson-Gonneaud from Pop’Harpe, students from both universities worked in couples assembling the instrument (sound box and frame) and reviewed the key aspects for its functioning like string positioning, tuning, and notions for its maintenance. The acoustic record of the instruments was directed by Dr. Jean-Loïc Le Carrou, researcher and professor at the Musical Acoustics Laboratory d’Alembert, and his enthusiastic student team.

The musical practice workshops were spaces for exchanging musical pieces and songs from different musical traditions from different times and locations. UNAM’s team shared some sones from Veracruz and Tixtla, Guerrero, some of Moctezuma’s Nahua dances and ayacaxtnij (little jingles), music from La Huasteca, and the pascola dance of the Yoreme from Sonora. During the lessons and rehearsals, Véronique Musson-Gonneaud—a specialist in the study and repertoire of ancient harps—taught the students some medieval dances, Spanish baroque dances, and some dances specially composed for the cardboard harp.
Thierry Maniguet, harp history specialist, guides UNAM’s team on their visit to the Museum of Music-Philarmonie in Paris. Photo: Frédéric Billiet

The conferences and lectures offered by the participants of both universities, Pop’Harpe, and guests were another fundamental point for this International Summer School. Thanks to them, the people who formed UNAM’s team—people devoted to musicology, ethnomusicology, musical teaching, performance, anthropology, sociology, physiotherapy, pedagogy, musical cognition, intercultural management—had a fruitful exchange with their peers from the Sorbonne and with academics from other institutions that were part of the Collegium Musicae-Alliance Sorbonne Université, like the Institute for Musicological Research (IReMus), and The Museum of Music-Philarmonie of Paris.

During these sessions and those carried out in Mexico during the first International School in 2022, several discussions about harps from the Middle Ages to those of our days were held. Their symbolism, aesthetics, iconography, performers, music, and transformations were discussed. The topic of traditional and popular harps in Mexico— where there is the most extensive diversity of diatonic harps worldwide—was addressed. There were also discussions about how, in many cases, these instruments of European origin became part of the ritual framework of indigenous populations, which allowed the harp to be present in their musical practice until our days.

A wide range of topics was handled: the implantation and appropriation of the harp among indigenous populations of the New Spain, the historical sound records of the harp in Mexico, the learning processes of harp music in culturally hybrid spaces, learning harp in La Huasteca Potosina, its presence among the Yoreme and their pascola dance, the social and cultural aspects of possible development of a cardboard harp in Latin-America, the first work experiences with the cardboard harp in UNAM, the advantages offered by a low-cost, easy-to-carry instrument, (just like the Pop’Harpe), its teaching in virtual environments, stage fright, and the musculoskeletal pains that can afflict the students of this instrument.
The International Summer School program also included the musical participation of UNAM’s team on different sceneries, like the Amphithéâtre Richelieu of the Sorbonne, the Musical Fevers Festival—in the Hôpital de la Pitié Salpêtrière— and the Pop’Harpe Congress, which took place in the Auditorium Antonin Artaud at Ivry-sur-Seine. During these presentations and the conferenceconcert, “The Musical System of La Huasteca: Music from Téenek (Huastec), Tutunaku (Totonac), Ñühü (Otomi), Mexicano (Nahua) and Mestizos,” held in the Center for Mexican Studies UNAMFrance, the poetry, voices, and sonorities of the harp were essential for the renovation of bonds between cultures, worldhearings, and universities.

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