This paper addresses the relevance of the visual representation of the bajo sexto in the current construction of this musical instrument in three cities in the state of Coahuila, Mexico. This is the result of media influences, hybridizations and searches for differentiation and belonging, both among builders and consumers. Based on qualitative research, and specifically on the ethnographic method, this approach is articulated through the concept of field<\/em> Bourdieu to interpret the dialogue between tradition and innovation around the elaboration and consumption of this icon of northern music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keywords: \"m\u00fasica norte\u00f1a\" (northern music)<\/a>, lower sixth<\/a>, field<\/a>, construction<\/a>, innovation<\/a>, visual representation<\/a>, tradition<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n This article covers the relevance of the visual representation of the bajo sexto in the current production of this instrument in three cities of the state of Coahuila, Mexico. This relevance is a result of media influences, hybridizations, differences and belongings, both in builders and in consumers. With qualitative investigation as a starting point, and specifically the ethnographic method, this approach is articulated through Bordieu's concept of field to interpret the dialogue between tradition and innovation surrounding the creation and use of this icon of northern<\/em> music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keywords: lower sixth<\/em>visual representation, tradition, innovation, construction, \"northern<\/em> music\", field.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The music of the northern ensemble2<\/a> (Pe\u00f1a, 1985: 14; D\u00edaz-Santana, 2015: 15) has moved from the regional to the global, and in this positioning in the. social imaginary<\/em>3<\/a> There are also his instruments: the diatonic accordion and the bajo sexto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My academic experience on the subject allows me to indicate that the supply of low-cost4<\/a> has increased in recent years, due to the positioning of norte\u00f1o music. The Monterrey context exemplifies this. In the past, we used to talk about the brands5<\/a> local,6<\/a> Hernandez or Acosta; today we have options such as Herrera, Badines,7<\/a> N\u00e1poles, Vega and Marro, in addition to the respective branches of the former.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The expansion of northern music and the demand for basses are strengthened in globalization, in which the circulation of information and goods represents new discourses, dynamics and interactions between actors around the chordophone, as individuals appropriate part of these flows and capitalize on them in the instrument. From the first fieldwork I conducted (2014) to the most recent project,8<\/a> This process of appropriations was made explicit in the role played by the visual representation of the bass in the current construction, where tradition and innovation are present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The importance of studying the visual representation of the bajo sexto stems from the limited research on northern music and the instrument. By conceiving of musical instruments as \"sites of meaning construction...embodiments of culture-based beliefs and value systems, an artistic and scientific legacy\" (Dawe, 2012: 195), they can enrich information produced from other approaches and represent, through their particularity, an additional view of reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The importance of musical instruments in the phenomenon of northern music lies precisely in the fact that they are a reference point not only for the development of the genre but also for the social and economic changes in the northeastern region, in addition to bringing us closer to all those meanings that are constructed in their sounds, repertoires, techniques, images and, above all, the rituals in which they participate and which provide a broader vision of society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this paper, I analyze the interactions of woodworkers from the concept of field<\/em> Bourdieu, where tradition and innovation appear as strategies for the positioning of these and thus try to strengthen the importance of the study of the visual aspect of the instrument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From this perspective, a main question arises: what is the function or functions of the visual representation of the lower sixth in the field<\/em> What are the specific characteristics of the construction of these chordophones, and specifically, the interactions between tradition and innovation? The secondary questions are: who determines the visual representation of the instrument, what elements make tradition and innovation possible in the instrument, what specific weight does the visual representation of the instrument have in the positioning of a builder?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Academic works on northern music date back to the last decade of the last century. In this production the bajo sexto has been little addressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Locally, the works deal with the origin of the bajo sexto north and south of the Rio Bravo (Guerrero, 2002: 28-29); they provide data on its construction and repair in municipalities in Nuevo Le\u00f3n (Ayala 2009:108-109; 2014: 142-143); they place it in the century xix<\/span>They record it in Monterrey with builders and music houses, where the visual representation of the instrument is exhibited although not as the main theme (Godina, 2014); they record the life story of a bass sexter (Godina, 2015) and that of a Monclovense builder (Godina, 2018); they give an account of the recent history of the instrument in Paracho and its relationship with the North (Godina, 2017); they approach the Laudero del desierto<\/em> through the concept of field<\/em>, outlining the dialogue between tradition and innovation (Godina, 2019a); they expose immigration and identity derived from the mobility of builders (Godina, 2019b).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nationally, the works consider the Baj\u00edo as a massifier of the instrument and propose the lute as a matrix (Montoya, 2013a: 191-208); they address its image in the social construction of the northern music and the rockerization <\/em>in the performance of the instrument and in the musicalization of the songs (Montoya, 2013b: 184-222); they address its history and propose the baroque guitar as a matrix, in addition to exposing some innovations in the instrument, such as amplification, morphology and execution (D\u00edaz-Santana, 2015: 96-104, 130-140; 2016); they give an overview of its manufacture in Paracho, Michoac\u00e1n, and propose four stages.9<\/a> (Hern\u00e1ndez, 2014); they expose construction migration, the circuits derived from it and its effects on the land of origin (Hern\u00e1ndez, 2017a; 2017b).10<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Internationally, and specifically in the United States, Norte\u00f1o music or some element of it has been addressed.11<\/a> The works narrate, among other things, their employment in musical ensembles, their execution, and share images (Pe\u00f1a, 1985; 1999); address tuning, execution, and implementation (Ragland, 2009: 53-55); mention tuning, musical function, and basic accompaniment of some genres (Madrid, 2013: 73-89), and only a few describe the construction activity of Mexicans on U.S. soil (McNutt, 1991; Young, 2001).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Given the brief academic research and the suggestive economic phenomenon that emerged from my first paper (2014), I was invited to participate in the project guided by Dr. Olvera Gudi\u00f1o.12<\/a> to take the research to a larger spatial delimitation. My later work on the chordophone derives from this project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first approach was based on the ethnographic method, investigating two key spaces: musical instrument stores and bass construction workshops. I considered these spaces as points of convergence of suppliers, music lovers and musicians, in addition to the commercial links between both spaces. The fieldwork focused on approaching employees and owners, respectively. The main activities were semi-structured interviews and participant and non-participant observations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This experience confirmed the pertinence of the selection of the spaces, the qualitative research and the ethnographic exercise. For this assignment I decided to repeat the methodology, although it should be mentioned that initially an academic team was assigned for the sound objects. The generic protocol gave the guideline in terms of themes, objectives and pertinent questions; later on, the necessary adaptations would be made for each case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a general description of the fieldwork, I can mention that I focused on sketching the economic links between music houses, builders and repairers. In the workshops, the builders were approached in order to learn about the instruments, consumer profiles, economic circuits and so on. It should be noted that we had access to almost all the key informants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The spatial delimitation corresponds to three cities in the state of Coahuila: Saltillo, Torre\u00f3n and Monclova. The choice of cities was based on their population index and economic importance. As for the temporal delimitation, it covers from the linkage of the results obtained in 2016 to those corresponding to the year 2019, including previous data (2014).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The bajo sexto is a chordophone related to northern and Texan ensemble music that is morphologically similar to the guitar, with twelve strings arranged in pairs. The typologies with eighteen strings are called fifth bass.13<\/a> and fourth bass, respectively. Its execution, with plectrum, focuses on the accompaniment of the accordion through chords, marking basses and performing some ornaments. More dynamic harmonies, ornaments and solos have been introduced in recent decades. It is worth mentioning that, according to musicologist Curt Sachs, in chordophones the strings can be struck with sticks, plucked with fingers or a plectrum, played with a bow or (in the aeolian harp, for example) sounded by wind (2016: 463).<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for wood craftsmen, I have been able to observe that they conceive of themselves, among other things, as carpenters, cabinetmakers, builders and lute makers, and for the most part identify their work as manufacturing.14<\/a> In this regard, Hernandez writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lauder\u00eda is a European term that refers to the musical instrument known as the lute, played mainly during the Middle Ages... Nowadays [2011], although lutes are not traditionally made in Mexico, the makers of stringed musical instruments are identified as lute makers, and the trade they practice is called lauder\u00eda. It is pertinent to say that the term is used more in the academic environment, because in the creative context of the towns they call themselves guitar makers, cabinetmakers, carpenters, craftsmen, builders, etc. (2011: 237-238).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hence the reason for alluding to woodworkers as builders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When talking about instruments, the disciplines that come to the scene are organography and organology; however, as V\u00edctor Hern\u00e1ndez points out, when one wants to go beyond description and taxonomic systems, these disciplines are not enough, since<\/p>\n\n\n\n are very useful as tools to achieve a first approach to musical instruments, but it has its limitations when this researcher approaches to study traditional systems where the sound artifacts fulfill metamusical functions and go from being material objects to subjects, entities, beings<\/em> social and community related to cosmogony and particular ritual contexts (Hern\u00e1ndez, 2016: 31).<\/p>\n\n\n\n An exception is Mantle Hood's proposal on organology, which indicates that<\/p>\n\n\n\n could include not only the history and description of the instruments, but it is also equally important to include aspects neglected by the \"science\" of musical instruments, such as the particular techniques of performance<\/em>The musical function, the decoration (differentiating it from the construction of the instrument) and a variety of socio-cultural considerations (1982: 124 [own translation]).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the bajo sexto, the decoration is a way of giving uniqueness to the instrument, and this is repeated with some of the constructive organs; a network of meanings is thus configured. Since the bass has a dichotomy of audible and visual signs, a reflection that emerged when reading a work on the mariachi by ethnomusicologist Arturo Chamorro (2006), I lean towards its visual signs. Arturo Chamorro indicates: \"we should consider this figure [the mariachi] in the world of shared and consumed signs in two aspects: 1) the visual representation..., 2) the musical representation\" (2006: 91). I use \"visual representation\" to refer to the visual aspect of the instrument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Describing the semiotic structuring of a symbolic system with respect to the bass is not my main objective in this work, although it is through the meanings given to its visual signs that the interactions I am interested in addressing are woven, since, \"understood as interacting systems of interpretable signs... culture is a context within which all those phenomena [social events, modes of behavior, institutions or social processes] can be described in an intelligible, i.e. dense, manner\" (Geertz, 2003: 27).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this sense, historian Carlos Herrej\u00f3n Peredo speaks of a \"cycle of tradition\" that is composed of: a) the action of transmitting, b) the action of receiving, c) the process of assimilation, d) fixation or possession, e) repeated transmission (1994: 136). In our company, what is transmitted is the visual representation of what a bass is; the action of receiving gives action to the receiver; in assimilation, the visual representation of the bass is taken and updated by the receiver; in possession, the image is seen as heritage, but it can also be enriched or modified; making the transmission again closes the cycle, but the image is already intervened, the tradition is updated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From this conception, tradition does not remain intact, and even \"innovation\" (those changes that are made to the traditional models of low sextos) is part of this transmission of tradition. Therefore, the tension between tradition and innovation obeys that which is sketched in the interactions of the builders, since these terms serve to distinguish their work from each other, although we will see if it is really a tension. In this way, and to where my interest points, the terms of tension and innovation can be analyzed as conservation strategies<\/em> and subversion<\/em>belonging to the concept of field<\/em>by Bourdieu, who defines it as<\/p>\n\n\n\n a game space, a field of objective relations between individuals or institutions competing for an identical game. In this particular field which is that of haute couture [in our case it would be that of the construction of low sexts] the dominant ones are those who possess to a greater degree the power to construct objects as something rare by the procedure of the signature (the griffe<\/em>); they are those whose firm has the highest price. In a field, and this is a general law for all fields, those who hold the dominant position, those who have more specific capital, are opposed in many respects to the newcomers (I use this metaphor taken from economics on purpose), the latecomers, the upstarts who do not have much specific capital. Those with more seniority use conservation strategies<\/em> whose objective is to take advantage of the capital they have progressively accumulated. Newcomers have subversion strategies<\/em> oriented towards an accumulation of specific capital that supposes a more or less radical alteration of the table of values, a more or less revolutionary redefinition of the principles of production and appreciation of products and, at the same time, a devaluation of the capital held by the dominant (Bourdieu, 1990: 216-217).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The interesting thing about the field <\/em>of the construction of low sexts is to know who are the dominant ones, what or who positions them there, what is their specific capital (that which the \"newcomers\" yearn for), how what they recognize as tradition and innovation can be understood as conservation strategies<\/em> and subversion<\/em>and, therefore, what is the specific weight of the visual representation of the instrument in this field<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The sound and visual representations of the bajo sexto were positioned, to a large extent, by what was broadcast in the audiovisual media, and specifically the record and film industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The musical expression of the accordion-bass pairing emerged in the countryside and moved to the city, although to the cantina and \"the most popular tastes\" (Ayala, 2004: 147; 2000: 40). It would nest in spaces that were assumed to be northern (Garc\u00eda, 2006: 239). It crossed the border and became a product of the Texas recording industry in the 1940s (Ragland, 2009: 65-73). By the 1960s, the diaspora of Mexican workers caused the norte\u00f1o music circuits to extend to both sides of the Rio Grande (Ragland, 2009: 61), to the point of being a highly expansive and lucrative industry in later decades, with the arrival of the Tigres del Norte (Ragland, 2009: 142). In more recent decades, \"la norte\u00f1a\" will nest in places and cultures as \"exotic\" as the Japanese.15<\/a> In the national context, the northernization<\/em> musical of the country.16<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nconstruction of <\/span>low sixths<\/span><\/em> in three cities of coahuila, mexico. tradition and innovation in the visual image of the instrument<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nIntroduction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Background of the lower sixth in the academy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Methodology and delimitations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Theoretical framework<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The visual representation of the bajo sexto through record and audiovisual media.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n