{"id":13248,"date":"2013-08-31T20:25:12","date_gmt":"2013-08-31T20:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oncubamagazine.com\/?p=13248"},"modified":"2013-08-31T20:25:12","modified_gmt":"2013-08-31T20:25:12","slug":"writing-on-the-fly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/styles-trends\/technologies-of-communication-and-media\/writing-on-the-fly\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing on the fly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dusk in Havana. The family has been assembled. One or another coffee cup has yet to be taken to the kitchen; neighbors\u2019 voices compete with the television, which is on. The grandmother and the cousin visiting from out of town are enthusiastically watching the program Palmas y Ca\u00f1as. The rest of the family pays attention only sporadically, on the fence between accepting the program as their own and disassociating themselves to uphold their status as urbanites.<\/p>\n

The longtime program has played a beautiful role, but those of us who love the music known as \u201cpunto guajiro,\u201d and especially the formidable art of controversias, or poetic duels using the sung d\u00e9cima (rhyming verse), it is just a reflection of a rich world with a long tradition.<\/p>\n

The custom of joining in a cantur\u00eda (group song) or guateque (rural fiesta) to improvise d\u00e9cimas came to us from Spain. Vicente Espinel is the man credited with forming the stanza as it is today, and researchers say that it is one of many legacies from our Canary Island ancestors. One of the founders of this living tradition defined the d\u00e9cima as a Spanish traveler who put down roots in Cuban land.<\/p>\n

It is an artistic creation that continues the ancient tradition of oral literature. We tend to forget that the written word is a recent phenomenon. The type of punto\u2014espirituano (two voices, fixed meter), libre (no fixed meter), or cruzado (syncopation alternating with a stable rhythm)\u2014is important. So is the charm of the improviser\u2019s melody. But the real enchantment of a good controversia is, above all, literary inventiveness. On the fly, its creator composes 10 octosyllables in rich, complicated rhyme. The fourth verse\u2019s pause is a musical opportunity, a few seconds for the poet to think and continue his or her undertaking in front of an expert audience that will applaud him or her in a resounding\u2014and sometimes especially fortunate\u2014finale, when the poet embarks on the final attack at the decisive moment: the \u201cbridge\u201d between the two quatrains, between the sixth and seventh verses.<\/p>\n

One culminating moment of the fiesta between singers and followers is the \u201cpie forzado\u201d; the final verse is launched and that is how the poet must end his or her creation composed on the spot and in front of everyone.<\/p>\n

To learn more about the history of the sung d\u00e9cima and the details of its physiognomy, one can read the books of the scholar Mar\u00eda Teresa Linares. And for a lovely audiovisual summary, the documentary by Octavio Cort\u00e1zar, Hablando del punto cubano (Talking about the \u201cpunto cubano\u201d).<\/p>\n

The popularity of these improvising poets goes back to the early 1940s. At that time, Jose\u00edto Fern\u00e1ndez would narrate the day\u2019s events with a piece of music that gained the name of Guantanamera. Before Pete Seeger gave it its universal, epic character, Fern\u00e1ndez, a popular singer, used the melody for years for more immediate, domestic affairs.<\/p>\n

Many are the names of those to whom the d\u00e9cima owes its fame. These include Nabor\u00ed, the singer, and an elegant poet in writing; Justo Vega, one of the founders, and, together with Adolfo Alfonso, a real legend on the best of the evening Palmas y Ca\u00f1as shows.<\/p>\n

In the last two decades, one of the essential names has been Alexis D\u00edaz-Pimienta. His book, Teor\u00eda de la improvisaci\u00f3n (Theory of improvisation), contains both detailed research and the practice of the poet himself, who has been interlacing rhymes since childhood. Alexis was one of the first to break with the notion that the sung d\u00e9cima is an art exclusive to rural folk. In one celebrated controversia, his opponent was singing to the River Mayabeque, and Alexis highlighted his status as a guy from a Havana neighborhood: \u201cPero el Mayabeque m\u00edo\/ es una zanja del Diezmero\/ que ni yo porque la quiero\/ me atrevo a llamarla r\u00edo\u201d. (\u201cBut Mayabeque my beloved \/ is a ditch in Diezmero \/ and even I who love it so \/ a river wouldn\u2019t call it.\u201d)<\/p>\n