Plena: Definition, History, and Instruments

Plena music, also known as la plena, is an Afro-Puerto Rican musical genre known for its heavy percussion and energetic sound. Plena has long been used as a way for working-class Puerto Ricans to communicate with each other and critique society.

Plena pulls from the folkloric traditions of Latin music and is recognizable for its robust percussion with a simple rhythm. Plena is often accompanied by hollow gourds known as güiros, guitars, and accordions. The bomba dance style that often accompanies plena music is a call-and-response dance where partners take turns telling an expressive story.

Today, plena music is a uniting force among Puerto Ricans. But its beginnings were controversial.

• Bomba origins: Plena music originated between the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century when Afro-Caribbean immigrants from barrio San Antón, located in Ponce, Puerto Rico, began to blend African beats with Puerto Rican music styles. It developed from percussion-driven Puerto Rican bomba music, which featured lyrics about the difficulties faced by the working class. Plena simplified the bomba rhythms and added panderetas, round handheld drums that come in multiple sizes and resemble tambourines.
• Popularity among the working class: Plena music was used to criticize the government, tell stories, and to share information about current events. As the working class expanded, the musical tradition grew in popularity as a means to share information, which gave it the nickname el periódico cantado (“the sung newspaper”). In 1917, the city tried to ban the dances and music, due to complaints from the upper class, who claimed plena music was indecent.
• Mainstream acceptance: It wasn’t until the 1930s that plena became widely accepted as the iconic music of Puerto Rico. Famous composers such as Rafael Cortijo, Ismael Rivera, Mon Rivera, and Manuel Jiménez helped make plena music a staple of popular culture.
• Plena today: Plena music saw a revival in the 1990s and 2000s with plena bands such as Plena Libre, Viento de Agua, Los Pleneros de La 21 keeping the sound alive.

Plena music features instruments common in traditional Latin American and Spanish music, like guitars and accordions, but it also features percussive instruments unique to Puerto Rico.

1. 1. Panderetas: Also called panderos, these circular hand drums come in many different sizes. Made from stretched skin, they feature metal jingles in their wooden frame, similar to the tambourine. Plena drummers will often use three sizes of drums: requinto (“refined”), seguidor (“follower”), and bajo (“low”).
2. 2. Güiros: The güiro is a type of scrape gourd with notches cut along one side. It is played by scraping a stick up and down the serrated edge in short and long strokes.
3. 3. Maracas: Popular throughout Latin America, maracas are a type of rattle played as a pair to maintain the beat of the song and add dimension to plena music.

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