Another case of transformation occurs from Barranquilla with an independent initiative that seeks, through music, to promote cultural appropriation, as well as to generate environmental awareness through recycling.
The project, led by the musician William Martínezallows children, young people and adults to delve into the musical roots of the Colombian Caribbean using materials that have completed their useful life to give them a second use and build instruments with them.
It is about ‘Instruments for the world’, which was born two years ago through an application to the portfolio of stimuli of the Ministry of Culture.
“One of the requisite questions to present the project was how the musical ecosystem can be enriched, and looking at the society in which we find ourselves, I realized that there is not much in terms of recycling, access to instruments is very high and the general knowledge of the people in front of the autochthonous instruments is very poor. That’s when I saw how this proposal could answer these three questions and from that moment ‘Instruments for the world’ was born”, he recounted.
Boys and girls are part of the project who attend classes given by Martínez, in which they are taught the native instruments of the region, the importance of recycling and their subsequent construction.
“The musical ecosystem is made up of the social fabric and this has to heal in its different areas (…) all children are explorers by nature and somehow the advent of technology has stolen a bit of playing and experimenting. So this work with the children seeks not only to teach them about native instruments, but also for them to explore acoustics, sound, music and to generate their own instruments”, he said.
Las plastic and glass bottles, PVC pipesglasses, wood, boxes and other elements serve as inputs so that these little ones can create flutes, bagpipes, drums, guacharacas and other recyclable instruments.
“They are small classes and not all of them are theoretical. I gather the children and tell them about the sound. The first experiments they do are phones with disposable plastic cups and using other recyclable materials, they see that there are some that transmit vibration better than others”, said the musician, who added that from the first experience children stop seeing garbage as rubbish and they always look for ways to generate a sound and create instruments in everything they find.
A manual results from these classes with the type of instruments they chose, the materials they used, the scores they devised and the songs they created. “That material remains and serves as the basis for expanding the project to other places.”
“The most important thing about all this is that if you are aware not only of the region’s music, but also the importance of recycling, we did it, because we are educating people, making music and recycling. That already makes a change in society and that is what we are looking for with ‘Instruments for the world’”, she asserted.
Finally, he expressed his wish that the project could be financed by the State or the district or departmental administrations to offer schools free courses for students to create the instruments, recycle and disseminate the results of the investigations that have been made of endangered instruments.
