{"id":2529,"date":"2026-09-10T01:51:32","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T01:51:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/legatto.space\/?p=2529"},"modified":"2026-09-22T16:25:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T16:25:13","slug":"musica-no-escrita-tradicion-oral-memoria-colectiva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legatto.space\/en\/musica-no-escrita-tradicion-oral-memoria-colectiva\/","title":{"rendered":"Music that is not written: oral tradition and collective memory"},"content":{"rendered":"<!-- =========================================================\n     LEGATTO \u00b7 BLOG\n     La m\u00fasica que no est\u00e1 escrita:\n     tradici\u00f3n oral y memoria colectiva\n     Pegar dentro de un m\u00f3dulo HTML de Beaver Builder.\n     El H1 lo aporta el t\u00edtulo del post en WordPress.\n     =========================================================\n     YOAST \/ SEO\n     Focus Keyphrase:\n     tradici\u00f3n oral en la m\u00fasica\n     SEO Title:\n     La m\u00fasica que no est\u00e1 escrita: tradici\u00f3n oral y memoria colectiva | Legatto\n     Slug:\n     musica-no-escrita-tradicion-oral-memoria-colectiva\n     Meta Description:\n     Descubre c\u00f3mo la tradici\u00f3n oral convierte canciones, ritmos y relatos\n     en memoria colectiva, y por qu\u00e9 la m\u00fasica vive mucho m\u00e1s all\u00e1 de la partitura.\n     Excerpt:\n     Antes de vivir en partituras, archivos y grabaciones, la m\u00fasica vivi\u00f3\n     -y sigue viviendo- en cuerpos, voces, comunidades y memorias.\n     Un viaje por la tradici\u00f3n oral y las formas invisibles con las que\n     una cultura consigue recordar.\n     ========================================================= -->\n<style>\n\/* =========================================================\n   LEGATTO \u00b7 TRADICI\u00d3N ORAL\n   ========================================================= *\/\n.legatto-oral{\n    --lo-black:#141414;\n    --lo-dark:#212121;\n    --lo-sun:#f6c703;\n    --lo-white:#ffffff;\n    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margin:0;\n    color:#53534e;\n    font-size:16px;\n    line-height:1.65;\n}\n\/* =========================================================\n   QUOTES\n   ========================================================= *\/\n.legatto-oral .quote{\n    max-width:790px;\n    margin:50px auto;\n    padding:3px 0 3px 28px;\n    border-left:5px solid var(--lo-sun);\n    color:var(--lo-dark);\n    font-family:Georgia,serif;\n    font-size:clamp(22px,3vw,30px);\n    line-height:1.48;\n}\n\/* =========================================================\n   TRANSMISSION FLOW\n   ========================================================= *\/\n.legatto-oral .flow{\n    margin:37px 0 50px;\n    padding-left:27px;\n    border-left:4px solid var(--lo-sun);\n}\n.legatto-oral .flow-step{\n    position:relative;\n    padding:0 0 27px 20px;\n}\n.legatto-oral .flow-step:last-child{\n    padding-bottom:0;\n}\n.legatto-oral .flow-step:before{\n    content:\"\";\n    position:absolute;\n    width:13px;\n    height:13px;\n    left:-35px;\n    top:7px;\n    border:2px solid var(--lo-dark);\n    border-radius:50%;\n    background:var(--lo-sun);\n}\n.legatto-oral .flow-step p{\n    margin:0;\n    color:#53534e;\n    font-size:16px;\n    line-height:1.67;\n}\n\/* =========================================================\n   PLACES \/ STORIES\n   ========================================================= *\/\n.legatto-oral .place{\n    margin:48px 0;\n    padding:0 0 0 28px;\n    border-left:1px solid #c9c9c2;\n}\n.legatto-oral .place-tag{\n    display:block;\n    margin-bottom:9px;\n    color:#6a6a65;\n    font-size:11px;\n    font-weight:900;\n    letter-spacing:.15em;\n    text-transform:uppercase;\n}\n.legatto-oral .place h3{\n    margin-bottom:17px;\n    font-size:clamp(25px,3vw,33px);\n    letter-spacing:-.02em;\n}\n\/* =========================================================\n   DARK INTERLUDE\n   ========================================================= *\/\n.legatto-oral .interlude{\n  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font-size:.93em;\n}\n.legatto-oral th{\n    padding:15px 20px;\n    background:var(--lo-sun);\n    color:#1b1b19;\n    font-size:.83em;\n    font-weight:900;\n    text-align:left;\n    text-transform:uppercase;\n    letter-spacing:.05em;\n}\n.legatto-oral td{\n    padding:20px;\n    vertical-align:top;\n    border-bottom:1px solid #444;\n}\n.legatto-oral tr:last-child td{\n    border-bottom:0;\n}\n.legatto-oral td:first-child{\n    font-weight:800;\n    color:#fff;\n}\n\/* =========================================================\n   MANIFESTO\n   ========================================================= *\/\n.legatto-oral .manifesto{\n    margin:58px 0;\n    padding:clamp(32px,5vw,48px);\n    border-radius:18px;\n    background:var(--lo-sun);\n    color:var(--lo-black);\n}\n.legatto-oral .manifesto .manifesto-label{\n    margin-bottom:13px;\n    font-size:11px;\n    font-weight:900;\n    letter-spacing:.16em;\n    text-transform:uppercase;\n}\n.legatto-oral .manifesto h2{\n    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position:absolute;\n    left:0;\n    top:0;\n    color:#8c7700;\n    font-size:12px;\n    font-weight:900;\n    letter-spacing:.06em;\n}\n\/* =========================================================\n   GENTLE \/ ETHICS\n   ========================================================= *\/\n.legatto-oral .gentle{\n    margin:38px 0;\n    padding:25px 29px;\n    border-left:4px solid var(--lo-sun);\n    border-radius:0 14px 14px 0;\n    background:var(--lo-soft);\n}\n.legatto-oral .gentle p:last-child{\n    margin-bottom:0;\n}\n\/* =========================================================\n   FINAL\n   ========================================================= *\/\n.legatto-oral .ending{\n    margin:65px 0 45px;\n    padding:clamp(34px,6vw,62px);\n    border-radius:18px;\n    background:var(--lo-black);\n    color:#f6f6f1;\n}\n.legatto-oral .ending p{\n    max-width:820px;\n}\n.legatto-oral .ending .ending-big{\n    margin-bottom:27px;\n    font-family:Georgia,serif;\n    font-size:clamp(25px,4vw,37px);\n    line-height:1.44;\n}\n.legatto-oral .ending p:last-child{\n    margin-bottom:0;\n}\n.legatto-oral .ending strong{\n    color:var(--lo-sun);\n}\n\/* =========================================================\n   FAQ\n   ========================================================= *\/\n.legatto-oral details{\n    padding:22px 0;\n    border-bottom:1px solid var(--lo-line);\n}\n.legatto-oral summary{\n    cursor:pointer;\n    font-size:20px;\n    font-weight:800;\n    line-height:1.4;\n}\n.legatto-oral details p{\n    margin:14px 0 0;\n    color:#53534e;\n    font-size:16px;\n    line-height:1.68;\n}\n\/* =========================================================\n   SOURCES\n   ========================================================= *\/\n.legatto-oral .sources{\n    margin:52px 0 20px;\n    padding:30px;\n    border-radius:18px;\n    background:var(--lo-soft);\n}\n.legatto-oral .sources h2{\n    margin:0 0 18px;\n    font-size:28px;\n}\n.legatto-oral .sources ul{\n    margin:0;\n    padding-left:20px;\n}\n.legatto-oral .sources li{\n    margin:0 0 11px;\n    font-size:14px;\n    line-height:1.62;\n}\n.legatto-oral .sources li:last-child{\n    margin-bottom:0;\n}\n.legatto-oral .sources a{\n    color:inherit;\n}\n\/* =========================================================\n   MOBILE\n   ========================================================= *\/\n@media(max-width:700px){\n    .legatto-oral{\n        font-size:17px;\n    }\n    .legatto-oral h2{\n        margin-top:49px;\n    }\n    .legatto-oral .archive-grid{\n        grid-template-columns:1fr;\n    }\n    .legatto-oral .answer,\n    .legatto-oral .opening,\n    .legatto-oral .interlude,\n    .legatto-oral .manifesto,\n    .legatto-oral .practice,\n    .legatto-oral .ending{\n        padding:26px;\n    }\n    .legatto-oral .place{\n        padding-left:20px;\n    }\n}\n<\/style>\n<article>\n<!-- =========================================================\n     INTRO\n     ========================================================= -->\n<header>\n    \n        Oral tradition \u00b7 Music \u00b7 Collective memory There are songs that never needed sheet music to transcend centuries. Someone heard them. Remembered them. Sang them again. Another person did the same. And so, from one person to another, a piece of music achieved something extraordinary: surviving while continuing to evolve.\n    \n    <aside>\n        \n            <strong>An idea for getting in:<\/strong>\n            An oral tradition is a technology of memory. It preserves music through people, relationships, repetition, listening, gesture, context, and imagination. Its archive can reside in a voice, in the hands of an instrumentalist, in a ceremony, in a landscape, or in an entire community.\n        \n    <\/aside>\n<\/header>\n<!-- =========================================================\n     OPENING\n     ========================================================= -->\n<section>\n    \n        There is a library without shelves. It breathes. It resides in the throat of a woman who still remembers a melody learned as a child. It resides in the hands of someone who knows a variation that was never written down. It resides in the precise moment a group knows how to enter after a breath, even though no one has counted to four. In that library, one doesn&#039;t ask for a book. One asks for: <em>\u201cSing it to me again.\u201d<\/em>\n    \n    \n        Then someone tries to repeat it. Perhaps they change a note. Perhaps they keep the structure but lengthen the ending. Perhaps they sing it with a different accent, in another city, for another generation. And, mysteriously, the song remains recognizable. The thread continues.\n    \n<\/section>\n<h2>Music existed first as an event<\/h2>\n\n    A vast amount of human music has circulated outside of written notation. Before a melody could be stored in a digital file, before records, before many of the notation systems we use today, there were already people capable of preserving repertoires, histories, rhythms, and musical forms through listening and repetition. And that form of transmission remains active. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ich.unesco.org\/en\/oral-traditions-and-expressions-00053\"\n    target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">UNESCO describes oral traditions<\/a><\/strong>\n    as vehicles for transmitting knowledge, cultural and social values, and collective memory. They include songs, chants, epic poems, stories, performances, and many other forms that exist as long as someone knows how to perform them and someone else can learn them. The word <em>oral<\/em> It might make us think only of the mouth. In music, the phenomenon is much broader. We also learn by watching fingers, perceiving weight, copying articulation, entering alongside other bodies, recognizing timbre, following a gaze, or understanding when a song corresponds to a certain moment in life. Orality constitutes an infrastructure.\n\n<section>\n        <h3>Body<\/h3>\n        \n            Breathing, muscle memory, coordination, pronunciation, gestures, movement, articulation, and ways of producing sound.\n        \n        <h3>Relationship<\/h3>\n        \n            Someone demonstrates, someone listens, someone imitates, someone corrects. Transmission happens between people.\n        \n        <h3>Context<\/h3>\n        \n            A musician also learns where they live: celebrations, work, rituals, meetings, mourning, dance, play, territory and community.\n        \n<\/section>\n\n    \u201cThe archive isn\u2019t always in a library. Sometimes the archive breathes.\u201d\n\n<!-- =========================================================\n     REMEMBERING\n     ========================================================= -->\n<h2>Remembering a song doesn&#039;t always mean copying it.<\/h2>\n\n    Herein lies one of the most fascinating differences between a fixed work and a living tradition. Imagine a melody passed down through five generations. Our modern intuition might lead us to seek out an original version and compare the others against it: what notes changed? What was lost? Who played it correctly? An oral tradition can operate according to a different logic. UNESCO itself points out that many oral expressions combine\n    <strong>reproduction, improvisation and creation<\/strong>.Their versions change with each narrator or performer. This variation can be part of the vitality of the tradition. Something similar profoundly transformed the study of epic poetry. During the 20th century, Milman Parry and Albert Lord studied oral singers in the Balkans. Lord&#039;s work, published in\n    <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www-current.chs.harvard.edu\/book\/lord-albert-bates-the-singer-of-tales\/\"\n    target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>The Singer of Tales<\/em><\/a><\/strong>, showed how an oral poet could <em>compose while performing<\/em>,Working with formulas, themes, and structures acquired through years of listening and practice, the interpreter possessed a language. He knew possible paths within that language. Thus, memory could retain an architecture without needing to save each performance like a photocopy.\n\n        <h3>1. Listen<\/h3>\n        \n            Music first enters as an experience: sound, gesture, situation, emotion and coexistence.\n        \n        <h3>2. Imitate<\/h3>\n        \n            The person reproduces what they can. The ear begins to recognize patterns, phrases, structures, and ways of doing things.\n        \n        <h3>3. Internalize<\/h3>\n        \n            The song ceases to feel like external information. It begins to form part of its own musical vocabulary.\n        \n        <h3>4. Vary<\/h3>\n        \n            Decisions emerge. Some belong to shared conventions; others arise from the interpreter and the moment.\n        \n        <h3>5. Retransmit<\/h3>\n        \n            A new person receives the tradition. They carry on the thread and, at the same time, begin another chapter. This changes a fundamental question. Instead of only asking\n    <em>\u201c&quot;How does memory manage to store all those notes?&quot;\u201d<\/em>,We can ask:\n\n\n    <strong>What does a musician really need to remember for a piece of music to live on?<\/strong>\n\n<!-- =========================================================\n     PIREKUA\n     ========================================================= -->\n<h2>A song that evokes memories of Michoac\u00e1n<\/h2>\n\n    Let&#039;s return to Mexico. In Pur\u00e9pecha communities of Michoac\u00e1n there is a musical form called\n    <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ich.unesco.org\/es\/RL\/la-pirekua-canto-tradicional-de-los-purhpechas-00398\"\n    target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pirekua<\/a><\/strong>.It can be sung solo, in duets, trios, or choirs, accompanied by various instrumental ensembles. Its lyrics can speak of love and courtship, religion, historical events, and social or political thought. But to say that pirekua is merely a collection of songs would leave out much of what makes it significant. UNESCO explains that the <em>Pir\u00e9riecha<\/em>, The performers are recognized for their creativity and their unique ways of interpreting traditional songs. They can also act as social mediators: song serves as a space for communication between families and communities. This knowledge has been passed down through generations.\n    <strong>primarily orally<\/strong>.\n\n<figure>\n    <img src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/d\/dc\/Del_m%C3%A1s_alto_al_m%C3%A1s_bajo.jpg\"\n        alt=\"Danza tradicional p'urh\u00e9pecha en Michoac\u00e1n acompa\u00f1ada por m\u00fasica tradicional\"\n        loading=\"lazy\"\n        decoding=\"async\"\/>\n    <figcaption>\n        Traditional Pur\u00e9pecha dance in Michoac\u00e1n. The original description of the photograph indicates that the dance is accompanied by traditional music, mainly pirekuas. Photo:\n        <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Del_m%C3%A1s_alto_al_m%C3%A1s_bajo.jpg\"\n        target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tania Vizca\u00edno \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a>. License\n        <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\"\n        target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>.\n    <\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n    Let&#039;s think about what this implies. A song can tell of something that happened in a community. Then another voice learns it. Sings it at another time. In doing so, the story circulates again. Memory becomes sound. And sound can once again become conversation. Pirekua was inscribed by UNESCO in 2010 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Today, oral transmission, writing, and recordings coexist. This coexistence shows something important: an oral tradition can adopt new tools without necessarily abandoning its historical forms of learning. The challenge arises when the number of people who want to continue the process decreases. In 2024,\n    <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ciencia.unam.mx\/leer\/1508\/-que-no-se-pierda-la-tradicion-musical-de-la-pirekua-\"\n    target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">UNAM Science documented the concern about a decrease in the practice of pirekua among younger generations<\/a><\/strong>\n    In some communities, a recording can remain intact on a server. A tradition needs someone to perform it again.\n\n<!-- =========================================================\n     GRIOT\n     ========================================================= -->\n<section>\n    West Africa\n    <h3>The historian who plays<\/h3>\n    \n        In several West African societies we find figures known by terms such as <em>jali<\/em>, <em>jeli<\/em> or\n        <em>griot<\/em>Musicians, storytellers, and custodians of genealogies and histories. UNESCO specifically uses African griots as an example of professional performers who can act as\n        <strong>guardians of collective memory<\/strong>.In this tradition, storytelling and playing can form a single action. A genealogy can travel within a song. A story can enter accompanied by the strings of a kora. The catalog of\n        <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/folkways.si.edu\/foday-musa-suso\/kora-music-from-the-gambia\/islamica-world\/album\/smithsonian\"\n        target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Smithsonian Folkways dedicated to Gambian jali Foday Musa Suso<\/a><\/strong>\n        It reveals something particularly striking: within the same musical universe, stories related to the ancient Mali Empire appear alongside compositions about contemporary events, including the human landing on the moon. Memory receives the present. Tradition continues to be written without ceasing to be tradition.\n    \n<\/section>\n<figure>\n    <img src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/d\/d2\/La_kora%2C_instrument_rituel_et_m%C3%A9moire_vivante_04.jpg\"\n        alt=\"Detalle de una kora de \u00c1frica Occidental siendo interpretada\"\n        loading=\"lazy\"\n        decoding=\"async\"\/>\n    <figcaption>\n        The kora accompanies various musical and narrative traditions of West Africa. Photo:\n        <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:La_kora,_instrument_rituel_et_m%C3%A9moire_vivante_04.jpg\"\n        target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">4MAPS \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a>. License\n        <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\"\n        target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>.\n    <\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n<!-- =========================================================\n     HUDHUD\n     ========================================================= -->\n<section>\n    Ifugao \u00b7 Philippines\n    <h3>Stories that can take days to finish<\/h3>\n    \n        In the mountains of northern Luzon, among the Ifugao communities, there exist the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ich.unesco.org\/es\/RL\/el-hudhud-relatos-cantados-de-los-ifugao-00015\"\n        target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hudhud<\/a><\/strong>Extensive sung narratives historically linked to the rice cultivation cycle and specific funeral ceremonies. UNESCO documents more than two hundred narratives, each composed of numerous episodes. A complete performance can last for several days. Now imagine the amount of memory involved. Characters. Sequences. Formulas. Images. Repetitions. Melody. Language. Conventions that indicate how to continue. The main narrators have traditionally been older women, whose role extends beyond that of \u201csingers\u201d: their knowledge is connected to the history, culture, and practices of the community. The Hudhud makes evident something that a definition of \u201csong\u201d can obscure:\n        <strong>Music can also be a way of organizing knowledge.<\/strong>\n    \n<\/section>\n<figure>\n    <img src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/a\/a9\/Ifugao_Women_%2840878921493%29.jpg\"\n        alt=\"Grupo de mujeres ifugao cantando en Banaue, Filipinas\"\n        loading=\"lazy\"\n        decoding=\"async\"\/>\n    <figcaption>\n        Ifugao women singing in Banaue, Philippines. The photograph provides cultural context and does not specifically document a performance of the Hudhud. Photo:\n        <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Ifugao_Women_(40878921493).jpg\"\n        target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">David Stanley\/Wikimedia Commons<\/a>. License\n        <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/\"\n        target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CC BY 2.0<\/a>.\n    <\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n<!-- =========================================================\n     MEMORY\n     ========================================================= -->\n<h2>How can so much information fit inside one person?<\/h2>\n\n    It would be tempting to look for a single neurological answer. Something like:\n    <em>The melody helps us remember better.<\/em>\n\n\n    The reality is more interesting. Some experiments have found that rhythm can function as a structure for recalling text under certain conditions. Other studies show that the advantages of singing over speaking depend on tempo, familiarity, and task design. The available evidence suggests avoiding a simplistic formula like \u201csetting information to music guarantees recall.\u201d Oral traditions build much richer systems. There is repetition, of course. But there are also predictable patterns, formulas, redundancy, meter, social participation, years of practice, emotion, context, body movements, community responsibilities, and situations in which knowledge is reused. We remember best what we need again. And a living tradition creates occasions to need its memory. \u201cIn oral tradition, remembering can mean reconstructing a familiar form in the present.\u201d\n\n<!-- =========================================================\n     SONGLINES\n     ========================================================= -->\n<section>\n    <p>Australia \u00b7 territory and transmission<\/p>\n    <h2>What if a map could be sung?<\/h2>\n    \n        In various Australian Aboriginal cultures there are networks of songs related to territory, ancestors, relationships, ecological knowledge and cultural practices that are usually described in English using the term <em>songlines<\/em>. He\n        <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/aiatsis.gov.au\/about\/connect-us\/make-difference\/songs-australia\"\n        target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS)<\/a><\/strong>\n        It explains how certain repertoires can encode genealogies, kinship relations, territorial knowledge, social norms, and other forms of knowledge. One of the cases documented by AIATSIS is\n        <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/aiatsis.gov.au\/explore\/marlaloo-songline\"\n        target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Marlaloo Songline<\/a><\/strong>.The cycle had not been sung for over forty years. The elders who preserved this knowledge feared it might disappear and chose younger members to continue certain cultural responsibilities. This example also requires clarification: knowing of the existence of a tradition does not mean possessing the right to reproduce it. Some knowledge has specific protocols, custodians, levels of access, and authorities.\n    \n<\/section>\n<!-- =========================================================\n     BODY WRITES\n     ========================================================= -->\n<h2>The body also writes<\/h2>\n\n    Let&#039;s think now about a musical score. It can indicate pitches, durations, meter, dynamics, articulations, entrances, and repeats. It&#039;s an extraordinary technology. But a score never arrives at the music on its own. Someone has to know how to read its symbols and translate them into action. That person already brings with them a culture of performance: an idea of tuning, a relationship with the pulse, ways of phrasing, gestures, acceptable sounds, desired sounds, instrumental habits, and learned expectations. The ethnomusicologist Floris Schuiling proposes in\n    <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/journals\/journal-of-the-royal-musical-association\/article\/notation-cultures-towards-an-ethnomusicology-of-notation\/DB70B74A842937A048AEF73CA1A70A31\"\n    target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cNotation Cultures\u201d<\/a><\/strong>\n    Studying notation as part of specific musical cultures: their graphic systems also play a role in how a community imagines, learns, and produces music. There are even traditions where written and oral transmission have been intertwined for centuries. Research on\n    <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/journals\/early-music-history\/article\/abs\/oral-and-written-transmission-in-ethiopian-christian-chant\/0C64FCCC035A11A993A4633C8A082620\"\n    target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ethiopian Christian chant<\/a><\/strong>,For example, they show how memorizing melodic patterns and written notation systems work together. So perhaps it&#039;s worth abandoning an overly rigid boundary between &quot;oral music&quot; and &quot;written music.&quot; Many musical forms inhabit both worlds.\n\n<table>\n    <thead>\n        <tr>\n            <th>Medium<\/th>\n            <th>What it can preserve especially well<\/th>\n            <th>What does it take to become a musician again?<\/th>\n        <\/tr>\n    <\/thead>\n    <tbody>\n        <tr>\n            <td>Score<\/td>\n            <td>\n                Symbolic relationships of height, rhythm, structure, articulation, and other instructions.\n            <\/td>\n            <td>\n                A culture of reading and interpretation.\n            <\/td>\n        <\/tr>\n        <tr>\n            <td>Recording<\/td>\n            <td>\n                A specific performance: timbre, tempo, tuning, space, nuances and synchronization.\n            <\/td>\n            <td>\n                A listener capable of contextualizing and, if desired, transforming what has been heard back into practice.\n            <\/td>\n        <\/tr>\n        <tr>\n            <td>Oral transmission<\/td>\n            <td>\n                Patterns, repertoire, ways of playing, pronunciation, gesture, variation and immediate correction.\n            <\/td>\n            <td>\n                Contact between people and continuity of practice.\n            <\/td>\n        <\/tr>\n        <tr>\n            <td>Community<\/td>\n            <td>\n                Functions, meanings, occasions, responsibilities and relationships surrounding music.\n            <\/td>\n            <td>\n                People who consider that knowledge relevant and continue to put it into action.\n            <\/td>\n        <\/tr>\n    <\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<!-- =========================================================\n     BAUL\n     ========================================================= -->\n<h2>A tradition can be preserved by changing<\/h2>\n\n    In Bangladesh and West Bengal we find another revealing example: the songs of the\n    <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ich.unesco.org\/en\/RL\/baul-songs-00107\"\n    target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Trunk<\/a><\/strong>.Their philosophy is largely transmitted through songs. Teachers use them to instruct their students, and the repertoire has traditionally circulated orally. UNESCO highlights something seemingly paradoxical: the language of these songs has been modernized. This helps keep them understandable and relevant. Fidelity to a tradition can consist, in certain contexts, of preserving a relationship, a principle, or a way of doing things while some words, arrangements, or interpretations are transformed. Tradition is dynamic because the people who uphold it are also alive.\n\n<!-- =========================================================\n     JAZZ\n     ========================================================= -->\n<h2>Oral tradition never disappeared from modern music<\/h2>\n\n    We can walk into a jazz jam session and observe the same principle under entirely different circumstances. The musicians can read music perfectly. They can study harmony, arrangements, and transcriptions. And yet, a crucial part of the language is learned by listening: solos, records, teachers, peers, concerts, informal sessions, and years of interaction. In his monumental study\n    <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/press.uchicago.edu\/ucp\/books\/book\/chicago\/T\/bo3697073\"\n    target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Thinking in Jazz<\/em><\/a><\/strong>,Paul Berliner documented, through more than fifty professional musicians, the multiple ways\u2014auditory, visual, kinesthetic, verbal, theoretical, and emotional\u2014that improvisers construct their language. The musician hears a phrase. They copy it. They transpose it. They alter it. They discover where it works. They mix it with a hundred more phrases. One day that phrase appears within a solo, and it becomes impossible to say exactly where what was learned ends and where one&#039;s own voice begins. That, too, is musical memory.\n\n<!-- =========================================================\n     RECORDINGS\n     ========================================================= -->\n<h2>Then came a machine capable of remembering for us<\/h2>\n\n    Recording radically changed our relationship with the musical past. For the first time, a performance could be repeated without needing the performer again. The rubato was there. The breathing was there. The timbre was there. Even a mistake could remain in exactly the same place for a hundred playbacks. This opened up extraordinary possibilities for research, learning, and preservation. It also introduced a subtle transformation. When we have a famous recording, we can begin to feel that that version <em>is<\/em> The song. The performance becomes a reference point. The reference point can become the norm. An oral tradition often reminds us that there were other possibilities, because each performance places the music back in the hands of the present. UNESCO itself recognizes the dual nature of digital technologies: they can strengthen transmission and broaden access, while certain forms of dissemination can also decontextualize or alter practices. That is why it recommends that documentation record much more than just the sound: performance style, interaction, intonation, gestures, and relationship with the audience also matter.\n\n<section>\n    <p>An important distinction<\/p>\n    <h2>\n        Preserving a song and keeping a tradition alive are different tasks.\n    <\/h2>\n    \n        An archive can preserve extraordinary evidence of what happened. A tradition also needs people capable of understanding, practicing, transforming, and passing on what was preserved.\n    \n<\/section>\n<!-- =========================================================\n     WHEN THE CHAIN BREAKS\n     ========================================================= -->\n<h2>What disappears when the last person stops singing?<\/h2>\n\n    Imagine we possess a perfect recording. The song is still audible. Do we still have everything that existed around it? Perhaps we don&#039;t know who could sing it. At what time. For whom. What variations were possible. Which word elicited a response from others. Which gesture indicated a change. What stories explained a particular phrase. What it meant to make a mistake. What it meant to do it right. Therein lies the particular fragility of living heritage. UNESCO repeatedly points out that its viability depends on\n    <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ich.unesco.org\/en\/transmission-00078\"\n    target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the transmission of knowledge and skills between generations<\/a><\/strong>.Migration, economic changes, urbanization, loss of community spaces, decreased intergenerational contact, and educational systems that relegate local knowledge can disrupt this chain. Sometimes music slowly disappears. First, it is played less. Then, few people remain who know certain parts. Later, there is a recording that everyone recognizes, but almost no one knows how to continue. The final silence may come long after the loss began.\n\n<!-- =========================================================\n     ETHICS\n     ========================================================= -->\n<h2>Preserve without turning living things into museum pieces<\/h2>\n\n    This presents an enormous responsibility for researchers, musicians, institutions, producers, educators, and simply curious individuals. Documenting can be valuable. Recording can be valuable. Digitizing can be valuable. The next question is:\n    <strong>Who decides what should be done with that knowledge?<\/strong>\n\n\n    The\n    <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ich.unesco.org\/es\/principios-eticos-y-pci-00866\"\n    target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">UNESCO Ethical Principles for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage<\/a><\/strong>\n    They place the communities, groups, and individuals who are bearers of their heritage in a central role. They speak of free, prior, sustained, and informed consent; of respecting traditional access restrictions; and of ensuring that communities participate in and benefit from the research, documentation, dissemination, or use of their heritage.\n\n<aside>\n    \n        <strong>For musicians and creators:<\/strong>\n        Feeling admiration for a tradition is the beginning of a relationship, not an automatic license to extract it. Investigating who holds that knowledge, what their protocols are, how they wish to be cited, and what can be shared is part of a conscious musical practice.\n    \n<\/aside>\n\n    There is another subtlety. Preserving a living tradition does not require forcing it to sound exactly as it did a hundred years ago.\n    <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ich.unesco.org\/en\/faq-01058\"\n    target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">UNESCO deliberately uses the concept of living heritage<\/a><\/strong> Because these practices are continually recreated by the communities that pass them on. A photograph is preserved by preventing it from changing. A tradition can be preserved because it still has permission to do so.\n\n<!-- =========================================================\n     LEGATTO REFLECTION\n     ========================================================= -->\n<h2>What can a 21st-century musician learn from all this?<\/h2>\n\n    We live surrounded by resources that musicians of other eras could hardly have imagined. We have instant scores, tutorials, DAWs, sample libraries, isolated tracks, automatic transcriptions, slowed-down videos, tuners, spectrograms, and artificial intelligence. All of this can greatly expand learning. But there is one ancient skill worth continuing to cultivate:\n\n\n    <strong>to be able to receive music directly from music.<\/strong>\n\n\n    Listen to a phrase and find it. Sing before naming it. Feel the pulse before seeing it represented. Watch someone else produce a sound. Learn a whole piece without looking at the screen every thirty seconds. Memorize. Play with someone. Make mistakes. Correct by listening. Make a variation. Return to the original form. These actions develop a kind of musical intelligence that no external representation can completely replace.\n\n<section>\n    <h2>Experiment: Learn a song without writing it down<\/h2>\n    \n        Choose a short song that you don&#039;t yet know how to play. On the first day, avoid looking for chords, sheet music, or tutorials. Work solely from the sound.\n    \n    <ol>\n        <li>\n            <strong>Listen to it all three times.<\/strong><br \/>\n            In the first, follow the shape. In the second, listen to the bass. In the third, try to anticipate where the melody is going.\n        <\/li>\n        <li>\n            <strong>Sing what you remember without playing it back.<\/strong><br \/>\n            The empty spaces reveal which parts you haven&#039;t yet internalized.\n        <\/li>\n        <li>\n            <strong>Find the melody in your instrument.<\/strong><br \/>\n            Search first by ear. Observe the intervals and patterns that begin to repeat.\n        <\/li>\n        <li>\n            <strong>Play it from memory.<\/strong><br \/>\n            Then it modifies rhythm, register or ending without losing its identity.\n        <\/li>\n        <li>\n            <strong>Now look at a transcript.<\/strong><br \/>\n            Compare. The score ceases to be the source of the music and becomes another perspective on something you already know.\n        <\/li>\n    <\/ol>\n<\/section>\n<!-- =========================================================\n     COLLECTIVE MEMORY\n     ========================================================= -->\n<h2>Because nobody remembers completely alone<\/h2>\n\n    There are personal memories. And there are memories that a community learns to hold together. A song sung during a celebration for decades can begin to contain the celebrations of the past. Whoever learns it receives more than a succession of notes: they receive associations. People who are no longer here. Places. Ways of gathering. Stories. Values. Jokes. Losses. Pronunciations. Movements. Each new performer enters a conversation that began before they were born. That&#039;s why talking about <strong>collective memory<\/strong> In music, it has a special depth. Collective memory lives distributed. No one person needs to know everything. One knows the lyrics. Another remembers the second voice. Another knows how it used to begin. Another knows the meaning of an old word. Another learned the step. Another knows who taught the song. Together they possess something that none of them had separately.\n\n<!-- =========================================================\n     ENDING\n     ========================================================= -->\n<section>\n    \n        Perhaps we&#039;ve spent centuries trying to preserve music, when music has also served to preserve us. It has preserved names, languages, events, journeys, affections, ways of working, ways of celebrating, ways of saying goodbye. And it did so many times without paper. One person listened, remembered, sang. Someone else was there. That second person perhaps changed one small thing, preserved many others, and reopened the song years later. Thus the thread continued. That&#039;s why a score can teach us so much about a piece of music. A recording can allow us to hear a moment that has already vanished. An archive can protect invaluable evidence. But there&#039;s one question that all these formats ultimately bring back to us:\n    \n    \n        <strong>Who will ever play it again?<\/strong>\n    \n    \n        As long as there is someone capable of answering that question with a voice, hands, a breath, or a shared pulse, the library will remain open.\n    \n<\/section>\n\n    \u201cA musical score can preserve a work. A community can preserve a way of making music.\u201d\n\n<!-- =========================================================\n     FAQ\n     ========================================================= -->\n<h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n<details>\n    <summary>What is oral tradition in music?<\/summary>\n    \n        It is the transmission of musical repertoires, techniques, styles, histories, and knowledge primarily through listening, imitation, practice, and interaction between people. It can coexist with sheet music, recordings, and other technologies.\n    \n<\/details>\n<details>\n    <summary>Is orally transmitted music memorized exactly?<\/summary>\n    \n        It depends on the tradition. Some practices value extremely precise reproduction; others incorporate variation, improvisation, and creation as part of their operation. It is best to study each tradition according to its own criteria.\n    \n<\/details>\n<details>\n    <summary>Does an oral tradition cease to be one when it is written down or recorded?<\/summary>\n    \n        Not necessarily. Writing, recording, and interpersonal transmission can coexist. What&#039;s important is observing how a community actually learns, interprets, and transmits its music.\n    \n<\/details>\n<details>\n    <summary>Why does music help preserve collective memory?<\/summary>\n    \n        Because it can bring together words, repetitive structures, rhythm, emotion, and social context within a practice that is repeated time and again. Furthermore, many traditions deliberately link songs to events, genealogies, territories, knowledge, or rituals.\n    \n<\/details>\n<details>\n    <summary>What is lost when a tradition stops being passed on?<\/summary>\n    \n        A musical score or recording may survive, and yet knowledge about performance methods, context, variations, social functions, protocols, meanings, and relationships among the people who practiced it may still be lost.\n    \n<\/details>\n<details>\n    <summary>How can a musician study a tradition without appropriating it?<\/summary>\n    \n        Investigating its context and its bearers, recognizing authorship and communities, respecting access restrictions, requesting consent when appropriate, and avoiding presenting received knowledge as one&#039;s own cultural material. Each tradition may have different protocols.\n    \n<\/details>\n<!-- =========================================================\n     SOURCES\n     ========================================================= -->\n<section>\n    <h2>Sources and readings<\/h2>\n    <ul>\n        <li>\n            <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ich.unesco.org\/en\/oral-traditions-and-expressions-00053\"\n            target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\n            UNESCO \u2013 Oral traditions and expressions\n            <\/a><\/strong>.Oral tradition, variation, collective memory, and transmission.\n        <\/li>\n        <li>\n            <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ich.unesco.org\/en\/transmission-00078\"\n            target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\n            UNESCO \u2013 Transmission of Intangible Cultural Heritage\n            <\/a><\/strong>.Intergenerational continuity and recreation of living heritage.\n        <\/li>\n        <li>\n            <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ich.unesco.org\/en\/convention\"\n            target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\n            UNESCO \u2013 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage\n            <\/a><\/strong>, 2003.\n        <\/li>\n        <li>\n            <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ich.unesco.org\/es\/principios-eticos-y-pci-00866\"\n            target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\n            UNESCO \u2013 Ethical Principles for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage\n            <\/a><\/strong>.\n        <\/li>\n        <li>\n            <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ich.unesco.org\/es\/RL\/la-pirekua-canto-tradicional-de-los-purhpechas-00398\"\n            target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\n            UNESCO \u2013 The pirekua, traditional song of the P&#039;urh\u00e9pecha\n            <\/a><\/strong>.\n        <\/li>\n        <li>\n            <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ciencia.unam.mx\/leer\/1508\/-que-no-se-pierda-la-tradicion-musical-de-la-pirekua-\"\n            target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\n            Ciencia UNAM \u2013 Don&#039;t let the musical tradition of the pirekua be lost?\n            <\/a><\/strong>, 2024.\n        <\/li>\n        <li>\n            <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/folkways.si.edu\/foday-musa-suso\/kora-music-from-the-gambia\/islamica-world\/album\/smithsonian\"\n            target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\n            Smithsonian Folkways \u2013 Foday Musa Suso: Kora Music from the Gambia\n            <\/a><\/strong>. Jali, oral history and music.\n        <\/li>\n        <li>\n            <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www-current.chs.harvard.edu\/book\/lord-albert-bates-the-singer-of-tales\/\"\n            target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\n            Albert B. Lord \u2013 The Singer of Tales\n            <\/a><\/strong>. Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University.\n        <\/li>\n        <li>\n            <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ich.unesco.org\/es\/RL\/el-hudhud-relatos-cantados-de-los-ifugao-00015\"\n            target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\n            UNESCO \u2013 The Hudhud, sung tales of the Ifugao\n            <\/a><\/strong>.\n        <\/li>\n        <li>\n            <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/aiatsis.gov.au\/about\/connect-us\/make-difference\/songs-australia\"\n            target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\n            AIATSIS \u2013 Songs of Australia\n            <\/a><\/strong>.Song, territory, genealogy and knowledge.\n        <\/li>\n        <li>\n            <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/aiatsis.gov.au\/explore\/marlaloo-songline\"\n            target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\n            AIATSIS \u2013 The Marlaloo Songline\n            <\/a><\/strong>.Intergenerational transmission and cultural protocols.\n        <\/li>\n        <li>\n            <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ich.unesco.org\/en\/RL\/baul-songs-00107\"\n            target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\n            UNESCO \u2013 Baul songs\n            <\/a><\/strong>.Oral tradition and language transformation.\n        <\/li>\n        <li>\n            <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/journals\/journal-of-the-royal-musical-association\/article\/notation-cultures-towards-an-ethnomusicology-of-notation\/DB70B74A842937A048AEF73CA1A70A31\"\n            target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\n            Floris Schuiling \u2013 Notation Cultures: Towards an Ethnomusicology of Notation\n            <\/a><\/strong>. Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 2020.\n        <\/li>\n        <li>\n            <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/journals\/early-music-history\/article\/abs\/oral-and-written-transmission-in-ethiopian-christian-chant\/0C64FCCC035A11A993A4633C8A082620\"\n            target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\n            Shelemay, Jeffery &amp; Monson \u2013 Oral and written transmission in Ethiopian Christian chant\n            <\/a><\/strong>.Early Music History.\n        <\/li>\n        <li>\n            <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/press.uchicago.edu\/ucp\/books\/book\/chicago\/T\/bo3697073\"\n            target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\n            Paul F. Berliner \u2013 Thinking in Jazz: The Infinite Art of Improvisation\n            <\/a><\/strong>. University of Chicago Press.\n        <\/li>\n        <li>\n            <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/18712216\/\"\n            target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\n            Effects of music on memory for text\n            <\/a><\/strong>.Experimental research on rhythm, melody, and verbal recall.\n        <\/li>\n    <\/ul>\n<\/section>\n<\/article>\n<!-- =========================================================\n     FAQ SCHEMA \u00b7 AEO \/ GOOGLE\n     ========================================================= -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some melodies seem to discover themselves as they unfold. We explore how repetition, contour, tension, memory, and expectation can make a note feel inevitable.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2534,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[21,22],"tags":[96,37,99,97],"class_list":["post-2529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-research","tag-melodia","tag-musica","tag-narrativa-musical","tag-pegajosa"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>La m\u00fasica que no est\u00e1 escrita: 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