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 by Jorge Ginorio
The origins of the musical form known as Plena can be traced back to the early 1900's. It originated on Puerto Rico's southern coast, in a sector known as La Joya del Castillo, ("Jewel of the Castle"), located on Castillo Street in the city of Ponce. Plena functions as a sort of singing newspaper, a musical form in which barrio residents recount events and scandals of the day.
The main percussion instruments used in plena are three pleneras, (single-headed hand held frame drums). The names of the pleneras from high to low are requinto, segundo (also known as "Banao" in the area of Santurce) and seguidor.
In the plena ensemble, the seguidor, and segundo establish the basic plena rhythm, while the requinto improvises, creating rhythmic interaction with the call and response vocals and the melodic instruments.
Modern pleneras are made of different types of materials such as wood, steel, and fiberglass. They utilize tuning hardware quite similar to that found on timbales. Traditional pleneras are headed with goatskin; modern ones use rawhide skins. The tuning is fairly tight and each drum feels and sounds more like a conga than a frame drum. The basic sound for the seguidor and the segundo is the open tone, while the requinto has two basic sounds, the slap and the open tone.
In the old tradition of plena known as "Punta de Clavo", requinto players used their fingers more in their playing style, according to Hector "Tito" Matos, (Plena expert and director of the New York base plena group Viento de Agua).
 Pleneros del Quinto Olivo established a new way of playing in which the whole hand is used (similar to the "conga drum" technique). Today, this has become the standard way of playing, especially for the requinto. In Puerto Rico plena is played at different tempos in different regions. For example, plena from Ponce are usually slower from plena of Santurce. Also, within the Plena genre there are some variants such as; Plena Lamento (a very slow tempo plena with lyrics of sadness and melancholy), Plena Poética (a medium tempo plena with poetic verses adapted to the lyrics), and Plena con Mambo (a fast tempo plena with a very short "Coro", also known as "Coro Picao"). Plena con Mambo is the preferred variant by contemporary Plena groups like; Plena Libre, Plen_alo, Viento de Agua, and Truco y Zaperoko.
Some of the major artists of Plena, (past and present), are: Joselino "Bumbœm" Openheimer, "Los Ingleses", Aranzamendi Brothers, Mario Rivera, Manuel "Canario" Jiménez, Marcial Reyes, César Concepcíon, Orquesta Panamericana de Lito Peña, Grupo ABC, Hermanos Santana, Rafael Cortijo e Ismael Rivera, "Mon" Rivera, Familia Cepeda, Hermanos Ayala, Pleneros del Quinto Olivo, Grupo Atabal, Paracumbé, Plena Libre, Plenéalo, Plena Dulzura, Golpe de Plena, Pleneros de la 21, Viento de Agua, Truco y Zaperoko, among others.Copyright
Jorge Ginorio is a professional percussionist, educator and clinician. He regularly conducts lessons, workshops, and clinics in the South Central US area and Puerto Rico. Currently he is an active member of the Dallas/Fort Worth musical scene where he performs, records, and teaches. For more information about Jorge please visit www.rhythmweb.com/jorge
The following music notation includes basic plena parts followed by basic requinto soloing phrases written by Jorge Ginorio.
Copyright (c) 2003 Jorge Ginorio. All Rights Reserved.
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