Sandunga is the fifth piece in Carteles, by Miguel Bernal Jimenez.
A sandunga is a musical form native to the isthmus of Tehuantepec region. This part of Mexico represents the shortest distance between the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico and is formed by the states of Oaxaca, Tabasco and Chiapas. The word sandunga is thought to be a nahuatl (the language spoken by most indigenous cultures in central Mexico) derivation of the Spanish word fandango. “Saa” means music and “ndu” means deep; sandungas usually have a nostalgic or sad mood. The two most famous sandungas are “La Sandunga” and “La Llorona”.
A typical sandunga is a somewhat slow dance in a minor mode, usually in the key of A minor. The beginning is a common 32 bar melody, usually repeated several times with heavy ornamentation and variation. In a traditional sandunga it is followed by a 62 bar section in a major key, usually in 3/4 time, which is known as the paseo. If the sandunga is being played as part of a dance, what would usually follow is a return to the main theme, but in a much more rhythmical character called the zapateado (which is very characteristic of this dance’s precursor, the Spanish fandango.) The instrumentation of a sandunga depends on the location; in Oaxaca it would probably be played by a typical town band like the ones I described in this post and would sound something like this:
In Tabasco, a sandunga would probably be played with harps and guitars and in Chiapas it would probably be played with marimbas and would sound something like this:
In Sandunga by Miguel Bernal Jiménez, the melody receives a treatment with some virtuosistic elements of the romantic period; a left hand that constantly plays chromatic scales coupled with tremolo passages, an A minor scale in ascending octaves and some hand crossing– although it is by no means a technically difficult piece. The main melody is mainly in A minor, although it has some chromatic inflections that are quite a bit more modern, as well as sections based on the whole tone scale. The central section in A major starts very traditionally, but it quickly changes keys into F major with a chromatic accompaniment, giving it a bitonal color very characteristic of Miguel Bernal Jiménez. This central section also contains a few playful minor seconds, like the ones seen in the first piece of Carteles, Volantín. After going back to the first theme, there is a short coda which clearly ends in A minor, with a few more of those minor seconds right before the long ascending scale in octaves.
In this work, there are several elements that are very idiomatic of Mexican music. One of the most important is in the rhythm. The whole piece is written in 6/8, but the melody is full of little syncopations on the third eight note. These shouldn’t feel as upbeats or misplaced accents, but are sections where the actual meter changes to 3/4. In a sandunga, the accompaniment usually follows a waltz like pattern, dividing the 6/8 into two 3/8 groups (the original Spanish fandango is usually written in 3/8 time), the Mexican element that marks the difference is the way the melody sometimes follows the 6/8 accentuation and other times it changes to 3/4, forming a hemiola with the two pseudo 3/8 measures. This is more noticeable in the central part of the work, where it changes into major (which is related to the paseo from the original sandunga form.)
Another element in the music that is very Mexican is the way many of the phrases end in a descending second or third on a strong beat. This downward inflection is very characteristic of the way people in southern and central Mexico speak and is very present in many melodies of the region. The third very Mexican element in Sandunga are the parallel sixths in the central section, which reflect the way that melody would be harmonized if played on marimbas in Chiapas, for example.
