About the Film
Plena music of Puerto Rico is generally folkloric. The music's beat and rhythm are usually played using hand drums called panderetas, but also known as panderos or pleneras. The music is accompanied by a scrape gourd, called the guiro. Pleneras resemble tambourines but without the jingles. These are handheld drums with stretched animal skins, usually goat skin, covering a round wooden frame. They are three different sizes of panderetta used in plena: the Tumbador (the largest of the three), the Seguidor (the medium-sized drum), and the Requinto (sometimes known as "adufe") a name deriving from Spain in the time of the Moors, or from similar African instruments. An advantage of this percussion arrangement is its portability, contributing to the plena's spontaineous appearance at any social gathering. Other instruments commonly heard in plena music are the cuatro, the maracas, and accordions.
