Cuban music Exam 1

What were the caues of the 10 years war

• Economic crisis

• Rising abolitionist movement

• Spanish tariffs too high

• Lack of political participation

When was the 10 years war?

• October 10,1868

What does improvisation mean?

• Composing or performing music without prior preparation or written notes

Syncopation

• Rhythms that emphasize offbeats, or weak beats, instead of the strong beats in a piece of music

Kora

• 21 strings

• gourd body

• plucked with fingers

• Part of the ‘griot’ tradition of storytelling

Guajeo

• Repeating, rhythmic cells (commonly found in Cuban music and the Blues)

Where did majority of the people during the slave trade and cuba come from

• Yorubaland and the Congo to Cuba (in greater numbers and until much more recently)

What are a few of the qualities associated with Congolese music

• Polyrhythmic (multiple rhythms happening at the same time

• Performed to a ‘clave’ rhythm

• Often includes ‘call-and-response’

Manuel Saumell (who is he, who was he taught by, what did he do?)

• Father of Cuban music nationalism

• Taught by Louis Moreau Gottschalk

• Drafted a nationalist opera, Antonelli (1839)- would have been the first opera to feature Black singers

• Created the form contradanza, the first indigenous Cuban form of popular music

• Compose 50 contradanzas (most are very short)

The Contradanza

• Popular in the mid-19th centrury throughout Cuba

• First written music to be rhythmically based on an African rhythm pattern and the first Cuban danve to gain international popularity

• Melodies are diatonic , 4 or 8 bar phrases

• Binary structure

• - First half (primera, usually 8 bars repeated twice)

• - Second half (segunda, usually 8 bars repeated twice)

• After it moved back to Europe, it was called the Habanero

El Grito De yara (The yell of Yara)

• Céspedes

• They shortly invaded a nearby garrison between Manzanillo and Bayomo and won their first battle

• News of the event led to the formation of the Cuban Liberation Army

• Cuban Independence Day observed annually on October 10th as the national holiday

• - Beginning of the Cuban War of Independence

El Himno De Bayamo

• Melody composed in 1867 by Pedro Felipe (perucho) Figueredo

• In 1868, new lyrics composed after the Battle of Bayamo

• Fought in the battle against the Spanish

• Became nation anthem in 1902

The Bolero

• Guitar-based songs whose sophisticated lyrics mainly discussed love

• In 4/4, but arrangements are otherwise quite diverse

• Tristezas (1883), first bolero

• Composed by José “Pepe” Sánchez

• Creator of the Cuban bolero

• Also used the term “trova”

Trovadores

• Itinerant musicians who travelled around Cuba’s Oriente province, especially Santiago de Cuba, and earned their living by singing and playing the guitar

Matanzas

• Where rumba and danzon came from

Tumbao

• repeated rhythmic pattern traditionally played by conga or bongo drums

Diana

• String of syllables (vocables) performed at the entrance to a song, of Andalusian (southern Spain) origin

What are the three drums

• Quinto- Lead drum, relatively light conga drum, directly communicates with the dancers

• Tres dos (or tres golpes)- Played in the middle and works as a counter-clave

• Salidor (or tumba or tumbadora)- Lowest sounding and largest drum, long and thin shaped

Other drums

• The cajon- A wooden box slapped or tapped with the hands, acts as clave or counter0clave rhythm

• The claves0 Two short wooden sticks that, when struck, are used to maintain the clave rhythms

• The shekeré- West African instrument; dried gourd with beads or cowries woven into a net covering the gourd; Plays a backing rhythmic pulse

Order of Rumba

• Diana- Singer uses vocables to announce the melody of the song, lyrics may then annoucne the reasons for the song

• Canto- The lead singer performs an extended text of verse, sometimes improvising lyrics in ten-line stanzas called decimas; may signal for the other singers to repeat the chorus in a call and response

• “Se rompe la rumba”- Dancers enter the circle, continues until the tune ends

• Montuno- “from the mountain,” repeated lyric while dancers and drummer improvise

Three types of Rumba

1. Columbia- Orginated in late 1880s, solo, virtuosic, word came from a railroad weighing station in Matanzas, originated from “mani”, competitive fighting

2. Yambu- Originated in 1870s, Slowest form of rumba, danced primarily by older couples, primarily uses cajones

3. Guaguanco- Orginated in 1880 (same date and place as the danzon, the vacunao and botao couple dance, uses conga drums)

The Danzon (Long Dance, National Music of Cuba)

• “Las alturas de Simpson)- by Miguel Failde, named for area Matanzas

• First Danzon

• Rhythmic cycle: Cinquillo (3x) followed by Tresillo (1x)

• Form grew from the contradanza

• Danza represents a form in between the contradanza and the danzon

• Originally performed by a traditional wind orchestra, at the Matanzas Lyceum January 1st, 1879 by the “Orquesta Failde”

• Charanga instrumentation - flute, violin, brass, piano, bass and Latin percussion

• Initially regarded as scandalous, especially as all elements of society (and all races) danced together, partners even danced within a foor of one another

The Son structure

1. Canto

• Verse sung by solo singer (often, but not always, sung as a decima with a choris)

• Hispanic origins

2. Montuno

• Vocal call and response

• Instrumental improvision

• African origins (mostly Congo-inspired)

• Often faster, more uptempo than the canto

3. Septeto Nacional (De ignacio Piñeiro)

Haiti (1770s -1780s)

• Exploitations of enslaved Africans increased alongside economic growth on the island
  
  

• Meanwhile, the colony’s importance to the US and France increased

Haiti (1804)

• Haiti officially gained its independence in 1804

• From Haiti to Cuba (1804)

  
  
  

  Cabildo- secret society 

  
  
  

  • Refugees from the Haitian Revolution reached Cuba 

  
  
  

  -Primarily French colonists and their enslaved people

  
  
  

  • ~3,000 French settlers arrived to Cuba by 1804

  
  
  

  • Settled in Eastern Cuba 

Cuban Music from Haiti (1804-present)

• Established new genres in eastern Cuba like Tumba Francesca 

-Style combines traditions from West African, French and Spanish origins

• Also played in the role in the establishment of contradanza