Music

The music of Cuba, including its instruments, performance and dance, comprises a large set of unique traditions influenced mostly by west African and European (especially Spanish) music. Due to the syncretic nature of most of its genres, Cuban music is often considered one of the richest and most influential regional musics of the world. For instance, the son cubano merges an adapted Spanish guitar (tres), melody, harmony, and lyrical traditions with Afro-Cuban percussion and rhythms. Almost nothing remains of the original native traditions, since the native population was exterminated in the 16th century. 

Since the 19th century Cuban music has been hugely popular and influential throughout the world. It has been perhaps the most popular form of regional music since the introduction of recording technology. Cuban music has contributed to the development of a wide variety of genre and musical styles around the globe, most notably in Latin America, the Caribbean, West Africa and Europe. Examples include rhumba, Afro-Cuban jazz, salsa, soukous, many West African re-adaptations of Afro-Cuban music (Orchestra Baobab, Africando), Spanish fusion genres (notably with flamenco), and a wide variety of genres in Latin America.

FOLK MUSIC

The natives of Cuba were the Taíno, Arawak and Ciboney people, known for a style of music called areito. Large numbers of African slaves and European immigrants brought their own forms of music to the island. European dances and folk musics included zapateo, fandango, zampado, retambico and canción. Later, northern European forms like waltz, minuet, gavotte and mazurka appeared among urban whites. Fernando Ortíz, a Cuban folklorist, described Cuba's musical innovations as arising from the interplay between African slaves settled on large sugar plantations and Spanish or Canary Islanders who grew tobacco on small farms. The African slaves and their descendants reconstructed large numbers of percussive instruments and corresponding rhythms, the most important instruments being the clave, the congas and batá drums. Chinese immigrants have contributed the cornetín chino ("Chinese cornet"), a Chinese wind instrument still played in the comparsas, or carnival groups, of Santiago de Cuba.

GUAJIRA

The original guajira was earthy, strident rural acoustic music, possibly related to Puerto Rican jibaro. It appeared in the early 20th century, and is led by a 12-string guitar called a tres, known for a distinctive tuning.

MÚSICA CAMPESINA

Música campesina is a rural form of improvised music derived from a local form of décima and verso called punto. It has been popularized by artists like Celina González, and has become an important influence on modern son. While remaining mainly unchanged in its forms (thus provoking a steady decline in interest among the Cuban youth), some artists have tried to renew música campesina with new styles, lyrics, themes and arrangements.

DANZÓN

The European influence on Cuba's later musical development is most influentially represented by danzón, which is an elegant dance that became established in Cuba before being exported to popular acclaim throughout Latin America, especially Mexico. Its roots lay in European ballroom dances like the English country dance, French contredanse and Spanish contradanza. Danzon developed in the 1870s in the region of Matanzas, where African culture remained strong. It had developed in full by 1879. Played by orquesta tipica, an informal military marching band, danzóns evolved from the habanera by incorporating African elements, and were played by artists like Miguel Failde. Failde added elements from the French contredanse, and laid the way for future artists like José Urfe, Enrique Jorrín and Antonio María Romeu.

HAITIANS IN CUBA: CHARANGA

Other forms of Cuban folk music include the bolero ballads from Santiago, and small French creole bands called charangas. Charangas come from Haitian refugees during the Haitian Revolution (1791), who settled in the Oriente and established their own style of danzón, forming a kind of cabildo called the tumba francesa and became known for comparsa, mambo, chachachá and other kinds of folk music.

CHANGUI

Changuí is a rapid form of son from the eastern provinces (Santiago and Guantánamo, known together as Oriente). It is unclear how the changuí originated, and whether it is a precursor to the classical son, but it seems that the two developed along parallel lines. Changuí is characterised by its strong emphasis on the downbeat, as well as being fast and very percussive. While it was Elio Revé who modernised the changuí, musicians such as Candido Fabré and more recently Los Dan Den gave it the contemporary feel it has today. Most importantly Los Van Van, led by Juan Formell, drew on changuí, adding trombones, synthesizers and more percussion, to create the songo.

SON

Son is a major genre of Cuban music, and has helped lay the foundation for most of what came after. It arose in the eastern part of the island, among Spanish-descended farmers, and is thought to have been derived from changui, which also merged the Spanish guitar and African rhythms and to which son is closely related. Son's characteristics vary widely today, with the defining characteristic a bass pulse that comes before the downbeat, giving son and its derivatives (including salsa) its distinctive rhythm; this is known as the anticipated bass. Son traditionally concerns itself with themes like love and patriotism, though more modern artists are socially or politically-oriented. Son lyrics are typically decima (ten line), octosyllabic verse, and it is performed in 2/4 time. The son clave has both a reverse and forward clave, which dever because a forward clave has a three note bar (tresillo), followed by a two note bar, while the reverse is the opposite.

BATÁ AND YUKA

One of the most vibrant cabildos was the Lukumí, which became known for batá drums, played traditionally at initiation ceremonies, and gourd ensembles called abwe. In the 1950s, a collection of Havana-area batá drummers called Santero helped bring Lucumí styles into mainstream Cuban music, while artists like Mezcla and Lázaro Ros melded the style with other forms, including zouk. The Kongo cabildo is known for its use of yuka drums, as well as gallos (a form of song contest), makuta and mani dances, the latter being closely related to the Brazilian martial dance capoeira. Yuka drum music eventually evolved into what is known as rumba, which has become internationally popular. Rumba bands traditionally use several drums, palitos, claves and call and response vocals.

RUMBA

Abroad, rumba is primarily thought of as a glitzy ballroom dance, but its origins are spontaneous, improvised and lively, coming from the dockworkers of Havana and Matanzas. Percussion (including quinto and tumbadoras drums and "palitos", or sticks, to play a cáscara rhythm) and vocal parts (including a leader and a chorus) are combined to make a danceable and popular form of music. The word rumba is believed to stem from the verb rumbear, which means something like to have a good time, party. The rhythm is the most important part of rumba, which is always music primarily meant for dancing.

There three kinds of rumba rhythms, with accompanying dances: columbia, guaganco and yambú. The columbia, played in 6/8 time, is danced by one man and is very swift, with aggressive and acrobatic moves. The guagancó, played in 2/4, is danced with one man and one woman, and is much slower. The dance simulates the man's pursuit of the woman, and is thus sexually charged. The yambú, known as "the old people's rumba", is a precursor to the guaguancó and is played more slowly. Yambú has almost died-out and is played almost exclusively by folkloric ensembles.

HABANERA

In the late 19th century, the habanera developed out of the contradanza which had arrived from Haiti after the Haitian revolution. The main innovation from the contradanza was rhythmic, as the habanera incorporated Spanish and African influences into its repertoire. In the 1930s, habanera performer Arcano y sus Maravillos incorporated influences from conga and added a montuno (as in son), paving the way for the mixing of Latin musical forms, including guaracha, played by a charanga orchestra. Guaracha (sometimes simply called charanga) also drew from Haitian musical forms, has been extremely popular and continues to entertain audiences.

SALSA

In the 1970s and onwards, son montuno was combined with other Latin musical forms, such as the mambo and the rumba, to form contemporary salsa music, currently immensely popular throughout Latin America and the Hispanic world.

NUEVA TROVA

Paralleling nueva canción in Chile and Argentina, Cuba's political and social turmoil in the 60s and 70s produced a socially aware form of new music called nueva trova. Silvio Rodríguez and Pablo Milanés became the most important exponents of this style. It arose from travelling trovadores in the early 20th century, including popular musicians like Sindo Garay (best-known for "La Bayamesa"), Nico Saquito, Carlos Puebla and Joseíto Fernández (best-known for "Guantanamera"). Nueva trova was always intimately connected with Castro's revolution, but its lyrics frequently expressed personal rather than social issues, focusing on intense emotional issues.

TIMBA

Since its appearance in the early 1990s timba has become the most popular dance music in Cuba, rivalled only lately by Reggatón, the Cuban version of Jamaican ragga and dancehall music. Though related to salsa, timba has its own characteristics and history, and is intimately tied to the life and culture of Cuba, and especially Havana. Timba is to Havana what tango is to Buenos Aires, or pagode to Rio de Janeiro.