Cuba Grove Music

Grove Music Online
Cuba, Republic of (Sp. República de Cuba)

Gerard Béhague and Robin Moore
https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.06926
Published in print: 20 January 2001
Published online: 2001
updated, 25 July 2013
Island republic in the West Indies. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea

between North and South America and near to the Tropic of Cancer.
It comprises over 1600 cays (low coral banks) and the Isla de la
Juventud. The capital city is Havana. Cuba became an independent
republic in 1902, and was declared a socialist state in 1961.
I. Art music
Gerard Béhague
The history of art music in Cuba shows that it surpassed that of any
other Caribbean island, although colonial music started much later
there than in the larger Latin American countries. Musical activity
during the 16th and 17th centuries was apparently limited. At that
time sacred music was concentrated at Santiago Cathedral; the
earliest reference to music indicates the presence there in 1544 of
Miguel Velázquez, a native organist. The post of maestro de capilla
was established in 1682, with limited means, by Bishop Juan García
de Palacios, and was first held by Domingo de Flores.
Attempts to revive church music at Santiago, begun during the first

half of the 18th century, were successful only during the latter part
of the century when Cuba produced its first important composer,
Esteban Salas y Castro. Before his transfer to Santiago in 1764,
Salas was associated with the music of the Havana parish church
(which became a cathedral in 1788). His extensive output includes
masses, generally in four parts with string accompaniment,
Lamentations, psalm settings, motets, litanies and numerous
villancicos in the vernacular. His liturgical pieces are in a
transitional style combining late Baroque and pre-Classical
characteristics. Another Cuban, Francisco José Hierrezuelo,
succeeded Salas at Santiago; after his resignation the Spaniard Juan
París (1759–1845) occupied the post (1805–45). The musicologists
Alejo Carpentier and Pablo Hernández Balaguer discovered several
of París’s works, which include many villancicos. By the 1830s
operatic and symphonic music was being performed in the cathedral,
much to the disapproval of some local musicians.
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Music at Havana Cathedral seems to have reached its peak during
the early 19th century, although there have been no specific studies
of the historical and musical archives there. The Academy of Music
was founded in 1814, and the S Cecilia Academy in 1816; the first
music published in Cuba was a contradanza (1803).
Symphonies, operas and piano music, at first in a Classical and then

in a predominantly Romantic style, characterized 19th-century
Cuban music. Antonio Raffelín (1796–1882) wrote a mass, several
symphonies and chamber music works in a Classical idiom. Manuel
Saumell Robredo, a prolific composer, cultivated the contradanza
with its typical dotted-figure accompaniment, characteristic of the
later habanera, danza, danzón and other Latin American popular
dance rhythms. Laureano Fuentes Matons (1825–98) wrote many
chamber works, sacred pieces, a symphonic poem América, an
opera, Seila and several zarzuelas. Nicolás Ruiz Espadero (1832–90)
wrote virtuoso piano pieces in a style derived from Liszt and
Gottschalk, such as his Canto del guajiro. Gaspar Villate studied at
the Paris Conservatoire and had three of his operas given their first
performance in Europe (Zilia, Paris, 1877; La czarine, The Hague,
1880; Baldassare, Madrid, 1885).
The first decisive step towards musical nationalism in Cuba was

taken by Ignacio Cervantes (1847–1905), the most important Cuban
composer of his generation. He was a pupil of Gottschalk and Ruiz
Espadero and then of Marmontel at the Paris Conservatoire, and had
a successful career as a concert pianist. Among his many works the
45 Danzas cubanas for piano (1875–95), many of them contradanzas,
combine folk-music elements of both Afro-Cuban and guajiro
(Hispanic rural) traditions in a Romantic virtuoso piano style. These
pieces are the most original contribution to 19th-century Cuban art
music. Among the many composers active during the early 20th
century Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes, one of the most influential,
also advocated a Romantic national style. Later outstanding
composers associated with musical nationalism included Amadeo
Roldán and Alejandro García Caturla, who found in ‘Afrocubanismo’
the most notable form of national expression. The stylistic
idiosyncrasies of Roldán’s impressive output are best seen in his
series of six Rítmicas (1930) for various instruments, the last two for
Afro-Cuban and other percussion instruments. García Caturla had
several of his works published in Europe and the USA. His skillful
and original stylization of Afro-Cuban music is well represented by
his La rumba (1933) and Tres danzas cubanas (1937) for orchestra,
and particularly by his many settings of Alejo Carpentier’s and
Nicolás Guillén’s Afro-Cuban poems. For a time Roldán was leader of
the Havana PO, founded in 1924 by Pedro Sanjuán. Previously the
more conservative Havana SO had been established under Gonzalo
Roig, composer of the popular zarzuela Cecilia Valdés. Ernesto
Lecuona, a member of the same generation, was internationally
renowned for his musical comedies and many popular songs.
After the premature deaths of Roldán and García Caturla, José

Ardévol (1911–81) occupied a leading position as a composer and
teacher on the island from the 1930s to the mid-1950s. He gave
many young composers a solid technical training, and he founded
the Grupo de Renovación Musical (1942) in Havana, which promoted
Page 2 of 20
contemporary music and rejected nationalism for its own sake. The
group’s manifesto stated, however, that a ‘national factor is
indispensable in musical creation, in the sense that all artistic
expression occurs within a cultural setting’. As a composer Ardévol
moved from a rigorous neo-classical style, which he initiated in
Cuba, to a modernistic ‘national’ style.
Ardévol’s pupils who were associated with the group and became
prominent included Serafín Pro, composer of choral works, Gisela
Hernández (1912–71), Edgardo Martín (b 1915), Harold Gramatges
(1918-2008) and Argeliers León (1918–91), also noted as an
ethnomusicologist in the 1960s. One of the group, Julián Orbón
(1925–91), established an international reputation as a composer
and a pianist. In the early 1950s he broke away from the group to
develop his own artistic ideas. Other 20th-century Cuban composers
who developed independently include Carlo Borbolla (1902–90),
Félix Guerrero Díaz (b 1916) and Aurelio de la Vega (b 1925). The
last-named is the best-known composer outside Cuba. He has
written in an atonal idiom and turned to electronic music in the
1960s. He directed the school of music at the Universidad de
Oriente, then moved to the USA as professor of music at S Fernando
State College, California, (now Cal State Northridge), where he
directs the laboratory of electronic music. Among other composers
born in the 1920s and 30s Juan Blanco (b 1929), Carlos Fariñas (b
1934) and Leo Brouwer (b 1939) have used electronic and serial
techniques. Brouwer has also drawn on aleatory techniques. Since
the 1970s the most significant figures of the Cuban avant garde have
been Héctor Angulo (b 1932), Cálixto Álvarez (b 1938), Roberto
Valera (b 1938), José Loyola (b 1941) and Sergio Fernández Barroso
(b 1946), while Guido López-Gavilán (b 1944) composes in a more
accessible neo-tonal style. With the founding of the Instituto
Superior de Arte in 1976 a highly individual group of composers
emerged, including Jorge Garciaporrúa (b 1938), Carlos Malcolm (b
1945), Juan Piñera (b 1949), José Angel Pérez Puentes (b 1951),
Magaly Ruiz (b 1941) and Efraín Amador (b 1947). The substantial
output of these composers since the 1970s has confirmed the
richness and diversity of contemporary Cuban art music.
See also Havana and Santiago de Cuba.
Bibliography
A.G. Caturla: ‘The Development of Cuban Music’, American
Composers on American Music, ed. H. Cowell (Stanford, CA, 1933),
173–4
A. Carpentier: La música en Cuba (Mexico City, 1946)
A. Carpentier: ‘La música contemporánea de Cuba’, RMC, no.27

(1947), 9–16
A. Carpentier: ‘Music in Cuba’, MQ, 33 (1947), 365–80
P.H. Balaguer: ‘Panorama de la música colonial cubana’, RMC, nos.

81–2 (1962), 201–8
Page 3 of 20
J. Ardévol: Introducción a Cuba: la música (Havana, 1969)
E. Martín: Panorama de la música en Cuba (Havana, 1971)
L. Brouwer: La música lo cubano y la innovación (Havana, 1982)
G. Antolitia: Cuba, dos siglos de música (Havana, 1984)
J.A. González: La composición operística en Cuba (Havana, 1986)
P. Hernández Balaguer: El más antiguo documento de la música

cubana y otros ensayos (Havana, 1986)
E. Pérez Sanjuro: Historia de la música cubana (Miami, 1986)
M.A. Enríquez: Alejandro García Caturla (Havana, 1998)
Z. Lapique Becali: Cuba colonial. Música, compositores e intérpretes

1570–1902 (Havana, 2007)
R. Giro: Diccionario enciclopédico de la música cubana (Havana

2007)
I. Pacheco Valera: La sociedad Pro-Arte Musical. Testimonio de su

tiempo (Havana 2007)
II. Traditional music

Robin Moore
Music in Cuba often represents a complex synthesis of influences

including not only Hispanic and African, but also regional and
international styles from a gamut of classical, ‘folk’ and commercial
sources. This is especially true of popular music. Cuba has existed as
a political entity for over 500 years; it has developed many syncretic
national genres that testify to the island’s unique cultural history
and are enjoyed by nearly all Cubans. Conversely, Cuba is far from
homogeneous and many cultural forms have achieved popularity
only among limited segments of the population. Music genres
associated with Afro-Cuban religious worship, for instance, have
never been played consistently in the mass media and are
considered non-musical or even offensive to some listeners. Such
attitudes are most common among white/Hispanic Cubans, some of
whom continue to associate African-derived expression with poverty,
ignorance and superstition. Rather than conceiving of Cuban music
as a single, monolithic entity, it is more helpful to view it as a
conglomerate of distinct styles and tendencies which have affected
one another to varying degrees over time.
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1. Local traditions.
(i) Amerindian.
The first known inhabitants of Cuba were the Siboney and Arawak
groups living on the island at the time of the Spanish conquest. The
little that is known of their musical practices has been taken from
the accounts of travellers such as Bartolomé de las Casas and
Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo. Instruments employed by native
groups included the mayohuacán, a hollowed-out log slit-drum
similar to the Aztec teponaztle; wooden and conch-shell trumpets,
the latter known as guamos or cobos; flutes; and wooden rattles
similar to maracas. The maraca appears to be the only instrument
employed frequently in Cuba today which may derive from the
indigenous past.
One of the most important forms of Siboney expression was the

areíto, a communal religious event involving music, dance, ritual
tobacco smoking and the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Dance
movements of the areíto are not well documented but seem to have
involved ring formation and were at least in part mimetic.
Responsorial song, a crucial element in the ceremony, was led by a
tequina or musical specialist chosen by the tribe. Colonial officials
banned areíto performance in 1512; this, combined with the brutal
nature of the conquest in the Caribbean and resultant decimation of
the indigenous population, led to the early demise of such activity.
(ii) Iberian-derived.
These musical traditions have existed in Cuba since the earliest days
of the conquest. While most national genres demonstrate some
influence from Spain, the punto and décima are most closely
associated with such heritage. These forms of expression, known
collectively as música guajira (music of rural Hispanic farmers), have
remained strong into the 20th century due to government-subsidized
immigration from the Canary Islands in the 1910s and 20s. The
punto and décima are primarily song and string instrument
traditions. They typically employ the laúd, tres and bandurria
(variants of Spanish instruments developed in Cuba) as well as the
guitar and maracas or other hand-held percussion. Strictly speaking,
punto is a term used to describe instrumental music that usually
accompanies song. Décima, by contrast, refers to the poetry most
commonly associated with música guajira. It can be pre-composed or
spontaneously improvised. Décima form first developed in medieval
Spain. It consists of ten eight-syllable lines with the espinela rhyme
scheme (ABBAACCDDC). The melodies associated with música
guajira are stylized and formulaic. Emphasis is primarily on the text,
with music in a supporting role. Punto and décima have lost favour,
especially among the young, who consider them old-fashioned.
Nevertheless, television and radio shows continue to promote them,
as do regional festivals
Page 5 of 20
One of the most exciting aspects of improvised décima performance
is the fact that it often occurs in the context of controversias or
poetic song-duelling between two artists. Décima improvisers are
required to respond quickly to the challenges of their opponent and
to sing their own responses within strict metric conventions. The
Spanish-derived romance or lyric ballad also exists in Cuba, as do
other Iberian genres.
(iii) Afro-Cuban.
Adopting the terminology of author Miguel Barnet, the music and
dance of Regla de Ocha or Santería the santería ceremony can be
regarded as the ‘fuente viva’ (living source) of much of Cuba’s
cultural inspiration. As in the case of North American black gospel,
the sacred music of Santería has never enjoyed mass commercial
popularity (though this may be changing), yet it has been of
fundamental importance to the development of most Cuban popular
music and to the strength of African cultural retentions generally. A
fusion of Yoruba beliefs with aspects of Catholicism, Santería is the
largest of several Afro-Cuban religions including Arará and Palo
Monte (derived from Ewe/Dahomean and Kongo groups,
respectively) as well as espiritismo (a form of European-derived
Spiritism fused with local influences) and abakuá ritual. (the
expression of all-male secret societies derived from the area
between present-day Nigeria and Cameroon). Virtually all Afro-
Cuban religious devotion involves music and dance: the orichas
(ancestor divinities) can only be invoked and worshipped by playing
songs dedicated to them.
Various types of music are associated with Afro-Cuban religions.

These include formal performance events closed to non-initiates in
which batá drumming and singing tend to predominate, as well as
more open celebrations in which the batás or an ekón (bell) and one
or more unconsecrated conga drums are more typically used,
sometimes in conjunction with chéqueres (dried gourds shaken
within a net of beads; fig.1a) or even violins. The batás, perhaps the
best known of Santería instruments, consist of a set of three double-
headed, hourglass drums of different sizes. The most common names
of these drums, in descending order of size, are iyá, itótele and
okónkolo. Batá drums are considered sacred and are believed to
contain a spiritual force (añá) that facilitates religious
communication.
Page 6 of 20
1. Cuban percussion instruments: (a) chéqeres, a dried gourd
instrument of African derivation, traditionally used in Afro-Cuban
religious celebrations; (b) cencerros or bells used in secular dance
bands; (c) güiro, distinct in shape and construction from the güiros used
in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and elsewhere; (d)
maracas, completed and in construction over a wooden mould
In any type of Yoruba-derived ceremony, Afro-Cuban religious

devotion typically involves the performance of orus, strictly ordered
sequences of percussive rhythms and songs to the orichas. Solo
vocalists, referred to as akpwon, lead the singing and are responded
to by a chorus of initiates. Lead singers and chorus members can be
men or women; women, however, constitute the majority of Santería
devotees. The musical characteristics of traditional Afro-Cuban
music, both sacred and secular, include the predominance of voice
and percussion instruments; cyclic, interlocking musical segments
which are repeated in variation to provide an underlying musical
texture, an ostinato of sorts; complex polyrhythms; responsorial
singing; descending pentatonic vocal melodies; and a tendency for
some instruments to play relatively static, unchanging figures while
others improvise.
Because it incorporates many of the same instruments used in

religious events, the Afro-Cuban rumba sounds similar to music of
the Santería ceremony. Rumba is, however, typically secular. It
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developed in the Havana and Matanzas provinces, and its rhythms
are said to be of Bantu origin. Similar genres (most notably the
tumba francesa of Oriente) exist in other areas. As in the case of
batá drumming, rumba performers (traditionally men) most often
employ three drums, conga, tumbadora, quinto or salidor (in order of
decreasing size and rising pitch) as well as claves and the palitos
(sticks) or cáscara (literally ‘shell’, this latter term refers to the
wooden extension of a drum, a wood block or another resonant
object beaten with sticks). Rumba can also be performed on wooden
boxes (cajones) or other instruments instead of drums. In contrast to
batá performance, it is the highest drum in the rumba ensemble that
improvises, and the lower drums, along with the clave and cáscara,
that provide the more static musical accompaniment.
Numerous antecedent genres to the rumba are mentioned in

literature on the mid-19th century (for example tahona, papolote,
yuka, calinda) and new forms are constantly emerging. Three major
subgenres are commonly found today: the yambú, guaguancó and
columbia, each associated with distinct rhythms and body
movements. The yambú and guaguancó are couple dances. Yambú,
an older form, is performed at a slower tempo and involves mimetic
gestures characteristic of the early (rumba del tiempo de España).
Guaguancó, probably the best-known variant, has inspired many
commercial dances in cabarets and theatres. The choreography
represents a stylized form of sexual conquest suggested by pelvic
thrusts from the male dancer (referred to as the vacunao) and
covering of the groin by the female (the botao). Columbia is a fast,
virtuoso male solo dance associated with abakuá groups, a tradition
derived from Efik culture.
Comparsa (or conga) music represents yet another Afro-Cuban genre

which has had a significant impact on national traditions.
Comparsas, groups of primarily Afro-Cuban street musicians that
perform in street parades, developed around the beginning of the
20th century. They derive from 19th-century ensembles of slaves and
free blacks who were allowed to perform their tango congo music
publicly on Epiphany (El Día de Reyes, 6 January) each year. This
event was specifically for black Cubans, who were often not allowed
to participate in Carnival. At the conclusion of the Wars of
Independence (1868–98), Carnival finally became a more ethnically
integrated event. Controversies over the comparsas continued for
many years, however, and bands were actually barred from
participation in Carnival again from 1914 to 1936.
While comparsas in the 19th century tended to be organized by

cabildo (societies representing particular African ethnic groups),
those in the 20th century have been organized by city district.
Neighbourhoods with well-known comparsas in Havana include
Belén, Atarés, Jesús María and Cayo Hueso. Each comparsa has its
own theme song as well as dance movements and costumes.
Instruments are often made at home by participants or improvised
from inexpensive materials. They include stave drums (made with
long strips of wood) of various shapes and sizes, bells, frying pans,
tyre rims, trumpets and other brass instruments, as well as the
corneta china (a double-reed aerophone brought to Cuba by Chinese
indentured servants and used in Santiago carnival). Through the
1940s, comparsas were frequently hired by Cuban politicians in an
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attempt to attract black voters. Dance band ‘salon congas’ inspired
by street comparsas began to achieve popularity in Cuba and abroad
in the 1930s.
2. Popular genres.
(i) Ballroom music.

European ballroom genres have been danced in Cuba for centuries
(e.g. the minuet, gavotte, quadrille and waltz) and over the years
have blended with Afro-Cuban influences to produce new styles.
Among the first syncretic ballroom genres to gain popularity in the
early 19th century were the contradanza and danza, fusions of
predominantly European-derived music for figure dancing with light
percussive accompaniment and featuring an isorhythmic pattern
popularized in Cuba beginning in the 1790s. This pattern is known
as the cinquillo (ex.1). The growing popularity of the contradanza
and danza met with fierce opposition by many middle-class critics
who denounced the cinquillo and black contradanza and danza
variants more generally as a ‘savage Africanism’. The danzón, direct
successor to these genres, encountered even more intense
opposition a few decades later. Considered by many to be the first
widely popular style of national music, it developed among the black
and mulatto middle classes of Matanzas province in the 1870s. Band
leader Miguel Faílde (1852–1921) is especially remembered as one
of its important early innovators.
Danzones remained controversial for many years because of the

cinquillo pattern on the guiro scraper and timbales, the
predominance of Afro-Cuban musicians performing them, and their
incorporation of couple dancing, then a new practice in Cuba and
considered immoral. Additionally, they first gained prominence
during the wars of independence against Spain (1868–98), a period
of heightened racial tension. Little distinguishes the danzón from the
contradanza and danza in a musical sense except for a more
extended form; its uniqueness lies primarily in its choreography,
Danzón structure as of the 1880s typically consists of a rondo
(ABACAD). Its popularity is closely associated with nationalist
sentiment generated during the struggle for autonomy from Spain.
The danzonete and chachachá of the 20th century can be thought of
as fusions of the danzón with influences from the son, as is the
repertory of the charanga band. The ensembles performing
mid-19th-century ballroom music were known as orquestas típicas.
Their instrumentation included güiro (a gourd scraper; fig.1c),
timbales (derived from the drums of Spanish military bands),
clarinet, cornet, trombone, ophicleide and tuba. At the turn of the
century, the flute, piano, string bass and violins (the charanga)
began to replace the aforementioned wind instruments.
Page 9 of 20
Ex.1 Cinquillo rhythm
(ii) Blackface theatre.

Variously called teatro bufo, teatro criollo, teatro vernáculo or teatro
de variedades, blackface theatre developed largely from Spanish
theatrical forms such as the tonadilla and from North American
minstrelsy. While not discussed at length in most literature,
blackface shows were the most popular forms of entertainment from
the 1860s to at least the 1920s. Almost invariably, character
interaction on stage took place in the working-class neighbourhood
or urban slum houses (solares). Standard characters included the
comic black man (negrito), the light-skinned black woman (mulata)
and the Spanish shopkeeper or businessman (gallego). Parodies of
traditional Afro-Cuban rumba, comparsa, son, and guaracha, played
by Western orchestral ensembles, represented the mainstay of
musical accompaniment. The cornet, violin, clarinet, acoustic bass,
keyboard and timbales were among the instruments most commonly
employed.
(iii) Sentimental song genres.

As is the case in most other Latin American countries, a significant
amount of popular music in Cuba has tended to be slow sentimental
song rather than dance music. Sentimental genres include the
canción, the bolero, and trova tradicional (also known as vieja trova).
They are characterized by extended chromatic harmonies, moderate
duple metre, stylistic influences from German Lieder or Italian light
opera, and lyrics alluding to love or personal relationships. A
number of turn-of-the-century habanera compositions are also
essentially love songs, although the genre derived from the
contradanza and was initially intended for dancing. Cuba’s vieja
trova tradition is of particular interest, as it involved primarily black
and mulatto working-class performers in Santiago de Cuba with no
formal training who nevertheless demonstrated strong art music
influences in their compositions. This is the repertoire in which the
Latin American bolero first appeared, later spreading to Mexico and
throughout the region.
Operatic influences are also apparent in the many popular zarzuelas

(nationalist light operas) which first gained popularity at the turn of
the century, and remain well represented. Cuban zarzuelas derive
from the Spanish genre of the same name but their plots are based
on themes and imagery specific to Cuba. The works tend to be set in
the 19th century and revolve around white and black male suitors
competing for the love of a mulatto woman. The peak of their
popularity came in the 1920s and 30s during a movement concurrent
with (and in some respects similar to) the Harlem Renaissance and
known as afrocubanismo. Famous Cuban zarzuela composers include
Ernesto Lecuona, Jaime Prats and Gonzalo Roig.
Page 10 of 20
(iv) Son.
The Cuban Son (not to be confused with its counterparts in other
Latin American countries) and the Salsa music derived from it are
recognized among the most important forms of Caribbean music of
the 20th century and beyond. The scope of their international
influence rivals that of reggae, blues and rock. Sones are highly
syncretic, representing a fusion of African and Hispanic cultural
influences. In the 1920s they became an important symbol of
national identity in Cuba, although they first developed as a regional
music in the province of Oriente. Son is difficult to define precisely,
as numerous sub-classifications exist (e.g. son montuno, changüí,
sucu-sucu, Guaracha, conjunto format and Mambo), as well as
hybrid forms which fuse son-derived characteristics with other
musics (e.g. son-guajira, son-pregón, guaracha-son and afro-son).
Structurally, traditional sones tend to be in duple metre, based on
simple European-derived harmonic patterns (I–V, I–IV–V) and begin
initially with a strophic verse section. Short instrumental segments
performed on tres (folk guitar) or trumpet are also frequently
included between strophic repetitions. The montuno, the final
section of most sones, is performed at a faster tempo and involves
relatively rapid alternations between a chorus and an improvising
vocal or instrumental soloist. Phrases in this section are generally
referred to as inspiraciones. The cyclical, antiphonal and highly
improvisatory nature of the montuno bears a striking similarity to
the formal organization of many traditional West African musics,
whereas the initial strophic sections of sones (known as canto or
tema) more closely resemble European musics.
Acoustic sones employ various instruments including the tres, guitar,

maracas (fig.1d, bongo drum, güiro and botija (jug bass), marímbula
(large lamellaphone) or acoustic bass. Modern dance bands often
use an electric bass, substitute electric keyboard for the guitar and
tres and add conga drums (tumbadoras) and timbales as well as a
horn section. Son lyrics utilize European-derived poetic forms such
as coplas, cuartetas and décimas. Among the most distinctive
musical characteristics of the genre are its prominent clave pattern,
highly syncopated figures played by the tres and/or keyboard which
frequently conform to clave rhythm and outline the chordal structure
of the piece, a tendency for the guitar strum and bongo to emphasize
the fourth beat of the bar more strongly than the first and a unique
bass rhythm accenting the second half of the second beat and the
fourth beat of the bar, generally referred to as an anticipated bass
(ex.2). The syncopated bass pattern of the son as well as its
ambivalent stress pattern has been fundamental to the creation of
modern salsa.
With the exception of some música guajira, canciones, and changüí

music (a son variant popular in eastern Cuba), most Cuban music
contains a repeating figure known as clave that provides a rhythmic
foundation to the piece. The term clave is confusing since it can
refer both to a diversity of characteristic two-bar rhythms as well as
to the concussion sticks on which some clave rhythms are
performed. In a more general sense, the phrase ‘being in clave’ is
used to imply the awareness of a clave time-line (not necessarily
Page 11 of 20
performed) which relates musicians’ rhythmic and melodic
performance to one another. The clave patterns of Afro-Cuban
religious repertory, often performed on a bell or other metal object,
tend to be in 6/8 time, while those in secular genres are more
frequently in duple metre.
Ex.2 Typical son figurations
Beginning in the mid-1980s, a variant of son music has emerged

known as timba which fuses son with elements of Afro-Cuban
traditional drumming as well as with elements of US funk and R ’n’
B. Dance bands performing music in this style include Azúcar Negra,
Bamboleo, La Charanga Habanera, Klímax and NG La Banda. The
music gained popularity during the breakup of the Soviet Union and
the government’s cultivation of Cuba as a tourist destination after
decades of relative isolation. Timba is closely associated with the
burgeoning nightclub scene of the 1990s and beyond, with
provocative dance styles (especially as performed by women), and
with hedonist values. In this latter sense it shares much in common
with reggaeton, a regional music derived from Jamaica, Panama,
Puerto Rico, New York and elsewhere that has found large audiences
in Cuba of the new millennium. Timba and reggaeton bands are
increasingly difficult to differentiate, as many fuse elements of both
styles in their compositions.
3. Music in socialist Cuba.

The political changes resulting from the socialist revolution in 1959
have had a dramatic impact on Cuban musical activity. Support of
culture and the arts in various forms has been a priority for the
government; the ENA (Escuela Nacional de Arte) and ENIA (Escuela
Nacional de Instructores de Arte) were created by the Castro
government in 1961 at almost exactly the same time as the Bay of
Pigs invasion, for instance. As in the case of most Marxist states,
culture has been highly politicized in Cuba. Countless forms of
musical expression have flourished on the generous support of
government agencies while others have been marginalized and
censored. The musical panorama is complex and contrasts attributes
such as free education, health care and relatively high salaries for
many performers with limitations on personal expression, lack of
adequate materials for study and difficulty in travelling. It must be
Page 12 of 20
emphasized, however, that state-sponsored artistic activity in
general increased after 1959 and that the island continues to
produce performers of exceptional quality.
One of the best-known forms of musical expression associated with

revolutionary Cuba is referred to as nueva trova. The term trova
derives from trovador (troubadour), a name given to early 20th-
century guitarist composers. Nueva trova is a form of protest music
incorporating stylistic influences from Cuban traditional and popular
genres, jazz, rock, European classical music and other sources. It
emerged as a recognizable movement in the late 1960s among
younger performers, although its direct antecedents can be found in
compositions by Carlos Puebla, Eduardo Saborit and traditional
trova artists with political inclinations. Nueva trova represents part
of a pan-Latin American protest song phenomenon which extended
to the USA and Europe.
Song lyrics of the nueva trova repertory vary in style but represent
an attempt to escape from commercial banality, often referring to
political injustice, sexism, colonialism and related issues. Pablo
Milanés, Silvio Rodríguez, Noel Nicola, Pedro Luís Ferrer and other
early figures appeared on stage in street clothes and in other ways
minimized the divide between performer and audience. Far from
being wholeheartedly embraced by the establishment, nueva trova
artists throughout the mid-1970s maintained a tense relationship
with government officials who considered their long hair, ‘hippie’
clothing and interest in rock a manifestation of capitalist decadence.
By the late 1970s, however, many of the same artists had achieved
widespread support and were transformed into international icons of
socialism. Cuban protest singers, of the 1980s, 90s and beyond,
including Carlos Varela, Amaury Pérez and Gerardo Alfonso, have
been more heavily influenced by rock; some have criticized
government policies more openly than their established
counterparts. Beginning in the mid-1990s, a politically oriented
version of Cuban rap emerged known as rap consciente with
protagonists such as Los Aldeanos, Doble Filo, Hermanos de Causa,
Obsesión and others. While it made a strong impact nationally and
internationally, political rap since about 2003 has been eclipsed by
the popularity of largely apolitical dance repertoire.
After the onset of economic crisis in 1989, musicians actively sought

recording and touring contracts abroad, making their work more
internationally accessible. Circumventing the American economic
embargo in various ways, both they and the Cuban communist party
used music as a means of generating hard currency after the
collapse of the Soviet Union. Jazz artists on the island (and in exile)
have received widespread recognition for their excellence, as have
dance bands. Groups such as Los Van Van and Angelitos Negros
experiment with international influences from the US and Brazil
combining them with Cuban genres in innovative ways. Unique
fusions of Afro-Cuban religious drumming and song with son, salsa
and rumba have become quite common in the wake of liberalized
policies towards religious practitioners. Cuba continues to be a
dynamic site of musical creation despite the severe economic
hardships and political isolation experienced by its people.
Page 13 of 20
Bibliography
AND OTHER RESOURCES
General
S. Ramírez: La Habana artística: apuntes históricos (Havana, 1891)
L. Fuentes Matóns: Las artes en Santiago de Cuba (Havana, 1893,

2/1981)
E. Sánchez de Fuentes: El folklore en la música cubana (Havana,

1923)
E. Sánchez de Fuentes: Folklorismo: artículos, notas y críticas

musicales (Havana, 1928)
A. Carpentier: La música en Cuba (Mexico, 1946, 3/1988)
F. Ortíz: La africanía de la música folklórica de Cuba (Havana, 1950,

2/1965)
F. Ortíz: Los bailes y el teatro de los negros en el folklore de Cuba

(Havana, 1951, 2/1981)
F. Ortíz: Los instrumentos de la música afrocubana (Havana, 1952–5)
A. León: Del canto y el tiempo (Havana, 1974, 2/1984/R)
S. Feijóo: Signos 17: música de Cuba (Santa Clara, 1975)
Z. Lapique Becali: Música colonial cubana (1812–1902), 1 (Havana,

1979)
A. Carpentier: Ese músico que llevo dentro (Havana, 1980)
C. Díaz Ayala: Música cubana del areyto a la nueva trova (San Juan,
1981, 3/1993)
H. Orovio: Diccionario de la música cubana: biográfico y técnico

(Havana, 1981, 2/ 1992)
L. Acosta: Música y descolonización (Mexico, 1982)
L. Acosta: Del tambor al sintetizador (Havana, 1983)
O. Alén: La música de las sociedades de tumba francesa en Cuba

(Havana, 1986)
M.E. Viñueza: Presencia arará en la música folklórica de Matanzas

(Havana, 1986)
C. Díaz Ayala: Si te quieres por el pico divertir …: historia del pregón

musical latinoamericano (San Juan, 1988)
N. Pérez Rodríguez: El carnaval santiaguero (Santiago de Cuba,

1988)
Page 14 of 20
P. Manuel, ed.: Essays on Cuban Music: North American and Cuban
Perspectives (Lanham, MD, 1991)
J. Amira and S. Cornelius: The Music of Santería: Traditional

Rhythms of the Batá Drums (Crown Point, IN, 1992)
M.A. Martínez: Cubanos en la música (Havana, 1993)
C. Díaz Ayala: Cuba canta y baila: discografía de la música cubana, i:

1898–1925 (San Juan, 1994)
C. Díaz Pérez: Sobre la guitarra, la voz: una historia de la nueva

trova cubana (Havana, 1994)
C. Díaz Pérez, ed.: De Cuba, soy hijo: correspondencia cruzada de

Gonzalo Roig (Madrid, 1995)
P. Manuel, ed.: Caribbean Currents: Caribbean Music from Rumba to

Reggae (Philadelphia, 1995)
M.T. Vélez: The Trade of an Afro-Cuban Religious Drummer: Felipe

García Villamil (diss., Wesleyan U., 1996)
R. Moore: Music of the Hispanic Caribbean (New York, 2010)
Popular music
A.O. Hallorans: Guarachas cubanas: curiosa recopilación desde las
más antiguas hasta las más modernas (Havana, 1882, 2/1963)
E. Grenet, ed.: Popular Cuban Music: 80 Revised and Corrected

Compositions Together with an Essay on the Evolution of Music in
Cuba (Havana, 1939)
O. Castillo Faílde: Miguel Faílde, creador musical del danzón

(Havana, 1964)
M.T. Linares: Introducción a Cuba: la música popular (Havana, 1970)
J.S. Roberts: The Latin Tinge: the Impact of Latin American Music on
the United States (New York, 1979)
C.M. Rondón: El libro de la salsa (Caracas, 1980)
J. Gómez, ed.: Canciones de la nueva trova (Havana, 1981)
N. Galán: Cuba y sus sones (Valencia, 1983)
S. Feijóo: El son cubano: poesía general (Havana, 1986)
B. Collazo: La última noche que pasé contigo (Puerto Rico, 1987)
A. Martínez Malo: Rita la única (Havana, 1988)
O. Martínez: Ernesto Lecuona (Havana, 1989)
V. Aguilar: Muy personal: Pablo Milanés (Mexico, 1990)
C. de León: Sindo Garay: memorias de un trovador (Havana, 1990)

Page 15 of 20
J. Robbins: Making Popular Music in Cuba: a Study of the Cuban
Institutions of Musical Production and the Musical Life of Santiago
de Cuba (diss., U. of Illinois at Urbana, 1990)
R. Mauleón: Salsa Guidebook for Piano and Ensemble (Petaluma, CA,

1993)
Y. Daniel: Rumba: Dance and Social Change in Contemporary Cuba

(Bloomington, IN, 1995)
C. Díaz Pérez: Silvio Rodríguez: hay quien precisa (Madrid, 1995)
R. Giró, ed.: Panorama de la música popular cubana (Cali, 1995)
C. de León: Ernesto Lecuona: el maestro (Madrid, 1995)
S. Rodríguez: Canciones del mar (Madrid, 1995)
R. Moore: Nationalizing Blackness: Afrocubanismo and Artistic

Revolution in Havana, 1925–40 (Pittsburgh, 1997)
M.T. Vélez: Drumming for the Gods. The Life and Times of Felipe
García Villamil (Philadelphia, 2000)
L. Acosta: Raices del Jazz Latino: un siglo del jazz en Cuba

(Barranquilla, 2001)
K. Hagedorn: Divine Utterances. The Performance of Afro-Cuban

Santería (Washington, DC, 2001)
L. Acosta: Otra visión de la música popular cubana (Havana, 2004)
N. Sublette: Cuba and its Music: From the First Drums to the
Mambo (Chicago, 2004)
V. Perna: Timba: the Sound of Cuban Crisis (London, 2005)
D. García: Arsenio Rodríguez and the Transnational Flows of Latin

Popular Music (Philadelphia, 2006)
R. Moore: Music and Revolution: Cultural Change in Socialist Cuba

(Berkeley, 2006)
R. Giro: Diccionario enciclopédico de la música cubana (Havana,

2007)
P. Manuel: Creolizing the Contradance in the Caribbean

(Philadelphia, 2009)
S. Thomas: Cuban Zarzuela: Performing Race and Gender on

Havana’s Lyric Stage (Champaign, IL, 2009)
G. Baker: Buena Vista in the Club: Rap, Reggaeton, and Revolution

in Havana (Durham, NC, 2011)
U. Vaghan and C. Aldama: Carlos Aldama’s Life in Batá (Champaign,

IL, 2012)
Page 16 of 20
Recordings
The Cuban Danzón: its Ancestors and Descendants, coll. J. Santos,
Folkways FE 4066 (1982)
What’s Cuba Playing At?, BBC videotape, dir. M. Dibb (London,

1985)
Live in Havana, perf. G. Rubalcaba, Messidor MSDR 15960 (1986);

reissued as MSDR 15830 (1995)
Rumbas y comparsas de Cuba, ICAIC videotape, dir. O. Valdés, H.

Veitía and C. Diego (Havana, 1986)
Antología integral del son, coll. D. Orozco, 1: Bases históricos,

Siboney LD–286 (1987)
Machito: a Latin Jazz Legacy, videotape, dir. C. Ortiz, Icarus Films

(New York, 1987)
Misa negra, perf. Irakere, Messidor 15972 (1987)
Congas por barrio, perf. Pello el Afrokan, EGREM LD–4471 (1988)
Rumba caliente, perf. Muñequitos de Matanzas, Qbadisc 9005 (1988)
Routes of Rhythm, Cultural Research and Communication videotape,

dir. E. Roscow and H. Dratch (Santa Monica, CA, 1989)
¡Sabroso!; Havana Hits, Earthworks CAROL 2411–2 (1989)
Cecilia Valdés: zarzuela cubana en dos actos, perf. G. Roig, Artex

CD–036, (1991)
Sextetos Cubanos: sones 1930, coll. C. Strachwitz and M. Avalos,

Arhoolie Folklyric 7003 (1991)
Cancionero, perf. P. Milanés, World Pacific CDP 0777 7 90596 2 2

(1993)
Grandes orquestas cubanas de los años 50, EGREM CD–0036 (1993)
Como los peces, perf. C. Varela, Ariola 25754 (1994)
El inigualable Bola de Nieve, perf. I. Villa, EGREM CD 0011 (1994)
Rita de Cuba, perf. R. Montaner, Tumbao TCD–046 (1994)
Simplemente lo mejor de … NG La Banda, perf. José Luis Cortés,

Caribe Productions CD-9435 (1994)
Sacred Rhythms of Cuban Santería, Smithsonian Folkways

SFCD40419 (1995)
Septeto Habanero: 75 Years Later, Corason COCD 126 (1995)
Música y revolución, Producciones UNEAC CD 020600 (1996)
Juego de manos, perf. Giraldo Piloto & Klímax, Euro-Tropical

EUCD-3 (1997)
Page 17 of 20
Andar andando, perf. Azúcar Negra, BIS Music CD 215 (2000)
A lo cubano, perf. Orishas, Universal CD 012 159 571-2 (2000)
Cuban Hip Hop All Stars vol. 1, perf. Hermanos de Causa and others,
Papaya Records (2001)
See also
Afro-Cuban jazz
Guaracha
Güiro
Azpiazú, Don
Bongos
Cencerro
Havana
Santiago de Cuba
Salas y Castro, Esteban
Cervantes, Ignacio
De Blanck, Hubert
Fuentes Matons, Laureano
Ruiz Espadero, Nicolás
Saumell Robredo, Manuel
Villate, Gaspar
White Lafitte, José
Alvarez, Cálixto
Angulo, Héctor
Ardévol, José
Blanco, Juan
Borbolla, Carlo
Brouwer, Leo
Caturla, Alejandro García
De Blanck Martín, Olga
Diez Nieto, Alfredo
Fariñas, Carlos
Fernández, Frank
González, Hilario
Gramatges, Harold
Guerrero Díaz, Félix
Hernández, Gisela
Landa, Fabio
Page 18 of 20
Lecuona, Ernesto
Lecuona Casado, Ernestina
León, Argeliers
León, Tania
López, Guido
López Marín, Jorge
Loyola, José
Malcolm, Carlos
Márquez Lacasa, Juan Antonio
Martín, Edgardo
Nin, Joaquín
Orbón, Julián
Pérez Puentes, José Angel
Piñera, Juan
Pró, Serafín
Rodríguez, Nilo
Roldán, Amadeo
Roloff
Sánchez de Fuentes, Eduardo
Tomás, Guillermo M.
Valera, Roberto
Vega, Aurelio de la
United States of America, §II, 3(ii)(b): Traditional music,
Hispanic American., i) Contemporary traditional music.,
Caribbean American.
Danzón
Caja
Gottschalk, Louis Moreau, §2: Works
Guajira
Guinea, §6: Era of government patronage, 1958–84
Rey de la Torre, José
Habanera
Latin America, §II, 1: Iberian and mestizo folk music:
Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean
Irakere
Lamellaphone, §6(vii): African typology and distribution in
the 19th and 20th centuries
National anthems: Cyprus
Nueva trova
Cruz, Celia
Page 19 of 20
Cugat, Xavier
Los Van Van
Santamaría, Mongo
Rodríguez, Arsenio
Carpentier, Alejo
Hernández Balaguer, Pablo
Ortiz, Fernando
More on this topic

Cuba (opera) <http://oxfordmusiconline.com/
grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/
9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-
e-5000003269> in Oxford Music Online <http://
oxfordmusiconline.com>
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Cuba, Republic of (Sp. República de Cuba)

Island republic in the West Indies. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea

Attempts to revive church music at Santiago, begun during the first

Symphonies, operas and piano music, at first in a Classical and then

The first decisive step towards musical nationalism in Cuba was

After the premature deaths of Roldán and García Caturla, José

See also Havana and Santiago de Cuba.

A. Carpentier: La música en Cuba (Mexico City, 1946)

A. Carpentier: ‘La música contemporánea de Cuba’, RMC, no.27

A. Carpentier: ‘Music in Cuba’, MQ, 33 (1947), 365–80

P.H. Balaguer: ‘Panorama de la música colonial cubana’, RMC, nos.

E. Martín: Panorama de la música en Cuba (Havana, 1971)

L. Brouwer: La música lo cubano y la innovación (Havana, 1982)

G. Antolitia: Cuba, dos siglos de música (Havana, 1984)

J.A. González: La composición operística en Cuba (Havana, 1986)

P. Hernández Balaguer: El más antiguo documento de la música

E. Pérez Sanjuro: Historia de la música cubana (Miami, 1986)

M.A. Enríquez: Alejandro García Caturla (Havana, 1998)

Z. Lapique Becali: Cuba colonial. Música, compositores e intérpretes

R. Giro: Diccionario enciclopédico de la música cubana (Havana

I. Pacheco Valera: La sociedad Pro-Arte Musical. Testimonio de su

II. Traditional music

Music in Cuba often represents a complex synthesis of influences

One of the most important forms of Siboney expression was the

Various types of music are associated with Afro-Cuban religions.

In any type of Yoruba-derived ceremony, Afro-Cuban religious

Because it incorporates many of the same instruments used in

Numerous antecedent genres to the rumba are mentioned in

Comparsa (or conga) music represents yet another Afro-Cuban genre

While comparsas in the 19th century tended to be organized by

(i) Ballroom music.

Danzones remained controversial for many years because of the

(ii) Blackface theatre.

(iii) Sentimental song genres.

Operatic influences are also apparent in the many popular zarzuelas

Acoustic sones employ various instruments including the tres, guitar,

With the exception of some música guajira, canciones, and changüí

Ex.2 Typical son figurations

Beginning in the mid-1980s, a variant of son music has emerged

3. Music in socialist Cuba.

One of the best-known forms of musical expression associated with

After the onset of economic crisis in 1989, musicians actively sought

L. Fuentes Matóns: Las artes en Santiago de Cuba (Havana, 1893,

E. Sánchez de Fuentes: El folklore en la música cubana (Havana,

E. Sánchez de Fuentes: Folklorismo: artículos, notas y críticas

A. Carpentier: La música en Cuba (Mexico, 1946, 3/1988)

F. Ortíz: La africanía de la música folklórica de Cuba (Havana, 1950,

F. Ortíz: Los bailes y el teatro de los negros en el folklore de Cuba

F. Ortíz: Los instrumentos de la música afrocubana (Havana, 1952–5)

A. León: Del canto y el tiempo (Havana, 1974, 2/1984/R)

S. Feijóo: Signos 17: música de Cuba (Santa Clara, 1975)

Z. Lapique Becali: Música colonial cubana (1812–1902), 1 (Havana,

A. Carpentier: Ese músico que llevo dentro (Havana, 1980)

H. Orovio: Diccionario de la música cubana: biográfico y técnico

L. Acosta: Música y descolonización (Mexico, 1982)

L. Acosta: Del tambor al sintetizador (Havana, 1983)

O. Alén: La música de las sociedades de tumba francesa en Cuba

M.E. Viñueza: Presencia arará en la música folklórica de Matanzas

C. Díaz Ayala: Si te quieres por el pico divertir …: historia del pregón

N. Pérez Rodríguez: El carnaval santiaguero (Santiago de Cuba,

J. Amira and S. Cornelius: The Music of Santería: Traditional

M.A. Martínez: Cubanos en la música (Havana, 1993)

C. Díaz Ayala: Cuba canta y baila: discografía de la música cubana, i: