Citation (1)
Map of Cuba
Citation (2)
Books
Cuban Music by
Native Americans supplied the maracas, African slaves brought drums and ritual music, and Spaniards brought guitars, brass instruments, and clarinets along with European ballroom dancing. The advent of blues and jazz gave new forms to styles of songs, notably feeling songs, which joined the more traditional styles of trova and bolero. Cuban culture represents a convergence of these diverse backgrounds, and the musical heritage presented in this book reflects these traditions as well. In colonial times, African ritual sounds mixed with Catholic liturgies and brass bands of the Spanish military academies. Ballroom dances, including French music from Haiti popular in 18th-century Havana society, existed side by side with the cabildos (guilds and carnival clubs) and the plantations. The son, considered the expression of Cuban musical identity, had its origins in a rural setting in which African slaves and small farmers from Andalusia worked and played music together, developing many variations over the years, including big band music. Cuban music is now experiencing a major renaissance, and is enjoyed throughout the world.
Call Number: ML3486.C8 R6913 2002
Geographies of Cubanidad by
Derived from the nationalist writings of José Martí, the concept of Cubanidad (Cubanness) has always imagined a unified hybrid nation where racial difference is nonexistent and nationality trumps all other axes identities. Scholars have critiqued this celebration of racial mixture, highlighting a gap between the claim of racial harmony and the realities of inequality faced by Afro-Cubans since independence in 1898. In this book, Rebecca M. Bodenheimer argues that it is not only the recognition of racial difference that threatens to divide the nation, but that popular regional sentiment further contests the hegemonic national discourse. Given that the music is a prominent symbol of Cubanidad, musical practices play an important role in constructing regional, local, and national identities. This book suggests that regional identity exerts a significant influence on the aesthetic choices made by Cuban musicians. Through the examination of several genres, Bodenheimer explores the various ways that race and place are entangled in contemporary Cuban music. She argues that racialized notions which circulate about different cities affect both the formation of local identity and musical performance. Thus, the musical practices discussed in the book--including rumba, timba, eastern Cuban folklore, and son--are examples of the intersections between regional identity formation, racialized notions of place, and music-making.
Call Number: ML3486.C82 B64 201
Music and Revolution by
Music and Revolution provides a dynamic introduction to the most prominent artists and musical styles that have emerged in Cuba since 1959 and to the policies that have shaped artistic life. Robin D. Moore gives readers a chronological overview of the first decades after the Cuban Revolution, documenting the many ways performance has changed and emphasizing the close links between political and cultural activity. Offering a wealth of fascinating details about music and the milieu that engendered it, the author traces the development of dance styles, nueva trova, folkloric drumming, religious traditions, and other forms. He describes how the fall of the Soviet Union has affected Cuba in material, ideological, and musical terms and considers the effect of tense international relations on culture. Most importantly, Music and Revolution chronicles how the arts have become a point of negotiation between individuals, with their unique backgrounds and interests, and official organizations. It uses music to explore how Cubans have responded to the priorities of the revolution and have created spaces for their individual concerns. Copub: Center for Black Music Research
Call Number: ML3917.C9 M66 2006
Music in Cuba by
In the wake of the Buena Vista Social Club, the world has rediscovered the rich musical tradition of Cuba. A unique combination of popular and elite influences, the music of this island nation has fascinated since the golden age of the son -- that New World aural collision of Africa and Europe that made Cuban music the rage in Paris, New York, and Mexico beginning in the 1920s.Originally published in 1946 and never before available in an English translation, Music in Cuba is not only the best and most extensive study of Cuban musical history, it is a work of literature in its own right. Drawing on such primary documents as obscure church circulars, dog-eared musical scores pulled from attics, and the records of the Spanish colonial authorities, Music in Cuba sweeps panoramically from the sixteenth into the twentieth century. Carpentier covers European-style elite Cuban music as well as the popular rural Spanish folk and urban Afro-Cuban music. In a substantial introduction based on extensive original research, Timothy Brennan explores Carpentier's career prior to the writing of his novels. Looking especially at Carpentier's work as a music reviewer, radio producer, and musical theorist, Brennan suggests new ways of thinking about the role of Latin American artists in Europe between the wars and about the central place of radio and music-club cultures in the European avant-gardes.
Call Number: ML207.C8 C313 2001
Rebel Dance, Renegade Stance by
Rebel Dance, Renegade Stanceshows how community music-makers and dancers take in all that is around them socially and globally, and publicly and bodily unfold their memories, sentiments, and raw responses within open spaces designated or commandeered for local popular dance. Umi Vaughan, an African American anthropologist, musician, dancer, and photographer "plantao" in Cuba--planted, living like a Cuban--reveals a rarely discussed perspective on contemporary Cuban society during the 1990s, the peak decade of timba, and beyond, as the Cuban leadership transferred from Fidel Castro to his brother. Simultaneously, the book reveals popular dance music in the context of a young and astutely educated Cuban generation of fierce and creative performers. By looking at the experiences of black Cubans and exploring the notion of "Afro Cuba," Rebel Dance, Renegade Stanceexplains timba's evolution and achieved significance in the larger context of Cuban culture. Vaughan discusses a maroon aesthetic extended beyond the colonial era to the context of contemporary society; describes the dance spaces of Cuba; and examines the performance of identity and desire through the character of the "especulador." This book will find an audience with musicians, anthropologists, ethnomusicologists, interdisciplinary specialists in performance studies, cultural studies, and Latin American and Caribbean studies, as well as laypeople who are interested in Atlantic/African and African American/Africana studies and/or Cuban culture.
Call Number: ML3486.C82 V38 2012
Garland Encyclopedia of World Music-Cuba
- CubaRead more about Cuban music!
Cuban Music
Other Databases
- Music & Performing ArtsAn audio and video collection for classical, opera, jazz, world, popular music, and American music. Also includes theatre, dance, and film resources.
- Music Online: The Garland Encyclopedia of World MusicAn encyclopedia about music all over the world.
Facts in Brief
Capital: Havana
Official language: Spanish
Location: The Republic of Cuba is an archipelago of two main islands—Cuba and the Isla de la Juventud (Isle of Youth), formerly the Isla de Pinos (Isle of Pines)—and about 1,600 keys and islets. It lies in the Caribbean Sea, 145 km (90 miles) south of Florida, USA
National anthem: "La Bayamesa" ("The Bayamo Song")
Area: 109,884 sq km (42,426 sq miles)
Current Population: 11.2m
Climate: Warm, mild weather all year round, with a rainy season from May through October. Hurricanes often strike the island. Hurricane season lasts from June to November.
Money: Cuban Peso
Main Religion: Roman Catholic
Citations: Location, Climate, Language, Religion, Flag, Capital (Cuba), in Europa World online. London, Routledge. University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Retrieved 07 May 2021 from http://www.europaworld.com/entry/cu.is.2
Cuban Music
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 travelers such... 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. 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. Responsorial song, a crucial element in the ceremony, was led by a tequina or musical specialist chosen by the tribe.
Iberian-derived:
These musical traditions have existed in Cuba since the earliest days of the conquest...the punto and décima are most closely associated with such heritage. 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. . The Spanish-derived romance or lyric ballad also exists in Cuba, as do other Iberian genres.
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... it has been of fundamental importance to the development of most Cuban popular music and to the strength of African cultural retentions generally. 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.
Citation (3)
Streaming Video: Dance in Cuba
Streaming Video: Cuba Mia
Composer Highlight: José White Lafitte
José Silvestre White Lafitte
17 January 1836 – 12–15 March 1918
Cuban violinist and composer . Pierre gave his birthdate as 31 December 1837, which might suggest that he misrepresented his age on entering the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied the violin with Alard, winning a premier prix in 1856. In 1857–8 he was first violinist in a quintet and also gave concerts, but then left Paris to return to Cuba, where he gave concerts with Gottschalk. n 1866 he became a member of the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire; among his students were Enescu and Thibaud. He toured Europe, and from the early 1870s performed frequently with his wife, also a brilliant violinist. In 1874 or 1875 he went to the USA and then, after a brief visit to Paris at the end of 1876, to South America, where he toured widely, eventually becoming court violinist to the emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil; with Napoleão dos Santos, he founded the Sociedade de Conciertos Clásicos there. His few compositions, most of them highly influenced by European models such as Wieniawski and Vieuxtemps, include a violin concerto, string quartet, a Bolero for violin and orchestra, Variaciones for harpsichord and orchestra, six concert studies for violin and several pieces for violin and piano, including La bella cubana, a kind of Cuban national air based on the rhythms of the old Haitian guaracha and the Dominican merengue.
Citation: Vega, A. (2001). White Lafitte, José. Grove Music Online. Retrieved 10 May. 2021
Citations
(1): "Cuba" by "Augusto Rovere"
(2): Map of Cuba. Digital Image. U.S. Department of State. Web. 7 Jun 2022. https://www.europaworld.com/country/Cuba?id=cu.
(3): Béhague, G., & Moore, R. (2001). Cuba, Republic of. Grove Music Online. Retrieved 10 May. 2021