all other rhythmic figures are organized. This pattern is a two-bar figure that can be played with a three-two or two-three emphasis depending on where one starts in the cycle (Figure 1.1). It is often played by two wooden sticks struck together, called claves, but even when not played, musicians are aware of the pattern. All the syllabic accents of the lyrics and also the melodic accents and breaks of horn lines and percussion parts must coordinate with the clave, whether it is felt as a two-three or a three-two pattern. The structure of a musical phrase and its main accents determine whether a melody is in three-two or two-three clave. The clave is derived from West African patterns (Mauleón 1993) and is present in different variations in other Afro-Cuban genres (e.g., rumba and sacred batá drumming) and is also embedded in the time line used in Puerto Rican bomba (Dufrasne-González 1994). The clave pattern is not used in the Puerto Rican plena.
Another distinctive trait of Cuban popular styles is the habanera bass line, a 3 + 3 + 2 pattern, which was also modified to become the bajo anticipado (anticipated bass line) essential to Cuban and Cuban-derived styles (Figure 1.2; see Manuel 1985 for discussion of its roots in Afro-Cuban drumming). This pattern is distinct from the basic pattern typical of Puerto Rican plena and Dominican merengue, where the bass line falls on strong downbeats and does not have the syncopation of the anticipated bass line in Cuban music.
Since the 1920s the most important genre of Cuban popular music has been the son, which developed from rural nineteenth-century forms in the eastern part of the island and was consolidated in Cuba’s major cities through the first two decades of the twentieth century. Son is divided into a two-part structure consisting of lyric verses sung by the lead vocalist, and then a call-and-response montuno section sung between the leader and coro (chorus). This two-part structure has continued into the salsa tradition, and most salsa tunes are written in verse-montuno form. Traditionally, the lead vocalist improvises the calls, or pregones, a convention that continued in salsa through the 1960s and 1970s. (Vocalists of the current commercial salsa romántica [romantic salsa ballad] style have lost this art and tend to sing precomposed lines.) The montuno section also serves as a basis for improvised instrumental soloing over the basic groove set by the rhythm section (the principal of improvisation over an established polyrhythmic base is another African musical trait). This two-part structure is also present in other Cuban forms, such as rumba guaguancó, and is also characteristic of Puerto Rican plenas.
Figure 1.2 Habanera and anticipated bass patterns
In the 1920s and 1930s son was performed by a small six- or seven-piece conjunto, also referred to simply as a sexteto or septeto. Instrumentation in these groups consisted of guitar, tres (a Cuban guitar tuned in three double courses), bongo (a pair of small single-headed drums), claves, maracas, and contrabass, with an optional trumpet. This is the typical ensemble that emerged in the eastern part of Cuba, Oriente, and that still prevails in Santiago de Cuba. (The 1999 film Buena Vista Social Club features this format.) During the 1930s a simplified version of son called “rhumba” was adapted for cosmopolitan dance bands (e.g., Xavier Cugat) and became a huge dance craze among North American and European audiences.15 In Havana, however, innovators such as Arsenio Rodríguez (referred to by fans and scholars as “Arsenio”) began experimenting with the son format during the late 1930s and early 1940s, expanding the ensemble with the addition of a conga (a cylindrical single-headed drum of Afro-Cuban tradition, usually referred to as tumbadora in Cuba), piano, and up to three more trumpets. The catchy piano vamp, adapted after the tres parts of earlier son and referred to as a guajeo or montuno, became another characteristic element of Cuban music, as did the basic conga pattern, known as tumbao (Figure 1.3).16 In addition to an enlarged conjunto format, the montuno section was expanded to include dynamic horn “shout” choruses between call-and-response sections. Arsenio adopted the slower tempo, denser polyrhythmic texture, and improvisational percussive approach of Afro-Cuban rumba, a contemporary percussion-and-vocals tradition of the black Cuban working classes in and around Havana. These slower sones were also referred to as son montuno, perhaps owing to the fact that the verse part was frequently omitted, starting right at the montuno.17 Arsenio’s innovations on the Cuban son were adapted in Puerto Rico and became the basis for the ensemble Cortijo y su Combo, which performed original and traditional bombas and plenas in this format. Later, the heavier percussive sound and rhythmic drive of Arsenio’s style became the model for several New York salsa bands in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Figure 1.3 Basic rhythmic patterns in Cuban son and salsa
A lighter and faster-paced variant of son called guaracha (derived from the nineteenth-century topical song form of the same name) was also very popular, especially for their picaresque lyrics, which often related typical anecdotes of daily life. The guaracha numbers of the Sonora Matancera were particular favorites. It is probable that the popularity of guaracha in Colombia is related to its light rhythmic touch, similar to that of música tropical—especially in the quarter note-two eighths rhythmic pattern played by the maracas.
Parallel to son’s rise in the lower classes, the flute-and-violin charanga ensembles performed a genre known as danzón, developed from the colonial Spanish contradanza for the middle and upper class. Despite the danzón’s Europeanized melodic and harmonic structure, however, principles of repeated interlocking rhythmic, melodic, and timbral patterns also prevailed, especially in the habanera bass line and the cinquillo pattern
In Puerto Rico the two most important genres to be incorporated into música antillana have been bomba and plena. Bomba is a traditional Afro-Puerto Rican dance style similar to the Afro-Cuban rumba. Performed on drums made from rum barrels, bomba is associated with colonial slave plantation culture. Like Cuban rumba, it features heightened interaction between drummers and dancers and is categorized into subgenres according to tempo, meter, and polyrhythmic patterns (see Dufrasne-González 1994). Adaptations of bomba by groups such as Cortijo y su Combo and later salsa bands highlighted the basic patterns of the common 4/4 bomba sicá rhythm (Figure 1.4).
Plena, on the other hand, emerged at the turn of the last century among Afro-Puerto Rican migrant laborers living in the city of Ponce. It is less rhythmically complex than bomba and is performed on frame hand drums known as panderetas. Its characteristic pattern is notated in Figure 1.5. Plena’s principal attraction lies in its topical lyrics, which, as with the Trinidadian calypso,
