Dominican rural perico ripiao ( merengue típico) ensembles. Related euphonium
solos, or cantos de bombardino in the third section of the danza, may well be seen
in saxophone jaleo sections of the Dominican merengue and the Haitian meringue.
Versions of double-saxophone counterpoint reminiscent of Morel Campos’s style
for euphonium, are heard through 1950s recordings of Haitian meringues by or-
chestras like the one directed by Nemours Jean-Baptiste. In favor of the urban
danza in vogue since the 1870s, high-class Dominicans rejected the musical con-
tributions of local peasants, but during the American occupation of the Domini-
can Republic (1916–1924), the resulting identity crisis for Dominicans compelled
writers and composers to embrace a nationalist stance that closed their world to
external influences, to the extreme of denying linkages between merengue and
danza. Eventually, a form described as jaleo (referring to the unique rhythmic
qualities of the second sections) is appended to the danza much like the rural son
became attached to the urban danzón in Cuba around 1910. In this way, danza
140 | Danzón
came to be presented to the world, by official decree, as the Dominican danza.
After 1940, composers in Santo Domingo systematically displaced the original
merengue multipart section by expanding the jaleo to the point that merengue, as it is known today, is a quite distinct and unique reaffirmation reminiscent of the
long-postponed autochthonous legacy.
Further Reading
Díaz Díaz, Edgardo. “ Danza antillana, conjuntos militares, nacionalismo musical e iden-
tidad dominicana: Retomando los pasos perdidos del merengue.” Latin American Music
Review 29, no. 2 (2008): 232–62.
Díaz Díaz, Edgardo. “El merengue dominicano: una prehistoria musical en diez pasos.”
In El merengue en la cultura dominicana y del Caribe: Memorias del Primer Congreso de
Música, Cultura e Identidad en el Caribe, edited by Dario Tejeda, 178–209. Santiago de
los Caballeros: Centro León, 2006.
Díaz Díaz, Edgardo. “La musica bailable de los carnets: forma y significado de su rep-
ertorio en Puerto Rico (1877–1930).” Revista Musical Puertorriqueña 5 (1990): 2–21.
Díaz Díaz, Edgardo and Peter Manuel. “Puerto Rico: The Rise and Fall of the Danza
as National Music.” In Creolizing Contradance in the Caribbean, edited by Peter Manuel.
Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2009.
Veray, Amaury. “The Danza: A Traditional View.” Translation by Donald Thompson of
“La Misión Social de la Danza Puertorriqueña de Juan Morel Campos.” In Music in Puerto
Rico: A Reader’s Anthology, edited and translated by Donald Thompson, 64–71. Lanham,
MD: Scarecrow Press, 2002.
Veray, Amaury. “Vida y desarrollo de la Danza Puertorriqueña.” In Ensayos sobre la
Danza Puertorriqueña, edited by Marisa Rosado 23–37. San Juan: Instituto de Cultural
Puertorriqueño, 1977.
Edgardo Díaz Díaz
Danzón
The Cuban danzón is a music-and-dance genre that first took hold in the latter part
of the 19th century and was derived from the European contradanza (Fr., contre-
danse ), which was already well established as a shared medium of popular social
dance in Latin America and the Caribbean, particularly in the circum-Caribbean
area. The contradanza served as an alternative to the gentrified and highly intri-
cate continental minuet, allowing for widespread social participation. The shared
nature of regional practices also facilitated the easy mobility, adaptation, and trans-
formation of musical and choreographic repertories, which readily transgressed
linguistic, ethnic, cultural, and class divisions between circum-Caribbean sites, as
well as within them. This contradanza-contredanse tradition is in effect an intricate
complex of related forms that share a basis of structured suites of steps, figures or
danceable episodes. These music-and-dance genres, such as the danza, the ( danza )
Danzón
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141
habanera, quadrilles/kwadrils, lancers, the tumba francesa, and merengue among others, have also incorporated, or are often structured in combination with, other
social dances of European extraction, such as the polka, waltz, or the mazurka. The
Cuban danzón is but one outstanding expression in the arresting Creole mélange
that characterizes much of the music of Latin America and the Caribbean region
evolving from the contradanza.
The contradanza in Cuba took on a rather unique rendering within the nation’s
19th-century social and musical milieu, and though the lines of demarcation are
anything but absolute, by the early decades of the nineteenth century, a new creole
genre known as the danza became discernible in Cuba. This creole style, which
came to be known on the international scene as the danza habanera, or simply the
habanera, gained currency in Europe and the Americas for its unique rhythmic fla-
vor and iconic bass line (see Musical Example 1). Though the effects of the danza
continued to take hold outside of the island nation, its gradual transformation into
the danzón was already afoot in the last quarter of the 19th century in Cuba. The
Cuban composer Miguel Faílde is credited with composing the first danzón, “Las
Alturas de Simpson,” performed on January 17, 1879, at the Lyceum of Matanzas,
Cuba. Though Faílde’s place in the historical record is not likely to change, many
earlier shifts to the performance practice of the danza, both in terms of its choreog-
raphy and its musical form, presaged the stylistic features of the danzón and ante-
dated Faílde’s composition.
Musical Example 1: A habanera bass line
Contrabass
(George Torres)
Publications of danzón compositions for piano flourished in late 19th- and early
20th-century Cuba, directed at a more socially mobile class with pianos in their
homes; however, this music, as a dance music, was still performed by one of two
distinct instrumental ensembles: the orquesta típica, which had been the charac-
teristic salon wind orchestra of 19th-century Cuba, and the charanga francesa,
featuring the piano, violin(s), and the Cuban five-keyed, wooden flute as the main
melodic instruments. The charanga francesa gained in popularity beginning in the
1890s and gradually came to supplant the former as the preferred salon ensemble
over the course of the next two decades. Common to both ensembles was the paila
( timbals), a Cuban percussion instrument derivative of the orchestral timpani. The
timpani, used in the earlier Cuban orquesta típicas of the 19th century, were even-
tually replaced with the paila, which was responsible for producing the underlying
142 | Danzón
rhythmic drive of the danzón, the baqueteo (see Musical Example 2a). The rhythm
was performed on the two drums of the paila using cross-stick, rim shot, and direct
strokes to accentuate the genre’s emblematic isorhythm (2+1+2+1+2 | 2+2+2+2),
which subsumed the Cuban clave rhythm (see Musical Example 2b).
Musical Example 2a: The baqueteo
Paila
(George Torres)
Musical Example 2b: The clave
Clave
(George Torres)
The choreography of the earlier contradanza and danza was primarily based
on the longway figure—two opposing lines of dancing pairs—that formed the
basic position from which dance figures would be executed, and to which the
dancers would return. Contradanzas and related forms throughout the circum-
Caribbean region were based on a shared familiarity with set figures, and at
times the interchanging of partners in the execution of the same. However, what
above all else characterized the danzón was a departure from the longway for-
mation, and other collective figures, in favor of couples dancing. As such, the
danzón was a decidedly different spectacle to take in visually, and it afforded
greater variation and liberty on the dance floor as the importance of set figures
was eroded over time, as was the need for a caller to mark changes to the col-
lectively danced figures.
Unlike the contradanza-danza musical structure, which featured a binary form
of two eight-measure phrases, each repeated for a total 32 measures (AA 1 BB 1 or
8+8+8+8), the danzón featured additional musical materials set to a modified rondo
form (e.g., AA 1 BB 1 AA 1 CC 1 AA 1 ). By all indications, before the establishment
of the danzón, the orchestra típicas performing danzas were already accommodat-
ing requests for longer musical forms (a feature that would later come to define
the danzón ), in effect extending the dance time and allowing the dancers to dem-
onstrate the latest figures of the day. Most often these orchestras were performing
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143
the binary-form danzas multiple times as the readymade solution to extending the
musical pieces and as a means of soliciting gratuities from the dancing public want-
ing to keep the music going; however, to the same end, these orchestras were also
finding ways to segue from one composition to the next, developing impromptu
suites of pieces.
The emergence of the modified rondo form of the danzón was then a somewhat
expected solution to the requests from the dancers for more musical material while
still remaining assonant of the earlier binary form of the danza: the danzón main-
tained the repeating eight-measure phrases and a recurring initial A section. It is
an excellent reminder of the fact that musical change has often been the result of
responses to social tastes (such as those of the dancers), as opposed to the oft-held
notion that it emerges from the inspiration of a single musician (such as Miguel
Faílde). The danzón was music (and dance) with a high level of social integration
and interaction, and the genre remained the preferred dance music of Cuba into the
1920s, when its popularity was rivaled and eventually eclipsed by the Cuban son,
which came to redefine the Cuban musical landscape after the advent of radio on
the island in 1922.
Further Reading
Arcaño, Antonio. Arcaño y sus Maravillas. Havana: EGREM 918 (compact disc).
Schloss, Andrew, prod. 1982. The Cuban Danzón : Its Ancestors and Descendants. Wash-
ington, DC: Folkways Records FE 4066 (LP), 2008.
León, Argeliers. Del canto y el tiempo. Havana: Editorial Pueblo y Educación, 1974.
Manuel, Peter, editor. Creolizing Contradance in the Caribbean. Studies in Latin Ameri-
can and Caribbean Music. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2009.
Michael D. Marcuzzi
Danzonete
Danzonete is a sung danzón, a Cuban musical style that developed from the French
contredance that arrived in Cuba around 1798 with the first migratory wave of
French refugees fleeing the Haitian Revolution. The first known danzonete, “Rom-
piendo la rutina,” dates from 1929. It was flutist Aniceto Díaz (1887–1964) who
innovated the danzón by introducing a vocal part to the composition. For some au-
thors, the danzonete marks the evolution of the danzón while this musical style was
losing popularity against the growing popularity of the Cuban son . The danzonete
assumes most of the musical characteristics of the danzón. It uses a 2/4 meter and
it has four parts: an introduction of eight measures, two 32 measures played by the
violins and the other instruments, the sung section and the bridge that precedes the
refrain that leads to the coda. It is a bit faster than its predecessor due to inclusion
of some of the rhythmic features of the son.
144 | Décima
The danzonete is associated with the so-called French charanga or charanga típica, an ensemble that included violin, flute, piano, string bass, güiro (a scraped gourd) and timbal , and that superceded the orquesta típica, which instead of the flute, piano, violins, and string bass included clarinet, cornet, trombone, bassoon,
and tuba.
Great singers of danzonete included Merceditas Valdés, Paulina Álvarez, Celia
Cruz, Rita Montaner, Celina González, Elena Burke, and Maria Teresa Vera, as
well as Fernando Collazo, Pablo Quevedo, and Barbarito Díez.
Further Reading
Évora, Tony. Orígenes de la música cubana: los amores de las cuerdas y el tambor .
Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1997.
Linares, Maria Teresa. La música y el pueblo. Havana, Cuba: Editorial Pueblo y Edu-
cación, 1974.
Raquel Paraíso
Décima
The décima is a commonly sung poetic form characterized by stanzas comprising
10 lines of verse typically of eight syllables each, arranged to produce a conven-
tional rhyme scheme, the most popular being the espinela form of AB BA AC CD
DC. As a form celebrated in the literature of Iberia’s Siglo de Oro (the Golden
Century of 1550–1650) and rooted in practices dating centuries before that, the
décima , even in folkloric and popular music, carries a legacy of distinction that
persists today. In the Americas, the song structure, popularized in part by the im-
portation of Spanish theatrical music, became associated with a wide range of pop-
ular songs, dance rhythms, and contexts. For contemporary folkloric and popular
singers throughout Central and Latin America, the tradition of presenting verse in
décima structure provides an opportunity to offer social commentary, display wit
and inventive skill, as well as assert heritage and social status.
Song types employing the structure are called décimas in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Panama, and Venezuela, as well as in communities where migrants from these
countries live, including the United States. Nevertheless, the structure also appears
in other guises and is a characteristic of many genres, such as some aguinaldos ,
and corridos as well as various sones of Mexico. The son jarocho and the son
huasteco of Mexico employ décima poetic structure, as do the puntos of Cuba, the payadas and tonos of Chile and Argentina, and the desafio of Brazil. The latter are often improvised in public duels or competitions between singers who must
invent appropriate verse on the spot, often addressing a theme suggested by the
audience. In other contexts, singers perform memorized, precomposed verses. In
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Hawaii, singers of seis typically mix and match prelearned décima verses, rather than exchange lines of newly composed verse as is more common among singers
of seis in Puerto Rico.
The common association of
décima with Iberian or white racial lines did not
prevent it from being integrated into Afro-Latin music genres, as in certain ex-
amples of Cuban rumba . Nor has the structure been employed only in music of
rural provenance, although association of the décima with campesino practice re-
mains strong.
Further Reading
Armistead, Samuel. The Spanish Tradition in Louisiana: Isleño Folk Literature. New-
ark, NJ: Juan De Cuesta, 1992.
Behague, Gerard. “Improvisation in Latin American Music.” Music Educators Journal
66, no. 5 (1980): 118–25.
Paredes, Américo and George Foss. “The Décima Cantada on the Texas-Mexican Bor-
der: Four Examples.” Journal of the Folklore Institute 3, no. 2 (1966): 91–115.
Pasmanick, Philip “Felipe.” “Décima and Rumba: Iberian Formalism in the Heart of
Afro-Cuban Form.” Latin American Music Review 18 (1997): 252–77.
Pasmanick, Philip “Felipe.” Deciman (a collection of articles, anthologies, videos, pho-
tos and online sound files), Online, September 2007, www.deciman.blogspot.com
Solis, Ted. “ ‘You Shake Your Hips Too Much:’ Diasporic Values and Hawai’i Puerto
Rican Dance Culture.” Ethnomusicology 49 (2005): 75–119.
Janet L. Sturman
Descarga
Descarga, literally meaning unloading, is a Cuban performance practice that
began in the 1940s whereby musicians create pieces spontaneously. Also known
as a discharge or jam session, these improvised pieces give instrumentalists the
freedom to showcase their musical talents. Descargas usually features a tumbao
bass line with a repeating piano melody ( guajeo ) that could be found in a son mon-
tuno . This strong rhythm section, coupled with simple chord changes, provides
the foundation for the soloist. Trumpets, saxophones, and percussion instruments
like the conga , bongós , and timbals are commonly improvised on in these musical events. Descarga falls in between salsa and Latin jazz in terms of the amount of Cuban structure preserved when combined with jazz soloing. The first Cuban
descargas were highly influential in the development of improvisation in Cuban
popular music.
The first sessions to be called descargas were produced in Cuba in the 1950s
Encyclopedia of Latin American Popular Music Page 27