Cuban Music Research Paper

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The Caribbean Island Cuba has influenced a huge growth of many different styles of musics in the 19th and 20th centuries. Cuba is the largest Country in the Caribbean area and is the Seventeenth-largest island in the world. The island of Cuba is in the middle of the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. A lot of Cuban musical styles come from a social group of African Slaves who were taken to the island name "Cabildos". Cabildo's kept the traditional African cultures alive, even during the Emancipation that occurred in 1885 which made them all unite with the Roman Catholic Church. Usually known as "Santeria", the religion that was growing fast and spread through Cuba and islands around. Santeria inspired a lot of Cuba's musical sound especially…show more content…
The slaves held with them many religious customs including animal sacrifice, sacred drumming and dance. A lot of Cuban music originally comes from West Africa and Spain but throughout time has gotten influence from diverse genres that came from different countries. The most important countries that have influenced Cuban music are the United States, France and Jamaica. Cuban music has been largely influential in many other countries and also influencing the growth of other genre's such as jazz and salsa many others such as Ghanian High-Life, Spanish Nuevo Flamenco, African Afro-Beat and Argentinian Tango. The indigenous people of Cuba were call the Taino, Arawak and Ciboney people, who were recognised for a musical style named areito. Many African Slaves and immigrants from Europe introduced their own musical styles to the island. European dances and folk music included zapateo, fandango, zampado, retambico and cancan. After dances like the waltz, minuet, gavotte and mazurka were introduced as…show more content…
The African Slaves and their descendants re-built many percussive instruments and corresponding rhythms, the most important of their instruments being the clave, the bata drums and the congas. Chinese immigrants has also taken part by contributing with the Chinese cornet named the "cornetin chino" which is a wind instrument played in the carnival group of Santiago de Cuba. Cuban folk music has many different subgenres that have even made their way into the popular music sphere such as: Rumba: A drumbeat influenced dance music; the Rumba is tantamount to African tradition. Thus becoming part of the "Bolero" music in Cuba. Bolero music is an easier and more romantic form of Rumba. Son: This type of music has been profoundly affected by African rhythms. In addition, it is the Cuban national folk music with heavy tinges of Salsa. The beat and percussion is reminiscent of African sounds, while the instrument that is used is somewhat like a Spanish guitar. The differing kinds of Son music are Afro-Son, Son-Montuno, and

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