‘CAÑA QUEMA’ Wider Listening

‘SE QUEMA LA CHUMBAMBÀ’ and ‘ALLA VÁ CANDELA’

Composer: Valera Miranda. Date: 1995

‘AMERICA’ by LEONARD BERNSTEIN 

• Uncomplicated harmony
• Alternation of 3/4 and 6/8 metres typical of Latin
• American Music. Has been described as being a habanera and hemiola rhythm.
• Hispanic musical style, with Latin percussion, cross rhythms and Spanish guitar.
• Different solo and group, mostly in unison, singing.

                                        ‘ROUTES OF RHYTHM’ by ISAAC OVIEDO

• Cuban singer- songwriter and virtuosic tres player.
• ‘Coballende’: Introduction- Tres plays rising syncopated melody over clave rhythm and other percussion (maracas and bongo)
• ‘El buen camino’- a bolero-son with soaring vocals.

A TODA CUBA LE GUSTA by AFRO-CUBAN ALL STAR

• A guajira-son.
• Melodies are diatonic, balanced phrases.
• Refrain sung in unison contrasting with soloist.
• Syncopated piano riff plays under verses with percussive Afro-cuban rhythms.
• Improvised Latin jazz solo sections for piano.
• ‘Alto songo’- Call and response between pregon and coro.

  ‘CANDELA’ by BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB

• Cuban band of veteran musicians that achieved international success and made traditional Cuban music and Latin American music as a whole popular on a global level.
• Cuban Son style,
• Pregon and coro, Leader improvises and coro sing refrain in unison, (call and response).
• Simple harmony.
• Extended instrumental solo on the guitar.

GLORIA ESTEFAN: MI TIERRA (ALBUM)

• ‘Ayer’: Combines bolero and son, Clave rhythm used.
• Album features similar instrumentation and guitar solos (like the cuatro solos)
• ‘Mi Tierra’- highly syncopated rhythms, triplets and cross rhythms. Instruments often included in Latin American music eg. trumpets.

 ‘Bachianas Brasileiras’ by Villa-Lobos:

The Bachianas Brasileiras are a series of nine compositions by Heitor Villa-Lobos written from 1930 onwards. In these suites , written for different backgrounds, Villa-Lobos fused Brazilian folkloric material (especially caipira music ) with pre-classical forms in the style of Bach .

‘Estancia’ by Ginastera

Estancia, (Argentine Spanish: “Ranch”) orchestral suite and one-act ballet by Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera that, through its references to gaucho literature, rural folk dances, and urban concert music, evokes images of the diverse landscape of the composer’s homeland.

Evaluate melody, rhythm and structure in ‘Se quema la chumbamba’ and ‘Alla va candela’, showing how the son differed from the bolero in Cuban music. Relate your discussion to other relevant works, include the wider listening music from above.