The musical structure of Salsa (music) is composed of several components and sections.
Verse and chorus sections Most salsa compositions follow the basic son montuno model of a verse section, followed by a coro-pregón (call-and-response) chorus section known as the montuno. The verse section can be short, or expanded to feature the lead vocalist and/or carefully crafted melodies with clever rhythmic devices. Once the montuno section begins, it usually continues until the end of the song. The tempo may gradually increase during the montuno in order to build excitement. The montuno section can be divided into various sub-sections sometimes referred to as mambo, diablo, moña, and especial.Bobby Sanabria 1998 Latinjazz.
Clave
The most fundamental rhythmic element in salsa music is a pattern and concept known as clave. Clave is a Spanish word meaning 'code,' 'key,' as in key to a mystery or puzzle, or 'keystone,' the wedge-shaped stone in the center of an arch that ties the other stones together.Peñalosa 2010 p. 85. Clave is also the name of the patterns played on claves; two hardwood sticks used in Afro-Cuban music ensembles. The five-stroke clave represents the structural core of many Afro-Cuban rhythms, both popular and folkloric.Agawu: "Gerhard Kubik claims that a time-line pattern 'represents' the structural core of a musical piece, something like a condensed and extremely concentrated expression of the motional possibilities open to the participants (musicians and dancers)" 2006 p. 1. Just as a keystone holds an arch in place, the clave pattern holds the rhythm together. The clave patterns originated in sub-Saharan African music traditions, where they serve the same function as they do in salsa.Jones refers to both "clave" patterns, and the seven-stroke " bell" as the standard pattern, claiming all three to be "basically one and the same pattern." 1959 p. 211-212.
The two most common five-stroke African bell parts, which are also the two main clave patterns used in Afro-Cuban music, are known to salsa musicians as son clave and rumba clave.Peñalosa: "[C.K.] Ladzekpo cites several genres of music in Ghana alone that use both the triple and duple-pulse versions of 'son clave': the Ewe's fofui and alfi and the Ashanti's sekwi and akom. The Ga's kinka, oge and kpanlogo use duple-pulse 'son clave.'" 2010 p. 247Harington (1995 p. 63) identifies the duple-pulse form of "rumba clave" as a bell pattern used by the Yoruba and Ibo of Nigeria.Ignacio Berroa: "There are just two claves—son clave and rumba clave." Mastering the Art Afro-Cuban Drumming (1996: Warner Brothers VHS).Bobby Sanabria: "Son montuno clave [is] the rhythm most used in Afro-Cuban dance music, which is better known as 'salsa' Most Latin musicians call it son clave for short" 1986: p. 76.The Centro de Investigación de la Música Cubana (CIDMUC) refers to son clave as la clave de La Habana ('Havana clave') and attributes the pattern to Havana-style rumba. In the first half of the twentieth century, what we now call son clave was the clave pattern used in Havana-style yambú and guaguancó. It is generally agreed that the son adopted clave from rumba when the son migrated to Havana from the eastern end of the island at the turn of the twentieth century. CIDMUC refers to rumba clave as guaguancó clave. 1997 p. 63. Son and rumba clave can be played in either a triple-pulse ( or ) or duple-pulse (, or ) structure.Kevin Moore: "In reality, as Peñalosa explains in great detail in The Clave Matrix, there's really only son and rumba clave, each of which can be played with a pure triple pulse structure feel, a pure duple pulse structure feel or somewhere in‐between. Needless to say, the terms son and rumba came much later." 2010. Beyond Salsa Piano v. 3 p. 72. Salsa uses duple-pulse son clave almost exclusively.Mauleón 1993 p. 52.In his chapter "La Clave" (pp. 13-32), Gerard only address duple-pulse son clave.
The contemporary Cuban practice is to write clave in a single measure of .Moore 2010 p. 65. Clave is written in this way in the following example in order to illustrate the underlying metric structure of four main beats, which is fundamental to the dynamism of the pattern.Peñalosa 2010 p.5
Concerning the role of clave in salsa music, Charley Gerard states: "The clave feeling is in the music whether or not the claves are actually being played."Gerard 1989 p. 14. Every ostinato part which spans a cycle of four main beats, has a specific alignment with clave, and expresses the rhythmic qualities of clave either explicitly or implicitly. Every salsa musician must know how their particular part fits with clave, and with the other parts of the ensemble.
The basic conga tumbao, or marcha sounds slaps (triangle noteheads) and open tones (regular noteheads) on the "and" offbeats.Sometimes clave is written in two measures of and the open tone of the conga drum are referred to as the last beat of the measure (see Mauleón 1993 p. 63) The single tone coinciding with the third stroke of clave is known as ponche, an important syncopated accent.Mauleón 1993 p. 257. The specific alignment between clave and the conga is critical.
The concept of clave as a form of music theory with its accompanying terminology, was fully developed during the big band era of the 1940s, when dance bands in Havana and New York City were enlarged.Bobby Sanabria: "The concept of utilizing 3-2 and 2-3 as a terminology developed in New York City. I have done research on this with many of the legendary figures in this tradition, most notably Mario Bauzá, who I played with for eight years." Peñalosa 2010 p. 248. By the time salsa emerged in the 1970s, there was already a second generation of clave savvy composers and arrangers working in New York. John Santos stresses the importance of this skill:
One of the most difficult applications of the clave is in the realm of composition and arrangement of Cuban and Cuban-based dance music. Regardless of the instrumentation, the music for all of the instruments of the ensemble must be written with a very keen and conscious rhythmic relationship to the clave ... Any 'breaks' and/or 'stops' in the arrangements must also be 'in clave'. If these procedures are not properly taken into consideration, then the music is 'out of clave' which, if not done intentionally, is considered an error. When the rhythm and music are 'in clave,' a great natural 'swing' is produced, regardless of the tempo. All musicians who write and/or interpret Cuban-based music must be 'clave conscious,' not just the percussionists.Santos 1986 p. 32.
Salsa is a potent expression of clave, and clave became a rhythmic symbol of the musical movement, as its popularity spread. Clave awareness within the salsa community has served as a cultural "boundary marker", creating an insider/outsider dichotomy, between Cuban and non-Cuban, and between Latino and non-Latino. At the same time though, clave serves its ancient function of providing a means of profound inclusion. As Washburne observes:
Clapping clave at a concert in sync with the performing musicians provides for a group participation in music-making even for a novice. However, the messages transmitted can be, and often are, imbued with more meaning than simply, 'Let's all participate!' A newcomer to salsa, whether performer, dancer, listener, or consumer, must acquire some level of clave competence before engaging in these 'clave dialogues' in a deeper, more significant way.Washburne 2008 p. 195.
Before salsa pianist Eddie Palmieri takes his first solo at a live concert, he will often stand up, and start clapping clave. Once the audience is clapping clave along with him, Palmieri will sit back down at the piano and proceed to take his solo. Palmieri's solos tend to be rhythmically complex, with avant-garde elements such as harmonic dissonance. By clapping clave along with Palmieri's solo, the audience is able to both "de-code" its rather esoteric musical "message", and participate in its creation at a fundamental level.
Clave is the basic period, composed of two rhythmically opposed cells, one antecedent and the other consequent. Clave was initially written in two measures of (below).Mauleón 1999: p. 6. When clave is written in two measures, each cell or clave half is represented within a single measure. The antecedent half has three strokes and is referred to as the three-side of clave in the parlance of salsa. In Cuban popular music, the first three strokes of son clave are also known collectively as tresillo, a Spanish word meaning 'triplet' (three equal beats in the same time as two main beats).Peñalosa 2010 p. 38. However, in the Cuban vernacular, the term refers to the figure shown below in the first measure.Mauleón 1993 p. 51. The consequent half (second measure) of clave has two strokes and is called the two-side by salsa musicians.
The first measure of clave is considered "strong", contradicting the meter with three cross beats and generating a sense of forward momentum. The second measure is considered "weak". Clave resolves in the second measure when the last stroke coincides with the last main beat of the cycle.Emilio Grenet: "[The] melodic design is constructed on a rhythmic pattern of two measures, as though both were only one, the first is antecedent, strong, and the second is consequent, weak." 1939 p. XV. John Amria describes the rhythmic sequence of clave:
[With] clave ... the two measures are not at odds, but rather, they are balanced opposites like positive and negative, expansive and contractive or the poles of a magnet. As the pattern is repeated, an alternation from one polarity to the other takes place creating pulse and rhythmic drive. Were the pattern to be suddenly reversed, the rhythm would be destroyed as in a reversing of one magnet within a series ... the patterns are held in place according to both the internal relationships between the drums and their relationship with clave ... Should the [music] fall out of clave the internal momentum of the rhythm will be dissipated and perhaps even broken.Amira 1992 pp. 23-24.
Percussion and clave alignment Since a chord progression can begin on either side of clave, percussionists have to be able to initiate their parts in either half (a single measure in or ). The following examples show clave with the bongo bell and timbale bell parts in both a 3-2 and a 2-3 sequence. The timbale bell comes from a stick pattern (cáscara) used in the Afro-Cuban folkloric rhythm guaguancó.
The following example shows the most common conga (two drums), timbale bell, and bongo bell pattern combination used in salsa music.According to Changuito, this timbale bell pattern was created by the percussionist Agapito of Orquesta Aragón. Evolution of the Tumbadoras. Changuito. Alfred Publishing Co (1996: VHS).
According to Bobby Sanabria, the 3–2, 2-3 concept and terminology was developed in New York City during the 1940s by Cuban-born Mario Bauzá, when he was music director of Machito's Afro-Cubans.Bobby Sanabria quoted by Peñalosa 2010 p. 248 The 3–2, 2-3 concept is a basic tenet of salsa, but it is not widely used in Cuba.Mongo Santamaria: "Don't tell me about 3-2 or 2-3! In Cuba we just play. We feel it, we don't talk about such things"—quoted by Washburne 2008 p. 190.The contemporary Cuban bassist, composer and arranger Alain Pérez flatly states: "In Cuba we do not use that 2-3, 3-2 formula ... 2-3, 3-2 [is] not used in Cuba. That is how people learn Cuban music outside Cuba"—Timba.com 2002.https://www.timba.com/artist_pages/alain-p-rez-interview-part-2?lang=en-US
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