By Jon Griffin
Olavo Alen Rodriguez identifies 5 distinct styles of Cuban music. He classifies Cuban music into son, Cuban song, punto guajiro, danzon, and rumba. We will be talking about son music, arguably the most identifiable genre of Cuban music.
Nengon – The First Form Of Son In Cuba
Nengon was the precursor to both son and changui. It evolved into son in Santiago de Cuba and changui (when it fused with kiriba) in Guantanamo province. It is characterized by the constant alternation of improvisational verses sung by a soloist and a chorus. The traditional instruments used in nengon were the Cuban tres guitar, guiro, and the tingotalango or tumbandera. The tingotalango was made by tying a rope to a tree branch and then pulling down on the rope. The rope was then tied down to a rock, and the effect was like a bass guitar. Eventually the marimbula replaced the tingotalango, and while the marimbula is still being used in music today, it has largely been replaced by the bass guitar. Modern nengon is played with a changui ensemble, so from a practical point of view, a group is playing nengon when the parts are much simpler and with very little or no syncopation. Clave, as it is now know, hadn’t been invented yet so the time is just straight quarter notes.
Kiriba – Precursor to Changui and Cuban Son
Kiriba is a style of Son from a different area of Cuba. It mostly originated in the Baracoa area, which is also where the changui was created. Changui was invented where kiriba and nengon join together in a fusion of the 2 styles. In the absence of kiriba, nengon evolved into son. Like nengon, the kiriba’s identifying feature is the constant alternation of improvisational verses sung by a soloist and a chorus. Generally kiriba is played with tres, bongos, maracas, guiro, and marimbula, (this ensemble is similar to the changui). Nengon and Kiriba are practiced in the mountain regions of Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo. Like nengon, kiriba is practiced in the mountains around Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo, with Baracoa being a particularly vibrant area for kiriba.
Changui – Born From Nengon and Kiriba
Born in Guantanamo Province (the Baracoa region mostly), changui is a fusion of kiriba and nengon. There are some conflicting answers you will receive when you ask the qustion, “What is changui”? The answer from an ethnomusicology point of view is simple, but like most academic answers, it leaves more qustions and sometimes contradicts popular definitions. So then when can we say that we are playing changui and not nengon? Most musicologists will answer that it is the instrumentation. If the ensemble consists of bongo, Cuban tres, guayo, marimbula, and a singer, you are playing changüi. It is also important to recognize that changui (as well as kiriba and nengon) do not have what is today thought of as son clave. All of these styles had the pulse on the downbeats, usually played by the guayo in changui.
A Musicians View of Changüi
A more realistic answer that most musicians would give is that changui is a style with both the bongo and tres playing very syncopated and the guayo (or guiro) playing on the down beats. As we saw above though, the fine dividing line is really the ensemble instrumentation. Another problem is that someone from Guantanamo who plays “Cuban” music is often times considered a changuicerro. A good example of this is Elio Reve, who does play Son with some changui elements, but this style of Cuban music is really Son Moderno. You may wonder why there is so much emphasis on the eastern parts of Cuba. It is not that there is no music in the western and central areas, it just evolved differently. There are definite sub-styles of son from these regions, especially sucu-sucu, but most musicologists agree that son was born in the mountains of Oriente (Guantanamo and Santiago de Cuba).
For more information (and notation):
CD’s with examples of these styles
Con Sabor Al Guaso Official Retrospective Of Cuban Music
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