The Rumba Styles
The Guagancó Choruses
The Musical Instruments

In order to have a good time regardless any type of contact with religion, the Cuban humble black man created a new kind of music where he spoke about the political and social events that affected him one way or another. It was a genre for singing and dancing which in its different styles constitutes the musical and dancing complex of La Rumba. It served to satirize a venal ruler, to comment on a love betrayal, to exalt patriotic feelings, or to improvise words that could prove to be deeply surrealistic, among many other topics.

At first, La Rumba was the black man's vehicle for expressing freedom and protesting against the system of slavery that neglected the human condition and then, against the Republican government which relegated them to a marginal place. Nowadays, it also serves to sing to the great achievements and transformations carried out by the Revolution.

While the country rich class dedicated to follow the use of foreign customs, the ordinary black man, in his slums and outbuildings, making use of the primary instruments that his limited economy allowed him to have (spoons, candle boxes, drums, drawers) created a complex rhythmic style which was deeply Cuban in its essence and projection.

The wise specialist Fernando Ortíz, when analyzing the presence of African antecedents in Cuba sustained the idea that the origin of La Rumba could possibly be Ganga, i.e.; it could probably come from that ethnic group from eastern Africa which was brought to the Antilles during the slave trade period. At present, however, the musical and dancing elements derived from Conga, Lucumí (Yoruba) and Carabalí are easily recognizable. Therefore, it is difficult to determine its exact African antecedent along with the Hispanic elements (language and sometimes certain melodic turns and types of rhyme) that the black man took for himself as he made contact with the colonial culture and reduced to his musical conceptions.



The Rumba Styles

There are three main Rumba forms or styles:Yambú, Columbia, and Guaguancó.

Yambú style has an urban origin and seems to be one of the most ancient styles, since we can find references about it that date back to the middle part of the 19th c. Its 'air' is slow. It begins with a lalaleo coreado- syllables that are repeated in the form of a trumpet call-, which is a call to Diana (reveille). Then, the soloist sings a few stanzas, that is commonly known as Decima, yet the stanzas structure has usually nothing to do with the poetic Spanish metric form for décimas. The choir answers again with the peculiar lalaleo, and next the choir and soloist take parts as they sing until the refrain begins. This is the moment when the couple dances.

The dance is slow, and includes ceremonial movements. It stands for the woman's coquetry towards man and is characterized by the fact that the Vacunao- pelvic movement with an erotic connotation- is not incorporated to it. It is also notable that during the Yambú the woman's role is distinctive for the most part while the male dancer remains in a second place.

Another Rumba style, more recent than Yambú, is the one known as Columbia. Generally speaking, it is a kind of dance exclusively for men, although some women became famous for their performance of it.

The rural origin of this genre is indubitable. For the great Rumba dancers and musicians "Columbia means country, above all Matanzas". Being even more categorical, they state that "after Chucho de Mena, on the railroad line in Matanzas, there existed a series of houses where groups of dancers used to go in order for them to enjoy themselves".

This rural origin can be checked in texts, which although inspired in the most various themes, they include brief phrases, that are grammatically poor and an abundant of African words. Just as it would correspond to the creation of a human element that emerged from sugar cane plantations or barracks at sugar mills.

The Structure of the Columbia (soloist-choir) is the same as the other Rumba styles and it presents two clearly defined parts. One of them consists of only a chant and the other one is the dancing part or Capetillo. The Llorao is characteristic of the Columbia and it consists on laments or plaintive exclamations that the singer or Gallo (rooster) makes in the middle of his chants. Before the Capetillo, there can also be some Cantos de Puya or arrogance chants.

When the moment for dancing comes, any participant from the party asks for permission, with a gesture, to dance, and after making room for himself among the participants to greet the drums, he boasts of his dancing ability. Later on, another dancer will replace him, trying to surpass his dancing steps.

The dancer's Juego (game) or style is "legs and shoulders" with a tendency to keep his head erect because, on many occasions, he carries either a bottle of any beverage or a glass on his head as in equilibrium. In many places from the countryside, it is customary to dance holding machetes or knives in the hands.

The Columbia air is "fast but serene". One of the drums, the Quinto, must make emphasis on each and every movement made by the dancers. Thus, it is necessary for its performer to be more expert since he should mark a variety of beats.

The Guaguancó has an urban origin. It narrates anecdotal facts in a poetic way. It is an eminently narrative genre, in which the use of improvisation is very common. All of those topics that affect the popular black man have been depicted in its words: politics, social protest, patriotic feelings, love, death, friendship, frustration, satire, and many others. At present, a dancing part has been attached to the part that is sung, "Rumba de Guaguancó", yet the old consider that the Guaguancó is mainly narrative in itself.

During the dancing part, the persecution of a man who is in love with a woman is represented. He desires to possess her (vacunarla) while she roguishly tries to protect herself form his attack. This persecution and escape have a deep erotic content that shows the partners'dancing ability.

At present, the Vacunao has been stylized in a great degree. Sometimes, it is suggested by means of a movement made with a handkerchief and another part of the body.

The Yambú, the Columbia and the Guaguánco are easily distinguished form each other by means of the 'air', the 'toques', and the dancing style. It has been preserved in the most popular neighborhoods of Havana, Marianao, Regla, Guanabacoa, Matanzas, Cárdenas, Santiago, Guantánamo, etc.

Other Rumba styles are The Rumba del tiempo d'España, the Reseda, the Jiribilla, the Rumba teatral, among others.



The Guaguancó Choruses

By the end of the 19th century and the beginnings of the 20th c, different bands that included both men and women specialized in playing Guaguancó. They were called Choruses and had their own place where they got together to rehearse and to improve the lyrics and voices of their songs.

The different popular neighborhoods in Havana City had their own Choruses that competed among themselves in relation to the best Guaguancó performances. The Paso Franco, The Roncos, The Jesuits, etc completed an important chapter in our traditional culture for having given a definite outline to one of our most genuine musical and dancing manifestations.

The Musical Instruments

The musical instruments that are used to play Rumba are very simple. They are three drums made up of barrel duels that have a slight barrel shape called Quinto, Salidor, and Tres Golpes, a pair of metallic rattles (nkembi) that the Columbia Quinto player wears in his wrist and a pair of clefs that the singer uses to mark out the rhythm.

However, two wood containers or boxes are generally used in Yambú and sometimes in Guaguancó as musical instruments. The small drum is usually made up of a small candle box, it has a more acute sound and is played as a Quinto. The biggest one_ one of those boxes that usually contained codfish__ has a more grave sound and it plays the role of a Tumbadora. Along with all this, the black man used to strike every thing that would originate a sound, as is the case of spoon strokes, and door strokes.

Rogelio Martínez Furé
Odu Collection
National Folkloric Ensemble

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