CUBA:
A MUSICAL STEW
Located 90 mile south of Florida, Cuba is a long, large island that sits between the Gulf Of
Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Like the United States, people from all over the world have
come to Cuba to live. Native Americans called the Taino and Ciboney people were the first
people to live on the island. The Spanish arrived in Cuba in the early 1500s and ruled the island
for more than 300 years. Most people in Cuba still speak Spanish today. You can hear sounds
of the Spanish in the melodies and instruments of Cuban Music, too.
A Little Bit of Africa
The influence of Africa is strongly felt in Cuban life and its music. Over 400,000 Africans
were brought to Cuba by the 1800s to work on sugar plantations. They brought with them
pieces of their culture, including their musical traditions. You can hear them in the fiery
rhythms and cool percussion instruments like the bata drum ensemble. There are three bata
drums: okonkolo (the smallest), itotele (the middle drum), and iya (the leader). By playing
together, they create complex patterns. The iya even “talks” to the other drums with special
rhythms!
Cubans Have Style
One beautiful music style in Cuba is the son. Like the blues in the United States, the son is
very important in Cuba. It is a slow, proud style that features piano, bass, guitar, trombone,
trumpet, congas, and one or more singers. Recently, the Buena Vista social Club helped make
this style one of the most popular Cuban Styles again.
Some of the other musical styles that developed in Cuba are the cha cha cha, the rumba
(which uses call and response form commonly used in Africa) and the mambo (a dance style
popularized in the 1940s and 1950s). Afro-Cuban jazz is Cuba’s unique jazz style.
“Guantanamera” is a very popular folk song in Cuba. At one time or antoher, nearly every
Cuban musician has sung or played “Guantanamera.” The person who recorded one of the most
famous versions is Celia Cruz. She is probably Cuba’s most famous singer. Once you hear her
sweet, smoky voice, you’ll know why Cubans think she is incredible.
It’s Everywhere!
Cuban music has influenced musicians all over the world. There is rumba in Africa and you
can even dance the cha cha cha in Japan. Leonard Bernstein even used the mambo for a dance
sequence in his Broadway musical, “West Side Story”. Salsa, the wildly popular Latin
American dance style, developed in New York from a mix of Cuban and Puerto Rican music.
The music of Cuba enters your ears, goes right through your heart, and down to your feet.
It’s a musical stew that will never have you hungry again!
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World Music: Song 1 Cuba a Musical Stew: Guantanamera
Instrument of the Guiro
Electric Guitar
Latin Conga
Latin Percussion Claves
Bass Guitar
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Trumpet
Piano
ZIMBABEW:
A SOUND SAFARI
Here’s an extra credit question: How many countries in Africa can you name?
There’s Egypt, and Kenya. How about Nigeria? Well guess what? There are fifty-three
countries in Africa. If you can name them all, you are a super genius! Sometimes
people think of Africa as one place that looks and sounds the same everywhere you go.
Actually, it is a huge continent full of many different people and places.
For example, Africa has the biggest desert in the world-the Sahara. But, it also has
one of the biggest rainforests in the world, too. There are huge, crowded cities and
small, friendly villages. IN each country, there are many different groups of people.
Each one has their own language, foods, games, clothes, music, and much more. Let’s
look at one country in Africa and see what we can discover.
Sounds of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a country in the middle of southern Africa. It is a very beautiful country
with sunny blue skies most of the year. Vicotria Falls, the largest waterfall in the world,
is in Zimbabwe. The mist from the falls can rise over one mile high in the air!
If you travel in Zimbabwe, you hear music everywhere you go. Zimbabweans sing,
play instruments, and listen to the radio. They listen to music in their car, at concerts,
and just hanging out at home. Music is a part of birthdays, weddings, and parties.
Many kids in Zimbabwe begin to sing as soon as they can talk. If they choose, they can
start to learn how to play instruments even before they being going to school.
Super Styles
There are many different styles of music in Zimnbabwe, such as jit, chimurenga,
and makwaya. Jit (jeet) has upbeat rhythms with fast guitar melodies that make you
want ot move your feet. Chimurenga (chee-moo-RAIN-gah) mixes guitars and
traditional instruments to create musical waterfalls of sound. Makwaya (mah-KWAHyah) has beautiful vocal harmonies like gospel music.
Zimbabweans like music from outside their country, too. If you turn on the radio in
Zimbabwe hyou might hear songs by singer Beyonce or even country singer Tim
McGraw. Many people in Zimbabwe love rap music, too. Musicians usually rap in Shona
or Ndebele. These are two languages spoken in Zimbabwe.
The mbira (em-BEE-rah) is a very special instrument in Zimbabwe. Mbiras are made
of wood with flat metal keys attached. To play a mbira
You pluck the flat metal keys with your thumbs, and sometimes your index fingers. This
creates soft, ringing melodies that blend to make beautiful rhythm patterns.
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World Music: Song 2 Zimbabwe a sound safari: Shiri yakanaka
Word Bank:
DESERT, RAIN FOREST, DRUMS, GUITAR, RAP, LAKE, SNOW,
COUNTRY MUSIC, APARTMENT, SKYSCRAPER, HUT, VILLAGE
World Map
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Zimbabwe
Guiro
Electirc Guitar
Latin Conga
Electric Bass
Claves
Trumpet
Piano
Glockenspiel
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Harp
Organ
AFRICAN ANCESTORS:
MUSIC IN THE AMERICAS
Music in North and South America is a mix of styles from many different places. One important place where
people came from to share their music with this mix is Africa. Of course, Africa is not a small place. It is a
huge continent with many different cultures and people. People came from all over Africa to the Americas.
Most Africans were forced to come to the Americas to work as slaves. To make these sad times better, many
new slaves made music like they played and sang in Africa. Musicians from many parts of Africa shared their
music with people form the new cultures they met. All of this sharing gave musicians many ideas for new
styles of music.
Call Me!
If you hear two groups singing back and forth to each other, you’re hearing a little part of music from Africa.
This is called “cal-and-response” singing. A leader “calls” out a sentence, and a group sings something back.
You can hear it in gospel music in the United States, son in Cuba, and reggae in Jamaica.
Instrumental Connection
Musicians from Africa didn’t just share their favorite songs. They created and shared their instruments, too.
Sometimes, they even made new instruments. The new instrument ts were usually a little like the older
instruments they knew. Like people, instruments can have ancestors that look and sound a little like them.
Check out these three cool instruments from Latin America whose ancestors are “African”.
Marimba
One instrument tht made it across the ocean is the marimba. Marimbas are still played in many countries in
Africa, and in Central and South American countries in Africa, and in Central and South American countries
like Mexico, Guatemala, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Peru. The marimba is like a xylophone with wooden keys.
You play the marimba by hitting the keys with mallets. Marimbas come in many shapes and sizes, just like
xylophones. Have you every played a marimba before?
Conga Drum
The conga drum was first made in Cuba, but is now played in many different countries. Unlike some drums
in the Americas, it does not have an African ancestor that looks exactly like it. Sometimes conga drums are
played alone, and other times one person plays two or three conga drums at a time. This is because each conga
drum has a different pitch. Did you know drums have a pitch?
Marimbula
The marimbula (mar-im-boo-lah) is an old instrument that is still played in some countries in the Caribbean,
like Cuba and Jamaica. Its ancestors are the small thumb pianos that are pianos that are found in many cultures
in Africa. Imagine a small thumb piano that magically grew 20 times its size-that’s a marimbula! The
marimbula is a square box that can be two feet tall. It is so big that the marimbula player sits on top of it to play
it. Its metal keys are wide like spoons. They must be plucked with the whole hand to make the marimbula’s
low, bass notes.
Explore!
There are many other songs, styles, and instruments in the Americas whose “ancestors” are from Africa, like
the banjo the agogo, and the berimbau. Have you heard of these instruments? If not, be a musical detectivewho were these instruments’ musical great-great-great-grandparents?!
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World Music: Song 3 African Ancestors: Imo Gal
Where did these instruments come from? Africa or Europe
Kalimba
Psaltery
Fife
Maracas
Djembe Drum
Harmonica
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Lute
Xylophone
Viol
World Music: Song 4
Music in the Philippines: Bahay kubo
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World Music: Song 5 Christmas Latin Style: Las Posadas
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World Music: Song 6 Music of the Arabs: Hala lala layya
Arabic Instruments
Ud, also spelled oud (ood), has a deep, pear-shaped
body; a fingerboard; and a relatively short neck and
somewhat less acutely bent-back peg box. Its strings are
plucked with a plectrum and are fastened to a tension
bridge on the instrument's belly. The instrument musically
and technically evolved during the Islamic period in Spain (711-1492) and gained its
current characteristic appearance. Modern 'uds are fretless and are not completely
standardized in size or number of strings; five courses of string-pairs are common, six
and seven pairs are also found.
Nay (nye), is an urban instrument and the only wind instrument used
in
Arab classical music. It appears alongside the '?d (lute), the qanun, the
daff and the darbukkah. Itâs an open tube that has six finger-holes in
front and one thumb-hole in the back. The edge of the tube at the top is
lightly bevelled. Nay varies in length and each one is designated by the
name of its fundamental note (given by opening the first hole): nay
Mahur
(C), nay Dukah (D), nay Buselik (E), nay Chargah (F), nay Nawa (G), nay
Husayni (A), nay 'Ajam (B ), nay Kardan (c), and so on.
Qanun (Kah-noon), is one of the classical instruments of the Arab
world, known in both oral and written traditions. It is the plucked
box zither or psaltery of the Middle East. On the modern Arab
q?n?n, there are two to five levers for every string (in triples).
Intervals can be minutely adjusted by rotating the levers, which
control the tension of the strings; this permits a full range of keys.
Arab performers play in octaves or double octaves. The right hand is notated in the
treble clef and the left in the bass.
Riqq (rick), is a small, circular frame drum with jingles. It is
dominantly used in North Africa, Iraq, the Levant and Sudan. It is
between 20 and 25 cm in diameter and is played in takht ensembles
of Egypt, Syria or Iraq where it goes beyond the simple rhythmic
requirements of the other percussion instruments in terms of ornamentation and color.
Dumbek (doom-bek) also called Darbukka, a single-headed goblet
drum. It is made from pottery, wood or metal; the bottom is open and
the skin head is directly attached by nails, glue or binding. It is found in a
range of sizes, particularly in North Africa, where several may be played
together in ensembles.The origin of the term darabukka is somewhat
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obscure but probably lies in the Arabic word darba (to strike), or durub (rhythmic
cycles), darbukka could mean, therefore, your strike, or your rhythm.
The Kaman is the Arabic violin. In parts of the Middle East, the
European violin has replaced the older kamanja as the principal
bowed instrument, partly because of its louder tone. However, the
Arabic violin is tuned differently -- d G D G instead of e a D G -- and
the playing style is quite different.
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World Music: Song 6 Music of the Arabs: Hala lala layya
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World Music: Song 7 Sounds of the Caribbean: Gypsy In The Moonlight
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World Music: Song 7 Sounds of the Caribbean: Gypsy In The Moonlight
Identify the Caribbean and some islands that are in the region on the map below.
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World Music: Song 8: Music from the Andes Mountains
Up in the Clouds: Mi Caballo Blanco
Locate the Andes Mountains on the World Map
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