04 Sep
The Spanish influence in Cuban music, and in Afro-Latin music (including all the countries of the Caribbean), comes from the Spanish guitare, as well as bongos from North Africa, maracas (one of the rare indigenous instruments), and a type of guitare imported by immigrants from the Canary Islands, which had three double strings and was called “Timple”. Not to confuse the instruments, there is also “El Cuatro” from Porto Rico, “El Cuatro” from Venezuela, “El Charango” from the Andes, as well as “El Tiple” from Colombia. All these instruments have similar sounds, but they are not identical. The great father of all these instruments is certainly the “Vihuela espagnole”, which was very popular during the Renaissance in Spain and Portugal, at the beginning of the 16th century.
The “Tres” appeared in the rural areas of northern Cuba and became popular from the end of the 19th century, used in folkloric genres such as Changüí and Son, whose rhythms come from Nengón and Kiribá de Baracoa, among others. References to this instrument can be found in the “journaux de campagne” of 1868, during the independence wars, when “guateques campesinos” were organized in the Cuban countryside, to entertain the Mambi troops.
It is essentially a modified guitare with six strings divided into three double strings. Some ethnologists claim that this instrument is not a Cuban invention, but that it already existed in medieval Spain.
It is important to recognize the importance of this instrument to understand the role of the piano in salsa.
Its beginnings date back to 1816, when the French pianist Juan Federico Edelmann, considered as the “father of pianistics in Cuba”, inaugurated the Santa Cecilia Academy. During the first decades of the XIX century, pianists of Italian and Spanish origin settled in the country and, although they were not professionals, they devoted themselves to teaching. Some of them teach in this institution and others teach informally in their residences.
The piano, at its beginnings, tried to imitate the rhythmic figures and the guajeos of the treble, but it evolved little by little by adding two-voice melodic lines, harpsichords and block chords, as well as octaves and an infinite number of rhythmic and harmonic possibilities.
In 1920, Cuban popular music was made up of sextuores comprising: tres, guitare, contrebasse, bongos and two singers playing maracas and claves. Later, the septuor appeared and added the trumpet.
It is probably Arsenio Rodriguez who recorded for the first time, in the 1940s, a new format comprising a piano and congas, as well as several trumpets. It has thus created a new format called typical ensemble. This was the first time that the piano began to be part of groups and ensembles playing Cuban rhythms.
Playing complete chords with several voices was not easy for a tres, that's why the piano has become so important thanks to its countless possibilities.
During this time, the piano was already a very popular and fundamental instrument in the big jazz bands in the United States, and he also began his incursion into tango in Argentina. He was there to stay and consolidate his position as head of the orchestra of harmony and basic instrument for composition and arrangements.
LES PREMIERS PIANISTES de la musique cubaine
- Manuel Samuell Robredo (1817-1870) : Cuban pianist, then Spanish, specialized in the Spanish contredanses and the adaptation of operas. He plays the piano in the churches, writes reviews in the press and gives courses to his entourage. The Havana Conservatory of Music bears his name. In some of its songs, the rhythmic touches of Cuban popular music of the 19th century appear for the first time.
- Ignacio Cervantes (1847-1905): born in Havana. Considered as the most important influence on Cuban music in the 19th century. Prodigious child, he studied at the Paris Conservatory. Expelled from the island for having given concerts for the benefit of the separatist cause, he went to the United States where he developed his musical career, writing operas, chamber symphonies, zar-zuelas and his famous Cuban Dances. He uses his music as a weapon of struggle, showing a nationalist sentiment.
- Antonio María Romeu Marrero (1876-1955): born in Jibacoa, Cuba. Pianist, composer and Cuban orchestra leader. Specialized in the interpretation of danzón, he conducted the charanga genre for more than 30 years. He was invited to play in the 'Orquesta Cervantes”, one of the many charanga groups founded at the beginning of the 20th century, the first group known to incorporate the piano in Cuban popular music. He founded his own orchestra in 1910. He has written more than 500 dan-zones. Some were originals, others were adaptations of existing works. His most famous work is the danzón ”Tres lindas cubanas“, an arrangement of an old song.
- María Cervantes (1885-1981) : born in Havana, she was a pianist and composer, daughter of Ignacio Cervantes.
- Ernesto Lecuona, Ernesto Sito de la Asunción Lecuona Casado (1895-1963): born in Guanabacoa, Cuba. He gave his first recital at the age of 5 and wrote his first composition at the age of 13. Graduated from the National Conservatory of Havana, he moved to New York where he studied with Maurice Ravel. He is considered as one of the most remarkable Cuban musicians. He has made a great contribution to zarzuela and orchestral composition.
- Ignacio Jacinto Villa Fernández, “Bola de Nieve”. (1911-1971) Born in Guanabacoa, Cuba. Singer, composer and pianist, he internationalized Cuban popular music throughout the world, notably thanks to his appearances on television and radio.
- Anselmo Sacasas (1912-1998) Manzanillo Cuba, was an orchestra leader, composer and arranger. As a pianist, he was inspired by the Cuban thirties, like Arsenio Rodriguez, adapting them to his language as a soloist in Cuban music orchestras.
- Pedro Nolasco Jústiz Rodriguez, “Peruchín”. (1913-1977). Born in Holguín, Cuba. He began his artistic career with the 'Orquesta de Chepin” in 1933. He is a member of orchestras in Havana. He worked with his group at the Cabaret Tropicana. His piano solos were very popular and admired and have been recorded on several records. He has also worked as arranger and orchestrator for Benny Moré's orchestra.
- Lino Frias, Ezequiel Lino Frias Gomez (1915-1983). Born in Matanzas, Cuba. Great composer, he founded the group “Son de la Loma” and worked with “La Sonora Matancera”. One of his best known compositions is “Mata Siguaraya”.
- LilÍ MartÍnez. Luis Martinez Griñan (1915-1990). Cuban pianist specialized in the son montuno, he worked with Arsenio Rodriguez and the Conjunto Chappottín. He participated in the development of the modern piano style in the 1940s and had a great influence on pianists such as Eddie Palmieri, Pappo Lucca and Larry Harlow, among others.
- José Curbelo (1917-2012). Cuban pianist and orchestra leader. He has played a key role in the development of son montuno and mambo, as an important figure of the “Latin” music scene in the United States.
