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Latin America Music

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Music of Latin America: Rumba
Introduction
The introduction of diverse African traditions sparked a cultural revolution in Cuba during its colonial period. The rumba was one such tradition that was developed in the process. Rumba is complex yet flexible phenomenon that consists of old traditions and at the same time allows new ones to be implemented. The rumba by itself reflects a combination of dance, music and poetry. In addition, structural improvisations are also an integral part of rumba’s spontaneous framework.
History and Development The word rumba is derived from African- Caribbean words – tumba, macumba, and tambo, meaing feast (Tyrrell, Sadie & Grove, 2001). The rumba originated in and around Havana and Martanzas, Cuba during the …show more content…

The percussion instruments include claves, which are a pair of “rounded, resonant wooden sticks” that play the clave rhythm (Moore, 2010). ¬In addition, there also exist three conga drums of different pitches – a high-pitched conga drum (quinto), a medium- pitch drum (segundo), and a low-pitched conga drum (tumbadora), and a pair of wooden sticks (palitos) used to hit the drum. The ensemble is often accompanied by a metallic shakers (madrugas) and catá, a hollow tree trunk hit with two sticks. The vocal section comprises of a call- and- respond sequence and a chorus. A three-step process is required to successfully sing the rumba. First, the lead singer starts with a section called the diana, where he sings meaningless melodic phrases to demonstrate his improvisation skills. The vocalist then goes on to introduce or sing the theme of the song, which are usually about events that occur in daily life. Once the theme has been established, the responders together with the lead vocalist sing the chorus in a call- answer manner (Tyrrell, Sadie & Grove, 2001). This cycle is continued with the lead singer creating improvisations each

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