In Cuba, music such as Timba forms part of the local daily life and history. Indeed, this music genre has been popularized in and around the country as well as in other parts of the world. Timba music is a Cuban genre of music that is based on the popular local Afro-Cuban folkloric music mixed with salsa, American funk, and R & B. Music as an art involves instrumentals as well as vocal sounds separately or jointly combined in a manner that produces synchrony, rhythm, and artistic beauty culminating in the expression of emotions and harmony. Timba as a genre of music is a mix of contemporary son derived from son Cubano, hip-hop, and salsa. This paper aims at providing a meticulous discourse regarding the origins and history of the Cuban Timba music as well as its social context. The paper will also discuss the instrumentation and sound involved with this genre of music that contributes to its popularity and worldwide spread. Moreover, the dance styles that accompany the music genre will be examined from a Cuban perspective.
History and Social Context
The Cuban Timba music has strong roots and links to the African culture. This assertion is particularly true because, during the colonial period, the Spanish imported a plethora of African slaves into Cuba until the 1880s. According to the World Music Network (2011), before the importation of slaves stopped in the 1880s, by the 1840s, half of Cuba’s population was made up of African slaves. As such, their influence was seen in the assertion of their distinct and unique cult religions that formed their cultural identities. The intricate rhythms and hymns from the cults fundamentally formed the heartbeat of the Cuban music marking the outset of music genres indigenous to Cuba and popular to the contemporary society. The African slaves not only brought about rhythm and beat to the Cuban music but also the emotional and physical intensity that can only be described as musical passion.
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Historically, the beginning of Timba as a Cuban genre of music began with the advent and development of bata drums among the Oyo people of West Africa in 1830. As a result of the importation of slaves from Africa, the Yoruba slaves brought with them the knowledge of making the bata drums in Cuba, and as such, the first set of drums were consecrated by these slaves in the 1880s. In 1936, Gustavo Urrutia played the bata drums on the Cubano radio for the first time in history. Subsequently, in 1937, Pablo Roche, Jesus Perez, as well as Aguedo Morales played in a public non-ceremonial setting for the first time. The setting was an academic conference that was organized by an ethnologist and lawyer referred to as Fernando Ortiz, (Vaughn & Aldama, 2012).
Decades later, Timba marked its first cultural origin in 1988 in Cuba following the popularity of son as the most influential music style in the twentieth century (Silverman, 2018). Son historically originated from the eastern part of Cuba subsequently finding its way to Havana in the early 1900s. The origin of the son music style is linked to the blacks in the barrios who are similarly associated with the origin of the Timba genre edifying the relationship between the two music styles. In the contemporary society, Timba is widely and commercially acceptable. However, similar to the persecutions of the police that son and its musicians went through during its popularization, Timba musicians faced similar challenges. Based on its cultural relevance, the Timba genre and its message are centered on the Afro-Cuban cultural issues such as topical social events, regional nationalism, as well as political issues. Despite the modernization after the revolution and in the contemporary society, the ancient bata drum sound is still remarkably maintained in the genre that has links to son, mambo, and chachacha music styles (Silverman, 2018).
Instrumentation and Sound of the Music
Bata drums as mentioned earlier are the main instruments in the Timba music genre. The drums are descriptively two-headed and hourglass-shaped and are often accompanied by the Yoruba cultural dance styles. During the drumming, the drummer focuses on chacha, Punta de Los Dedos, modulation as well as cruzando to produce the unique timba rhythm and sound (Vaughan & Aldama, 2012). The philosophy here according to the authors is that bata drumming is a language that has to be incorporated together with song and dance.
Timba music is most often than not played in a band incorporating a myriad of other instruments such as the electric bass, the piano, keyboard, trumpets, alto saxophone, flute, bongos, congas, as well as other small percussions such as the bell, claves, and guiro. To this end, brass and percussion dominate the t sound in a Timba performance. However, other bands or groups of Timba musicians include the trombones to bring to life the popular sound of salsa that globally identifies with the Latino market.
Cuban music, in general, does not rely on musical technology to create a sound system. Rather, Timba groups or bands make use of the technology such as electric guitar, bass, as well as keyboards to enhance timba’s characteristic sound grain. Groups such as the NG and the Charanga Habanera have demonstrated this. Regarding the structure of the songs, timba employs a bipartite structure that diverges from the conventional ballad or verse structures. As such, most timba bands give sounds that are parallel to the son classic and rhumba music styles thus giving the timba sound its emotional climax that listeners and dancers love most. Based on the fact that timba is an electric style, it encapsulates several themes including romantic themes in the cori raps and solos making it a seductive genre. Moreover, the incorporation of horns by other bands in addition to the other instruments mentioned previously intelligently creates dense and violent rhythmic sound that raises the tension and presents a sense of urgency and organized chaos that is unique to timba as a genre. The bands also make use of interruptions, capitalization of sentences, as well as pauses that break the flow of the general sound thus adding to the tension (Perna, 2016).
Dance Accompanying Timba
According to Vaughn (2012), the main dances involved with this genre of music are the renegade stance as well as the rebel dance. Vaughn contends that the two dancing styles historically acted as a mirror and medium in the creation of the Cuban national culture (2012). Due to the boom of timba music in the 1900s as a dance music genre, the two dancing styles were invented in response to the warring times, and as such, were an expression of the times elaborated by a local phrase ‘seguimos en combate’ which translates to ‘we are still at war.’ In the contemporary society, casino accompanies timba as a dancing style that has been in existence since 1989. However, at the outset of a climax in the music, the dancers most often than not change their dancing styles from casino to new and modern dancing styles that elaborate the independence of timba as a genre.
Another dancing technique involved with timba is Santeria dancing which originated from the Yoruba as a result of the Santeria drumming and religion. This dance style creates a particular intensity desired for a successful tambor. Based on its religious origins, Santeria dancing initially began as a way of casting away bad and undesirable things or unleashing bad or negative energy. Indeed, the dance styles employed in timba initially gave a sense of direction towards the advent of timba as a genre from salsa and rhumba. Other dances involved with this genre include danzon, son, changui, chachacha, mambo, conga, Mozambique, as well as pilon that are distinctively different and applied to the various genres of Cuban music. However, in the contemporary society, casino remains the predominant dancing style of Timba, which has largely been linked to the modernization of the Cuban son style.
Conclusion
In Cuba, music such as Timba forms part of the local daily life. In fact, timba music is quickly becoming the face of Cuban music as opposed to the popular salsa and rumba genres. Timba was initially developed in 1988 in Cuba following the popularization of son music style as the heartbeat of Cuban music then. However, its advent and outset were initially advanced by the development of bata drums by the Yoruba people, the modern-day Nigerians in the 1830s. From that point on, the drums became a significant part of the Cuban music engineering the advent of timba later on in the late ‘80s.
The main instruments used in this genre include electric bass, the piano, keyboard, trumpets, alto saxophone, flute, bongos, congas, as well as other small percussions such as the bell, claves, and guiro. Other bands employ horns to produce the intense, violent, and organized chaos unique to this music genre. The composition of the timba music is as well deviant of the conventional styles such as ballad and verse. Instead, it employs the bipartite structure that allows for pauses and interruptions thus building tension, a fundamental and unique element of timba music. The major dances involved in this genre of music include the renegade stance, rebel dance, Santeria, as well as casino. Regardless of the abounding popularity of timba as well as the Cuban music industry in general, tourism, westernization, and modernization threaten the continuity of the cultural traditions involved with the music. As such, more support should be accorded to this genre and music industry at large as a way of promoting the Cuban culture through music.
References
Perna, V. (2016). Timba: The sound of the Cuban crisis, the Musical Structure. Lasestereo. Retrieved from http://radio-lasestereo.com/timba-2/
Silverman, C. (2018). Timba - Style in Afro-Cuban Popular Music. Preben Multimedia. Retrieved from http://www.cuba.dk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=197:timba-style-in-afro-cuban-popular-music-&catid=63:kultur
Vaughan, U. & Aldama, C. (2012). Carlos Aldama's Life in Batá: Cuba, Diaspora, and the Drum. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN: 978-0-253-22378-4
Vaughan, U. (2012). Rebel dance, renegade stance: Timba music and black identity in Cuba. University of Michigan Press. DOI: 10.3998/mpub.3355867
World Music Network. (2011). Cuba: Son and Afro-Cuban Music. Retrieved from https://www.worldmusic.net/guide/music-of-cuba/
