What is Timba's place in the evolution of Cuban/Latin dance music?
Music and dance are significant elements of Cuban culture and hence make a good basis for studying Cuban culture. In point of fact, dance music such as Timba isan intermediary that epitomizes the creation of Cuba national tradition. The music and dance marked significant times and eras in the Cuban cultures and was the main form of expression of the Cuban people of their experiences. For instance, Timba specifically emerged and developed in 1990s when the phrase seigumios en combate meaning ‘we are still at war' was disheartening and hence the Timba music was a way for the people to express the periods (Vaughan, 2012). Timba played a significant role in the evolution of Cuban dance music which is evident through an analysis of the emergence, practice, embrace and development of Timba music in its era to its cultivation today in Cuba.
Timba reflects an image of the struggles and creativity via techniques of raiding and use of traditional principles to generate new styles. Timba functions in controversy against state culture by drawing input from traditional setup to come up with the dance music. Timba is thus a continuation of Cuba tradition and represents the mechanisms of survival as a component of African culture. Timba allows for the incorporation of different musical features and genre, and in turn, the features manifest differently in performance. Timba summarizes and expands Cuba dance custom through movement and dance and emphasize the African origins that founded the dance music. Timba represents the spaces of black identity and sociality which to a great extent the foundations of Cuban history and ultimately its culture (Vaughan, 2012).
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Timba developed from combining elements from prior Cuban music genres and hence gained the popularity. Cuban music such as Danzon, son, mambo, and Chachacha are the primary sources of Timba. The performance of Timba is characterized by spatial public dances and a call and response presentation which were organized to escape enslavement. Therefore Timba’s dance music is at the forefront of the evolution of Cuban dance music through its ability to incorporate a variety of music and dance genres to come up with rhythmic performance and presentations. Timba's sustainability and adaptability to change as well as to embrace diversity has allowed it to remain popular in the modern Cuba dances as a manifestation of the historical heritage in the music of Cuba. Nevertheless, genre incorporates modern music genre that has seen it being employed in the development of modern dances such as salsa (Corona, 2018).
Discuss Timba in relation to West African performance principles and the concept of diaspora we learned about in prior class readings.
West African performance principles entail different aspects that characterize it as African dance music performance. One aspect of African performance is the integration of the people's culture. Performances in West African incorporate elements of the way of life on the people in the details such as styles and lyrics as well as beats. Music is sung in all contexts of African culture since it is usually a mode of communicating vital information. Another principle of West Africa performance is that performances of dances and music are arts and are therefore performed with an audience. Contexts differ with every performance to uphold the freshness of every presentation. Also, performances respond to social factors and rhythms, and lyrics change to fit in the diverse social situations. Another principle of West Africa performances is audience participation in the dances, and the music with interpolations and such signifies the quality of the performance. Without audience participation then the performance is regarded negatively and boring.
Use of traditional instrumentation such as horns drums and other African instruments is part of the performance. Each performance incorporates most of the principles in one performance and hence forms the basis for identification of West African music (Dickie, 2017).
Timba to a great extent attains the principles of West Africa performance in various capacities. For one, the performance of Timba dance music does integrate the culture of the people of Cuba. Timba incorporates various aspects of Cuban culture such as the incorporation of Chachacha a dance style that originated from the rhythmic tapping of feet by Cuban dancers. It also includes the social situations of the people at the moment of performance and changes the lyrics to fit in the existing social context. Timba originally came up as opposition music meant to address and oppose enslavement of the Africans. Timba also involves a lot of public or rather audience participation and the use of instruments such as drums and others. In Timba performance, the dances and music are a form of art intended to entertain the audience and also an avenue for delivering valuable information. In its inception, Timba contained rebellious message against the enslavement of Africans (Vaughan, 2012). Therefore, it is true to conclude that Timba to a great extent integrates with the principles of West Africa performance and hence is its black identity.
How does Timba music express Afro-Cuban identity?
Afro Cuban identity refers to the preservation of Cuban African identity in the face of Americanism. Therefore, Timba music expresses Afro Cuban identity through the details that represent the preservation of Cuban African identity. Firstly, Timba lies strategically between traditional Cuban son and salsa dance music. Prior to Timba dance, The historical style of dance music the basis for the development of the Timba style of music as an integration of the genres preserving them as part of Cuban identity. Secondly, Timba continues to grow and develop even in the face of the emergence of new styles. Cuban musicians and bands remain persistent in including the Timba stop in their music. The Cuban music finds ways to diversifying their Timba music still uphold its manner and preserve it from the modern music industry such that the music does not lose the key elements in rhyme and style that identify it as Cuban. The tendency to diversify and evolve their music is a major characteristic of Cuban music which holds in Timba with its progressive advancements and evolutions in style and approach. Even in the new music and style Timba still holds strong characteristics and principles that connect to Cuban culture. Although the call and response approach has been dropped, the aggressive, explosive rhyme in music such as rap and repetition of the chorus in a song is an indication of the Traditional Timba dance music identified with the Cubans.
Another Afro Cuban identification ion the Timba is the use of traditional Cuban Timbales in their music and dance. The Timbales are two-single headed drums made of steel mounted on steel rods, one larger than the other and are played with wooden sticks. The Timbales are an indication of Cuban economic activities as they were used in sugarcane industries to hold the cane juice. Timba also preserves the integration of dance in music. In Cuban culture, dance and music are regarded as symbiotic elements which cannot exist separately. Despite the new styles and advancements in Cuban music, the culture of dance music is still embraced in the Timba where music is accompanied by dance and instrumentation (Silverman, 2018). Evidently, Timba dance music continues to preserve Afro Cuban identity in its style and performance principles by preserving the traditional elements even the new music styles. The emergence and development of Timba also characterized an essential part of Cuban history hence holds the vital capacity of remaining relevant.
Briefly, compare Timba with other styles we learned about in class, with respect to building community and constructing identity.
Timba is one of the styles of music in Cuba among others such as Bata drumming, salsa, and son among others which have all played significant roles in community and construction of identities. However, a comparison between the styles of music presents a case for Timba as hugely instrumental in constructing the people’s identity. Ideally, Cuba is identified through its music and all the music styles of a significant part of Cuba's identity. Music styles such as salsa and son are acknowledged to have emerged from Cuba. However, all the other forms provide one common style or formula to music that is vulnerable to corrupt by modernization as opposed to Timba. The ability of Timba to combine several styles under one genre has enabled it to remain relevant even in today’s generation.
Timba is a more advanced style of music that allows for advancing into new music while still upholding the elements of culture that the Cubans can identify with. Timba holds unique aspects of cultural roots that are hard to be assimilated in the outside world to lose the Cuban identity. Music styles such as salsa have become assimilated in other cultures and owned resulting to the lack of traces to Cuban identity. However, Timba performance, instrumentation, and way of performance remain unique to the culture of the Cuban even with the assimilation of modern day music (Vaughan, 2012). Therefore, Timba holds ore resistance to contemporary genres of music hence offers the potential for prolonged withholding of cultural identity.
Why does the author consider Timba "rebel" music?
Vaughan explores Timba music as an opposition dance music against enslavement as she describes it a way of escape. Timba is undoubtedly rebel music/ dance in renegade stance The Timba dance music was developed to respond to the Cuban people realities in a time of slavery, marginalization, and discrimination. In the dance and lyrics, the Cubans engaged in calls and responses and gestures that related to their social afflictions. The Cubans would relate social issues such as gender, race and social classes in the music. In the dances and the music, the participants chose illustrations and lyrics that revealed the state of social issues in their societies. The gestures in the Timba are used to showcase the marginalization of Cubans in modern Cuba. The word itself Timba represents not only musical genres but as well a social action. The Cubans in the dance music intended to draw attention to their predicaments and seek to be treated as whole community members as opposed to the enslaving.
On their other hand, Timba was a way of the Cubans to uphold their African identify is the face of colonization. Through the practice of the music in the face of social discrimination, the Cubans were holding on to their traditions and preserving their history in the music and the lyrics. Therefore, Vaughan refers to the role of Timba as a way of opposing enslavement and seeking freedom to be independently peopled. By addressing the social issues of race and gender the music was used to rebel against the social injustices in the system hence the reference to Timba as Rebel music. The role of the dance music places in opposing the social structures that hold than people captive signifies the rebellious aspect of the music genre. Furthermore, Timba was primarily developed as rebel music to address the issues of slavery and gender inequality as well as pass on the message on what the people wanted.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Timba presents a case for music and dance role in the preservation of culture and community identification. Uniquely, Timba has been able to survive the advancements in music and incorporate modern styles of music such as RnB and hip-hop among others. However, traditional music continues to face the threat of extinction by being overtaken by the contemporary trends in music development. Therefore there is an increasing need for documentation of such historical identification practices and the pressure to remain original order to preserve cultural identity and relevance of such musical genres.
References
Corona, D. (2018). Discovering the roots of Cuban music - A history of its diverse genres. Cuba Holidays . Retrieved on 30 April 2018 from https://cubaholidays.co.uk/blogs/posts/118932/discovering-the-roots-of-cuban-music-a-history-of-its-diverse-genres.
Dickie, J. (2017). Singing the Psalms: Applying principles of African music to Bible translation. Scriptura. International Journal of Bible, Religion, and Theology in Southern Africa, 11 6(1), 1-16. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7833/116-1-1199.
Silverman, C. Timba - Style in Afro-Cuban Popular Music, Cuba, DK. Retrieved on 30 April 2018 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. (2012). Rebel Dance, Renegade Stance: Timba Music and Black Identity in Cuba . Michigan: University of Michigan Press.
