Styles of Cuban Music

Son

Son is a style of popular dance music that originated in the Oriente province of Cuba. It is the foundation of modern salsa. Son combines the structure and elements of spanish voices and guitars with african rhythms and percussion instruments. There are several hybrids of Son, including Son-montuno, Afro-son and Guajira-son.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btsbD5F-AOQ&feature=related





Rumba

Rumba is mainly of percussive rhythms, song and dance that originated in cuba. It is a combination of the musical traditions of Africans brought to Cuba as slaves and Spanish colonizers.

• Cuban Rumba, percussion, song and dance styles that owe their origin to African slaves in Cuba.
• Rumba (dance), international dance styles that correspond to slower Cuban music, such as the bolero-son.
• African Rumba, Inspired by the Cuban son, a style of music that originated in Congo, and evolved into Latin music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNq3pddygeE

Timba

The newest and most controversial music out of Cuba, Timba is like salsa on steroids. It incorporates influences from Brazilian music, R&B, hip-hop and salsa. Note the different roles the piano and bass play. Just two samples do not do justice to this anything-goes genre.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TvrHC4qtgA


 
Danzón

A style of music influenced by European dances, first developed in the late nineteenth century. The form later was expanded to contain a section initially known as "nuevo ritmo," later called mambo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrUtURg4rJw 

This song is called "El Carretero" by "Barrio Cubano de Ronald Rubinel". This song clearsly expresses the cuban style of music. It creates like a feeling for dancing and just follos the rhythm.
The main tune of the song is basicly the male voice. It has a low voice with a latin sense and it is jumpy, angular in some parts.

It has a large variaty of instruments. These are mainly the cuban percussion and string instruments named above. It has a constant bongo which marks the rhythm. It can also be heard the congas which play along with the bongos. Both are playing low sounds. Together with the percussion instruments, there is a cuban tres wich plays the same melody all the song at low, mid-range pitch. All these instruments form a song which produces a major pitch feeling. 

The song has a strophic structure because the same beat in instruments like the bongos and cuban tres are repeted over and over again. Which is the case of the rhythm where the time signature is the same in all of the song.