sas. These Carnival songs became popular beyond the Carnival festival, and trova
flourished in the Santiago districts of El Tivoli, San Augustin, and Los Hoyos.
In the first decades of the 20th century, duos, trios, and other groupings emerged
that interpreted the trovadoresco style. Trio Matamoros, pioneers of the bolero-son,
duos like those of Maria Teresa Vera and Rafael Zequeira, and also the famous duo
of Los Compadres, are some examples. Groups such as these assured the continuity
of the trova repertoire as the son became the prominent genre. The topics addressed
in the repertoire of trova tradicional are idyllic and unrequited love, praising a
woman using a poetic language that is linked to nature, and sensual love. There are
also frequent occurrences of metaphor, humor, and irony. Within the metrical struc-
ture of stanzas, octosyllablic verses, quatrains, and décimas predominate, among
others, which can be combined within the same subject.
Shorter songs with binary nonrepetitive structures predominate. The musical
phrasing seeks the development of great melodic lyricism. The relationship be-
tween antecedent and consequent musical phrases in correlation with the literary
discourse predominate, with cadences that resolve within a diatonic harmony. Trova
also uses ascending and descending melodic movements, chromaticism, altered
chords, the repeated use of neighboring tones, and other ornamental turns, as well
as frequent contrasts between minor and major modes in sections.
The accompaniment style is the defining characteristic for each rhythmic genre
within the trovas. The rasgueado , or strumming of the guitar, is one of the techniques used in traditional trova. The style of strumming was unique to each trova-
dor. For example, Alberto Villalón did not strum, but played upon the bass strings
creating a melodic-harmonic movement, whereas Eusebio Delfin chose a semiar-
peggiated style of accompanying. Singing to this guitar accompaniment has be-
come a symbol of trovadoresca identity and of patriotic sentiment.
The songs of contestation or self-contestation in the form of a dispute were a cre-
ative style among the trovadores of the time, and very famous themed pairs of songs
emerged such as the song “Aurora” in response to the song “Longina”; “La Haba-
nera” to “La Bayamesa”; “Animada” to “Timidez”; and “Amparo” to “Alfonsa.”
Pepe Sánchez (Santiago de Cuba, 1856–1920) is considered the precursor of the
Cuban trovador movement. The Big Five of trovas include Sindo Garay, Manuel
Corona, Alberto Villalón, Rosendo Ruiz, and Patricio Ballagas. In addition, many
422 | Trova
Tradicional
anonymous guitarist accompanists have contributed to the accompanimental style
of the Cuban trova.
Important Trovadores come from across the island. Juan de Dios Echavarria, Fer-
min Castillo, Eusebio Premión, Paquito Portela, Pepe Banderas, Rufino and Ramon
Marquez, and Emiliano Blez are from Santiago de Cuba; Graciano Gomez and
Oscar Hernández are from Matanzas; Miguel Companioni, Rafael Teofilito Gomez,
Manuel Gallo, Carlos Alfredo Varona Díaz de Tata Villegas, Sigifredo Mora Palma,
and Rafael Rodriguez are from Sancti Spiritus; Alfredo Sanchez is from Villa Clara;
and trovadores María Teresa Vera, among others, is from Havana. Among the rel-
evant duos are Hermanas Marti, Hilda Santana y Luz Mustelieer, Hermanas Junco,
Alfredo Gonzalez “Sirique”-Miguel Doyble, Hermanas Castro, Guarionex y Sindo
Garay; representative tríos include Azul, Apolo, Matamoros; and among quartets
are included Villalón, Cuba and Cancioneros de Oriente.
In 1908, trova competitions were held in front of Acera del Louvre. Perfor-
mances and musical soirees were carried out in the Havana neighborhoods of Jesús
del Monte, El Pilar, and Luyanó, and the most popular singers and guitarists of the
era could be found performing in Barbaria Guayo. Many theaters and cinemas in
the capital served as locations for the movement, including el Politeama grande,
y Politeama chico, el recreo de Belascoain, and, the location considered to be the
Mecca of Cuban trova, Cine Variedades y Cine Esmeralda.
Further Reading
Betancourt Molina, Lino. La trova en Santiago de Cuba. Apuntes históricos. La Habana:
Andante Editora musical de Cuba, 2005.
Cañizares, Dulcila. La trova tradicional cubana. La Habana: Editorial Letras cubanas,
1992.
De León, Carmela. Sindo Garay: memorias de un trovador. Le Habana: Editorial Letras
cubanas, 1990.
Díaz Pérez, Clara. Sobre la guitarra la voz. Le Habana: Editorial Letras cubanas, 1994.
Loyola, Fernández J. En Ritmo De Bolero: El Bolero En La Música Bailable Cubana.
Ciudad de la Habana: Ediciones Unión, 1997.
Rodríguez, Ezequiel (recop. y coord.) Iconografía de la Trova. Creadores e intérpretes.
Ediciones de la coordinación Provincial Habana del C.N.C.
Roy, Maya. Músicas Cubanas. Tres Cantos, Madrid: Akal, 2003.
Ruiz Elcoro, José. “Sindo Garay, el trovador supremo,” en Revista Clave, año 3, no. 1,
La Habana.
Valdés, Marta. Donde vive la música. Ediciones Unión, 2004.
Zamora Céspedes, Bladimir y Fidel Díaz Castro (comp.) Cualquier flor. . . De la trova
tradicional cubana. Casa Editora Abril, 2006.
Liliana González
Tumbadora
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423
Tumbadora
The tumbadora is a Cuban barrel-shaped drum, usually made of wood with cow-
or mule-skin heads. In English, it is usually called a conga drum, though this is
somewhat mistaken. Tumbadoras come in different sizes, though they are usu-
ally around 30 to 32 inches tall, allowing them to be played while seated. Their
heads commonly range from 10 to 12 inches in diameter, though smaller and larger
sizes also exist. Early versions were based on African antecedents, having the skins
tacked to the drum itself. Today, however, they are tuned by metal tensioning rods
or lugs. They were originally associated with the secular rumba music of the early
20th century, but have become known worldwide through their use in genres such
as mambo , Latin jazz, salsa , and even non-Latin popular music.
The root word of tumbadora, tumba, is of Bantu linguistic provenance, due to
the large numbers of Cuban slaves brought from Bantu-speaking ethnic groups.
Depending on the dialect, though, it could have different meanings, including a
drum, but also a dance, ceremony, or herbalist. It could also simply be onomato-
poeic. The word conga, the common word for the same drum in English, was
originally only used to refer to drums used during Carnival for the rhythm called
la conga. Tourists to Cuba during the early 20th century likely heard tambores de
conga and translated it as conga drums. The word was then applied to any drum
of similar construction.
The tumbadora was created in Cuba but had many African antecedents, the
most obvious being associated with Central and West African ethnic groups. The
word ngoma is often invoked in telling the history of the tumbadora, but this is
an imprecise term that simply means drum in Bantu languages. Of the Bantu-
speaking ethnic groups in Cuba, the drums most influencing the tumba
dora were
the makúta and yuka. Additionally, it is likely that Lucumí (Yoruba) drums, known
as bembé, had some influence on early tumbadora construction. The tumbadora
did not originally have a religious purpose. Instead, it was developed for secular
entertainment in postslavery Cuba, especially in the solares (multifamily buildings
with a shared common area). The solares were a meeting place of various African
ethnic lineages and religious groups. It was these living situations that gave rise to
the tumbadora and the music known as rumba. Tumbadoras were so connected to
rumba that in the 1950s the Cuban scholar Fernando Ortiz referred to them simply
as tambores de rumba.
The sonic capabilities of the tumbadora gave it a musical advantage that be-
came an economic one as well. They increasingly entered religious practices since
it was more financially practical to have one drum with multiple uses than many
drums, each with only one purpose. Their construction—of staves rather than
424 | Tumbao
carved from a single log—was also advantageous. It was an easier method of
construction that served to distinguish the tumbadora from its highly persecuted
African antecedents.
The popularity of the tumbadora grew among Afro-Cubans and, during the mid-
20th century, began a path toward worldwide recognition. Arsenio Rodríguez was
probably the first to add a tumbadora as a standard instrument in the Cuban con-
junto, doing so by 1940. In the United States, bandleader Machito embraced the
tumbadora in the early 1940s. It also entered jazz music through the famous pair-
ing of percussionist Chano Pozo and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, beginning what
became known as Latin jazz. Its fame spread worldwide through mambo and, later,
salsa, but also entered styles such as rock and rhythm and blues.
The musical popularity of the tumbadora was aided by changes in its construc-
tion. By the 1950s, the tacked-on animal skins which had to be tuned by heat
were replaced with metal tuning lugs (thus greatly increasing its pitch range). By
the 1960s, fiberglass shells had become common and, over the past decade, syn-
thetic heads have seen more use due to their imperviousness to changing humidity.
American manufacturers also began to mass-produce the tumbadora, bringing it to
a wider audience. This commercialization resulted in the three main sizes referred
to as quinto (small), conga (medium), and tumbadora (large). However, there was never a traditional ensemble that combined these names in such a way.
There have been many influential tumbadora players such as Tata Güines,
Giovanni Hidalgo, Miguel “Angá” Díaz, and Carlos “Patato” Valdez. Candido
Camero was one of the first to play multiple tumbadoras at once, while Ramón
“Mongo” Santamaria was one of the most successful musicians to lead a band from
behind the tumbadoras.
Further Reading
Warden, Nolan. “A History of the Conga Drum.” Percussive Notes 43, no. 1 (2005):
8–15.
Nolan Warden
Tumbao
In Cuban music, tumbao encompasses the basic meter and rhythm pattern, har-
mony, and melody of a variety of major Cuban popular music genres although its
character is defined and it is most importantly associated with the different sons .
Tumbao is generally executed by the tres bass or the piano or keyboard, although other instruments can be used depending on the type of orchestra. References to
this musical form are found in the patterns of popular 19th-century contradanses,
as well as in the left hand of certain keyboard pieces by Manuel Saumell, Ignacio
Tumbao
|
425
Cervantes, and others. In fact, composers viewed the tumbao as a synthesis of the
stress patterns found in works such as the habanera, especially in the second section of the pieces. Such use of the tumbao has turned it into one of the national ele-
ments of Cuban music.
There are different models of tumbao that appear in a variety of Cuban dance music
such as son, cha-cha-chá , danzon , and timba. Together with its characteristic rhythm and melody, the tumbao is also identified by specific qualities of articulation, interval relations, and stresses. Depending on the creativity of the instrumen-
talist, these features allow tumbao to interact stylistically with diverse musical
genres.
Tumbao is central to Cuban musical identity and one of the most enjoyable el-
ements of Cuban dance music.
Further Reading
Leymarie, Isabelle. Cuban Fire: The Story of Salsa and Latin Jazz. New York: Con-
tinuum, 2002.
Neris González and Liliana Casanella
U
United States
The United States has welcomed Latin American musical styles, performers, and
listeners, and been the site of the genesis of new artists, styles, forms, and networks
of support that have in turn influenced music making in Latin America. Patterns of
residency, emigration, and regular contact across borders have contributed to the
vibrant cultivation of Latin music. American record labels were instrumental in the
rise to international popularity of various Latin musical genres such as mambo ,
tango , bolero , and salsa , while Hollywood delivered styles such as mariachi and
samba to American audiences and beyond. At the same time that the media and
commercial networks of exchange have helped establish shared tastes and trends
across regions, diverse local histories and geographic settlement patterns reinforce
persisting regional differences and musical identities. Major urban centers such as
New York, Miami, San Antonio, and Los Angeles all boast vibrant but different
Latino music cultures.
Historical Overview of Shared Trends
A quick review of major historical trends offers a useful template for a more detailed
review of regional patterns of production and taste. The importation of Iberian musi-
cal tastes began in the 16th century with the first Spanish settlements in what is now
the United States. Music that reflects this colonial influence survives in the form of
religious festivities, dance dramas, instrumental practices, and song forms including
estribillos and coplas (verses and refrains) cultivated across the American southwest.
The 19th-century stage provided a popular venue for new forms of entertain-
ment, so in the 1850s, Mexican and Latin American theatrical companies were
touring the United States continuously, bringing musical revues, zarzuelas , and
dramas including popular songs and dances. Residents along the shifting United
States and Mexican border favored canciones and corridos and bailes developed from country and ballroom dance styles such as the chótis, mazurka, polka, and
varvosienne. These forms would later surface in the traditions of Tex-Mex, tejano , and norteño music.
The development of jazz in the United States, beginning in 1895, provided an im-
portant integrative esthetic that embraced musical influences from Latin America.
427
428 | United States
Mendoza, Lydia
Lydia Mendoza (1916–2007), known to her fans as La Alondra de la Frontera (The
Meadowlark of the Border), was the fi rst female performer of Mexican Ameri-
can vernacular music to gain stardom in th
e fl edgling commercial music indus-
try of the 1930s. Mendoza is most commonly lauded for her solo singing and
her unique playing style on 12-string guitar, however, she was also a skilled en-
semble performer of conjunto norteño, mariachi, and orquestra music. In the
early 1930s, Mendoza had a regular spot on radio host Manuel J. Cortez Men-
doza’s weekly program, La Voz Latina. She released her fi rst solo recording,
“Mal Hombre,” a song she learned from a bubblegum wrapper, which garnered
her national attention and a 10-year recording contract. Mendoza had a career
of recording and performing that spanned nearly 60 years. Highlights include
Mendoza’s performance at the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife in
Canada (1971) and a performance for President Carter at the John F. Kennedy
Center in Washington, D.C. (1975). She was inducted into the Tejano Music
Hall of Fame in 1984 and the Conjunto Music Hall of Fame in 1991.
Further Reading
Broyles-González, Yolanda Lydia Mendoza’s Life in Music: La Historia de Lydia
Mendoza. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Erin Stapleton-Corcoran
In New Orleans, Spanish and French Creole culture, invigorated by Caribbean in-
fluences, gave rise to musical developments such as Jelly Roll Morton’s use of the
Cuban habanera rhythm in “St. Louis Blues.”
The emergence of an international ballroom dance movement provided another
avenue for contact with Latin American music and dance. Vernon and Irene Castle
helped popularize ballroom-style versions of the Argentine tango and the Brazilian
maxixe in the United States via their appearances on stage, their dance manual, and
at their dance academy. The nascent recording industry courted American interest
in international music traditions, including Latin American styles. New York City,
Camden, and later San Antonio and Los Angeles emerged as early recording cen-
ters for Latin American music.
Mambo and Latin jazz ruled the 1940s and 1950s. Dizzy Gillespie, with Afro-
Cuban bongó player Chano Pozo, composed the influential “Manteca” in 1947.
The orchestras of Frank “ Machito “ Grillo , Tito Puente, and others thrilled au-
diences with their Cuban and Puerto Rican-inflected jazz and dance bands. Beto
Encyclopedia of Latin American Popular Music Page 72
