''Coros de clave'' were popular choral groups that emerged at the end of the 19th century in

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. The common instrumentation of the ''coros'' featured a ''viola'' (a string-less

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

used as a percussion instrument),

claves Claves (; ) are a percussion instrument consisting of a pair of short, wooden sticks about 20–25 centimeters (8–10 inches) long and about 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) in diameter. Although traditionally made of wood (typically rosewood, ebony ...

, guitar, harp and jug bass.

History

Background

During the 19th century, the Cuban government only allowed black people, slaves or free, to cultivate their cultural traditions within the boundaries of certain mutual aid societies, which were founded during the 16th century. According to David H. Brown, those societies, called cabildos, "provided in times of sickness and death, held masses for deceased members, collected funds to buy nation-brethren out of slavery, held regular dances and diversions on Sundays and feast days, and sponsored religious masses, processions and dancing carnival groups (now called comparsas) around the annual cycle of Catholic festival days." At the cabildos in the town of Trinidad some choral groups existed since mid-19th century that performed the so-called tonadas trinitarias. There are some references that by 1860, the tonadas trinitarias were interpreted during the local festivities by choirs from different neighborhoods, which used to gather together to compete while they paraded through the streets. Also within the cabildos of certain neighborhoods from

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Matanzas Matanzas (Cuban ; ) is the capital of the Cuban province of Matanzas Province, Matanzas. Known for its poets, culture, and Afro-American religions, Afro-Cuban folklore, it is located on the northern shore of the island of Cuba, on the Bay of Mat ...

Sancti Spíritus Sancti Spíritus () is a municipality and capital city of the province of Sancti Spíritus in central Cuba and one of the oldest Cuban European settlements. Sancti Spíritus is the genitive case of Latin ''Sanctus Spiritus'' ("Holy Spirit"). ...

and

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...

, some choral groups were founded during the 19th century that organized competitive activities, and in some occasions were visited by local authorities and neighbors that gave them money and presents. Those choral societies usually were named after their neighborhoods, and in some occasions they counted with one hundred or more members. Most probable of their chanting aimed to distract local authorities from investigating the real purpose of their gatherings, which was to celebrate ritual activities related to their original African religions.

Development

The origin and development of the coros de clave is linked not only to the local cabildos, but also to the traditions imported by immigrants from northern Spain, in particular the similarly named ''coros de Clavé'' (after Catalan composer

Josep Anselm Clavé Josep Anselm Clavé i Camps (April 21, 1824 – February 24, 1874) also known as José Anselmo Clavé, was a Catalans, Catalan politician, composer and writer, founder of the choral movement in Catalonia and a promoter of the associative movement ...

). Starting in 1845, Clavé established ''orfeones'' (French-style choirs) made up of working-class people in Barcelona. Similar choral traditions spread throughout the north of Spain, including Galicia, where the movement was called . According to some authors, including Odilio Urfé and

Ned Sublette Ned Sublette (born 1951) is an American composer, musician, record producer, musicologist, historian, and author. Sublette studied Spanish Classical Guitar with Hector Garcia at the University of New Mexico and with Emilio Pujol in Spain. He s ...

, upon introduction in Cuba, the ''coros de Clavé'' lost their accent, becoming ''coros de clave''. The ''coros de clave'' became popular in Cuba between the 1880s and the 1910s. They comprised as many as 150 men and women who sang in 6/8 time with European harmonies and instruments. Songs began with a female solo singer followed by call-and-response choral singing. As many as 60 ''coros de clave'' might have existed by 1902, some of which denied any African influence on their music. Examples of popular ''coros de clave'' include El Arpa de Oro, La Juventud, La Generación and Flor del Día. From the ''coros the clave'' evolved the ''coros de guaguancó'', which comprised mostly men, had a 2/4 time, and incorporated drums. Famous ''coros de guaguancó'' include El Timbre de Oro, Los Roncos (both featuring

Ignacio Piñeiro Ignacio Piñeiro Martínez (May 21, 1888 – March 12, 1969) was a Cuban musician, bandleader and composer whose career started in rumba and flowered in the rise of the son. He was one of the most important composers of son music; in total h ...

, the latter as director), and Paso Franco. Some scholars such as Argeliers León nonetheless argue that the ''coros de clave'' and ''coros de guaguacó'' evolved independently of each other. The ''coros de guaguancó'', which were considerably more africanized, gave rise some of the first authentic rumba groups, particularly guaguancó groups. Nonetheless, guaguancó also had its roots in another rumba style known as yambú, which itself derived from the Bantu

yuka Yuka may refer to: *Yuka (music), an Afro-Cuban style of music *Yuka (mammoth), mammoth specimen found in Yakutia, Russia *Manshu Yuka Kogyo K.K. Ssuningkai, a Japanese-German pre-WWII industrial co-operation People *Yuka (name), a Japanese pers ...

genre. Some rumba groups such as Clave y Guaguancó and Grupo Afrocuba de Matanzas carried part of the ''coros de guaguancó'' repertoire into the late 20th century.

Musical characteristics

The ''coros de clave'' share their name with the percussion instrument used as accompaniment, the Cuban

, which execute the main rhythmic pattern, the vertical

hemiola In music, hemiola (also hemiolia) is the ratio 3:2. The equivalent Latin term is sesquialtera. In rhythm, ''hemiola'' refers to three beats of equal value in the time normally occupied by two beats. In pitch, ''hemiola'' refers to the interval of ...

(also characteristic of the

contradanza ''Contradanza'' (also called ''contradanza criolla'', ''danza'', ''danza criolla'', or ''habanera'') is the Spanish and Spanish-American version of the contradanse, which was an internationally popular style of music and dance in the 18th cen ...

). The vertical

constitutes the most essential element of the ''sesquiáltera'' rhythm, and consists in the practice of superimposing a binary rhythmic pulse over a ternary one, as follows: 3 over 2

The accompaniment of the choirs frequently included a guitar and the percussion was executed over the sound box of an American

from which the strings were removed, due to the fact that African drums performance was strictly forbidden in Cuban cities. Usually a soloist started a song by singing a nonlexical melody and also improvised variations of the themes sung by the choir. A participant called "censor" was dedicated to supervise the language utilized in the songs.

Clave genre

The musical style of the ''coros de clave'', and particularly its rhythm, gave rise to a popular song genre called clave, which most probably served as the original prototype for the creation of the

criolla Criolla is a genre of Cuban music which is closely related to the music of the Cuban Coros de Clave and a genre of Cuban popular music called Clave. The Clave became a very popular genre in the Cuban vernacular theater and was created by compo ...

genre.Orovio, Helio: Cuban music from A to Z. Tumi Music Ltd. Bath, U.K., 2004, p. 60. Both genres, the clave and the criolla, became very popular within the Cuban vernacular theater repertoire.

References

{{Reflist, 2

External links

* Coro de Clave – Marcha la Moralidad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8pjq4uGb9Q * Clave – Como brillan las estrellas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ_2SuwWAs4 Music of Cuba