Jacobo González Rubalcaba (1895–1960) was a

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

ian,

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

bandleader A bandleader is the leader of a music group such as a dance band, rock or pop band or jazz quartet. The term is most commonly used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhyth ...

and

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

. Born in Sagua La Grande, he adopted his mother's maiden name for professional use.Orovio, Helio (2004). ''Cuban Music from A to Z-CL''. Duke University Press Books. .

Biography

Rubalcaba showed deep interest in music from his early years. When he turned 15 , he received musical training at an academy in his hometown in addition to his work as a

tailor A tailor is a person who makes or alters clothing, particularly in men's clothing. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the term to the thirteenth century. History Although clothing construction goes back to prehistory, there is evidence of ...

. Humble, dignified and courteous, Rubalcaba was a remarkable student and quickly became engrossed in his studies. At eighteen years, he began playing the

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

and

valve trombone The valve trombone is a brass instrument in the trombone family that has a set of valves to vary the pitch instead of (or in addition to) a slide. Although it has been built in sizes from alto to contrabass, it is the tenor valve trombone pitched ...

in the

brass band A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting primarily of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands (particularl ...

of Santa Clara. In 1915, Rubalcaba moved to

Pinar del Río Pinar del Río is the capital city of Pinar del Río Province, Cuba. With a population of 191,081 (2022), it is the List of cities in Cuba, 10th-largest city in Cuba. Inhabitants of the area are called ''Pinareños''. History Pinar del Río was ...

, where he joined the local

military band A military band is a group of personnel that performs musical duties for military functions, usually for the armed forces. A typical military band consists mostly of wind instrument, wind and percussion instruments. The conducting, conductor of a ...

. From then on, he became a prominent figure in the field of music education, offering a means for exploring alternative approaches and new ideas. In his pedagogical tasks, Rubalcaba displayed the same devotion to duty, advising his students about the combination and subordination of music-theoretical knowledge to practical activity in the performance of one or more instruments, while playing alone or within an ensemble, as is widely recommended in present-day guides. In between, Rubalcaba founded the first brass band of Pinar del Río, and also established bands in the nearby cities of

Mantua Mantua ( ; ; Lombard language, Lombard and ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Italian region of Lombardy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, eponymous province. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the "Italian Capital of Culture". In 2 ...

, San Luis, and

San Juan y Martínez San Juan y Martínez () is a municipality and town in the Pinar del Río Province of Cuba. Overview Its economy is centered mainly on agriculture and the crop of its farmers, the largest of which being tobacco. In Cuba, San Juan y Martinez is kn ...

. In 1918, he became the conductor of his own ''

orquesta típica Orquesta típica, or simply a típica, is a Latin American term for a band which plays popular music. The details vary from country to country. The term tends to be used for groups of medium size (about 8 to 12 musicians) in some well-defined in ...

'', which helped spread the ''

danzón Danzón is the official genre and dance of Cuba.Urfé, Odilio 1965. ''El danzón''. La Habana. It is also an active musical form in USA and Puerto Rico. Written in time, the danzón is a slow, formal partner dance, requiring set footwork ...

'' around the western region of Cuba. Rubalcaba used

cakewalk The cakewalk was a dance developed from the "prize walks" (dance contests with a cake awarded as the prize) held in the mid-19th century, generally at get-togethers on black slave plantations before and after emancipation in the Southern Unit ...

rhythms in many of his songs, creating popular compositions like ''Los pinareños'', ''Linda Mercedes'', ''Ulpiano y su contrabajo'' and ''Hay que echar manteca''. Even though his most significant contribution was the arrangement for his song ''El cadete constitucional'', in which he cleverly included the melody of

John Philip Sousa John Philip Sousa ( , ; November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic music, Romantic era known primarily for American military March (music), marches. He is known as "The March King" or th ...

's ''

The Stars and Stripes Forever "The Stars and Stripes Forever" is a patriotic American march written and composed by John Philip Sousa in 1896. By a 1987 act of the U.S. Congress, it is the official National March of the United States of America. History In his 1928 au ...

'' – a musical thread that was commonly used at the time. According to

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

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 ...

, part of the danzón's success in the early 1900s was its ability to incorporate and absorb all sorts of melodic traditions as 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 ...

'' had previously done. Sublette added that light classics of the nineteenth-century European repertoire were endlessly ''danzonized'', as were popular themes from

ragtime Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that had its peak from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its Syncopation, syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers ...

and a variety of Cuban genres. Rubalcaba was also the founder of one of the greatest musical dynasties in Cuba, as many of his descendants would follow in his footsteps to become directors and instrumentalists. His son, the

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

Guillermo Rubalcaba, was the founder of the legendary Charanga Rubalcaba, while his grandson, the pianist and composer

Gonzalo Rubalcaba Gonzalo Rubalcaba (born May 27, 1963) is a Cuban jazz pianist and composer. Early life Rubalcaba was born Gonzalo Julio González Fonseca in Havana, Cuba into a musical family. He adopted his great grandmother's name for professional use, just a ...

,Rubalcaba, Gonzalo (Gonzalo Julio Gonzalez Fonseca)
. ''Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians.'' Retrieved on July 31, 2015. is one of the most important figures to emerge from

Afro-Cuban jazz Afro-Cuban jazz is the earliest form of Latin jazz. It mixes Afro-Cuban clave-based rhythms with jazz harmonies and techniques of improvisation. Afro-Cuban music has deep roots in African ritual and rhythm. The genre emerged in the early 1940s ...

in the 1990s. Jacobo Rubalcaba died in 1960 in a

traffic collision A traffic collision, also known as a motor vehicle collision, or car crash, occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other moving or stationary obstruction, such as a tree, pole or building. Tr ...

, while he was travelling from Havana to his home of Pinar del Río.

Sources

External links

: * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rubalcaba, Jacobo 1895 births 1960 deaths People from Sagua la Grande 20th-century trumpeters 20th-century trombonists Brass band composers Cuban bandleaders Cuban composers Cuban male composers Cuban trumpeters Cuban trombonists Danzón composers Danzón musicians Road incident deaths in Cuba Cuban male musicians