Rumba flamenca, also known as flamenco rumba or simply rumba (), is a ''

palo Palo may refer to: Places * Palo, Estonia, village in Meremäe Parish, Võru County, Estonia * Palo, Huesca, municipality in the province of Huesca, Spain * Palo, Iowa, United States, a town located within Linn County * Palo Laziale, a location ...

'' (style) of

flamenco Flamenco () is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the Gitanos, gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and Region of Murcia, ...

music developed in

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. It is known as one of the '' cantes de ida y vuelta'' (roundtrip songs), music which diverged in the new world, then returned to Spain in a new form. The genre originated in the 19th century in Andalusia, southern Spain, where Cuban music first reached the country.

History

Rumba flamenca was primarily influenced by

guaracha The guaracha () is a genre of music that originated in Cuba, of rapid tempo and comic or picaresque lyrics. The word has been used in this sense at least since the late 18th and early 19th century. Guarachas were played and sung in musical the ...

, an uptempo style of vocal music which originated 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. Some elements from

Cuban rumba Rumba is a secular genre of Cuban music involving dance, percussion, and song. It originated in the northern regions of Cuba, mainly in urban Havana and Matanzas, during the late 19th century. It is based on African music and dance traditions, n ...

were also incorporated, although minor, despite the name. Although unlikely, both guaracha and Cuban rumba might have been influenced by flamenco earlier in the 19th century. Guarachas can be traced back to the Spanish jácaras, thus justifying the classification of rumba flamenca as a '' cante de ida y vuelta''. The first rumba flamenca recordings were made by La Niña de los Peines in the 1910s. During the late 20th century,

Paco de Lucía Francisco Sánchez Gómez (; 21 December 194725 February 2014), known as Paco de Lucía (), was a Spanish virtuoso flamenco guitarist, composer, and record producer. A leading proponent of the new flamenco style, he was one of the first flamen ...

, together with percussionist Rubem Dantas, incorporated Afro-Peruvian musical elements such as the

cajón A cajón ( ; "box, crate, drawer") is a box-shaped percussion instrument originally from Peru, played by slapping the front or rear faces (generally thin plywood) with the hands, fingers, or sometimes implements such as brushes, mallets, or st ...

(wooden box) and certain rhythms.

Terminology

In term rumba as applied to the flamenco style stems from its use in Cuba to refer to

(originally, "rumba" meant "party"). Within flamenco circles, the genre is simply called "rumba", and other terms have been used to distinguish it from Cuban rumba, including gypsy rumba (''rumba gitana'') and Spanish rumba, which are nonetheless ambiguous since they may also be used to mean

Catalan rumba The Catalan rumba (, ) is a genre of music that developed in Barcelona's Romani community beginning in the 1950s and 1960s. Its rhythms are derived from the Andalusian flamenco rumba, with influences from Cuban music and rock and roll. The Ca ...

or other contemporary styles such as tecno-rumba.

Instrumentation

The rumba flamenca instrumentation consists of flamenco guitars, hand clapping, occasional body slapping,

castanet Castanets, also known as ''clackers'' or ''palillos'', are a percussion instrument ( idiophonic), used in Spanish, Calé, Moorish, Ottoman, Greek, Italian, Mexican, Sephardic, Portuguese, Filipino, Brazilian, and Swiss music. In ancient ...

s and the cajón. As a result, it bears little resemblance to Cuban rumba, whose instrumentation is based on the

conga The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest ...

s and

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 ...

. Nonetheless, some artists such as Paco de Lucía and Tomatito have included congas alongside their cajones in their ensembles, although with a minor role.

Music theory

In Cuba, the rumba is performed with multiple percussion instruments, playing in

duple meter Duple metre (or Am. duple meter, also known as duple time) is a musical metre characterized by a ''primary'' division of 2 beats to the bar, usually indicated by 2 and multiples (simple) or 6 and multiples ( compound) in the upper figure of the ti ...

. The flamenco version of it uses palmas, guitar, and golpes (slapping the guitar). In addition, rumba flamenca has a particular guitar strumming pattern absent in other flamenco styles. The rhythm is a modified tresillo rhythm with eight beats grouped into a repeating pattern of 3+3+2. Unlike traditional flamenco, rumbas may be played in any key, major, minor and modal. At approx. 100-120bpm, the tempo of rumba flamenca is slower than other more traditional flamenco styles such as

bulerías ''Bulería'' (; interchangeable with the plural, ''bulerías'') is a fast flamenco rhythm made up of a 12 beat cycle with emphasis in two general forms as follows: This may be thought of as a measure of followed by a measure of (known ...

and

fandango Fandango is a lively partner dance originating in Portugal and Spain, usually in triple metre, triple meter, traditionally accompanied by guitars, castanets, tambourine or hand-clapping. Fandango can both be sung and danced. Sung fandango is u ...

s. There are 4 beats per bar with an accent on the 2nd and 4th beats.

Dance

The rumba flamenca dance has some origins in

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

, specifically in the downtown areas of

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, where gypsies performed rumba catalana at the times of this genre's flowering popularity. The dance that it accompanied was improvised with prominent hip and shoulder movements, more overtly sexual than other styles of flamenco dances.

References