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Music of Cuba
Son, rumba and danzón from Cuba, Haitian vodou drumming and kompa, Jamaican mento, ska and reggae, calypso and steelpan from Trinidad, bouyon and cadence-lypso in Dominica, tumba and tambú on Curaçao.
Sung and searched in Spanish. The YouTube button above can run your search in that language.
A brief history
Hispanic heritage
The first popular music played in Cuba after the Spanish conquest was brought by the Spanish conquerors themselves, and was most likely borrowed from the Spanish popular music in vogue during the 16th century. From the 16th to the 18th century some danceable songs that emerged in Spain were associated with Hispanic America, or considered to have originated in America. Some of these songs with picturesque names such as Sarabande, Chaconne, Zambapalo, Retambico and Gurumbé, among others, shared a common trait, its characteristic rhythm called Hemiola or Sesquiáltera (in Spain).
This rhythm has been described as the alternation or superposition of a duple meter and a triple meter (68 + 34), and its utilization was widespread in the Spanish territory since at least the 13th century, where it appears in one of the Cantigas de Santa María (Como poden per sas culpas). Hemiola or Sesquiáltera is also a typical rhythm within the African musical traditions, both from the North of the Continent as from the South.
Popular music
20th-century classical and art music
Between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th a number of composers excel within the Cuban music panorama. They cultivated genres such as the popular song and the concert lied, dance music, the zarzuela and the vernacular theatre, as well as symphonic music. Noteworthy are Hubert de Blanck (1856-1932), José Mauri (1856-1937), Manuel Mauri (1857-1939), José Marín Varona, Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes (1874-1944), Jorge Anckermann (1877-1941), Luis Casas Romero (1882-1950), Mario Valdés Costa (1898-1930), and others.
The work of José Marín Varona links the Cuban musical activity from the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. In 1896, the composer included in his zarzuela "El Brujo" the first Cuban guajira which has been historically documented. About this piece, composer Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes said: "The honest critique of a not very far day will bestow the author of the immortal guajira of "El Brujo" the honor to which he is undoubtedly entitled at any time". Gonzalo Roig (1890–1970) was a major force in the first half of the century.
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Radio from Cuba
Music only, no news or talk. Stations that play the local tradition come first, then the most listened. They play in the corner of the page.
Station directory by Radio Browser Streams come from each station's own server.