Vocabulary for Mid-Term Review

You should be familiar with all of these terms for the Mid-Term exam. The underlined terms are essay topics.

  • BACHATA – slow, romantic music from Dominican Republic typically played on guitar and featuring melancholy lyrics.
  • BATÁ (DRUMS) – hourglass-shaped drums, originally from Nigeria, used in Cuban Santería music.
  • BOLERO – a slow, romantic form of Cuban trova music, popular throughout Latin America.
  • BOMBA – Afro-Puerto Rican music and dance genre played on bomba drums (or barriles) and other percussion. The Bomba genre contains several styles and is highly syncopated and improvisational, with a high level of interaction between the dancers and drummers. Bomba became an integral style in modern Salsa music.
  • CALYPSO – music for Carnival in Trinidad, characterized by wild, nonsensical lyrics that often portray derrogatory images of women.  Popular during the World War II era given the presence of a U.S. military base on the island, Calypso’s predecessors include the kalenda, an African-derived stick-fighting form which featured call-and-response singing. Modern Calypso began to incorporate more East Indian influences after Independence in 1962, evolving into a more dance-oriented style. Overarching themes include prostitution, interracial relationships and vulgar situations, and when covering more profound topics, calypso tends to lean toward extreme irony.
  • CHANGÜÍ – the oldest form of Cuban son, which features the Congolese-derived marímbula used to play bass patterns, tres (a six-string guitar relative) and the bongos.
  • CHARANGA – a type of instrumentation of Cuban music derived from European origins, featuring flute, violins, piano, double bass, tympani and guiro.  Eventually, the timbales evolved from the tympani, and later, a single conga drum was added to complete the orchestra.
  • CINQUILLO – a five-note pattern featured in the Cuban danzón (Cuba’s national dance) during the paseo or promenade section.
  • CLAVE – a five-note pattern as well as the instrument used to play it (called claves); the clave is the most important element in all of Cuban music and is the heartbeat of Salsa.
  • CONGA (DRUMS / RHYTHM) – the Cuban conga drums are formally called tumbadoras and come in three sizes: the tumba, the segundo and the quinto.  The Cuban conga is also a dance and musical form associated with Carnaval.
  • CONJUNTO – a type of instrumentation developed in the early 1940s used to play the Cuban son and its descendents, featuring 2 to 4 trumpets, tres (later omitted), piano, bass, 1 to 2 conga drums, bongos (plus cowbell), maracas and claves. 
  • DANCEHALL – a modern style of Jamaican music characterized by a fast, three-beat rhythm (known as tresillo in Cuba), which features often crude, frivolous lyrics, male boasting and influences from Trinidadian soca music.  Dancehall is one of the primary influences of reggaetón.
  • DANZÓN – Cuba’s national dance, derived from the European contredanse.  The danzón is a slow tempo, elegant instrumental courtship style structured in ritornello form, and features a promenade section called the paseo where dancers change partners which features the cinquillo rhythm.  The danzón is played by a charanga orchestra, and evolved in the late 1930s with an added section featuring repetitive elements first called mambo, leading to the creation of the cha-cha-chá.
  • DUB – a descendent of Reggae, featuring more electronic manipulation and post-production elements, often created by DJ/Producers utilizing “recycled” recorded tracks and then improvising vocally over the tracks (creating the origins of rap).
  • GUAJIRA – a style of Cuban trova (not mentioned in exam).
  • GUARACHA – the “actual” rhythm of Salsa, evolving from the earlier son and son-montuno styles.
  • MARÍMBULA – a Congolese-derived box-shaped instrument with metal tongs used to create a bass sound, featured in the Cuban changüí, Dominican merengue, Haitian mereng and Jamaican mento.
  • MENTO – a Colonial-era Jamaican music style featuring crude lyrics and a simple beat, reminiscent of Trinidadian Calypso.
  • MERENG – the Haitian equivalent of merengue, featuring a mellow, three-beat rhythm and danced as a close two-step.  Mereng is played on either guitar or banjo, tambou, tcha-tcha, marímbula and beer bottle (which features the Cuban clave beat).  It is sung in the Haitian Kreyol language.
  • MERENGUE – the national dance of Dominican Republic, the merengue is a fast, two-step dance and consists of two main styles: merengue típico (traditional) and orquesta merengue (also called merengue de salón).  The traditional style is played on accordion, tambora and guira, and originally featured the marímbula before replacing it with acoustic then electric bass.  Orquesta merengue is a modern form with a large conjunto-style orchestra, replacing the accordion with the piano and adding more horns.  Merengue is fast and busy, but generally easy to dance!
  • NUEVA TROVA – Cuba’s Post-Revolutionary new song movement (not mentioned in exam).
  • PLENA – Puerto Rican music style featuring political to gossipy lyrics, played on hand drums called panderetas or panderos (similar to tambourines without jingles) and the güiro, featuring a simple on-the-beat rhythm and call-and-response vocals. Often used in street protests as well as holiday and funeral processions, the plena became part of the "salsa" family of rhythms in NYC during the latter half of the 20th century.
  • REGGAE – one of the most successful forms of Caribbean music, developed in Jamaica during the early 1970s.  Reggae’s predecessors include Ska and Rock-Steady, and prominently feature Rastafarian as well as Biblical themes in addition to lyrics with a more socially-conscious outlook.  Reggae features a slow tempo, melodic bass-lines and a highly syncopated rhythm section, and gave way to the development of Dub and Dancehall.  Instrumentation includes electric bass and guitar, organ or keyboards, drums and often horns.
  • ROCK-STEADY – the immediate predecessor to Reggae, featuring the transformation of the musical elements from Ska: a straight beat (not swing feel), melodic bass-line and slower tempo.  Rock Steady also reflected the realities of Jamaican life and struggle during the late 60s, with images of Rude Boy culture and Shantytown hardships.
  • RUMBA – the most important form of secular folklore music and dance from Cuba, consisting of three styles: yambú, guaguancó and columbia.  Rumba is played on tumbadoras, cajones (typically in the yambú style), claves, palitos and the maruga (metal shaker) and features call-and-response singing.  Yambú and guaguancó styles are danced by male-female couples, while the columbia is danced primarily by men.  The guaguancó style features a move known as the vacunao’, wherein the male makes pelvic gestures toward the female in a rooster-hen dynamic. The song structure of Rumba typically begins with a vocalized "scat" by the lead singer, followed by the verses and leading to the estribillo where the call-and-response section and dancing begin. The overall dynamic is higly improvisational, with strong interaction between the drummers and the dancers.
  • SALSA – is not a rhythm!  Salsa can best be described as Cuban based music played by Puerto Ricans in New York, and has the son as its main influence, along with the wealth of many Cuban rhythms.  Salsa also incorporates Puerto Rican rhythms such as bomba and plena, and features modern harmony (influenced by American jazz) as well as the prominent use of trombones and timbales (within a Cuban-style conjunto).  Salsa music is highly syncopated and improvisational, featuring a call-and-response section known as the montuno directly influenced by the son and its descendents, but the main rhythm of Salsa is the guaracha, and the heartbeat of Salsa is the Cuban clave.
  • SANTERÍA – a syncretic religion developed in Cuba mixing Catholicism with Yoruban religion (referred to as lucumi in Cuba).  Ceremonial music features the batá drums and call-and-response singing, trance and possession.
  • SKA –the “grandfather” of Reggae, Ska is Jamaica’s answer to American R&B and Boogie-Woogie influences, featuring a highly syncopated beat and a twist-style dance.
  • SOCA – Trinidadian dance music with Indian influences, featuring a three-beat pattern (known as the tresillo in Cuba) and a heavy drum beat.  Soca features a gravel-voiced singing style and a dance referred to as “wining”, and is a primary influence in Jamaican Dancehall.
  • SON – Cuba’s most influential popular Creole music and dance form, featuring African and Spanish rhythms and melodies, with a syncopated bass-line, clave beat and a montuno section featuring call-and-response vocals.  The “grandfather” of Salsa.
  • STEEL DRUMS (STEEL PANS) – the first “new” instrument of the 20th century, developed in Trinidad from recycled oil barrels.  Steel pans have been incorporated in Carnival since the 1960s and are used in large orchestras to play instrumental versions of Calypsos as well as soca.
  • TRESILLO – a three-beat rhythm at the heart of many Caribbean styles – from the son to mereng, compas, soca and Dancehall as well as reggaetón.
  • TROVA – one of Cuba’s most influential genres, derived from Spanish country music and prominently featuring the lyrics along with guitar accompaniment.  Popular styles include the bolero, guajira, punto guajira and others.
  • VODOU – Also spelled "voodoo," this syncretic religion from Haiti blends Catholicism with West African polytheistic traditions.  Ceremonial music is played on drums called tambou, tcha-tcha (shakers), ogan (iron bell) and lanbi (conch shell), and is sung in Kreyol.

    • The "BIG FOUR" ~ the primary ancestors of Cuban popular music:

  • DANZÓN
  • RUMBA
  • SON
  • TROVA

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