Cuban music genres

Habanera

Birth of the Habanera

As with the Danza, the origin of the Habanera is not perfectly clear. There are several versions.

One version explains that the Habanera or Contradanza habanera is nothing other than the Contradanza played in Cuba. The term “habanera” is then only used to differentiate the Cuban Contradanza from the European Contradanza.

Another version, more frequently found, says that the Contradanza habanera was born in Havana around 1830. According to the musicologist Alejo Carpentier, the Contradanza habanera is a local way of playing the Contradanza in 2/4. However, until its popularization outside Cuba, the Havana people did not use this name. The most important innovation, compared to the Contradanza, is rhythmic. The Contradanza habanera refers more to a specific rhythm than to a particular music or dance. This rhythm, very similar to the tresillo of the clave de son, is a short rhythmic figure, played by the bass, which is written in 2/4 as follows:

Another notable difference between the Contradanza and the Contradanza habanera is the introduction of the song. It is often said that the Contradanza gave birth to the Danza, which, with a slower tempo and a more melancholic tune, left space for the sung stanzas. This is how the Contradanza habanera came about. The lyrics are lyrical and languid, and are generally octosyllabic.

The Contradanza habanera, by these two characters, shows that it is the fruit of the mixture of African influences (the rhythm of the Contradanza habanera comes from the Tango Congo of Bantú origin) and Spanish influences (some melodic factors have a Hispanic origin).

The Contradanza habanera is danced in a more graceful way than the Contradanza.

The first piece identified as Contradanza habanera is “La Pimienta”, written in 1836 and whose author is not known. Around 1840, the term Contradanza habanera becomes simply Habanera. We also find the name Havanese.

From the 1870s, the Habanera disappeared in Cuba in favor of the Danzón, although Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes signed “Tú” in 1892, which was a huge success. Nowadays, the Habanera is hardly played anymore.

The internationalization of the Habanera

In the middle of the 19th century, the Habanera spread to Europe and America, where, strangely enough, it was more successful than in Cuba.

This is how it came to Europe: it was brought by sailors to Spain where it became very popular. The Spanish composer Sebastián Iradier y Salaverri composed one of the most famous Habaneras entitled “La Paloma” around 1860. Title that made in part the great success of the Habanera. It is then danced by all the classes of the society. Jules Massenet even included it in his ballet in Le Cid (1885). It was also very popular in French and English salons. The Habanera is found in many classical music compositions such as, for example, in Georges Bizet’s Carmen (1875), Camille Saint-Saëns’ Havanaise (1887), Maurice Ravel’s Vocalise-Étude en forme de Habanera (1907) or Emmanuel Chabrier’s Habanera for orchestra. Spanish musicians such as Manuel de Falla and Isaac Albeniz also composed Habaneras.

As for its expansion in America, it is from 1840 that it begins to be found in Mexico, Venezuela and Puerto Rico. In Argentina, the rhythm of the Habanera will later give birth to the Tango (it is played with an accentuation of all times). The first Tangos like “El Choclo” (1903) or “La Morocha” (1904) already contain this rhythm.

Musical structure

The Habanera is played in a binary manner in 2/4 time. Its tempo is slower than that of the Contradanza.

The Habanera begins with an introduction followed by a repetition of 2 sections of 8 to 16 bars each.

Special thanks to Julien and his ultimate resource on cuban music and dance – this page is merely a translation.

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