The Origins of Cuban Son
Salsa Blanca Podcast Episode 2 with Dr. Olavo Alén Rodríguez
Host: Jon | Recorded c. 1996/1997 in Havana, Cuba
Host's Note: Welcome to the Salsa Blanca Podcast, episode number two. This episode is with Dr. Olavo Alén Rodríguez in Cuba, some time back around 1996 or '97. Sorry for the quality of this, but he's talking about ethnomusicology, and I recorded this probably with a very crummy two-track—I did as best as I could. The full transcript is available at salsablanca.com.
Dr. Rodríguez : Okay, now we can begin speaking about Son. Because the thing is to know where it came from, very generally speaking. Now, Son, I would like to explain something because there is a lot of confusion about when was the first—when did the Son was born. And also, there is a lot of mistakes that very recently, Cuban historians and people who dedicate themselves to gather this information have discovered there's a lot of mistakes in books written many years ago.
And maybe you have heard that the first Cuban Son was something like El Son de la Má Teodora. This is very common; you can hear this everywhere. El Son de la Má Teodora. Son... de... la... Má...—this means mother—Teodora. De la Má Teodora. And it's supposed—it says—nobody can actually say which is the exact date for the birth of Son, but during a very large period of time, the Cuban music historians said that there was a document published in 1893 by Laureano Fuentes where he said that this Son de la Má Teodora was the first Son, and it was composed by two sisters: Micaela and Teodora Ginés.
These were the two sisters; they were two nuns. And Teodora was the one who wrote the Son. Or anyway, one of them, of the two sisters, wrote Son de la Má Teodora. And so they say this—this happened as far away as in the 16th century. Of course, nowadays we know this is strictly a great mistake. Because what is important to know is that Cuban nationality and Cuban culture only born—was born on the second half of the 18th century. Before that, there was no Cuban culture.
So this is a big mistake. And now, what most of the people who do research, they say—they doubt that Son de la Má Teodora existed at all. And they think that this was a mistake by Laureano Fuentes taking a tune of last century that sounded in some way, variations or something, and he made a mistake. And even they doubt that Teodora Ginés ever existed herself. So nothing is for sure. I say because you're going to read in a lot of books, and maybe even in movies and things, this Son de la Má Teodora. Now we say this is not true.
Now, the real truth is that Son begins in the countryside, and very specifically in the mountains. This is one theory. Another one is that it was born in many places of the country at the same time. But everybody agreed that this happened on the second half of the 18th century. And now we're going to hear an example of Son in Sierra Maestra. Sierra Maestra is our biggest, highest mountains. And deep inside these woods, in the mountains, these recordings are taken. It's a party; its name is Nengón. Nengón. Nengón is one of the names for Son. You'll hear there's a—Changüí is another name for a style of Son, and so on. So you can hear... that's why Son is a big group of different dances. Let's hear this. Look how the transition from this African came to this; it's very interesting.
And maybe you have heard that the first Cuban Son was something like El Son de la Má Teodora. This is very common; you can hear this everywhere. El Son de la Má Teodora. Son... de... la... Má...—this means mother—Teodora. De la Má Teodora. And it's supposed—it says—nobody can actually say which is the exact date for the birth of Son, but during a very large period of time, the Cuban music historians said that there was a document published in 1893 by Laureano Fuentes where he said that this Son de la Má Teodora was the first Son, and it was composed by two sisters: Micaela and Teodora Ginés.
These were the two sisters; they were two nuns. And Teodora was the one who wrote the Son. Or anyway, one of them, of the two sisters, wrote Son de la Má Teodora. And so they say this—this happened as far away as in the 16th century. Of course, nowadays we know this is strictly a great mistake. Because what is important to know is that Cuban nationality and Cuban culture only born—was born on the second half of the 18th century. Before that, there was no Cuban culture.
So this is a big mistake. And now, what most of the people who do research, they say—they doubt that Son de la Má Teodora existed at all. And they think that this was a mistake by Laureano Fuentes taking a tune of last century that sounded in some way, variations or something, and he made a mistake. And even they doubt that Teodora Ginés ever existed herself. So nothing is for sure. I say because you're going to read in a lot of books, and maybe even in movies and things, this Son de la Má Teodora. Now we say this is not true.
Now, the real truth is that Son begins in the countryside, and very specifically in the mountains. This is one theory. Another one is that it was born in many places of the country at the same time. But everybody agreed that this happened on the second half of the 18th century. And now we're going to hear an example of Son in Sierra Maestra. Sierra Maestra is our biggest, highest mountains. And deep inside these woods, in the mountains, these recordings are taken. It's a party; its name is Nengón. Nengón. Nengón is one of the names for Son. You'll hear there's a—Changüí is another name for a style of Son, and so on. So you can hear... that's why Son is a big group of different dances. Let's hear this. Look how the transition from this African came to this; it's very interesting.
Music plays: An early example of Nengón featuring vocals, guitar, and percussion
Dr. Rodríguez : No, but there is a tres. No, no. Tres. No, he says that when you hear the recording well, you can hear a marine block also on the back. You hear some percussion? Okay. We have to get a better recording.
Music continues
Dr. Rodríguez : Okay. So now we have real Son. And now, Son expanded to all the territory in a very fast way. And not only through Cuba; it reached also Isla de Pinos—you know, it's a small island we have as part of Cuba—and also Santo Domingo and Puerto Rico also it reached. In this area, the Son had the musical form of a round dance. And it took from the Africans the solo and the refrain—the chorus.
Jon : That's often referred to as call and response.
Dr. Rodríguez : Call and response, yes, also. Okay. Call and response. But the call and response can be made by two solos. So you have to have a solo and a group. That's the African. And also it got mixed up with this alternation of solo and chorus. And it took the percussion instruments from the Africans, and it took the guitars, bandurria—you know, different types of string instruments—bandurria, guitar, and also tres, which is the Cuban version of the Spanish guitar. I'll explain later what's the difference. And we had now the Son. With all this mixing, we have a new example of Son. This one is very interesting, this one. Because now you can hear the whole mixing.
Music plays: A more developed Son with clearer guitar/tres parts and structured call-and-response vocals
Dr. Rodríguez : Okay. Now, of course, we have two choices because, you know, unluckily we need more time. Because I'm trying to do today Son and Danzón, at least, as fast as we can. Now, the rest of it, what is now the most modern examples—after this, you can begin speaking about Beny Moré, you can hear Beny Moré, some examples. But we don't have time. We don't have time. But I think it's already an introduction to Son, I think. So what I suggest is to skip to Danzón now. To do the same, at least to do the same, just to gather things up.
Jon : I have a question. Could you just explain how this kind of tumbao developed, what we can hear on this recording in Son?
Dr. Rodríguez : Yeah, that would take—I know, I know. That's what I do on piano lessons! Because if we do that, you see, tumbao is quite different on each instrument. So I think tumbao is a question that is better solved on the instrument classes, you know? Because it's not the same tumbao on guitar and in piano and so on. But we can do that in some moment, but really, it would take a lot of time. The purpose of this is to make a general overview, you see? That's what we're trying to do—to gather things up, and then we go to the specifics.
Jon : But you mentioned the different names for different sub-categories of Son—Nengón and Changüí. Were those corresponding to different geographical areas?
Dr. Rodríguez : Yes. Sucu-sucu is, for example, Isla de Pinos. Nengón is on the eastern side of the country, in Sierra Maestra, for example. Changüí also on the eastern province.
Jon : Did they use different instruments in the different areas?
Dr. Rodríguez : And also, they have different instruments, depending on what are the influences of the migrations. Sometimes it's a little bit more Spanish, sometimes it's a little bit more French—because we have Tumbas Francesas, you know, so from Haiti. Even British, you know, from Grand Cayman we had people living here. It's very complex, but yes, there are [differences].
[End of excerpt]