Afro-Cuban Influences on Cuba's Music: Slavery to Present
This paper examines how Afro-Cuban cultural forms shaped Cuban music from the colonial era to the mid-twentieth century. Moving chronologically through key composers and musical movements, the paper analyzes works by Esteban Salas y Castro, Manuel Saumell Robredo, Ignacio Cervantes, José Anselmo Clavé, Septeto Nacional, the Lecuona Cuban Boys, Perez Prado, and Rosendo Ruiz. Drawing on scholarship by Carpentier, Crook, and Sublette, it argues that Cuban music progressively absorbed African rhythmic traditions alongside Spanish melodic influences, producing distinctly creolized forms — from contradanza and rumba to son, mambo, and chachacha — that both reflected and drove broader cultural and political transformations in Cuban society.
- Introduction: Framing Cuba's music as cultural history
- Early European Foundations: Esteban Salas y Castro: Baroque religious music with Cuban vocal layering
- Creolization and Cuban Nationalism: Saumell, Cervantes, and Clavé: Contradanza, danzón, and rumba emerge
- The Rise of Son and Global Popularization: Son Cubano spreads globally in the 1920s–30s
- Mambo, Chachacha, and Mid-Century Cuban Identity: Congo-rooted dance music defines 1950s Cuba
- Conclusion: Two centuries of Afro-Cuban musical transformation
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What makes this paper effective
- The chronological structure gives the argument clear forward momentum, allowing each musical example to build on the last and demonstrate cumulative cultural change.
- The paper grounds broad cultural claims in specific musical works, naming individual compositions (e.g., "La Suavecita," "Mambo No. 5") to anchor analysis concretely.
- It balances two competing influences — European/Spanish and African — throughout, showing how their interaction produced distinctly Cuban forms rather than treating either tradition in isolation.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper uses secondary scholarly sources (Carpentier, Crook, Sublette) as interpretive lenses rather than simple background information. Direct quotations are integrated to authorize claims about specific musical genealogies — for example, Carpentier's attribution of multiple Cuban forms to Saumell — while the writer's own analysis extends those claims to the broader cultural argument.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a framing introduction, then moves through eight composer/group profiles arranged chronologically from the 18th century to the 1950s. Each profile follows a consistent pattern: biographical context, cultural-historical setting, musical analysis of a representative work, and connection to the Afro-Cuban thesis. A brief conclusion synthesizes the trajectory. This composer-by-composer organization suits a survey argument tracing change over time.
Introduction
Both Spain and Africa have played an important part in establishing the cultural forms of Cuban customs and heritage, and each has impacted and influenced Cuban music in a significant way. Because no culture is static, however, changes to Cuban customs and culture have occurred continuously, and these too are reflected in the country's music. Examining Cuba's music over time — from the days of slavery to the present — reveals a story of Cuban history in its own right. The selection of works discussed here demonstrates how Cuban music was shaped by Afro-Cuban cultural forms from the era of slavery through the mid-twentieth century.
Early European Foundations: Esteban Salas y Castro
Born on Christmas Day in Cuba in 1725, Esteban Salas y Castro composed religious works for the Church. His Baroque style owes more to the Italian tradition than to any African one, but as a Catholic composing for the Church this is no surprise. Nevertheless, Salas y Castro was able to incorporate elements of the Cuban style into his works — most notably the layering of multiple voices one over another, a practice that would become a staple of Cuban music.
In the song "Gloria, laus et honor," the cultural form is primarily European. This influence was critically important in Cuba's history. Cuba, even today and in spite of the Communist takeover in the twentieth century, remains approximately 60% Catholic. The Christian influence, culture, sounds, and forms drawn from Spain and Italy were as powerful a force on Cuba as the African influence that would later become more pronounced in the country's secular music.
References
Carpentier, A. (2001). Music in Cuba. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Crook, L. (1982). A musical analysis of the Cuban rumba. Latin American Music Review, 3(1), 92–123.
Sublette, N. (2004). Cuba and its music: From the first drums to the mambo. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
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