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CUBA: A MUSICAL STEW

Located 90 mile south of Florida, Cuba is a long, large island that sits between the Gulf Of

Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Like the United States, people from all over the world have

come to Cuba to live. Native Americans called the Taino and Ciboney people were the first

people to live on the island. The Spanish arrived in Cuba in the early 1500s and ruled the island

for more than 300 years. Most people in Cuba still speak Spanish today. You can hear sounds

of the Spanish in the melodies and instruments of Cuban Music, too.

A Little Bit of Africa

The influence of Africa is strongly felt in Cuban life and its music. Over 400,000 Africans

were brought to Cuba by the 1800s to work on sugar plantations. They brought with them

pieces of their culture, including their musical traditions. You can hear them in the fiery

rhythms and cool percussion instruments like the bata drum ensemble. There are three bata

drums: okonkolo (the smallest), itotele (the middle drum), and iya (the leader). By playing

together, they create complex patterns. The iya even “talks” to the other drums with special

rhythms!

Cubans Have Style

One beautiful music style in Cuba is the son. Like the blues in the United States, the son is

very important in Cuba. It is a slow, proud style that features piano, bass, guitar, trombone,

trumpet, congas, and one or more singers. Recently, the Buena Vista social Club helped make

this style one of the most popular Cuban Styles again.

Some of the other musical styles that developed in Cuba are the cha cha cha, the rumba

(which uses call and response form commonly used in Africa) and the mambo (a dance style

popularized in the 1940s and 1950s). Afro-Cuban jazz is Cuba’s unique jazz style.

“Guantanamera” is a very popular folk song in Cuba. At one time or antoher, nearly every

Cuban musician has sung or played “Guantanamera.” The person who recorded one of the most

famous versions is Celia Cruz. She is probably Cuba’s most famous singer. Once you hear her

sweet, smoky voice, you’ll know why Cubans think she is incredible.

It’s Everywhere!

Cuban music has influenced musicians all over the world. There is rumba in Africa and you

can even dance the cha cha cha in Japan. Leonard Bernstein even used the mambo for a dance

sequence in his Broadway musical, “West Side Story”. Salsa, the wildly popular Latin

American dance style, developed in New York from a mix of Cuban and Puerto Rican music.

The music of Cuba enters your ears, goes right through your heart, and down to your feet.

It’s a musical stew that will never have you hungry again!

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World Music: Song 1 Cuba a Musical Stew: Guantanamera

Instrument of the Guiro Latin Conga Latin Percussion Claves Trumpet

Electric Guitar Bass Guitar Piano

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ZIMBABEW: A SOUND SAFARI

Here’s an extra credit question: How many countries in Africa can you name? There’s Egypt, and Kenya. How about Nigeria? Well guess what? There are fifty-three

countries in Africa. If you can name them all, you are a super genius! Sometimes people think of Africa as one place that looks and sounds the same everywhere you go.

Actually, it is a huge continent full of many different people and places.

For example, Africa has the biggest desert in the world-the Sahara. But, it also has one of the biggest rainforests in the world, too. There are huge, crowded cities and

small, friendly villages. IN each country, there are many different groups of people. Each one has their own language, foods, games, clothes, music, and much more. Let’s

look at one country in Africa and see what we can discover.

Sounds of Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is a country in the middle of southern Africa. It is a very beautiful country

with sunny blue skies most of the year. Vicotria Falls, the largest waterfall in the world, is in Zimbabwe. The mist from the falls can rise over one mile high in the air!

If you travel in Zimbabwe, you hear music everywhere you go. Zimbabweans sing,

play instruments, and listen to the radio. They listen to music in their car, at concerts, and just hanging out at home. Music is a part of birthdays, weddings, and parties.

Many kids in Zimbabwe begin to sing as soon as they can talk. If they choose, they can start to learn how to play instruments even before they being going to school.

Super Styles

There are many different styles of music in Zimnbabwe, such as jit, chimurenga,

and makwaya. Jit (jeet) has upbeat rhythms with fast guitar melodies that make you

want ot move your feet. Chimurenga (chee-moo-RAIN-gah) mixes guitars and traditional instruments to create musical waterfalls of sound. Makwaya (mah-KWAH-

yah) has beautiful vocal harmonies like gospel music.

Zimbabweans like music from outside their country, too. If you turn on the radio in Zimbabwe hyou might hear songs by singer Beyonce or even country singer Tim

McGraw. Many people in Zimbabwe love rap music, too. Musicians usually rap in Shona or Ndebele. These are two languages spoken in Zimbabwe.

The mbira (em-BEE-rah) is a very special instrument in Zimbabwe. Mbiras are made

of wood with flat metal keys attached. To play a mbira You pluck the flat metal keys with your thumbs, and sometimes your index fingers. This

creates soft, ringing melodies that blend to make beautiful rhythm patterns.

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World Music: Song 2 Zimbabwe a sound safari: Shiri yakanaka

Word Bank:

DESERT, RAIN FOREST, DRUMS, GUITAR, RAP, LAKE, SNOW,

COUNTRY MUSIC, APARTMENT, SKYSCRAPER, HUT, VILLAGE

World Map

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Zimbabwe

Guiro Latin Conga Claves Trumpet Harp

Electirc Guitar Electric Bass Piano Glockenspiel Organ

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AFRICAN ANCESTORS: MUSIC IN THE AMERICAS

Music in North and South America is a mix of styles from many different places. One important place where

people came from to share their music with this mix is Africa. Of course, Africa is not a small place. It is a

huge continent with many different cultures and people. People came from all over Africa to the Americas.

Most Africans were forced to come to the Americas to work as slaves. To make these sad times better, many

new slaves made music like they played and sang in Africa. Musicians from many parts of Africa shared their

music with people form the new cultures they met. All of this sharing gave musicians many ideas for new

styles of music.

Call Me!

If you hear two groups singing back and forth to each other, you’re hearing a little part of music from Africa.

This is called “cal-and-response” singing. A leader “calls” out a sentence, and a group sings something back.

You can hear it in gospel music in the United States, son in Cuba, and reggae in Jamaica.

Instrumental Connection

Musicians from Africa didn’t just share their favorite songs. They created and shared their instruments, too.

Sometimes, they even made new instruments. The new instrument ts were usually a little like the older

instruments they knew. Like people, instruments can have ancestors that look and sound a little like them.

Check out these three cool instruments from Latin America whose ancestors are “African”.

Marimba

One instrument tht made it across the ocean is the marimba. Marimbas are still played in many countries in

Africa, and in Central and South American countries in Africa, and in Central and South American countries

like Mexico, Guatemala, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Peru. The marimba is like a xylophone with wooden keys.

You play the marimba by hitting the keys with mallets. Marimbas come in many shapes and sizes, just like

xylophones. Have you every played a marimba before?

Conga Drum

The conga drum was first made in Cuba, but is now played in many different countries. Unlike some drums

in the Americas, it does not have an African ancestor that looks exactly like it. Sometimes conga drums are

played alone, and other times one person plays two or three conga drums at a time. This is because each conga

drum has a different pitch. Did you know drums have a pitch?

Marimbula

The marimbula (mar-im-boo-lah) is an old instrument that is still played in some countries in the Caribbean,

like Cuba and Jamaica. Its ancestors are the small thumb pianos that are pianos that are found in many cultures

in Africa. Imagine a small thumb piano that magically grew 20 times its size-that’s a marimbula! The

marimbula is a square box that can be two feet tall. It is so big that the marimbula player sits on top of it to play

it. Its metal keys are wide like spoons. They must be plucked with the whole hand to make the marimbula’s

low, bass notes.

Explore!

There are many other songs, styles, and instruments in the Americas whose “ancestors” are from Africa, like

the banjo the agogo, and the berimbau. Have you heard of these instruments? If not, be a musical detective-

who were these instruments’ musical great-great-great-grandparents?!

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World Music: Song 3 African Ancestors: Imo Gal

Where did these instruments come from? Africa or Europe

Kalimba Fife Djembe Drum Xylophone

Psaltery Maracas Harmonica Lute Viol

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World Music: Song 4

Music in the Philippines: Bahay kubo

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World Music: Song 5 Christmas Latin Style: Las Posadas

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World Music: Song 6 Music of the Arabs: Hala lala layya

Arabic Instruments

Ud, also spelled oud (ood), has a deep, pear-shaped

body; a fingerboard; and a relatively short neck and somewhat less acutely bent-back peg box. Its strings are

plucked with a plectrum and are fastened to a tension bridge on the instrument's belly. The instrument musically

and technically evolved during the Islamic period in Spain (711-1492) and gained its current characteristic appearance. Modern 'uds are fretless and are not completely

standardized in size or number of strings; five courses of string-pairs are common, six and seven pairs are also found.

Nay (nye), is an urban instrument and the only wind instrument used in

Arab classical music. It appears alongside the '?d (lute), the qanun, the daff and the darbukkah. Itâs an open tube that has six finger-holes in

front and one thumb-hole in the back. The edge of the tube at the top is

lightly bevelled. Nay varies in length and each one is designated by the name of its fundamental note (given by opening the first hole): nay

Mahur (C), nay Dukah (D), nay Buselik (E), nay Chargah (F), nay Nawa (G), nay

Husayni (A), nay 'Ajam (B ), nay Kardan (c), and so on.

Qanun (Kah-noon), is one of the classical instruments of the Arab

world, known in both oral and written traditions. It is the plucked box zither or psaltery of the Middle East. On the modern Arab

q?n?n, there are two to five levers for every string (in triples). Intervals can be minutely adjusted by rotating the levers, which

control the tension of the strings; this permits a full range of keys. Arab performers play in octaves or double octaves. The right hand is notated in the

treble clef and the left in the bass.

Riqq (rick), is a small, circular frame drum with jingles. It is dominantly used in North Africa, Iraq, the Levant and Sudan. It is

between 20 and 25 cm in diameter and is played in takht ensembles of Egypt, Syria or Iraq where it goes beyond the simple rhythmic

requirements of the other percussion instruments in terms of ornamentation and color.

Dumbek (doom-bek) also called Darbukka, a single-headed goblet

drum. It is made from pottery, wood or metal; the bottom is open and the skin head is directly attached by nails, glue or binding. It is found in a

range of sizes, particularly in North Africa, where several may be played together in ensembles.The origin of the term darabukka is somewhat

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obscure but probably lies in the Arabic word darba (to strike), or durub (rhythmic

cycles), darbukka could mean, therefore, your strike, or your rhythm.

The Kaman is the Arabic violin. In parts of the Middle East, the European violin has replaced the older kamanja as the principal

bowed instrument, partly because of its louder tone. However, the Arabic violin is tuned differently -- d G D G instead of e a D G -- and

the playing style is quite different.

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World Music: Song 6 Music of the Arabs: Hala lala layya

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World Music: Song 7 Sounds of the Caribbean: Gypsy In The Moonlight

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World Music: Song 7 Sounds of the Caribbean: Gypsy In The Moonlight

Identify the Caribbean and some islands that are in the region on the map below.

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World Music: Song 8: Music from the Andes Mountains

Up in the Clouds: Mi Caballo Blanco

Locate the Andes Mountains on the World Map