earliest definition of clave - 1st written explanation of clave concept

[davidpenalosa]

The earliest English language definition of the concept of clave I'm aware of comes from Humberto Morales' 1954 book "How to Play Latin American Rhythm Instruments":

"The simple two-measure rhythmic figure played by the claves is the foundation of practically all Latin rhythm. From the standpoint of rhythm, all other instruments are generally guided by the beat of the claves.

There is only one clave beat – it consists of two measures; however, either measure may start a phrase, depending upon the nature of the composition."

Is anyone aware of an earlier written definition? Johnny Conga?
-David

[congamyk]

Dr. DP

[blango]

Dont mean to crash the thred David,

Ive often thought about where clave and the cata rhythms came from.

Do you know of any discussion of this? Ortiz perhaps?

Just from observation - There are very similar 'Palmas' rhythms in flamenco (clave?) as well as lots of work in 12, and log drum rhythms of Nigeria (cata?)

Any ideas?

Tony

[davidpenalosa]

Hi Tony,
I’m not aware of any mention by Fernando Ortiz concerning the origins of these patterns in Cuban music.

Clave, cata, 12 bell and similar stick patterns are a common element in music found throughout sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean and Brazil. Ethnomusicologists refer to these as "guide patterns" or "timeline patterns". An English translation of the term "clave" could be "key pattern", not that different from "guide pattern".

The cata or guagua part played in rumba is no doubt related to the stick-on-wood patterns used in Bantu drum ensembles. There are cata parts in Cuban rhythms of Bantu origin like makuta, palo and tumba Francesa. If you were asking about the specific guagua patterns used in rumba, they could be original Cuban creations based on the general Bantu model. I’ve never heard those exact patterns played in African music, but of course I haven’t done anything even close to a comprehensive comparative study of African music.

A common misconception is that clave was created in Cuba. In fact, the five-stroke pattern is a timeline that’s found in various regions of Africa. So, the short answer to your question is that clave came directly from Africa.

When clave entered Cuban popular music in the late 19th Century, the African guide pattern merged with conventional European music theory and notation. The CONCEPT of clave, first articulated in Cuba, resulted from the merging of African and European musical sensibilities. Clave is now understood to be the key to understanding both popular and folkloric genres.

The "Cuban clave" that standardized so much of their music was what we now call "son clave". Notice how in 1954 Humberto Morales said that son clave is the only clave: "There is only ONE clave beat". He shows son clave in the book.

Fast forward to the early 90’s and Cuban drummer Ignacia Berróa says "There are just TWO claves, son clave and rumba clave" (from an interview conducted by Michael Spiro, "Mastering the Art of Afro-Cuban Drumming", DCI Music Videos).

What we now call "rumba clave" most likely came from the abakua, where that pattern is used. Rumba clave has gradually replaced son clave as the "Cuban clave". Rumba clave is now the standard guide pattern of Afro-Cuban folkloric music and contemporary salsa Cubana.
-Dr. Clave

[Mike]

Concise info, as always, David
I would like to add that the cross-cultural phenomenon also called acculturation is very interesting as to clave: As Tony mentions flamenco: The repercussion of African - later Cuban - rhythm patterns on Europe in general and Spanish music in particular has been stated by Ned Sublette in his book "Cuba and its music", p.81f.: Thus the typical zarabanda (aka sarabande) rhythm is related to clave: it´s a "two-bar period, in this case alternating 6/8 and 3/4" .
In this example, the first bar is divided into two, the second into three. Given the fact that Zarabanda is the Congo God of iron, one has to say that a lot of cross-cultural things was going on then.

Back to David´s initial topic: The first WRITTEN example of clave could have been in 1856, when Alejandro Carpentier noted that at a dance in Santiago de Cuba "the most aristocratic society of the city gave themselves over furiously, for part of the night, to the rhythm of a CONTRADANZA [my capitals] titled ´Your mother is a conga´, whose bass line alternated a tresillo with a tango figure." (quotation from the book I mentioned before, p. 146f.)

The anticipated middle beat is called "undulation of clave" by Sublette and it is indeed the three-part side of the clave. But I am not sure if this guy called Alejandro Carpentier really notated the rhythm or not.

David, given the fact that I only have scarce material on the history of Cuban music here in Germany, I´m highly anticipating your books on clave that are going to be published. I am just a small number here, your expertise is way above mine- in fact, I would not call myself an expert on the clave matter at all, just love to play and get informed by savvy dudes like you

Best wishes and a merry Christmas time to all of you
Mike

P.S: Sorry, I tried to provide my text with musical notation (I am using the "Capella2000" program but exporting the notation did not seem to to work



Edited By Mike on 1198235422

Attachment: http://mycongaplace.com/forum/eng/uploa ... abande.cap

[Thomas Altmann]

David and group:

In his essay "La clave xilofónica de la música cubana" from 1935, Ortiz cites A. Salazar, a "muy erudito musicólogo español" from his book "El Sol" (Madrid 1930):

"El sonido y ritmo peculiar de las claves es indespensable en los sones y otras músicas criollas; pero siempre lo he oido a su paso tranquilo, en su ritmo sincopado, nunca en repiqueteos y en las combinaciones, típicas de las claves." (1984:pg85)

I could not really comb through each line of the book, but this is what I found so far, as Ortiz's essay is almost throughout about the clave as a musical instrument.

The text that turned me on to study the clave was in Frank "Chico" Guerrero's "Latin Sounds from the Drum Set":

"In naming this rhythm instrument, Spanish-speaking people did well. Clave means key, code or keystone. In Latin music (Cuban-type) the CLAVES function precisely as a key (code if you like). They govern the flow of the music. There is only ONE clave beat. It is a two-bar phrase written thus: (notates 3/2 Son Clave).
There are times however, when composers write so that CLAVES start to play on the second bar of the phrase in this manner: (notates 2/3 Son Clave).
This is referred to as REVERSE (or backward) CLAVE. DON'T BE CONFUSED. There is only ONE CLAVE BEAT. Regardless of where you start, it remains a two-bar phrase. If one is inattentive to CLAVE DIRECTION, one's playing of Latin American music can sound less than professional to a trained ear. ...
One of the MAIN causes of CLAVE hang-ups is IMPATIENCE with oneself. Take a few minutes a day to play a melody on the record player or hum it to yourself as you play a clave pattern. Try it FOR FIT both FORWARD and REVERSE. Which way is best? You'll find after a bit you will feel the difference but IT TAKES TIME!!! DON'T HATE YOURSELF AND LAY DOWN THE STICKS if you are at first confused. CONFIDENCE is DEVELOPED...not BUILT IN!" (emphasizes by Chico Guerrero)

There are a couple of other points in your brilliant post I would like to refer to, but I'm afraid I couldn't really keep that going over the upcoming holidays. Maybe later, if you don't mind.

Greetings,

Thomas

[TONE74]

I'm probably a little out of topic and out of league also but I thought I bring it up anyway. While watching a program on african tribes (discovery I think ) they were showing a part on pigmies from the congo rainforest. They were talking about how they each have songs that they sing then all of the sudden a guy starts clapping rumba clave. It wasn't with the same exact Cuban sound but it was clave to me. He also said theres interchange between tribes as far as music is concerned. I guess it could have also spread from place to place in Africa. That cleared everything for me as far as the origin of clave.

[blango]

Wow, the conga geek in me is so dang happy right now!

David, id love to see an exploration of the influence of palmas and Bantu log drum (krin?) in your book. i know its a tall order to get to the bottom of it!

I know it sounds lame, given you cats level of research, but, i have a gut feeling spanish rumba had a large part to do with the use of both the cata and the clave, very very palmas like. even the sound.

If you dont have the technique to make a good palmas sound, and it is a trick, one can use sticks instead.

Do you find any significance to the hand held clave, as opposed to two cata's being used to play paila and clave?

Have you seen the pic of the very fat log drum in Rebecca's book?

Im going to check some of the folkways field recordings to see if i cant find anything interesting for us.

Tony



Edited By blango on 1198262633

[Whopbamboom]

There is only one clave beat – it consists of two measures

Just to clarify, for my own sake...I am used to a "beat" as being simply the unit by which a measure is divided (which we can then embellish as heavily or as lightly as we wish). Since I am familiar with rhythms being written out in a way that one can easily see the "beats per measure" (and then of course with whatever syncopations, crossed bar lines, and changing meter as well)... then should someone like myself perhaps be interpreting this as: "There is only one clave RHYTHM...(etc.)"??

[davidpenalosa]

Hi Mike,
So, Alejandro Carpentier mentioned tresillo and (ritmo) tango back in 1856? That’s great information. Thanks!

However, neither tresillo, nor its variation ritmo tango (tresillo + backbeat) can be called "clave". They represent only the first cell (three-side) of clave and are therefore, not binary patterns consisting of two equal, rhythmically-opposed halves. The first written music to be based on clave was the danzon (1879). So, clave was not a factor in Cuban popular music at the time of that writing.

Clave is expressed in danzon through the baqueteo pattern:

X.XX.XX.X.X.X.X. baqueteo

X..X..X. tresillo

X..XX.X. ritmo tango

As far as I know, the first literature to grapple with the CONCEPT of clave (the concept of African guide pattern) came from the field of Ethnomusicology. The focus was mainly on triple pulse (12/8) West African (Ewe, Yoruba) folkloric music. Despite the scholarly rigor attributed to this field, ethnomusicologists misunderstand the fundamental structure of African-based guide patterns for decades. All correct ethnomusic transcriptions I’ve seen depict clave in a single measure of 12/8 or 4/4.

The first literature to accurately describe the concept of clave that I’m aware of, were non-academic "how-to" Latin music instructional books. These books focus on the duple pulse (4/4) popular, rather than folkloric application of clave. Consequently, popular music sensibilities (most significantly, the 3-2, 2-3 concept and terminology), have over time, been artificially applied to the use of clave in folkloric music. The earliest written definitions stated that clave is a "two measure" pattern. This notion has been repeated many times over several decades. As a result, the term "measure" is often used as a synonym for "cell", or "clave side".

Hi Thomas,
I have an English translation of Ortiz’s article on clave. It is completely about the INSTRUMENT claves and not the rhythmic pattern, let alone concept. Imagine my disappointment when I read it!

What do you make of that quote you posted?
>>"El sonido y ritmo peculiar de las claves es indespensable en los sones y otras músicas criollas; pero siempre lo he oido a su paso tranquilo, en su ritmo sincopado, nunca en repiqueteos y en las combinaciones, típicas de las claves."<<

I don't understand exactly how syncopation is being addressed there.

"Chico" Guerrero seems to be quoting Morales directly: "There is only ONE clave beat". Looking forward to hearing your follow-up comments at your convenience.

>>Tony: "Do you find any significance to the hand held clave, as opposed to two cata's being used to play paila and clave?"<<

Hi Tony,
In a general sense, we often see the combination of sparse patterns (fewer strokes) combined with more rhythmically dense patterns (more strokes). It’s a music sensibility not confined to just African-based music. In rumba you have the five-stroke clave pattern combined with the ten-stroke cascara pattern. In mambo big bands you have the sparse brass ponchando phrases combined with the denser saxophone guajeos.

As far as guide patterns go in general, they are usually played with one stick, or two sticks. The claves actually replicate the single stick bell pattern mode, whereas the cata is a classic two-stick guide pattern.

Hi Whopbamboom,
You are absolutely correct! Morales’ statement "There is only one clave BEAT", actually means - "There is only one clave RHYTHMIC PATTERN". "Beat" is one of the most misused terms in music. We’d all be better off if we confined "beat" to a unit of musical time. This music can be confusing enough without making the terminology unnecessarily fuzzy!
-David



Edited By davidpenalosa on 1198278850

[Mike]

Hi David!

So, Alejandro Carpentier mentioned tresillo and (ritmo) tango back in 1856? That’s great information.

Again, I am not too sure if not Ned Sublette, the author of the book I quoted from, provided the information.

Thanks anyway for your thorough explanation of rhythmical matters to us in your post.

Merry Christmas and many blessings

Mike

[guarachon63]

An interesting exercise, David. Have you tried using Google's "Book Search"? I put in a few keywords, and limited the publication dates to before 1967, and came up with a few tantalizing "snippets." For example:

Western Folklore - Page 220
by California Folklore Society - Folklore West (U.S.) Periodicals - 1947
The Latin rhythm was ever-present in the form of the clave beat. The clave beat
was either two and three, or three and two. We developed harmonically over ...

and:

Western Folklore - Page 219
by California Folklore Society - Folklore West (U.S.) Periodicals - 1947
A young Cuban refugee, who is a leader of this group, is more reconciled to change.
... He regards the clave beat as structurally essential to his music. ...

and:

Modern Music: A Quarterly Review. - Page 45
by League of Composers (U.S.) - Music Periodicals - 1946
Cuban music is really folksong with a barbaric accompaniment. ... the "clave,"
two resonant sticks of different pitches which are clapped together; ...

Probably not quite the technical discussions you are looking for, but some still could be interesting (even for their obvious biases or mis-information) and you may be able to come up with something better using the right combination of keywords.

The publications returned in the search seemed mostly to come from the collection of the University of Michigan, so if you have access to interlibrary loan you could maybe get them that way, or for some there are other sources listed. Good luck!

[davidpenalosa]

Thanks so much for that Guarachon63!
I don't know how I could have gone this long and not been aware of Google books! That's a fantastic resource. I'm looking for correct, incorrect, clear and abtuse explanations.
-David

[zaragenca]

I guess the brother might have to way to my article in relation to Guaguanco...and not even going to say the name of the article becouse there are people using the name of my articles to set up links,without my permission,Dr. Zaragemca

[jorge]

Back to David´s initial topic: The first WRITTEN example of clave could have been in 1856, when Alejandro Carpentier noted that at a dance in Santiago de Cuba "the most aristocratic society of the city gave themselves over furiously, for part of the night, to the rhythm of a CONTRADANZA [my capitals] titled ´Your mother is a conga´, whose bass line alternated a tresillo with a tango figure." (quotation from the book I mentioned before, p. 146f.)

The anticipated middle beat is called "undulation of clave" by Sublette and it is indeed the three-part side of the clave. But I am not sure if this guy called Alejandro Carpentier really notated the rhythm or not.

Mike,
To answer your question, Alejo Carpentier (not Alejandro) did not notate the 2 bar musical phrase in his book, Sublette did that. Also, Alejo Carpentier did not write that in 1856, he published "La musica en cuba", the book with the passage you quoted, in 1946. The quote from Carpentier's book refers back to 1856 when the aristocrats danced a contradanza entitled "Tu madre es conga", a reference to a person with a Congolese mother. Sublette makes the very reasonable point that that song was an example of a clave-like rhythmic pattern.