Danzón structure

[dvon]

Hi all.

I recently bought a couple of cds with lots of Danzón. I would like to know something about the structure that's being played: for example, it seems to me that no tumbadoras are present, at least in the first parts of a song. It also seems to me that almost everything is done with timbales (mainly cascareo?), and the pattern is different from normal cascareo, but in some songs the final parts have a tumbao pattern, maybe something like a montuno, with congas and campana.

Is that right? Can any one tell me what is the general structure of Danzón?

Thanks in advance.

[Juzzi]

hello dvon.
there are no congas in the first part where timbales are playing the baqueteo. in the other part, called nuevo ritmo, congas come in and timbales switch to the bell (cha-cha or charanga bell). sometimes the following names are used for different parts in danzon:
a Paseo
b main melody
c Trio
d Nuevo ritmo

-J

[dvon]

Thanks a lot Juzzi.
Good information there.

[epicous]

I have not seen congas in the mexican danzoneras, only timpani with bass drum, claves and güiro.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXRpfXXY8Zs

[ABAKUA]

[davidpenalosa]

The contrapuntal guajeo sections were added to the danzón in the 1940s. The baqueteo pattern used in danzón is clave with four additional strokes:

X . X X . X X . X . X . X . X .

It was originally played on orchestral tympani. The tympani were gradually "creolized," made smaller and smaller until they looked like today's modern timbales. The guiro also plays the baqueteo pattern.
-The Riddler

[RitmoBoricua]

A little bit of history on the Danzon and the French-Haitian connection:

http://www.lordtiger.com/3habanera.html