The Art Of Music And PoetryEssay Preview: The Art Of Music And PoetryReport this essayThe Art of Music and Poetry as One“Afro-Cuban music is the root of todays salsa. It is steeped in cultural identity and embraces the folklore of every town and province of the tropics. It is a source of pride, of happiness, of being alive. It is what I bring to the people.”
These are the wise words of Celia Cruz, the “Queen of Salsa and Latin Music.” She easily grabs the attention of her audience with her calm composure, vibrant smile and striking attire, as seen in her PBS live concert. Her style of music though, is her true genuinely extraordinary attribute. Her Ðcharmed tune, rapid firm staccato, bits of witty wisdom, social commentary, and great observations in tune is what makes Cruz unique and one of the coolest representations of Latin American music today. Her lyrics consist of life in Cuba, love, and society.
Salsa is the style of music that Cruz performs. Most salsa compositions derive from the Cuban son and are a fusion of West African rhythmic and textual principles. Songs are based on a two-part formal structure, with verses sung by the lead vocalist, followed by a call-and-response section known as the montuno. The montuno section features driving rhythms, solo improvisation and punchy brass choruses known as mambos. Salsa ensembles typically include vocal, Cuban percussion, piano, bass, trumpets, trombones and saxophones, and usually range from 10 to 14 members.
To better understand salsa, we must look at the source for where it derived from. Cuban Son music is to salsa as roots are to a tree. Although salsa may have many roots, the form that gave it rise and shape is the Cuban Son. Son derived from the Ðchangui of the African slaves. This music then moved to the city and musician began to incorporate this African form with Spanish music. The Son in Cuba soon gained importance to the lives of the people. Armando Sanchez, the leader of Conjunto Son de Loma, stated that the Son “is a peoples music- a true expression of the Cuban history and life.” This Cuban form has gained such popularity in Cuba because it has a perfect balance of African and Hispanic touch to it that make it exotic and the Ðhighest expression of the cultural identity of the Caribbean nation of Cuba.
The Son not only gained popularity and success in music, but also in other forms of art. A literary figure with great success in revolutionizing literature by breaking forms and styles was Nicolas Guillen. The time he entered the world of literature, movements were going sporadic and changes were occurring. The transition from modernism to post modernism was occurring and another movement in the Caribbean was taking place. Afro- Cubanism stemmed in the 1920s, from a rediscovery of the regions African heritage. Nicolas Guillen was the pathfinder in this movement with his first work of poetry that gave a Ðstarkly realistic portrait of urban life, entitled Motivos de son (Son Motifs, 1930).
A few characteristics make Guillen a revolutionist and an important figure in Cuban poetry. First, is that he broke free from the rigid structure that the canonical tradition called for. Secondly, and most importantly, is the content Guillen used for his work. In his earlier work, the theme would evolve around the black condition. These characteristics are evident in the Son Motifs, his slim collection of eight poems that describes the lives of the black in Cubas urban slum. Surprisingly, this gained much popularity among both the black and the white Cubans. It was accepted as an authentic Cuban art form.
The Son Motifs focused on the poor black person in the streets. They dealt with issues such as poverty and race. What set these poems apart from others of the time was that the poems were structured in the form of the Cuban Son. As a result, the poems were festive, lyrical, and musically inclined as they utilized the rhythmic patters of the Afro- Cuban dance. The important thing is that these poems were unlike anything during the time. They were so radically different that they were able to occupy a place in the Latin American literary canon. The mind set for this might have also been because he set such an example for the Afro- Cubans to explore intellectual terrains never imagined before.
[…]
There was a certain power of the poet to move the reader forward. Even if things were different from the days of the Sino-Cubans, he could still go about their task:
“From the time of my birth to the time of my arrival [to the USA] I knew that the things that I did was not me, but my own works. In short all that I wanted to be was for God to give me my work. So one day, during my little dance, I came from another land, from Africa to this land, my work was being translated by a man of that country. My wife was in America and I knew this man. He would carry me back to Cuba and bring me the work and a translation. We would stop to sit and talk, I would listen, all this in my own head! And he would translate it, I loved it, but I was a new person to me. Not someone to understand, but in the end my works, they were that way because I wanted them. I was that person in my own head to begin with. I wanted my work to carry my life through. I was able to do it. I wanted to show him how to read, and I wanted everyone around me to begin with that story. To be able to go along with it, to see it through its own paces and see the way in which it affected all of us. And by the end my work, it transformed me even more, and because he was that man who translated it I could not be more surprised.
“I felt that this would help to make it even more difficult and uncomfortable to sit around alone and not be able to take part in it because this one was like me, it was something that I needed to do to be able to say I didn’t love what I wanted to say. And in order to work on this idea I had to be the translator that I was called to be when I came here. I was my own self too. And this is why I never looked back. My work came into my personal life through such a journey.
[…]
The last point on which I have to say about the Son Motifs, which I am going to cover now, is the idea of what life is like as a Cuban. You hear the story that they used to say: your job is to work with the people who love you, the people in love at it, so you work your way into the center and then you can focus on the next person (and you must) that wants to love you.
What they really mean is that by translating one’s work
[…]
There was a certain power of the poet to move the reader forward. Even if things were different from the days of the Sino-Cubans, he could still go about their task:
“From the time of my birth to the time of my arrival [to the USA] I knew that the things that I did was not me, but my own works. In short all that I wanted to be was for God to give me my work. So one day, during my little dance, I came from another land, from Africa to this land, my work was being translated by a man of that country. My wife was in America and I knew this man. He would carry me back to Cuba and bring me the work and a translation. We would stop to sit and talk, I would listen, all this in my own head! And he would translate it, I loved it, but I was a new person to me. Not someone to understand, but in the end my works, they were that way because I wanted them. I was that person in my own head to begin with. I wanted my work to carry my life through. I was able to do it. I wanted to show him how to read, and I wanted everyone around me to begin with that story. To be able to go along with it, to see it through its own paces and see the way in which it affected all of us. And by the end my work, it transformed me even more, and because he was that man who translated it I could not be more surprised.
“I felt that this would help to make it even more difficult and uncomfortable to sit around alone and not be able to take part in it because this one was like me, it was something that I needed to do to be able to say I didn’t love what I wanted to say. And in order to work on this idea I had to be the translator that I was called to be when I came here. I was my own self too. And this is why I never looked back. My work came into my personal life through such a journey.
[…]
The last point on which I have to say about the Son Motifs, which I am going to cover now, is the idea of what life is like as a Cuban. You hear the story that they used to say: your job is to work with the people who love you, the people in love at it, so you work your way into the center and then you can focus on the next person (and you must) that wants to love you.
What they really mean is that by translating one’s work
The success of the Son Motifs comes not from the themes or content, but rather from the structure and creativity put into the making of the poems. In these sorts of poems, you are not just reading. It is more like watching a performance on stage. The Motifs come to life when read out loud, like a mini drama. Combining two distinct yet compatible forms of expression, the Son Motives are critical breakthroughs in the world of poetry.