Danzón

Written in 24 time, the danzón is a slow, formal partner dance, requiring set footwork around syncopated beats, and incorporating elegant pauses while the couples stand listening to virtuoso instrumental passages, as characteristically played by a charanga or típica ensemble.

The contradanza, which had English and French roots in the country dance and contredanse, was probably introduced to Cuba by the Spanish, who ruled the island for almost four centuries (1511–1898), contributing many thousands of immigrants.

[4] African musical traits in the danzón include complex instrumental cross-rhythms, expressed in staggered cinquillo and tresillo patterns.

[2] By 1879, the year Miguel Failde's Las alturas de Simpson was first performed (in Matanzas),[2] danzón had emerged as a distinct genre.

By 1879, the year Las alturas de Simpson composed by Miguel Failde (leader of the Orquesta Faílde) was first performed in Matanzas,[2] danzón had emerged as a distinct genre.

[9][10] This account can be corroborated by other references, for example, a traveler in Cuba noted in 1854 that black Cubans "do a kind of wreath dance, in which the whole company took part, amid innumerable artistic entanglements and disentanglements".

When the introduction is repeated the dancers stop, chat, flirt, greet their friends, and start again, right on time as the paseo finishes.

They had several brass instruments (cornet, valve trombone, ophicleide), a clarinet or two, a violin or two and tympani (kettle drums).

The slower rhythm of the danzón led to couples dancing closer, with sinuous movements of the hips and a lower centre of gravity.

[18] In 1910, some 30 years after Faílde's early days, José Urfé added a montuno as a final part of his El Bombín de Barretto.

Because of the popularity of son in the 1920s and 1930s, Aniceto Díaz in Rompiendo la rutina in 1929 added a vocal part, thereby creating a new genre called the danzonete.

Orquesta Aragón kept up an exceptionally high standard for many years, but the danzón itself gradually dropped out, and is now a relic dance.

Danzón was also very popular in the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, Mexico, because of the strong Cuban influence in the region.

Later on, danzón developed in Mexico City, specially in the famous Salón México; it has survived as a dance longer there than in Cuba.

The danzón was the first written music to be based on the organizing principle of sub-Saharan African rhythm, known in Cuba as clave.

A danzón-chá or danzón-mambo typically add another part (D), a syncopated open vamp in which soloists may sometimes improvise, creating an ABACD or, more common, ABACAD.