Manuel Saumell

Manuel Saumell Robredo (19 April 1818[1] – 14 August 1870), was a Cuban composer known for his invention and development of genuinely creolized forms of music.

Saumell, from a destitute family, "destined to die young, after leading a miserable, peripatetic, sorrowful existence" [4] was born in Havana.

He studied piano with Juan Fédérico Edelmann, and harmony, arranging, counterpoint and fugue with Mauricio Pyke, the director of an Italian opera company which visited Havana.

However, he had done a significant thing: he had planned for aboriginal Indians and black slaves to sing and take part in the action of the opera, something without precedent in all the Americas.

[5] Leaving aside numbers written in haste for dances, Saumell wrote over fifty contradanzas (in 2/4 or 6/8 time) which merit attention.