Salsa (musical structure)
The verse section can be short, or expanded to feature the lead vocalist and/or carefully crafted melodies with clever rhythmic devices.
The montuno section can be divided into various sub-sections sometimes referred to as mambo, diablo, moña, and especial.
The clave patterns originated in sub-Saharan African music traditions, where they serve the same function as they do in salsa.
[13] Clave is written in this way in the following example in order to illustrate the underlying metric structure of four main beats, which is fundamental to the dynamism of the pattern.
[18] By the time salsa emerged in the 1970s, there was already a second generation of clave savvy composers and arrangers working in New York.
John Santos stresses the importance of this skill: One of the most difficult applications of the clave is in the realm of composition and arrangement of Cuban and Cuban-based dance music.
Clave awareness within the salsa community has served as a cultural "boundary marker", creating an insider/outsider dichotomy, between Cuban and non-Cuban, and between Latino and non-Latino.
As Washburne observes: Clapping clave at a concert in sync with the performing musicians provides for a group participation in music-making even for a novice.
A newcomer to salsa, whether performer, dancer, listener, or consumer, must acquire some level of clave competence before engaging in these 'clave dialogues' in a deeper, more significant way.
[20]Before salsa pianist Eddie Palmieri takes his first solo at a live concert, he will often stand up, and start clapping clave.
Once the audience is clapping clave along with him, Palmieri will sit back down at the piano and proceed to take his solo.
By clapping clave along with Palmieri's solo, the audience is able to both "de-code" its rather esoteric musical "message", and participate in its creation at a fundamental level.
The first measure of clave is considered "strong", contradicting the meter with three cross beats and generating a sense of forward momentum.
As the pattern is repeated, an alternation from one polarity to the other takes place creating pulse and rhythmic drive.
Were the pattern to be suddenly reversed, the rhythm would be destroyed as in a reversing of one magnet within a series ... the patterns are held in place according to both the internal relationships between the drums and their relationship with clave ... Should the [music] fall out of clave the internal momentum of the rhythm will be dissipated and perhaps even broken.
[25]Since a chord progression can begin on either side of clave, percussionists have to be able to initiate their parts in either half (a single measure in 22 or 24).
[26] According to Bobby Sanabria, the 3–2, 2-3 concept and terminology was developed in New York City during the 1940s by Cuban-born Mario Bauzá, when he was music director of Machito's Afro-Cubans.
[28][29] A guajeo is a typical Cuban ostinato melody, most often consisting of arpeggiated chords in syncopated patterns.
As Sonny Bravo explains: "In salsa, the piano is more of a percussion instrument than a melodic one, especially in ensemble playing.
Kevin Moore states: "There are two common ways that the three-side is expressed in Cuban popular music.
The first to come into regular use, which David Peñalosa calls 'clave motif,' is based on the decorated version of the three-side of the clave rhythm.
[36] What's known as the Cuban típico style of soloing on trombone draws upon the technique of stringing together moña variations.
The following example shows five different variants of a 2-3 trombone moña improvised by José Rodríguez on "Bilongo" (c. 1969), performed by Eddie Palmieri.
Melodic variety is created by transposing the module in accordance to the harmonic sequence, as Rick Davies observes in his detailed analysis of the first moña: The moña consists of a two-measure module and its repetition, which is altered to reflect the montuno chord progression.
Moñas differ from typical rhythm section guajeos in that they often will rest for a beat or two within their cycle.
