Danzón
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Cuba's stately national ballroom dance, an elegant, syncopated development of the contradanza performed by the charanga francesa — flute, violins, piano, güiro, timbales (pailas) and bass. Its sectional rondo form alternates a recurring introductory paseo with contrasting melodic strains, letting couples pause and promenade between danced passages, at a graceful, refined tempo. Over time it added a lively final montuno section and, in the danzón-mambo, an improvised riffing coda. The mood is genteel and lyrical, prizing melodic sophistication and orchestral color over percussive heat.
History
The danzón is conventionally dated to 1879, when Matanzas bandleader Miguel Faílde premiered 'Las Alturas de Simpson,' and it reigned as Cuba's most popular dance into the early twentieth century, refined by charanga leaders like Antonio María Romeu. In 1929 Aniceto Díaz introduced the sung danzonete, and in the late 1930s Antonio Arcaño's Las Maravillas and the López brothers (Israel 'Cachao' and Orestes) added a syncopated final montuno — the danzón-mambo — that seeded the mambo and cha-cha-chá. Charangas such as Orquesta Aragón kept the tradition alive, and though eclipsed as pop dance music, the danzón endures as a cherished heritage in Cuba and, especially, in Mexico's Veracruz and Mexico City salons, where danzón societies still gather.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Ned Sublette, Cuba and Its Music (2004)
- Peter Manuel, Caribbean Currents (1995)
- Robin Moore, Nationalizing Blackness (1997)