Familia Valera Miranda (Cuba) - Se quema la chumbambá

• Example of son, a type of popular music from Cuba, often used to accompany dancing
• Son developed in the first half of the 20th century and combines elements of Spanish and African music. It was influential in the more recent development of salsa music
• The song was recorded in 1994 by a family of six Cuban musicians who specialise in the study and performance of traditional music from Cuba

• The time signature indicated simple duple time - two minim beats per bar, rather than four crotchet beats
• Most important rhythmic element in son is the syncopated ostinato played by the claves, called a 3:2 son clave because of its pattern of 3 notes followed by 2 notes
• Syncopation is also important in the cuatro and vocal lines. All of these parts are silent on the first beat of their main two-bar patterns
• More varied rhythms (including triplets) are heard during the long cuatro solo, which also relies heavily on syncopation
• A constant quaver pulse is played on the bongos

• The entire vocal melody is based on the same two-bar phrase (with slight variations)
• It consists of call and response between the solo singer (pregón) and chorus (coro)
• The pregón melody has a narrow range of a minor 6th
• The word setting is entirely syllabic
• Improvised melody in the cuatro solo is much more varied with a wider range, larger leaps and some chromaticism
• The cuatro riff is primarily formed from broken chords (which also feature in the solo

• The song is in G minor throughout (there are no modulations)
• The functional harmony is based entirely on tonic, and dominant 7th chords. it consists of a repeated chord patten of Gm - D7 - D7 - Gm
• The bass often anticipates a change of chord by a crotchet, as in bar 5 ('anticipation bass' is a common feature of son and salsa music)

• The main instrumental riffs (ostinati) are announced in a 12-bar introduction
• These form the accompaniment to the strophic verses that follow, in a call-and-response style
• In the middle of these verses is a long solo for cuatro and bongos

• The song is performed by

- Pregón (solo voice) and two-part coro (chorus, actually sung by the instrumentalists)

- Cuatro (a guitar-like instrument with four pairs of metal strings)

- Double bass

- Latin-American percussion (maracas, claves, and high and low bongo drums)

• The texture consists of melody-dominated homophony, largely based on ostinati (riffs)