Charanga: Then and Now

Latin Beat Magazine, Dec, 1999 by Connie Grossman

The Cuban Charanga, an orchestra of piano, strings, vocals, flute and percussion is traced to the Charanga Francese. Originating in France, this chamber music ensemble of strings and flute was characterized by a repertoire of minuets, waltzes and contradanses and would perform for the parties and grand balls of the elite.

In 1789, white and black Haitians, many of French and African descent, relocated to the city of Santiago de Cuba and took their music and instruments with them. In 1803, the French contradanse began its evolution with the composition San Pascual Bailón. The contradanse underwent stages of evolution until 1877, when Miguel Failde-Pérez created the danzón rhythm. Of the four danzons he wrote, Las Alturas de Simpson was the one he chose to introduce to the public two years later at a popular dance hall in Matanzas. On this historic occasion, twenty elegantly dressed couples, in which the women held bouquets of flowers, danced the danzón performed by Failde's orchestra. The instrumentation at this time consisted of tuba, trombone, clarinet, two tympani and a cornet to play the lead parts. When the twentieth century arrived, the danzón was already Cuba's national dance.

The next danzón innovation occurred in 1910 when José Urfe wrote El Bombín De Barretto (Barretto's derby). Bombín was performed by Enrique Peña's orchestra and included a montuno which excited dancers. Urfe's montuno enriched the last part of the danzón as compared to the first two parts, which sounded like parade music. Urfe's montuno was played at a fast, syncopated tempo. However, wealthy Cubans who liked to entertain in their homes, did not, for fear that the brass instruments were too loud. In fact, a great number of Cubans preferred the outdoor concerts to the close quarters of a dance hall because of the brass instruments' blaring sounds.

Meanwhile, a new orchestra called "Charanga" had already been titillating dancers for eleven years. Pianist-composer Antonio María Romeu, a white Cuban of French descent, had formed a Charanga Francesa (strings and flute, with the addition of tympani) and "africanized" it with Afro-Cuban musicians and instruments. Most importantly, he introduced the piano to this type of orchestra. After a few years, he replaced the tympani with pailas (timbales) and güiro.

By 1923, the soft sound of Romeu's Charanga relegated Failde's danzón to the pages of history as "el danzón antiguo" (the old danzón). The Charanga Francesa created stars of flautists Panchito "Flauta Magica," El Morro and Belasario López, as the flute parts of the danzón would call for florid ornamentation similar to that of the French Baroque or "gallant" style upon the repeated statement of the melody. This was particularly impressive because the flute these flutists were playing was the wooden 5-key flute invented by Georg Tromlitz of Bavaria in the early 19th century. Although this flute was a development of the 2-key Baroque flute that had preceded it, it still was not nearly as versatile and "in tune" as the Boehm system flute which is the prototype of the modern flute that we use today.

When Teobald Boehm had invented this flute in 1832, he first introduced it to the Paris Academy of Science where it was rejected. According to Boehm, this was due to professional jealousy. It wasn't until the late 1800s through the turn of the century that this "new" flute was accepted at all. Since the primary migration from France to Cuba via Haiti took place in the late 1700s and since the development of the charanga orchestra mainly took place throughout the 1800s and early 1900s, it's not surprising that the flute mostly used in charanga is the Tromlitz wooden 5-key flute. Even today, many still prefer this 5-key flute because of its warm sound, its subtlety, and its facility in the fourth octave, as well as a desire to keep with tradition. However, many flutists, (including the great Richard Egües of Aragón fame) have converted to the Boehm system flute for its ease in facility and more tempered scale.

In 1929, Anicaeto Díaz, an alumnus of Failde's banal, combined the danzón and the Cuban son and introduced "El Danzanette" via his composition of Rompiendo La Rutina. There wasn't much difference from the danzón except that now it featured vocalists. The following year, Gilberto Valdés, a white musician greatly admired by black Cubans, successfully integrated the African drum in classical music. Valdés, recognized for his flute virtuosity and philharmonic composition, wrote a score in which he included music for batá drummers. At first there were problems because the drummers could not read music. Valdés patiently played the score, pointed out where he wanted the drums to enter with a signal and where to stop on another signal. His efforts proved to be worthwhile when his idea resulted in a sensual erotic sound which critics lauded.

In late 1937, Israel "Cachao" López, a bassist for the orchestra Las Maravillas del Siglo, was composing and orchestrating musical scores. The idea for what became the mambo rhythm was audible in his bass lines and the following year his brother Orestes capitalized on the idea and created the danzón mambo. Cachao was never credited as a creator of the new rhythm until recently. This is an honor he shares with flautist Antonio Arcaño in that Orestes was quoted as saying that he could not have done it without Arcaño's flute riffs. Along with its "danceability," one very important characteristic of this "mambo" section was the improvisation that took place - especially by the flautist - and to a lesser degree by the pianist. Until this time, pianists read and played violin parts. Cachao changed this by writing music for piano.