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Clave is a rhythmic pattern or timeline which has its roots in West African music and was developed in Cuba. The clave serves as a tool for temporal organization, and essentially all Afro-Cuban music of Yoruban descent (including Cuban popular music such as salsa) is based around the clave rhythm. The word “clave” is Spanish for “key”, in the sense of an answer key or a musical key signature. This is in contrast to the Spanish word “llave”, which means key in the sense of the key to a door. This name helps to emphasize the functional importance of the clave as a structural element in Cuban music. Rhythm (Greek Ïυθμός = tempo) is the variation of the duration of sounds or other events over time. ...
The Caribbean island of Cuba has been influential in the development of multiple musical styles in the 19th and 20th centuries. ...
Look up salsa on Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
In musical notation, a key signature is a series of sharp symbols or flat symbols placed on the staff, designating notes that are to be played one semitone higher or lower unless otherwise noted with an accidental. ...
Depending on the style and musicians involved, the clave may play a role from a simple rhythmic decoration to an elaborate structural framework upon which the rest of the music must relate. This framework is functional, and all parts are seen as relating to or derived from the framework in some sense. This is a fundamental difference between the Cuban conception of clave and other rhythmic timelines found in African and African-Diaspora music, which often simply mark recurring cycles of time.
“Claves” is also the name of the percussion instrument that plays the clave rhythm, consisting of two small wooden sticks that are hit together to produce a high-pitched sound. Claves is a percussion instrument, consisting of a pair of short, thick wooden dowels. ...
Percussion instruments are music instruments played by being struck, shaken, rubbed or scraped, hence the percussive name. ...
The most common type of clave rhythm in Cuban popular music is called the “son clave”, named after the Cuban musical style of the same name: Arsenio Rodríguez initially developed son montuno from son. ...
 son clave rhythm in musical notation This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ...
Because there are three notes in the first measure and two in the second, the above is said to be in the 3-2 direction. The 2-3 clave is the same but with the measures reversed.
Another type of clave is the rumba clave. This is most commonly associated with the folkloric Guaguancó style. It also can be in the 3-2 direction, as shown below, and in the 2-3 direction, although 3-2 is more common. Rumba is both a family of music rhythms and a dance style that originated in Africa and traveled via the slave trade to Cuba and the New World. ...
Guaguancó is one sub-genre of Cuban rumba, a highly complex rhythmic music and dance style. ...
 3-2 Rumba Clave, created by Hyacinth. ...
The third Cuban clave, often called the "6/8 clave", is an adaptation of the well-documented West African 12/8 timeline. It is a cowbell pattern and is played mainly in the ‘’rumba colombia’’, ‘’abaquá’’, and other older styles.
The rhythmic pattern of the Brazilian Bossa Nova, developed in the 1950s, is also frequently called a clave because it resembles son clave. However, it is worth noting several factors that suggest that the similarity is purely superficial: Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music invented in the late 1950s by a group of middle-class students and musicians living in the Copacabana and Ipanema beachside districts of Rio de Janeiro. ...
- Clave is a Spanish word and Brazil’s official language is Portuguese.
- Cuban clave is invariant and has a specific function, whereas the Bossa Nova pattern that resembles clave is only one of a large collection of available patterns which may be interchanged and improvised at will or even omitted. This suggests that they are decorative and largely non-functional.
- Cuban clave is directional (3-2/2-3) but the Bossa Nova pattern is not.
- Slaves brought to Cuba by the Spaniards and to Brazil by the Portuguese were largely from different regions of Africa.
- There are important differences in instrumentation between Cuban and Brazilian music--whereas much Cuban music is driven by the clave, much Brazilian music is driven by the surdo drum and its rhythms. Surdo rhythms bear little resemblance to the clave.
Nevertheless, it is possible that the “Bossa clave” may have been influenced by Cuban music. More likely, however, is that it was adapted from Samba music, as the Bossa rhythm resembles a pattern played by the agogo bells or the tamborim in the Samba School tradition. A tamborim is a small, round Brazilian frame drum of Portuguese and African origin. ...
Other Latin-American rhythms that are often associated with the clave, whether in fact related or not, include:
Although the actual term clave is mostly used in the context of Afro-Cuban music, the rhythm also permeates Rock and Roll and Jazz. This is not surprising, as early twentieth-century musicians from Havana and New Orleans would take the twice-daily ferry between both cities to perform. The famous Bo Diddley beat is in fact the son clave rhythm, but it does not imply the same function. The son clave rhythm is also used in the catch phrase "Shave and a haircut, two dimes" (inflation turned it into "Shave and a haircut, two bits"). Danzón is the official music of Cuba, and derives from a European-influenced ballroom dance played by Cuban ensembles. ...
Samba is the most famous of the various forms of music arising from African roots in Brazil. ...
Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music invented in the late 1950s by a group of middle-class students and musicians living in the Copacabana and Ipanema beachside districts of Rio de Janeiro. ...
Bomba is one of Puerto Ricos most famous musical styles. ...
Rock and roll (also spelled Rock n Roll, especially in its first decade), also called rock, is a form of popular music, usually featuring vocals (often with vocal harmony), electric guitars and a strong back beat; other instruments, such as the saxophone, are common in some styles. ...
Jazz master Louis Armstrong remains one of the most loved and best known of all jazz musicians. ...
Havana (Spanish: San Cristóbal de La Habana; UN/LOCODE: Habana (CU HAV)) is the capital of Cuba and, with a population of 2. ...
New Orleans is the largest city in the state of Louisiana, United States of America. ...
Bo Diddleys emphasis on rhythm largely influenced popular music, especially that of rock and roll in the 1960s. ...
Look up Dime on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Dime has several different meanings, here are some of them: Dime novel - genre of (often low-priced) 19th century novels. ...
The bit is a unit of money worth 1/8 of a Spanish dollar. ...
References
- [Fernando Ortiz] "La Africania De La Musica Folklorica De Cuba," 1950, Ediciones Universales, en español Hardcover illustrated edition. ISBN 8489750181
- [Rebeca Mauleón] Salsa Guidebook for Piano and Ensemble (1993). Petaluma: Sher Music. ISBN 0-9614701-9-4
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