Creolizing Contradance in the Caribbean - Temple University

48 Peter Manuel
18. This is also a basic ostinato, called “al-wahda” in Arabic, used in Turkish and Arab
urban popular music, typically as accompaniment to a taqsim or improvised instrumental
solo. Depending on context, the rhythms in Figure 1.2 might be rendered in
4/4 rather than 2/4.
Dominican folklorist Flérida de Nolasco (1948: 175) argued that the Caribbean
contradanza and danza (along with the Dominican mangulina and carabiné) derive
from the Cantigas of Santa María compiled by King Alfonso el Sabio of Spain in the
thirteenth century. Reading from Julián Ribera’s 1922 edition of the cantigas, she
based her argument on the uses of the cinquillo in cantiga no. 318, which are indeed
strikingly typical of a Puerto Rican danza or Cuban danzón. The fly in the ointment
of her argument, however, lies in the fact that the creole-style rhythms occur
not in the original melody but in the harmonized accompaniment added by Ribera.
The intriguing question is what inspired Ribera to harmonize the cantigas in this
most fanciful and anachronistic fashion. Perhaps he had recently come across some
imported recordings of Los Negritos de Palatino or some such Cuban band, whose
music was ringing in his ears when he sat down to harmonize the cantigas.
19. See danzas in Halman and Rojer 2008. I am grateful to Halman for sending me this
volume. A popular danza by Palm, “Erani ta malu” (“Erani Is Sick”), is included on
this volume’s compact disc. It contains only two sections.
20. Such notational ambiguities were evident in the earlier contradanzas of Saumell, as
can be seen in Figures 2.7–2.9. In Puerto Rico, composers preferred to write their
cinquillos as sextuplets with tied third and fourth notes, as shown in Figure 3.2.
Such Haitian salon composers as Justin Elie, following a tradition established in the
1880s, used alternating bars of 2/4 and 5/8, as shown in Figure 6.3. For his part, the
Dominican García, in danzas like “Contigo,” followed a more straightforward notation,
such as would be followed by dance ensembles.
References
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Alonso, Manuel. [1849] 2002. “Bailes de Puerto Rico” (from El Gíbaro). In Music in
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