"Foundations of Afro-Caribbean Piano"

In previous centuries, the piano's role in Cuban music evolved primarily from the Western classical tradition; as Cuba was a strategic point for European trade in the Americas, all of the latest musical fads in Europe would immediately become introduced into Cuban concert halls and social clubs reserved for the bourgeoisie. In addition to the symphonic and operatic traditions, music for solo piano was extremely popular, although limited to the latest European styles-the Spanish zarzuela being perhaps the most prominent. Likewise, Cuban music and dance styles quickly traveled to Europe-and throughout the Americas-creating new trends with their infectious blend of African and European roots. Perhaps the most important of the early Cuban styles is the contradanza, a descendent of the European contredanse.

In the early 18th century, Cuban composers incorporated many African rhythmic concepts into the popular dance form, creating a truly "Creole" style. The contradanza would give birth to several styles which would lead to the development of the danzón, one of Cuba's most important creations (also considered the national dance).

On the opposite side of the "upper class" music world, Cuba's rural music was flourishing within an entirely different set of circumstances, mostly through the hardship of slavery. The richness of Afro-Cuban folklore and "peasant" music brought forth much more of the African presence on the island, particularly through the drum, as well as the improvisational and antiphonal (call-and-response) aspects so common among both sacred and secular styles of African music.

Also, Spanish música campesina (peasant music) would greatly shape the development of Cuba's popular music, as would Flamenco music and dance. The Spanish guitar became the quintessential instrument in the representation of the trova genre, and also inspired the creation of the Cuban tres, a double or triple-stringed, three-note guitar, which would become the signature instrument of the most important predecessor to today's popular Afro-Caribbean music: the son. It is the tres which literally shaped the piano's role within the structure of Cuban popular music in the early 1940's when the piano would be officially incorporated into dance band format known as the conjunto. In the mean time, Cuban pianists struck to the more through-composed European approach of the common practice period.