Mode, Melody, and Harmony in Afrocuban Folcloric Music PDF

MODE, MELODY, AND HARMONY IN TRADITIONAL AFRO-CUBAN MUSIC: FROM AFRICA TO C
Peter Manuel; Orlando Fiol

Black Music Research Journal; Spring 2007; 27, 1; ProQuest Direct Complete
pg. 45
MODE, MELODY, AND HARMONY IN TRADITIONAL

AFRO-CUBAN MUSIC: FROM AFRICA TO CUBA
PETER MANUEL and ORLANDO FIOL
Afro-Cuban traditional music constitutes one of the richest musical

heritages of the Americas and has received a commensurate amount of
scholarly attention. Published research on Afro-Cuban music has tended
to focus on drumming (Amira and Cornelius 1992), biography (velez
2000), relations to issues of national identity formation (Moore 1997),
folkloricization under the Cuban Revolution (Hagedorn 2001), and gen-
eral ethnography and religion (Ortiz 1975, 1985). Surprisingly, none of
these studies makes more than passing mention of the modal and melod-
ic aspects of Afro-Cuban music.! Study of these features is overdue. The
melodic practices of Afro-Cuban music constitute a rich and in many
ways internally consistent style system. Rather than simple reciting tones
or ditties borrowed from Western music, melodies of the extensive corpus
of songs are typically distinctive in style, with dramatic leaps, bold con-
tours, coherent modal features, and expressive and appealing character-
istics. Their study can be significant not only for its own sake but also for
broader implications it may suggest for discovering relationships of
1. Alan Merriam's (1951) dissertation, "Songs of the Afro-Bahian Cults: An

Ethnomusicological Analysis," represents one kind of early comparative melodic analysis,
using rather scientistic techniques (e.g., comparing interval counts) that neither he nor
many other scholars pursued.
PETER MANUEL, professor of music at John Jay College and the CUNY Graduate Center, has
researched and published extensively on the musics of the Caribbean, India, Spain, and
elsewhere. His books include Caribbean Currents: Caribbean Music from Rumba to Reggae with
Ken Bilby and Michael Largey (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995) and East Indian
Music in the West Indies: Tan-Singing, Chutney, and the Making of Indo-Caribbean Culture
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2000). ORLANDO BOL has studied, taught, and per-
formed bata drum for many years in the New York and Philadelphia areas, where he also
plays piano regularly in Latin bands. He received his B.A. from Columbia University.
45
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46 BMRJournal
Cuban music to African sources, as well as for a better understanding of

the extent and nature of creativity and, alternately, conservatism in Afro-
Cuban music culture.
In this article, we present a preliminary overview of melodic and
modal aspects of traditional Afro-Cuban music, focusing on those genres
that rnight be called neo-African in the sense that they have tended to
retain African-derived stylistic features and have, in most respects, large-
ly resisted overt Western influence. These genres, for purposes of this
article, comprise in particular the corpus of songs associated with the
syncretic religions or sects of Santeria (also known as RegIa de Ocha and
RegIa LucumJ), Palo, Iyesa, and Arara, as well as the secular genre rumba
columbia. After making various observations about melodic conventions,
modality, and tonicity, we explore harmonization techniques and make
tentative comments about relationships to related genres and practices in
Africa and about the nature of the musical transculturation and consoli-
dation that occurred in Cuba as different African-derived music tradi-
tions interacted with each other and with European music.
The analysis of Afro-Cuban melodic style involves certain challenges
that, although hardly unique to this subject, remain significant. No tradi-
tional ernic terminology for modal or melodic features exists, nor are
there extant conventions of articulating principles of such technical fea-
tures. Such practices as harmonization of melodies are far from stan-
dardized, and even ascertaining the tonal center of a given melody (or the
sense to which that tonicity is important) may be difficult. Conventions
and aesthetics have to be gleaned primarily from practice and from infor-
mal ernic discourse, while taking care not to impose inappropriate musi-
cological conceptions. However, increasing numbers of performers of tra-
ditional Afro-Cuban music have some sort of formal training in or
knowledge of Western music, as is the case with Orlando Fiol and such
people as David Oquendo, who is both a virtuoso jazz guitarist and a
director of a folkloric ensemble. Of course, as Oquendo (2006) points out,
singers lacking such technical knowledge may nevertheless be expert
musicians: "They may not be able to tell you what the tonic of a song is,
but they know the repertoire perfectly and will tell you if you sing incor-
rectly or out of clave."
In this regard, the authors' backgrounds may merit brief mention.
Orlando Fiol, born in New York to Puerto Rican parents, has an extensive
background in Afro-Cuban music and may be considered an effective
insider to this tradition. As a bata drummer initiated to the sacred, con-
secrated bata fundamento of Cuban master Pancho Quinto, he has per-
formed in the New York and Philadelphia areas regularly and profes-
sionally for over twenty years. In the course of that experience, through
Manuel and Fiol • Mode, Melody, and Harmony 47
a visit to Cuba and through ongoing close musical and spiritual friend-
ships with Cuban musicians, he has acquired a considerable knowledge
of songs in all the genres relevant to this article. He is also quite conver-
sant with Western music, trained in classical piano and playing that
instrument professionally in Latin bands throughout his adult life. For
his part, Peter Manuel brings to this study a long-standing and active
interest in Latin music and in the confluences of modal and harmonic
music systems.
Extant documentation of traditional Afro-Cuban music is growing,
despite the persistence of major lacunae. One useful compendium is
Thomas Altmann's Cantos Lucumi a los Orichas (1998), which contains
transcriptions of 262 Santeria songs. The song corpus of Santeria (or ocha
music) is also well documented on commercial recordings, including the
Abbilona series and Lazaro Ros's Orisha Aye set. Recordings and tran-
scriptions of Palo, Arara, and Iyesa songs are far less extensive, while iso-
lated rumba columbia songs can be found on various recordings. For pur-
poses of this study, these sources have essentially served to supplement
FioI's first-hand knowledge of the repertoire.
Afro-Cuban Vocal Music
The most extensive, the most formalized, and arguably, the richest cor-
pus of neo-African music in Cuba is that associated with Santeria, which
may be regarded as a Cuban version of interrelated Yoruba practices and
beliefs, with a thin veneer of Roman Catholicism. The Cuban Yoruba and
their language were traditionally called Lucumi; it was not until the lat-
ter nineteenth century that the term Yoruba became a common designa-
tion for the linguistically related peoples (traditionally identifying them-
selves as the children of Odudua) of the eighteenth- and
nineteenth-century Oy6 kingdom in present-day Nigeria.
Several factors may account for the particular resilience and richness of
Lucumi music in Cuba. The Yoruba arrived relatively recently in Cuba-
mostly after the 1820s-and the ranks of imported slaves included many
women and children, assuring transmission of many aspects of culture
(see Sublette 2004, 211). Both urban slaves and free people of color-
including many Yorubas-consolidated and perpetuated elements of
their traditional culture in the cabildos (mutual-aid societies) of Havana
and Matanzas. The high degree of formalization of Yoruba culture in
Africa, especially in its urban forms, contributed to its durability in the
hostile New World environment. It should not be surprising, then, that
Santeria music comprises a substantial corpus of songs, sung in a Yoruba-
derived lexicon of learned words and phrases, using drums, rhythms,
48 BMRJournal
and melodic forms of obvious West African derivation. The best-known

body of this repertoire comprises the songs rendered at ceremonies (indi-
vidually called a toque de santo or tambor) to the accompaniment of three
bata drums closely resembling Nigerian bata drums (which themselves
exist in regional varieties). In Cuba as well as in Nigeria, the bata are used
both as conduits of surrogate speech and as purely rhythmic accompani-
ment for singing and dancing. This article focuses on the corpus of songs
used in public ceremonies intent on praising and ultimately manifesting
deities, called orishas, through a process of mounting or possession.
In Cuba, the Yoruba interacted with other groups of West African
descent, some of whom were former enemies but who became fellow
subalterns in the Caribbean context. One group consisted of the people
who in Cuba were called Arara, comprising slaves, and their descen-
dants, brought from the West African coastal states of Allada, Ouidah,
and Dahomey. Another were the Iyesa, descended from the Ijesha Yoruba
of the region to the east of Oy6. Although Iyesa and Arara rhythms and
drums, and most of their songs, are distinct from those of the Lucumi, all
share many religious and musical features and came to interact closely in
Havana and Matanzas. 2 A more distinct musical tradition is that of the
Abakua secret societies, derived from the Efik peoples of coastal Calabar.
An older, and particularly influential, stratum of Afro-Cuban music and
culture is that from the Bantu peoples of the west-central Congo River
region.
As surrogate speech, Yoruba bata drumming imitates and encodes cer-
tain linguistic tones, vowel sounds, consonant distinctions, and gram-
matical constructions. Cuban Lucumi bata drumming has moved in a
more abstractly musical direction because many of its surrogate speech
techniques and specific texts have been lost.3 Vocal songs have in some
ways compensated for this development because they can communicate
with orishas and the faithful via a corpus of ceremonial text, however
imperfectly understood, given the decline of intelligibility of spoken
Yoruba in Cuba. Accordingly, as Vincent (2006b) notes, songs playa more
important part in Santeria bata music than they do in Nigerian Yoruba
bitta music. Nevertheless, practitioners believe that communication
between the faithful and the orishas can still take place during the oru seeo
(literally, "dry," unaccompanied oru, or salutation), a set of ritual salutes
performed on bata drums, without singing, which precedes a toque de
santo.
2. Kevin Delgado (2006) discovered that of the approximately fifty songs in the Matanzas
Iyesa cabildo, roughly one-third are heard in the mainstream Santeria liturgy of Havana and
Matanzas.
3. Wirtz (2005) proposes that the unintelligibility of Santeria song texts serves various
functions.
The Santeria song repertoire can be divided into two main categories:
cantos (songs) and rezos (prayers). Cantos consist of short or lengthy alter-
nating call-and-response phrases sung in tempo, while rezos consist of
lengthy praise texts extolling the orisha's virtues, sung by the lead singer
in a free rubato style and answered by an equally free rubato chorus. The
lead singer, who must have specialized mastery of the song repertoire, is
referred to as the gallo (rooster) or akpwon (akpuon, akpon), and the chorus
is called the vasallo (vassal) or masallo, or simply coro. At public cere-
monies like toques de santo, songs are accompanied by the bata, a small
rattle called achere, and hand clapping. For secret or private rituals,
singing is usually a capella or accompanied by small rattles and/or bells.
Cantos are organized into suites, either for a single orisha or as a collec-
tion of salutations to all the orishas. These suites, called oru cantado
("sung oru") are counterparts to the purely instrumental oru seco. A gar-
land of songs sung for a single orisha is called a tratado (literally,
"alliance," pronounced tratao), with each song consisting of a specific set
of lyrics and preexisting traditional call-and-response melodies.
Successions of songs are introduced in a generally fixed sequence, often
using shorter phrases as intensity and likelihood of possession increase.
Some songs also move through several sections, which, like the bata
parts, should be rendered in sequence (with accompanying choreogra-
phy). These sections often constitute a proportional diminution of musi-
cal and textual phrases, culminating in one or more short refrains that are
often portions of preceding longer ones. During these climaxes, the bata
tend to hold firm to their basic or fundamento patterns rather than intro-
ducing ornate conversations or improvisations called floreos. This con-
stancy is maintained to put focus on the singing, so that the orisha being
solicited might be more easily tempted, cajoled, or even challenged into
making an appearance through possession of a believer's body.
For their part, most Palo songs fall in the fast ternary meter associated
with the rhythm of the same name, and they are also somewhat limited
in terms of melodic variety, consisting of short gallo-coro alternations. In
general, the melodic characters of both Palo and Abakua songs are more
compatible with-and perhaps influenced by-Western music, corre-
sponding more or less to simple major and minor tonalities. Palo songs,
unlike ocha chants (which are overwhelmingly in Lucumi, derived from
nineteenth-century Yoruba dialects), are generally in a mixture of Spanish
and Quicongo/Kikongo (a creolized dialect of Congolese). Congolese
music culture in Cuba became in some respects more intermingled with
Western features than that of the LUCwnl, due to the earlier arrival of the
Congolese, the less-formalized nature of their society in Africa, and to
some extent, the lesser degree of legitimacy enjoyed in Cuba by their reli-
50 BMRJournal
gious practices (typically called Palo), with their orientation toward what
has been perceived as ''black magic."
Mode and Melody in Ritual Music
Insofar as Afro-Cuban ritual musics include genres of diverse ethnic

associations, styles, and performance contexts, they naturally exhibit a
certain degree of modal and melodic variety. In many respects, however,
more striking is the high degree of homogeneity, which also enables us to
make several broadly applicable observations, both general and specific,
about melodic structure. Most of our comments here refer specifically to
oeha music, as that corpus is best documented, and most extensive and
formalized, among Afro-Cuban ritual musics, but they also apply gener-
ally to the island's other traditions. Furthermore, most of the features
described here bear striking similarities to general characteristics of spe-
cific traditional West African song styles that have been described by var-
ious authors, such as Nketia (1974, 148-167; 1963, 34-61).
Aside from Santeria rezos sung to simple, repetitive, two- or three-note
melodies, most songs in Afro-Cuban traditional music can be seen to use
one of four sets of anhernitonic pentatonic scalar resources, which can
only with equivocation be described as modes or scales. All four config-
urations occur prominently in Nigerian Yoruba music and, for that mat-
ter, in Yoruba songs of Trinidad (see, e.g., notations in Warner-Lewis
1994). Of these four, which are shown in Example 1, the first two are by
far the most common; the last is the least. The first two configurations are
also singled out by Nketia (1963, 34--61) as predominating in the Akan
music of Ghana-a country some one hundred miles to the west of the
Yoruba heartland but whose music traditions are not entirely unrelated.
For convenience, we refer to these two modes as the "1-2-3-~" (Le.,
e-d-e-g-a, the "major" pentatonic) and the "thlrdless," "1-2-4-~"
(e-d-f-g-a) configurations.4 (Most musical examples in this article use a
"tonic" of c.)
Nketia (1974, 147) points out that it may be more appropriate to con-
ceptualize African melodies (by which he evidently means Akan
melodies) as reflecting "melodic processes rather than scales as con-
structs." He writes that "singers are not as conscious of scales in the form
of abstract melodic materials as they are of tonal sequences in melodies"
(159). This observation is equally relevant to the Afro-Cuban repertoire
(with certain caveats), for several reasons. First, there are no traditional
ernic terms for scales, modes, or modal practices in general, although
4. Nketia numbers the scale degrees differently, as "1-2-3-4-5" in each case.
Example 1: Basic Afro-Cuban modes
o [2] 0
• a I i. a I "a ~a I a ~a
there may be clear ideas, at least in the minds of more formally educated
singers, of tonicity, modal continuity between songs, and even "wrong
notes" and incorrect accidentals. Second, as we shall indicate, the con-
struction of many melodies is based less on a scalar conception than on
the reiteration of certain turns and interval relationships at different
points in the octave. Third, scalar passages involving more than four
notes in sequence are highly unusual, and even a sequential passage of
four scalar degrees is uncharacteristic. Far more characteristic than scalar
passages are leaps-both downward and upward-involving intervals of
thirds, fourths, and fifths. Some characteristic melodic patterns recur in
these scales, such that they begin to acquire the sorts of features associat-
ed with modes, including such concepts of European medieval modal
theory as confinal, psalm, and reciting tones.
While gapped pentatonic scales have their own acoustic and musical
logiC, Amanda Vincent (2006b), a specialist in Yoruba and Santeria
musics, suggests that their prominence in these traditions may derive
from the tonal structure of spoken Yoruba. Typically, spoken Yoruba fea-
tures a relatively large interval between low and medium pitches and a
smaller interval between medium and high pitches. In Yoruba religious
recitations such as Ifa, Shango pipe, ijala, and oriki, this configuration is
replicated in the tonal configuration of approximately a fourth between
low and medium and a whole-tone between medium and high, as in the
configuration c-f-g. Such tendencies may account for the prominence of
large intervals in Yoruba and Santeria music. Second, a transposition of
the configuration, or its duplication at another point in the octave (e.g.,
d-g~), can easily afford a gapped pentatonic scale (e.g., c~-f-g-a).s
The sense in which such a pentatonic scale may be rooted in duplicat-
ed three-note configurations may contribute to the degree to which the
tonicity of such a scale is sometimes unclear-at least, to some listeners.
All four modes, if classified as inversions of a major pentatonic scale,
share the same intervallic structure, although from different tonic pitch-
es. The absence of a drone (such as indicates tonicity in Indian art music),
the recurrence of identical melodic patterns in different modes, and the
5. Vmcent (2006b) also points out that Akan languages have only two tones. For this and
other reasons, considerable caution must be exercised in positing melodic correlations
between Akan and Yoruba musics.
52 BMRJournal
use of unexpected modal tones as resting points can often obscure the
sense of tonicity. Thus, for example, in the "major" pentatonic scale,
1-2-3-5-6 (c-d~-g-a), many melodies leap between pitches 3 and 6 (e
and g)-as in the pattern 3--6--5+3 (e-a-g-a~)-which may suggest to
some ears that a is the tonic and e is its fifth, as in a "minor" pentatonic
scale (corresponding, in transposed form, to Ex. I, scale number 3).
Ascertaining the tonicity of such melodies may be problematic; relative-
ly few "insiders" to these musical traditions would be able to respond
articulately to technical questions about tonicity (although, as noted,
increasing numbers of individuals like David Oquendo, a skilled gui-
tarist, and many students at the Cuban Escuela Nacional de Arte [ENA],
are studying Afro-Cuban music as well as Western music). Thus, for
example, Fiol, who can certainly claim a sort of insider status, as well as
Manuel and Oquendo (2006), hears the common song to Oshtin (Ochtin),
"Ide were were," as being in a "minor" pentatonic scale (with c as tonic)
(see Ex. 2 and Ex. 3). However, Altmann (1998, 242), who has his own
extensive familiarity with the repertoire, evidently hears a different tonic-
ity and transcribes "Ide were were" as being in the "major" pentatonic
scale, with the initial upward leap of a fourth not from fifth upward to
tonic but from major third to sixth scalar degrees.6
In some instances, the choral response may suggest one tonality while
the solo call may reiterate a phrase suggesting another tonal center. Thus,
for example, in Example 4, a live recording of an Arara song, the chorus
clearly suggests a tonicity of c, while the gallo phrases suggest one off It
is also possible, of course, that to many "insiders," the sense of tonicity in
such songs-as to some extent in Javanese slendro-is simply not as
strong as it is in most kinds of music.
The 1-2-3-5-6 configuration corresponds roughly to the "major"-
sounding pentatonic scale common in so many world music traditions.
However, its treatment in Afro-Cuban music is often distinctive, espe-
cially in the aforementioned prominence of the sixth degree and phrases
highlighting it (e.g., 3--6--5-3, e-a-g~). For its part, the thirdless 1-2-4-5-6
(c-d-f-g-a) configuration is equally common. It can be seen to some
extent as a transposed variety of the "major" pentatonic, and many
melodies might suggest-to outsiders if not many insiders-a sense of
ambiguity as to whether the mode is perhaps, in this same interval struc-
ture, a "major" pentatonic from f In most songs, however, tonicity is
quite clear and is often effectively reinforced by the appearance of the flat
seventh degree (bI.) as a lower neighbor to the tonic c (a practice that also
appears in some Nigerian orisha songs, as reported by Vincent [2006bD.
6. Altmann transcribes the song in I. Vmcent (2006b) reports that a very similar song is
sung in Nigeria.
Example 2. "Ide were were" (transcription by the author, Fiol)

Fioletal.
1'~'JlpppppplpJ ,
I - de we-re we-re i - ta 0-86- 0 i-de we-re we-re
Example 3. "Ide were were" (transcription by Altmann 1998,242)

,Altmann \ \ \ \ \ ,
I WllJ1Jl;J1JlljJ1JilJ
I - de we-re we - re i-de 0-86-0 i-de we-re we-re
Example 4. Arara "Toque y canto a Ferekete" (from Antologia de la Musica

Afrocubana: Vol. IV: Musica Arara)
The common song "E Iyekua," to Ogtin, shown in Example 5, illustrates

this usage, along with other typical features, including the prominent
leaps, the avoidance of scalar passages, and the tendency to approach the
tonic directly from the fourth degree above.
The avoidance of scalar passages in favor of leaps is also evident in
Example 6, which gives an excerpt from a bembe song recorded in 1957;7
here, the lead singer repeatedly sings gallo patterns, which descend from
the upper tonic to the lower tonic, typically with circuitous leaps, from
the upper tonic to 5, then from 6 to 4, and from 4 to 1. The similarities to
Ghanaian Ewe examples presented by Nketia (1974, 149) are striking.
Another overt similarity between some West African and Afro-Cuban
melodies is the tendency for passages to duplicate the same pattern at dif-
ferent points in the scale, especially at the tetrachord (see Nketia 1974,
150, 152). As already mentioned, such patterns may reflect the tonal struc-
ture of spoken Yoruba (taking into account that speech performance of
the three tones is relative rather than absolute and frequently shifts in
overall pitch). Such instances of parallelism are not, of course, unique to
African and Afro-Cuban music and may have their own sorts of musical
7. A bembe is a festive rather than spiritual Lucumi event, using single-headed bembe
drums rather than batao This song is devoted to the divine twins.
54 BMRJoumal
Example 5. liE IyekUlf' (adapted from Altmann 1998, 42)

corn
14 111:J
E - e - i-ye-kua E - e i - ye-kua ke-ye ke-ye
14 J J ;191J.]lJ.JllJ J ~I";;JIII'J' JJ'JhJH1

mo dan se-re-O - gUn a la-do 0 - ri - sa A-ri-bo mo dan se re ke re ke Ie
Example 6. Excerpt from "Ibeji ota ese aremu 'beji ota ese" (from Havana and
Matanzas, Cuba ca. 1957: Bata, Bembe, and Palo Songs)
Com 1010
Ji J. J. Jl Jl Ji Jl J I Jl Jl J, J. Jl J ~ Jl I .
I"
I
J I Jl
a be - i e - se a-re-mu
0- t& 'be - i e - se a 0- t&
I' ~ Pi P J.
\
oJ Jl Ji Jl J I; Ji Jl J. JIJ ,
be - 0- tIi e- se a - re - mu be - i 0- t8 e- se
logic; as Nazir Jairazbhoy (1971) has shown, they are basic to the struc-
ture of most North Indian ragas. Example 7 illustrates this sort of tetra-
chordal symmetry, in which the introduction of the flat seventh degree
(hi.) in the B phrase-in what is otherwise the 1-2-4-5-6 mode-affords
duplication of the interval structure of the A phrases.8
The c....erf-g-hI. scale (see Ex. 1, number 3), as a "minor" pentatonic,
might invite some superficial comparison with the blues scale. In prac-
tice, however, it sounds nothing like the blues, since the Afro-Cuban
melodic style, like the Yoruba style, is overwhelmingly syllabic rather
than melismatic and rigorously avoids the ''bent'' notes essential to blues
tonality.9
While Afro-Cuban music, at least in its traditional monophonic forms,
is predominantly pentatonic, other notes may occur in different contexts.
Thus, the use of a given mode need not be entirely consistent within a
given song. We have mentioned the introduction of a lowered seventh
degree in the 1-2-4-5-6 mode. Some songs, like that shown in Example 7
(or the common song to Eleggua, "Barasuwayo"), can be seen as combin-
ing the 1-2-3-5-6 and 1-2-4-5-6 configurations. In some cases, the raised
seventh degree may be introduced as a leading-tone to the tonic, in what
8. Altmann (1998, 145) transcribes the song in I. The descending g-+< triad in the final
bar also reiterates the descending triads in phrases A and B.
9. Kubik (1999) also argues against a connection between Yoruba music and the blues.
Example 7. "Iya ma se 10 bi Chang6" (adapted from Altmann 1998, 145)

A A
I~ 'HI~ P II: JIJ1J'

~ ~ ~
JI J. 'Jlp IIJ1JI
I ~ 'Jl.i
J1IJ 4I~~ 'i I
I - ya ma - se 10 bl Chan g6 I - ya rna - se 10 bl Chan g6 bog bo-a
~ AI B
I J1JIJ1J1J J.'J,~I JJIJIJI &1 J.' Jt)~rIJ ~IJIJ JJ.'~I~ :11
ra -ye o-ni ke-Ie I-ya rna-se 10 bl Chan-g6 bog-bo -a ra-ye o-nl ke-Ie I-ya
is otherwise the "minor" anhemitonic pentatonic mode (c-e'.-f-g~). The

frequently heard rezo song to Odudua, "0ku6 ago lona," features this
note prominently (see Ex. 8). Another departure from pentatonicity in
this song appears in the form of the second degree (d) sung as the penul-
timate note (Ex. 8, asterisk), which also affords symmetry with the end-
ing of the previous phrase (m. 9) and serves as an upper neighbor to the
tonic c. (In other versions of this song, e\. is sung in place of the d.) The dis-
tinctive renditions of this song by revered Cuban ocha lead singer Lazaro
Ros (b. 1925) also feature another "accidental," in the form of the lowered
sixth degree (aI.) sung on the syllables "_go 10-," in m. 8; other singers
might sing a g in place of the aI. here (see, e.g., Afro-Cuba: A Musical
Anthology, track 1).
Afro-Cubans, having been exposed variously to Roman Catholic plain-
chant and hymns as well as various forms of European secular music,
may have incorporated some melodic approaches and actual tunes from
these genres into ocha songs. Whether this process is interpreted as accul-
turation or empowerment, a few melodies have a distinctly more Western
flavor in their use of diatonic-style, major-scale-like patterns and chordal
arpeggiations. "Yemaya asesu," a song to Yemaya (Ex. 9), has a strong
"major" sound, in its opening arpeggiated C-major triad, diatonicity, and
suggestion of chordal accompaniment (indicated in parentheses in the
example). Example 10, the common "Kai Kai Kai," also a song to Yemaya,
strongly suggests Western origin in its nursery-rhyme flavor and its
arpeggiated outlining of a tonic-dominant chordal progression. to (As
Vmcent [2006b] notes, the triadic melody of the word "Yemaya" in this
song, as in "Yemaya asesu," also violates that name's tonal structure, con-
sisting of three midtones, which, in other Cuban Yemaya songs, are usu-
ally sung with repeated notes or notes only a tone apart.) Example 11, one
of the best-known songs of the Congolese-derived Palo tradition, also
clearly suggests chordal progressions in its outlined triads. Some Afro-
10. Some versions of this song might suggest a • meter rather than the quadratic meter
represented in Example 9.
56 BMRJoumal
Example 8. "Oku6 ago lana"
4
Coro
I ~ n(h IF r r I F r r I pIa" I. a a I n aJI

Bab&-a_ _ a - re - mu 0 - du - du-a er - j'o .. rna re-
re a-go 10 - na a - re mil 0 - du~u - a
IJ. IJ JIJJjlJ.
er-i'o rna re - re o ku6-0 a-golo-na
Example 9. "¥emaya asesu"

(e) (F) (G) (e)
4
I nil:, l ) P )i) I J • I, ~ P ~ P j I J.
Ye-ma-ya a - se - S11 a - se-sil Ye -ma - ya
:11
Example 10. "Kai Kai Kai"

(e) (G7) (e)
14. a a J • 1),),(3 J J IJ J J. IJ\J1J1Jd J

Kai kai kai a-se-sil-o 10 - d6
Example 11. "Macuta canto de Palo"
Ya-yan-do mi Se-ve-ri-na pa-Io ya yan do mi Se-vc - ri - na-we
Cubans recognize songs like "Kai Kai Kai" as explicitly sounding less
IIAfrican," and although the songs may be tuneful and common, tradi-
tionalists might accordingly disparage them as creolisms. Vincent (2006a,
268) relates an anecdote in which an akpw6n at a Havana ritual insisted on
the use of traditional calabash altar receptacles rather than china soup
tureens-a European introduction-and exclaimed, "1 don't want any
'Kai Kai Kai' here!" (Other musicians, like David Oquendo [2oo6J, regard
such songs as purely African in origin.)
Modal Modulation
Many Santeria songs consist essentially of call-and-response, in which

the leader alternates more or less conventional and loosely improvised
calls with a short choral refrain. Modal unity is generally maintained
within a given song. Depending on the lead singer's mastery of musical
improvisations and oriki texts (which generally praise the orishas), an akp-
wan may radically alter an otherwise fixed gallo phrase, with its stan-
dardized melody and text, by injecting melodic or textual tropes into the
framework. In doing so, the akpwon avoids introducing a mode other
than the one in which the song is situated, although heptatonic or dia-
tonic passing tones can sometimes be added without being considered
out of place. An apkwon may typically introduce heptatonic scalar ele-
ments during interpolations of oriki over an otherwise pentatonic base.
However, while modal modulation on a common tonic within a given
individual song may be frowned on for obSCUring the song's mode, it can
certainly occur between different songs.
As mentioned above, in performance, whether at a toque de santo, a
more festive bembe, or even a staged folkloric event, songs to a given
orisha are typically strung together in a tratado, which often lasts thirty
minutes and moves through several songs. The length of an individual
song, and the reasons for moving from one song to another, can vary.
Musical reasons-including the desire for variety-may precipitate
changes in some contexts, although in a toque de santo, the most important
factor is the functionality of inducing spirit possession. As Katherine
Hagedorn (2006) notes:
The goal at a tambor/toque de santo is usually to bring down the orisha(s). If
an adherent looks to be on the verge of becoming possessed by an orisha, the
akpw6n will often switch to what might be considered a more efficacious
song text for that moment. (Sometimes this change is effected by another,
often "self-appointed," akpw6n, who simply jumps into the musical fray.) In
these cases, the seemingly "abrupt" segues can be meant to push a likely
possession over the edge. In other circumstances, where people are singing
along and the akpw6n simply wants to change the song, an abrupt segue is
perhaps less understandable.
The akpwon generally signals the segue by singing the choral refrain of
the next song, by beginning an akpwon phrase in the new song, or by
singing an extended "Eh!" on a relevant pitch of the new song.
Certain songs are conventionally grouped together within a tratado in
a sort of garland and typically share the same mode. Thus, for example,
a common opening tratado for Eleggua segues from "Ibarago Moyuba"
through "Moytiba-o, moytiba orisa" to Ago ngo laro, ago ngo Laroye,
II
58 BMRJournal
Eleggua-ade masankio"-all in the "minor" pentatonic mode 3 (see Ex.

I). (Most of the tratados presented in the Abbilona series of recordings
exhibit this sort of modal continuity.) Other tratados may group together
songs with rhetorically logical progressions in their texts but with differ-
ent modes, either sharing the same tonic or not. For example, in a tratado
for OshUn, "Ide were were" (in the "minor" pentatonic mode; see Ex. 2
and Ex. 3) could segue into" Ala uyenye ngualere-aa, iye guanlere," in
the "thirdless" 1-2-4-5-6 pentatonic mode. Thus, although some songs
in the same mode are grouped together, and although the tratado is some-
times consciously constructed to use one mode throughout, songs within
a given tratado often do modulate from one mode to another. The most
important criterion in modulating is that the new song, like the old one,
be in a pitch range that is comfortable for the singers. Beyond that con-
sideration, there are four possible relationships in such a modulation.
First, the tonic may remain the same, while the mode changes. Thus,
for example, in the aforementioned OshUn tratado, a song in the minor
pentatonic mode could shift to one in the thirdless 1-2-4-5-6 pentatonic
mode (mode 2 in Ex. I), retaining the same tonic note. Several examples
of this type of modulation can be heard on the Abbilona series, where the
tonic note generally remains the same throughout the tratados. For
instance, the tratado to Ochosi commences with the song "Ochosi
ayiloda," in the "major" 1-2-3-5-6 mode (transcribed in Example 12 as if
from C, c-d-e-g-a) and then modulates to the thirdless 1-2-4-5-6 mode
for "Iya odde saka kereo," sung from the same tonic pitch c (i.e.,
c-d-f-g-a; the original recordings are from a instead of C}.l1
Second, the singer might take advantage of the shared intervallic struc-
ture between two modes by shifting the tonic, while retaining the same
absolute pitches. (The absence of a drone instrument naturally facilitates
changing the tonic, and while the heads of the bata drum are tuned to
specific pitches, they do not bear specific relations to pitches of the
songs.) Thus, a song in the "major" mode 1 (1-2-3-5-6) from c might shift
to mode 3, the "minor" pentatonic, using a as tonic. Similarly, Oquendo
(2006) notes how in the tratado to Eleggua, the song "Ag6 Eleggua
bukenke," which, as notated in Example 13, has a tonic pitch of c, segues
to "Abukenke" (shown in Example 14), which uses the same pitches, but
with the tonic of f12
Third, an akpwon might use one prominent pitch as a pivot note if it is
11. See also Altmann (1998) for transcriptions (in different keys) of these and other songs
cited in this section.
12. This modulation, as notated here, occurs from roughly 0:40 on track 6 on the record-
ing Abbi/ona: Tambor Yoruba-Eleggua, Ogglln, y Ochosi. Note that as singers become animat-
ed, the tonic pitch can rise incrementally over the course of a tratado.
Example 12. Modulation from "Ochosi ayi loda" to "Iya odde saka leereo" (from
Abbilona: Tambor Yoruba-Eleggua, Ogglin, y Ochosi, track 6)
O-cho-si a - yi-Io - dB a-la-rna la de I ya 0 de sa ga lea re-
143 • J I J'$3 ' I' JL'PJd lalJ J JqJ • J IJU)J' I

o 0 - rno 10 - Ie i ya-o de sa ga lea re 0 rno - 10 - Ie
Example 13. "Ag6 Eleggua bukenke"
14 g J'II:'
A -
n dl J I j' J J J) I'
g6 EI-eggu-a' bu-ken - ke A -
0 J) 3 Ia, J J Jilll
g6 EI-eggu-a' bu-ken-ke A -
Example 14. Modulation from "Abukenke" to "Beni beni mabe eshuo"

(corn) (1010) (corn)
14"3 jd J J 3 1;, J J JI IJiJIJd l DU)J)' 3 jll

A - bu - ken - ke A - bu-ken - ke a ni a to lea 10 wo (7) A - bu-
(1010)
J I J J J dUJI J' J' .P Jl, I. , an} Jl I

ken - ke a - bu-ken - ke e - be - ni - be - ni rna be'-shu-
14JIJI 5])J",;ljUljl,I'DJIJIJI IJ Jd Jq~J J •

o be-ni rna-wo beni be-ni rna be'-shu-o be - ni rna-wo
4 (COlO)
I Jl J Jd IJ d ..I' JI IJ. J Jl I J ~J • IJd J1J
be-ni be-ni rna - be' - shu-o beni rna - wo be-ni be-ni
common to both modes. Several such modulations can be heard in the

Abbilona CD series, as in the tratado to Eleggua, where a series of songs
(including" Ag6 Eleggua bukenke" in Ex. 13) in the thirdless 1-2-4-5-6
mode from c, segues to "Abukenke" centering on f, as discussed above,
and then to "Beni beni mabe eshuo" which, using! as tonic, introduces
60 BMRJournal
the lowered seventh degree (eI.)P Although the eI. does not occur in the
mode of the previous songs, the f and, less prominently, e serve as pivot
notes, providing continuity (see Ex. 14).
Finally, the singer might perform an essentially "free" modulation in
which no pitches are shared, mainly to situate the new melody into a
more comfortable range than it would otherwise occur, using the com-
mon tonic or pivotal modulation techniques already discussed. Such an
abrupt modulation is also typical in transitions in which one akpwOn
replaces another, customarily announcing his or her entrance by singing
an extended "Eh!" The new singer generally enters in a pitch comfortable
to him or her, often occasioning a modulation. 14
Conventions and attitudes regarding such modulations are not as for-
malized, cultivated, and highly developed as they are, for example, in
Egyptian Arab art music, in which modal modulation is a focus of musi-
cal interest and explicit analytical discourse (see Marcus 1992). It may be
assumed that many singers, both akpw6ns and chorus members, have
never given any particular heed to the subject. However, some singers do
articulate aesthetic opinions regarding modulation. Cuban akpw6n Lazaro
Galarraga (1998), for example, expressed a clear preference for logical
rather than haphazard modulations: "You know, I am not like other
singers who only sing oeha music; I read music, play piano and guitar. I
sing everything from boleros and guaraehas to son and rumba. So, when I
change songs in a tratado, it's smooth, unlike other singers who merely
change the tonality according to their mood or vocal condition that day.
You have to know how to think ahead to see how high the next song is
going to fit in your range before beginning if you don't want to croak
when you get up top."
Galarraga is certainly not the only performer of Santeria music whose
sensibilities have been influenced by exposure to and knowledge of cre-
ole and Western musics. Lazaro Ros (1996) also expressed to Fiol the
deSirability of maintaining tonal continuity throughout a tratado,
although he himself can be heard making some abrupt modulations in
recordings. IS During a vocal workshop in 1996, Ros strictly instructed his
students to try and maintain lila misma tonalidad" (the same tonality)
throughout a tratado. Other oeha musicians may disparage certain lead
singers whose modulations do not seem to be systematic in any fashion,
while they themselves occasionally employ similarly unsystematic mod-
13. On Abbilona: Tamoor Yoruba-Eleggua, OggUn, y Ochosi, this occurs about one minute,
thirty seconds into track 3.
14. Several such modulations can be heard on the album Conjunto FolkIorico Nacional, as
singers replace each other.
15. See his "Cantos para YemayA" on Conjunto Folk16rico Nacional.
ulations. Conversely, some musicians may regard such formal notions as

artificial and unnecessary. Thus, while Oquendo (2006), who is also
learned in Western music and theory, certainly maintains tonal continu-
ity in the modulations on his coproduced Raices Habaneras album,16 when
asked about the preferability of such "logical" modulations, he replied:
"No, don't do that. Let the transitions themselves carry you. If you think
about it, they won't come naturally. Let your own musicality be the
guide. [The approach to modulation] depends on the apkwon. You can
start singing, using a tonal center as a connecting thread, and pass
through different melodies to return to the same central. And no, it's not
a question of one akpwon being good and another one bad."
Of course, lead singers are often obliged to make near instantaneous
musical decisions regarding which type of modal modulation to use.
Thus, they may develop some sense of relative or even absolute pitch
based on years of sensing effects of singing certain songs in certain ranges
and may accordingly develop personal aesthetic norms and preferences
for such modulations. Further, if an akpwon consistently uses specific dif-
ferent types of modal modulation either on a given occasion, between the
same two songs on different occasions, or between songs in a tratado (thus
changing their order), it stands to reason that some sense of modal/tonal
rules, however intuitive, is at work. The fact that an akpwon might criti-
cize a colleague for using an undesirable modulation also suggests that
aesthetic and musical criteria may be present, even if not articulated in
formal terms. It should be remembered that an akpwon (who is more often
male than female) is not merely a mechanical ritual functionary but may
be appreciated for his strong voice, his ability to inspire participants, and,
in general, the musicality of his singing.
In general, the clear preference, whenever possible, is for modulation
to occur between modes sharing the same tonic, with relative modulation
using common pitches as a close second. Modulation using pivot notes
could be ranked as third in preference, especially insofar as it can be
effected smoothly. Ad hoc random modulations may be seen as undesir-
able by some singers-but not others-precisely because they call undue
attention to the issue of modal modulation and can sound dissonant.
One could speculate that such abrupt and "dissonant" shifts could
serve the purpose of alerting the chorus singers that the song is changing,
indicating that they should not repeat the old chorus but listen closely
and sing the new chorus at the new pitch that the akpwon demonstrates.
However, there are ways of accomplishing the same objective without
using abrupt modal modulations. Most commonly, the akpwon will signal
16. Rllices Habaneras: The Original Roots of Cuban Music.
62 BMRJournal
the new song by singing a moderately long "Eh!" syllable, as mentioned

above, on a relevant pitch to the new song. In cases where the melody
stresses the upper tonic, that pitch will be used for the signal. Alternately,
where the melody'S range descends to or below the lower tonic, the
upper fifth might be used. In cases where the melody only ascends to the
upper tonic for a short time, the signal might be given with the lower fifth
if it fits more comfortably within the akpw6n's range. If the same akpw6n
uses a signal on a different note to bring in the same song within the same
tratado on different occasions, it can be safely assumed that he or she is
aware of multiple techniques for such signaling.
Harmony
Harmony-especially in the form of singing in parallel thirds-is not

uncommon in Afro-Cuban traditional music, from ocha songs to rumba. It
is common in traditional music among some West African groups, such
as the Ewe. Three-part choral singing is also basic to Yoruba commercial
popular juju (inspired at least in part by Christian hymns), and Vincent
(2006b) notes that certain sorts of parallel harmonizations occur in other
kinds of Yoruba singing. Other researchers, however, note that polypho-
ny is largely uncharacteristic of most traditional Nigerian Yoruba music,
which is generally sung in unison or duplicated at the octave.17 Octave
duplication and unison singing are also the norm in modern Yoruba
apala, as in more Muslim-oriented musics like fuji and sakara.
Correspondingly, it may be said that Afro-Cuban ritual singing, except in
more Westernized productions, is essentially and structurally mono-
phonic, although one or more singers may add parallel harmonies. In this
sense, it differs from, for example, traditional secular Ewe singing, not to
mention Yoruba juju music.
In general, harmony is more common among folkloric groups, such as
perform on stage and occasionally on recordings. Their performances are
more likely to be rehearsed rather than spontaneous, and their aesthetic
may be more informed by a desire to sound professional, with an elabo-
rated and timbrally rich sound. Some groups, however, may reserve har-
monization for certain genres. Thus, for example, most of the commer-
cially available recordings of Santeria songs by the Conjunto Folkl6rico
Nacional of Cuba (and all the Abbilona series) are sung in strict unison,
17. Euba (1967, 66), who discusses polyphonic singing among the Ijesha Yoruba, states
that polyphony "is almost entirely absent in traditional [Yoruba] folk songs and is probably
restricted to a small section of the Yoruba community." Jones (1959, 224) also classifies
Yoruba traditional singing as predominantly unison.
Manuel and Piol • Mode, Melody, and Harmony 63
while their recordings of other genres-such as the Abakua song salida de

Eft-feature voices in parallel thirds.
In the more quintessential and traditional context of a toque de santo, in
which various nonprofessional participants sing and dance with the goal
of bringing down an orisha, singing in harmony is less common, but it is
certainly not unusual. Katherine Hagedorn (2006) notes of Cuban toques,
"If the drummers and singers can lead the rest of the adherents in this
type of response, it's more likely to happen, and people will follow
along." Otherwise, singing in harmony depends on the presence of one
or more vocalists with the particular sort of musicality and enthusiasm to
undertake adding a second part. 18 Maria Teresa Velez (2006) observed
that in New York City casas de santo (houses of the saints), practices can
vary considerably in accordance with the ethnic make-up or musical
background of regular participants. While Velez's teacher and primary
informant, Felipe Garda Villamil (of Matanzas), promoted a more tradi-
tional unison style of singing, in other casas, vocalists-especially, per-
haps, Puerto Ricans-may feel free to add terceras de borrachos (literally,
thirds sung by drunkards) just as they may in singing other genres. In
other cases, de facto harmonization may result if singers duplicate a
melodic line at a pitch more comfortable to them than that of the akpw6n
(Velez 2006). In general, people harmonize if they know how, whether or
not they are part of folkloric ensembles, and their singing may be appre-
ciated by others as clever and pleasing. Alternately, a few people might
object, and someone (depending in part on their social status) might
sometimes be discreetly asked to refrain from harmonizing depending on
the lead singer's preferences and mood. Such disapproval could be based
on purely musical aesthetics or it could motivated by an Africanist
purism and the sense that harmony sounds gallego-that is, stuffy,
European, and inappropriately "pretty." Hence, for example, in 2004
Martica Galarraga told Vincent (2006b) that ocha songs should not be har-
monized in ceremonies but should be sung in unison, harmonization
being more redolent of staged folkloric presentations.19 Oquendo (2006),
by contrast, denies this notion, pointing out that harmony is widespread
in African music. Significantly, it is not considered appropriate to sup-
plement the bata drums with melodic instruments such as guitar in a
toque, nor do such instruments appear in a studio recording unless it is of
18. Thus, for example, in four of the Lucumi songs recorded by Lydia Cabrera in 1957 in
Havana, one hears a woman-presumably a particularly inspired and "musical" amateur-
harmonizing vocal lines in parallel thirds (Havana and Matanzas, Cuba, 1957: Batli, Bembe, and
Palo Songs, tracks 2-5).
19. Such disapproval was also noted in a New York dance group by ethnomusicologist
Sarah Trouslard (2006), whose interest in Afro-Cuban melody and mode helped inspire this
article.
64 BMRJournal
a self-consciously "fusion" nature. However, in other contexts the bare

percussion-and-voice combination is not considered sacrosanct; hence,
Oquendo, sitting informally with Manuel one afternoon, sang various
Santeria cantos while accompanying himself on guitar, adding sophisti-
cated jazz harmonies.
As with harmonizing other essentially monophonic music genres else-
where in the world, an added melodic line (or chordal accompaniment)
supplements and enriches, but it also detracts-that is, from the pure
modality of the original, and it can also obscure the melodic contour of
the original. Lazaro Ros (1996) expressed to Fiol such reasons for prefer-
ring unison singing, although a few of his own recordings contain promi-
nent, clearly rehearsed harmonizations. 2o Similarly, Oquendo (2006)
notes, "There's nothing deeper or more difficult than unison. Harmony
can add colors and nuances of shade, but to make a unison sound good,
it needs to be almost perfect. But people have different opinions."
Kevin Delgado (2006) suggests another possible advantage of unison
singing: In the Iyesa cabildo of Matanzas, the drums and cowbells tend to
drown out the singing, which is overwhelmingly in unison-the only for-
mat that stands a chance of being heard at all.
To some extent, more solemn songs are sung without harmony, while
"lighter" fare will use it freely.21 Delgado (2006) notes that veteran
Matanzas performers Esteban "Cha-Cha" Vega Bacallao (b. 1925) and
Francisco Aguabella only use harmonies in certain songs or in certain
places.
The types and degrees of harmonizations may vary. At one extreme are
the elaborate and rehearsed three-part voicings presented on some
recordings and in some formal performances by professional groups or
by groups assembled for such occasions, whether in Cuba, New York, or
elsewhere in the diaspora. 22 In most contexts, however, the harmoniza-
tion is much simpler and may be regarded as a decoration-typically by
adding a parallel voice a third higher-of a melodic line that remains
essentially modal and monophonic in conception and design. Such prac-
tices correspond to the common West African (implicitly, Akan) counter-
parts described by Nketia (1974, 160), in which "songs conceived of as
single lines of music may break here and there into two voices and then
return to the basic linear form .... This kind of organization, however, is
20. See, for example, tracks 1 and 6 on Cantos Arara: Asoyi.

21. To draw a parallel with North Indian music, it is analogous to the use of chordal
accompaniment on harmonium during the light-classical glulZill but not during the rigor-
ously classical khyal.
22. See, for example, Raices Habaneras and Emilio Barreto's Santisimo.
essentially linear rather than multilinear, and we may regard the inci-
dence of occasional heterophony as purely decorative."
Accordingly, in many cases in Afro-Cuban music, a singer will add an
upper third over a sustained note or over a passage that is relatively easy
to harmonize, while returning to unison (or perhaps "fudging" a harmo-
nization) when the melodic line becomes more active or challenging. The
practices, found in various places in Africa, of harmonizing in parallel
fourths, fifths, or even seconds, are not characteristic of Afro-Cuban
music. While seconds, fourths, and fifths may occasionally occur when
harmonizing Lucumi songs, they tend to be regarded as dissonances and
are often "corrected" to octaves, thirds, or unisons by knowledgeable
singers or drummers. Delgado (2006), however, observes that Bacallao
and Aguabella do not restrict their occasional harmonizing to parallel
thirds but occasionally sing more varied accompaniment patterns,
Bacallao claiming that such practices were traditional in his youth.
Furthermore, as might be expected in a genre with no explicit rules
regarding harmonization, and where enthusiastic group participation
may be more important than abstract "musicality," various harmonic
practices are encountered, some of which might be regarded as "out of
tune" by some musicians. As in other primarily monophonic folk song
genres (such as certain women's folksongs in North India), a singer lack-
ing an acute sense of pitch may duplicate the contour of a song, but at a
different pitch level, generating a certain sort of parallel polyphony, occa-
sionally at rather unlikely intervals inconsistent with more "polished"
performances. Not all musicians, however, find such singing incorrect or
objectionable, and it may well be considered inappropriate to ask an
enthusiastic singer---especially an established member of the communi-
ty-to refrain from singing.23
Since most of the melodies are pentatonic, harmonizing in parallel
thirds often involves adding notes of the heptatonic diatonic scale that
are foreign to the original melody's pentatonic scale. Examples 15 and 16
illustrate this process; Example 15, from Cabrera's 1957 recordings
(Havana and Matanzas, Cuba, 1957), shows a version of "Ide were were"
(see Ex. 2 and Ex. 3 for the original melody) in which the woman singing
in parallel thirds with the melody sings a d (marked by the asterisk in Ex.
15), which is extraneous to the "minor" pentatonic scale of the original
23. Some relatively extreme examples of this sort of "out-of-tune" singing can be heard
on the recording Vida y Muerte del Santero (EGREM CD 0191). On tracks 2 and 4, for exam-
ple, the coro and lead singer seem to have considerable difficulty matching pitches. Hearing
this, Oquendo (2006) agreed that the singing was markedly out of tune, but he also pointed
out that the lead singer is a babalao (priest), not an apk:w6n, and that the songs are prayers
(rezos) and ritual chants, not cantos sung at toques.
66 BMRJournal
Example 15. "Ide were were," harmonized (from Havana and Matanzas, Cuba
ca. 1957: Bata, Bembe, and Palo Songs)
:l.~ *
ItiP lY Ji Ji ~ ~ ~ ~ , , ~ Ii 1 Iji 1 i t ti jJ
~ ~~~d
.,
I-de we-re we-re ni'-ta 0 chu-n i-de we-re we-re
Example 16. "Oku6 ago lona," harmonized (from Antologia de la mlisica

Afrocubana, Vol. I: Viejos cantos afrocubanos)
o 1ru6 a-go lo-na e - O-du-o - dua e-ri'o-

o 1ru6 - a-go 10 - na
ma rc-re a-go-Io - DB a - re - mu O-du-du - a
II
e-ri'o ma re - re o 1ru6 a-go 10 - DB
o - a-golo-na
melody. Example 16 is a version of the chant to Odudua, "Oku6 ago lona"

(see Ex. 8 for the original melody); in this case, the prominent added note
is the aI. (minor sixth degree; indicated by an asterisk in Ex. 16).
While elaborate productions like the Emilio Barreto's recording
Santisimo can be seen to represent one sort of creolization of Afro-Cuban
music, other Cuban genres or subgenres represent other kinds of accul- II
turated" versions. In the 196Os, for example, Cuban singer Gina Martin
recorded several creolized versions of Santeria chants enhanced by two-
or three-part harmonies and light chordal piano or guitar accompani-
ment; Example 17 shows how the chorus adds notes from the hep~tonic
scale to the melody of the original pentatonic mode of the song liE
iyekua" (see Ex. 5).24
Creolized harmonizations are also found in the rumba columbia. Rumba,
in its traditional form, is a secular entertainment music and dance genre,
in which three congas, clave sticks, and palitos (little sticks) accompany
singing in Spanish. The vocal format is in three parts, beginning with a
few warm-up phrases (the diana) sung by the lead singer, which set the
24. On Afro-Cuba: A Musical Anthology. The original song is also transcribed in Altmann
(1998,42).
Example 17. Gina Martin, "E Iyekua" harmonized (from Afro-Cuba: A

Musical Anthology)
Solo G7 C C G7 C G7 C
I, Wit J J' J" J-.l. '. 'IJt J J"Il" J "1 JI i J'i J' J J J\I
E-e i-ye -!rua - a e-e i-ye-!rua ke-ye ke-ye rno-dan-se-O-
F C Com c
I' J JI Jd JI J J ' I'Si i' J', j
gUn
G7
a-la-do
C
lo-ri - sa
G7
e - e
C
i-ye ---
!rua
F
-
Ia
a
C
'. ,I
I"l i i J, j , , It J ~ J i' j j JII U J i' j Jlj j , I

e - e i-ye !rua ke-ye ke-ye rno-dan -se 0 - gUn a -la-do lo-ri - sa
tonality, followed by a section of verses (canto or largo) sung by the leader,

perhaps in harmony with another vocalist, and then a longer call-and-
response montuno section, which accompanies dancing. Of the three sur-
viving types of rumba, the guaguanco and yambu, which accompany cou-
ple dancing, are in quadruple meter, and their melodies and
harmonizations are essentially Western in style, according with standard
major and minor tonalities. The yambu is regarded as particularly
"Spanish" in flavor (although the percussive texture and absence of
melody instruments give both it and the guaguanco a thoroughly Afro-
Cuban sound). Of greater interest for our purposes is the rumba columbia,
whose modal melodies and polymetric rhythm (combining parts in" and
t) give it a distinctively and explicitly acknowledged "African" flavor.
Ivor Miller (2000, 174), for example, refers to the "easy oscillation
between Abakua chants and the rumba [columbia]," in that these two gen-
res share many melodies and other features. Melodies in a rumba colum-
bia are generally modal pentatonic, most typically using the thirdless
1-2-4-5-6 configuration. However, rumba nowadays is most often pub-
licly performed by folkloric groups, and the responsorial coros in the mon-
tuno are harmonized in two or three parts, which often involves adding
"extraneous" heptatonic notes. For example, in the familiar columbia
refrain "Malanga muri6" (commemorating the death of a famous rum-
hero), the montuno refrain melody might be typically harmonized as
shown in Example 18.25
25. See, for example, the version of this song on Afro-Cuba: A Musical Anthology.
68 BMRJournal
Example 18. "Malanga muri6"

Solo Coro
,J Jl JIll Ji Jl Jl' :15 :15 :15 I Jl) 141 ) , ' _I i l ill

U-niOO de Re-yes 1I0-rar por-que Ma -Ian-ga mu-ri6 U-niOO de
Re - yes 110 - rar por - que Ma - Ian - ga mu - rio
African Sources and the Cuban Counterpoint
Understanding the degree and kinds of preservation, creation, and ere-

olization that have occurred in Afro-Cuban music would require one or
more researchers thoroughly grounded in Cuban music to undertake a
comprehensive comparative study of related musical practices in West
Africa, especially Nigeria. The most extensive research of this sort has
been conducted by Amanda Vincent (2006), whose groundbreaking dis-
sertation, while focusing primarily on bata traditions, also sheds much
light on the relationships between Afro-Cuban and Yoruba song reper-
toires. A few other scholars have begun to explore connections between
other Afro-Cuban music traditions and their counterparts in Africa.26
However, much research remains to be done and continues to be imped-
ed by, among other things, the need for more published information
about Yoruba music, despite the extant publications of Euba (1967, 1990),
Thieme (1969), King (1961), Welch (1985, 2001), and a few others. There is,
for instance, no Yoruba counterpart to Altmann's (1998) invaluable com-
pendium of Santeria songs, such as could document diverse Nigerian
songs to Shango and other deities and enable transatlantic comparisons.
As Vincent (2006a, chapter 5) stresses, one of the challenges involved in
making such cross-cultural connections is that both Santeria music and
related traditional Yoruba musics have been changing constantly since
the nineteenth-century contact period. Discourse by Nigerians and
Cubans interested in these matters tends to emphasize either the ways
that Cubans have changed or lost original traditions or, alternately, the
ways in which they have preserved, as marginal survivals, elements lost
in Nigeria,27 Both sets of traditions have sustained their own forms of
26. Particularly noteworthy is the work of Ivor Miller (2000, 2(05), on Abakua music and
African Calabari music.
27. "Such "marginal survivals" can occur even in the secondary diaspora. Although one
must hesitate to generalize, California-based bata player Carlos Aldama (1997) opines that
at toques in the United States, coras are sung more avidly than they are in Cuba. Cornelius
(1991) has also commented on the more conservative style of New York bata drummers,
"loss" and decline, while at the same time evolving in dynamic and cre-
ative ways. Hence, as Vincent emphasizes, the discovery of a Cuban cog-
nate to a Nigerian song or rhythm indicates remarkable retention not
only on the Cuban side, but on the African side as well.
In Nigeria, changes in the realm of traditional Yoruba music include
the evident decline of some song and drum repertoires, as knowledge-
able elders pass away without transmitting their repertoire; the negative
effects of the spread of both Christianity and Islam on traditional religion
and music; and the tendency, noted as early as 1961 (King 1961, 1; see also
Euba 1990, 33-35), to replace the bata drums by the dundun pressure
drums, which, with their flexible head tension governed by cords com-
pressed by the player's arm, are in some ways better able to "talk," that
is, to replicate the tonal speech patterns of spoken or sung Yoruba.
The changes on the Cuban side are perhaps more obvious. On the most
general level, these include the destruction of traditional social hierar-
chies in which religion was embedded, the consolidation of the worship
of diverse deities into a unified Santeria pantheon, and the decline of
comprehension of spoken Lucumi, and the concomitant decline in the
extent to which the bata drums can encode intelligible speech.
Such changes and challenges, whether in reference to melody, mode,
rhythm, repertoire, or other aspects, pose considerable problems to
answering some of the most basic questions regarding the history of
Afro-Cuban traditional music. What was created in Cuba? What was
transmitted intact from Africa? What are the precise sources of the songs,
rhythms, and other features that did derive from Africa? What sorts of
intra-ethnic neo-African consolidations or creolizations took place in
Cuba? When did the diverse repertoires and practices of Afro-Cuban
liturgical musics become standardized? Was this standardization the
result of a general coalescence of diverse practices of the ilu orisha (com-
munity of orisha worshipers), or did it derive from the energies of a very
few influential individuals?28 In this article, we cannot address these and
other questions but instead comment on a few aspects of preservation
and creolization in terms of song repertoire and style.
Extant recordings of traditional Yoruba religious songs, such as David
derived in part from mid-twentieth-century sources like the transcriptions in Fernando

Ortiz's books (e.g., 1975, 1985). Fermin Nani told Vmcent (2006b) that the way Havana
drummers are playing, "in ten years there won't be any drum language left" and the tradi-
tion might continue intact only in Miami and San Francisco.
28. Sublette (2004, 222-223), for instance, cites the importance of African-born Cuban
slave Adechina (or Remigio Herrera, d. 1905), who returned to Yorubaland, studied Ha div-
ination, and then returned to Cuba, where he introduced and standardized many aspects of
that tradition.
\
70 BMRJoumal
Welch's (1970--1971) field recordings of Shango music, document a music

practice that resembles traditional oeha music in its monophony, its occa-
sional use of the four modes described above, the appearance of melodic
leaps rather than strictly stepwise motion, a predominantly syllabic
rather than melismatic style, and a few other general and specific fea-
tureS.29 All of these features-including the pronounced penchant for
melodic leaps, the often ambiguous sense of tonicity, and the wide-
ranged gapped pentatonic melodies-are also evident in recordings of
apala, a modem Yoruba commercial popular music featuring mixed solo
and unison choral singing over lively dundun drumming. More signifi-
cant, in her extensive fieldwork on both sides of the Atlantic, Vincent
(2006) discovered several songs in the Santeria music repertoire that were
clear cognates of Nigerian Yoruba ones and were recognized as such by
informants, who also characterized a few Santeria cantos as archaic songs
largely forgotten in Nigeria.
While such correspondences are remarkable, they are in many respects
offset by changes both in Nigeria and in Cuba; as fluency in Yoruba
dialects declined there, texts and melodies "degraded" or otherwise
changed, traditions became mixed and creolized, and creative Cuban
musicians introduced their own alterations, whether for purely musical
or otherwise functional reasons.
Comparison of extant documentation of the two repertoires yields a
superficial, yet perhaps not entirely inaccurate, impression that, com-
pared with Yoruba traditional music, oeha music has become very regu-
larized, with a standardized repertoire of songs using clear responsorial
patterns over relatively fixed rhythms, with clear and consistent
melodies, modes, and melodic intervals. As Vincent (2006b) remarks of
the post-1960s folkloricization of Cuban orisha music, "Material was san-
itized, tidied up, and packaged in three-part harmony."
The regularization and consolidation that evidently occurred in oeha
music also can be seen as related to another general process, by which a
decline in text orientation led to a greater emphasis on and cultivation of
purely musical aspects. Such a process is most evident in the realm of
drumming, but it may also have stimulated a certain sort of refinement,
elaboration, and foregrounding of the song repertoire as well. Some such
processes can be seen as typical of diasporic dynamics and invite striking
comparison with the evolution of another diasporic Caribbean tradition,
namely, the "local classical music" (or "tan-singing") of Trinidad and
Guyana. As with oeha music, the decline in comprehension of traditional
song texts-in this case, in Hindi-led to a more intensified cultivation of
29. See also Akpabot (1986, 5S-59, 102-105) and Euba (1990).
purely musical, and especially rhythmic, aspects of the inherited music

tradition (see Manuel 2000, 83).
Such regularization can be seen as a corollary to another basic and
more self-evident process that took place in oeha music and in Santeria in
general, namely, the consolidation of diverse Yoruba repertoires and
practices. Although, in Nigeria, devotees of different orishas intermarry
and move freely among various cults depending on region or family cir-
cumstance, there is much greater regional variety in Yoruba than in
Cuban orisha worship. Thus, there may be more perceptible similarities
between Havana and Matanzas bata playing and singing than between
Ijebu and Oy6 regions in Nigeria. Cuban Santeria not only consolidates
the worship of orishas into a unified polytheistic religion, but it also con-
solidates repertoires of odu and oriki song and surrogate-speech texts into
a relatively unified corpus whose main regional "accents" or "dialects"
are Havana and Matanzas. Hence, there has been a musical correlate to
what Ned Sublette (2004, 230) refers to as the "collapse of spiritual geog-
raphy of Yorubaland into a tiny space in a labor camp."
Such consolidation-involving a sort of musical creolization between
practices of distinct West African origin-dearly occurred with the song
repertoire. One sort of consolidation would have taken place within
Yoruba-derived musics in Cuba, when, for example, a melody used for
one Yoruba orisha-perhaps derived from a specific cult or isolated vil-
lage tradition in Yorubaland-would become an element of a unified oeha
music repertoire. Thus, we see the use of interpolated oriki praise texts in
the akpw6n arsenal as well as the use of melodies from songs for specific
orishas called to serve double or triple duty to different texts for other
orishas, in ways that may not have occurred in Yorubaland. Similarly, we
have also mentioned the incorporation of Iyesa Yoruba songs into the
Santeria repertoire. Accordingly, as Vincent (2006a, 250) observes, most of
the songs accompanied by bata drums in Cuba are not associated with
the bata drums in Nigeria and may derive from other repertoire sources,
such as hunters' oral literature, Shango pipe songs, EgUngUn oral litera-
ture, and other regional genres. On the whole, as she notes, the baM
drums generally do not accompany song in OyO-style traditional
Nigerian music, especially since the speech they encode tends to be more
intelligible to listeners, such that the presence of a texted vocal line would
be tantamount to having two people talking at once. The consolidation
process is also reflected in the Afro-Cuban practice of stringing songs
together in a tratado suite-an entity that does not appear to have a dose
Yoruba counterpart, and which, accordingly, has been given a Spanish
rather than a Yoruba name. 30
30. Hence, the question of proper and improper manners of modulating between songs
72 BMRJoumal
Another sort of consolidation and syncretism involves the incorpora-

tion into ocha music of melodies and other features from non-Yoruba
sources (see Vincent 2006a, 250). In Cuba, for instance, Dahomey songs
and rhythms began to be incorporated into the bata-based repertoire of
ocha music. Finally, a third level of consolidation evidently occurred in
the form of selective incorporation of European melodic features and per-
haps even actual melodies in some cantos, as is likely in the case of songs
like "Kai Kai Kai," with its heptatonic major scale and dearly arpeggiat-
ed tonic-dominant harmonies. Melodically, the seeming contradiction
between formalized modal and tonal structures in Europe and informal,
largely pentatonic structures in West Africa has led to the current ere-
olized mixture of both organizational melodic systems in the vocal reper-
toire of liturgical and secular music.
The introduction of two- and three-part harmony to Santeria cantos is a
particularly obvious form of creolization involving Western musical
influences. As we have noted, several kinds of Nigerian music do use
harmony, but they tend to be more modem genres like juju, not tradi-
tional liturgical chant, which remains overwhelmingly monophonic.
Accordingly, much Afro-Cuban music remains largely neo-African in its
persistence of unison singing and avoidance of overt forms of
Westernization. Furthermore, as we have suggested, a Cuban singer's
informal addition of a melodic line in parallel thirds at a toque may be
regarded as an informal decoration of a melody that remains essentially
monophonic and modal in conceptual structure. However, when profes-
sional folkloric musicians well versed in Western music arrange polished
three-part harmonies on recordings like Barreto's New York-produced
Santisimo, not to mention when Gina Martin adds chordal piano accom-
paniment to Santeria chants, one must conclude that a fundamentally
chordal conception of music has been introduced. In the case of folkloric
group renditions as on Santisimo, the chords may constitute parallel dia-
tonic entities rather than tonal harmonies based on Western common
practice; nevertheless, a tonal conception is obvious in settings like those
of Martin or of David Oquendo as he strums jazz harmonies while
singing cantos.
In the evident eclecticism of its repertoire, its incorporation of chordal
harmony, and other innovations, Santeria music has become in many
respects a more overtly creolized, hybrid, and syncretic entity than are
Yoruba bata music and liturgical chant. It is perhaps ironic, as Vmcent
may not have such relevance in Yoruba musical practice. Nonetheless, some sort of a suite
can be heard on Chief Bolu Fatunmise's recording Festival of Deities, and suites of songs can
also occur in modem juju and apala.
(2006a, 285) notes, that while Yoruba traditional music is in many respects
declining, Cuban oeha music is thriving, not only in Cuba but also inter-
nationally. To some extent, its dissemination is certainly aided by its
being situated in the modem West, where enthusiasts can produce and
use compact discs, MP3 files, websites, and cottage publications like
Altmann's (1998) compendium to document and share resources. At the
same time, the processes of creollzation discussed here-including the
addition of harmonies, the regularizing and standardization of reper-
toire, and perhaps, the more abstractly "musical" rather than liturgical
text-based orientation-undoubtedly not only reflect a Westernizing,
modernizing influence but make the music more appealing and
amenable to being spread in the West.
The study of melody and mode in Afro-Cuban music can serve to illus-
trate, at the very least, how generations of Afro-Cuban musicians have
been able to retain pronounced and specific Old World features while
consolidating them and using them as bases for the formation of a unique
repertoire. If many aspects of the diasporic dynamics involved remain
enigmatic, the resulting music itself reveals how performers can maintain
a conservative adherence to tradition while creatively constructing-
whether self-consciously or not-a distinctive and original music of
extraordinary richness.
While assuming full responsibility for the contents of this article, the authors wish to
thank Amanda Vincent for her extensive and insightful comments on an earlier draft and
for providing us with useful materials, especially her outstanding dissertation. Gratitude is
also due to David Welch for facilitating acquisition of his field recordings and to David
Oquendo and the other informants cited.
DISCOGRAPHY
Abbilona Tambor Yoruba. O.K. Records CD9549. Compact discs (1999).

Abbilona: Tambor Yoruba-Eleggua, OggUn, y Ochosi. OK Records CD-9546. Compact disc.
Afro-Cuba: A musical anthology. Rounder CD 1088.
Antologfa de la musica afrocubana: Vol. I: Vzejos cantos afrocubanos. Egrem LD-3325.
Antologfa de la musica afrocubana: Vol. IV: Mlisica AraTit Egrem LD-3996.
Barreto, Emilio. Santisimo. Luz Records LUZ 0001 (1997).
Conjunto Folkl6rico Nacional. Areito 3564.
Fatunmise, Bolu. Festival of deities. !fa Orisha Records. Compact disc.
Grupo Folkl6rico de Cuba (Conjunto Folkl6rico Nacional). Toques y cantos de Santos.
Cubilandia 513.
Havana and Matanzas, Cuba, 1957: BaM, Bembe, and Palo songs. Smithsonian Folkways SFW
CD 40434.
Larduet, Abelardo. Vida y muerte del Santero. EGREM CD 0191.
Raices Habanera. The original roots of Cuban music. Universal 067750303-2.
Ros, Lazaro.Cantos AraTa: Asayi. OK Records CD-9476.
74 BMRJoumal
- - . Orisha Aye. Unicomio 6018 (2001).
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Aldama, Carlos. 1997. Interview with Orlando Fiol. New York, Sept.
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Amira, John, and Steven Cornelius. 1992. The music of Santeria: Traditional rhythms of the baM
drums. Crown Point, Ind.: White Cliffs Media.
Cornelius, Steven. 1991. Drumming for the orishas: Reconstruction of tradition in New York
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Manuel, 137-156. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America.
Delgado, Kevin. 2006. E-mail correspondence with Peter Manuel, Sept.
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Music Council 19: 66-71.
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Galarraga, Lazaro. 1998. Interview with Orlando Fiol. New Jersey, May.
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Jairazbhoy, Nazir. 1971. The rags of North Indian music: Their structure and evolution.
Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press.
Jones, A.M. 1959. Studies in African music. Vol. 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Kubik, Gerhard. 1999. Africa and the blues. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
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Mode, Melody, and Harmony in Afrocuban Folcloric Music PDF

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MODE, MELODY, AND HARMONY IN TRADITIONAL AFRO-CUBAN MUSIC: FROM AFRICA TO C

Peter Manuel; Orlando Fiol

MODE, MELODY, AND HARMONY IN TRADITIONAL

PETER MANUEL and ORLANDO FIOL

Afro-Cuban traditional music constitutes one of the richest musical

1. Alan Merriam's (1951) dissertation, "Songs of the Afro-Bahian Cults: An

Cuban music to African sources, as well as for a better understanding of

Afro-Cuban Vocal Music

and melodic forms of obvious West African derivation. The best-known

Mode and Melody in Ritual Music

Insofar as Afro-Cuban ritual musics include genres of diverse ethnic

4. Nketia numbers the scale degrees differently, as "1-2-3-4-5" in each case.

Example 1: Basic Afro-Cuban modes

Example 2. "Ide were were" (transcription by the author, Fiol)

Example 3. "Ide were were" (transcription by Altmann 1998,242)

Example 4. Arara "Toque y canto a Ferekete" (from Antologia de la Musica

The common song "E Iyekua," to Ogtin, shown in Example 5, illustrates

Example 5. liE IyekUlf' (adapted from Altmann 1998, 42)

14 J J ;191J.]lJ.JllJ J ~I";;JIII'J' JJ'JhJH1

Example 7. "Iya ma se 10 bi Chang6" (adapted from Altmann 1998, 145)

I~ 'HI~ P II: JIJ1J'

I - ya ma - se 10 bl Chan g6 I - ya rna - se 10 bl Chan g6 bog bo-a

is otherwise the "minor" anhemitonic pentatonic mode (c-e'.-f-g~). The

Example 8. "Oku6 ago lana"

I ~ n(h IF r r I F r r I pIa" I. a a I n aJI

re a-go 10 - na a - re mil 0 - du~u - a

Example 9. "¥emaya asesu"

Example 10. "Kai Kai Kai"

14. a a J • 1),),(3 J J IJ J J. IJ\J1J1Jd J

Example 11. "Macuta canto de Palo"

Ya-yan-do mi Se-ve-ri-na pa-Io ya yan do mi Se-vc - ri - na-we

Many Santeria songs consist essentially of call-and-response, in which

Eleggua-ade masankio"-all in the "minor" pentatonic mode 3 (see Ex.

O-cho-si a - yi-Io - dB a-la-rna la de I ya 0 de sa ga lea re-

143 • J I J'$3 ' I' JL'PJd lalJ J JqJ • J IJU)J' I

Example 13. "Ag6 Eleggua bukenke"

Example 14. Modulation from "Abukenke" to "Beni beni mabe eshuo"

14"3 jd J J 3 1;, J J JI IJiJIJd l DU)J)' 3 jll

J I J J J dUJI J' J' .P Jl, I. , an} Jl I

14JIJI 5])J",;ljUljl,I'DJIJIJI IJ Jd Jq~J J •

common to both modes. Several such modulations can be heard in the

ulations. Conversely, some musicians may regard such formal notions as

16. Rllices Habaneras: The Original Roots of Cuban Music.

the new song by singing a moderately long "Eh!" syllable, as mentioned

Harmony-especially in the form of singing in parallel thirds-is not

while their recordings of other genres-such as the Abakua song salida de

a self-consciously "fusion" nature. However, in other contexts the bare

20. See, for example, tracks 1 and 6 on Cantos Arara: Asoyi.

Example 16. "Oku6 ago lona," harmonized (from Antologia de la mlisica

o 1ru6 a-go lo-na e - O-du-o - dua e-ri'o-

ma rc-re a-go-Io - DB a - re - mu O-du-du - a

melody. Example 16 is a version of the chant to Odudua, "Oku6 ago lona"

Example 17. Gina Martin, "E Iyekua" harmonized (from Afro-Cuba: A

I"l i i J, j , , It J ~ J i' j j JII U J i' j Jlj j , I

tonality, followed by a section of verses (canto or largo) sung by the leader,

Example 18. "Malanga muri6"

,J Jl JIll Ji Jl Jl' :15 :15 :15 I Jl) 141 ) , ' _I i l ill

Re - yes 110 - rar por - que Ma - Ian - ga mu - rio

African Sources and the Cuban Counterpoint

Understanding the degree and kinds of preservation, creation, and ere-

derived in part from mid-twentieth-century sources like the transcriptions in Fernando

Welch's (1970--1971) field recordings of Shango music, document a music

purely musical, and especially rhythmic, aspects of the inherited music