Guaguancó (pronounced as /es/) is a subgenre of Cuban rumba, combining percussion, voices, and dance. There are two main styles: Havana and Matanzas.
Other instruments may be used on occasion, for example spoons, palitos (wooden sticks striking the side of the drum), and tables and walls played like drums.
Rumba clave is the key pattern (guide pattern) used in guaguancó. There is some debate as to how the 4/4 rumba clave should be notated for guaguancó.[1] In actual practice, the third and fourth stroke often fall in rhythmic positions that do not fit neatly into music notation.[2] Triple-pulse strokes can be substituted for duple-pulse strokes. Also, the clave strokes are sometimes displaced in such a way that they don't fall within either a triple-pulse or duple-pulse "grid".[3] Therefore, many variations are possible.
The guagua pattern (also known as palitos, or cáscara) contains all of the strokes of clave.
The following nine-measure excerpt is from the guaguancó “La polémica" by Los Muñequitos de Matanzas (1988).[4] This passage moves between the main modes of playing (A,B,C). The A section is the basic lock or ride, as it is known in North America. It spans one clave (measure). An alternate phrase (B) is also one measure in length. Cross-beats, the basis of the third section (C), contradict the meter. By alternating between the lock and the cross, the quinto creates larger rhythmic phrases that expand and contract over several clave cycles. The great Los Muñequintos quintero Jesús Alfonso (1949–2009) described this phenomenon as a man getting "drunk at a party, going outside for a while, and then coming back inside."[5]
The term guaguancó originally referred to a narrative song style (coros de guaguancó) which emerged from the coros de claves of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Rogelio Martínez Furé states: "[The] old folks contend that strictly speaking, the guaguancó is the narrative."[6] The guaguancó song often begins with the soloist singing meaningless syllables, which is called the diana. According to Larry Crook, the diana is important because it "... also contains the first choral refrain. The lead singer provides a phrase or motive for the choral sections, or they may present new, but related material. Parallel harmonies are usually built above or below a melodic line, with thirds, sixths, and octaves most common."[7] Therefore, the singer who is presented with singing the diana initiates the beginning of the guaguancó. He then may proceed to improvise lyrics stating the reason for holding the present rumba ('decimar'; span.: to make ten-line stanzas), During the verses of the song the quinto is capable of sublime creativity, while musically subordinate to the lead vocalist. There are natural pauses in the cadence of the verses, typically one or two measures in length, where the quinto can play succinct phrases in the "holes" left by the singer. Once the chorus (or montuno section) of the song begins, the phrases of the quinto interact with the dancers more than the lead singer.
Guaguancó is an Afro Cuban couple dance of sexual competition between the male and female. The male periodically attempts to "catch" his partner with a single thrust of his pelvis. This erotic movement is called the vacunao (‘vaccination’ or more specifically ‘injection’), a gesture derived from yuka and makuta [dances], symbolizing sexual penetration. The vacunao can also be expressed with a sudden gesture made by the hand or foot. The quinto often accents the vacunao, usually as the resolution to a phrase spanning more than one cycle of clave. Holding onto the ends of her skirt while seductively moving her upper and lower body in contrary motion, the female "opens" and "closes" her skirt in rhythmic cadence with the music. The male attempts to distract the female with fancy (often counter-metric) steps, accented by the quinto, until he is in position to "inject" her. The female reacts by quickly turning away, bringing the ends of her skirts together, or covering her groin area with her hand (botao), symbolically blocking the "injection." Most of the time the male dancer does not succeed in "catching" his partner. The dance is performed with good-natured humor—David Peñalosa.[8]
Vernon Boggs states that the woman's "dancing expertise resides in her ability to entice the male while skillfully avoiding being touched by his vacunao."[9] The pattern of quinto strokes and the pattern of the man's dance steps are at times identical, and at other times, imaginatively matched. The quinto player must be able to switch phrases immediately in response to the dancer’s ever-changing steps.