Cuba's national dance is the product of centuries of evolution and transformation, from its roots in the French contredanse to its spawning of the mambo and the cha-cha-chá. Considered part of Cuba's classical music lineage—and one of the primary ancestors of popular music on the island, the danzón represents a bygone era yet remains connected to its musical family throughout the Americas.
In 17th-century France and England, court dances were common practice among the social elite. The French contresanse and the English country-dance both became primordial influences in Cuban culture as Europeans went west to the Caribbean. In Cuba, the contredanse became the contradanza criolla (Creole contredanse), and by the late 18th century the style was adopted and the word "criolla" was dropped. The first instrumental group to play contradanzas was the orquesta típica, consisting of woodwinds, brass, strings, the tympani and the Cuban gourd scraper known as the güiro. A signature element in the music is a five-note rhythmical pattern called the cinquillo, which came into Eastern Cuba at the turn of the 19th century after Haitian Creoles fled the turmoil of Haiti's revolution (in 1791). The structure of the dance contained two or three brief segments, each one repeated in a jaunty tempo. In the early 19th century the style slowed down and added a section, elongating the form and turning into the danza.
An important aspect of the danza was the creative interplay that took place among musicians in the introduction section (called the paseo or promenade), which would repeat after each of the individual segments had finished, allowing for the dance couples to change partners. This musical structure is known as ritornello or rondo, and was a common feature in several European forms of the day as well. These slightly improvisational elements were clearly a reflection of the gradual "creolization" of this European-derived form, which was inevitable given that many of the players were of African origin and began to incorporate their own musical sensibilities to the style. Another predecessor to the danzón was the Cuban habanera, which followed in the lineage from the earlier contradanza and danza, and became one of the world's most popular forms, inspiring European composers (such as Bizet, whose opera "Carmen" featured the Cuban style) and serving as an important ancestor to the tango in Buenos Aires.
In 1879, Miguel Faílde composed the first danzón. It featured an addition to the ritornello structure with another segment, slowed down the tempo and further emphasized the cinquillo pattern throughout the song. Then, in 1910, José Urfé incorporated improvisational and repetitive elements from the Creole son to a new section of the danzón, which established its format until the late 1930s. Another important development was the creation of a new type of instrumentation called the charanga francesa (and later, simply charanga), which went on to become the preferred orchestral ensemble for the danzón. The charanga at that time consisted of one flute, two or more violins, piano, double bass, tympani and the güiro. By the late 1930s, several important changes took place in the evolution of the danzón, including: the creation of a new Cuban drum derived from the tympani called the timbales (now a standard instrument throughout the music world); the addition to the ensemble of a conga drum (which further represented the African and Creole influences); and the addition of a final section to the structure, resulting in its final format.
One of the premiere charanga orchestras of the time was that of flutist Antonio Arcaño, and it was within his group that the above-mentioned developments took shape. Among the members of the group were brothers Orestes and Israel "Cachao" López, and together they began exploring the possibility of adding the improvisational and repetitive elements of Cuba's Creole son music to the newest segment of the danzón. At first this new section was referred to as nuevo ritmo (new rhythm) and, later, mambo. The word mambo would encounter several transformations in the decades to follow, but it was within the danzón that it first emerged in Cuba. This highly syncopated and repetitive part stimulated dancers to create a new step, one in which they would scrape their feet on the floor in time with the conga drum; we would come to know this dance as the cha-cha-chá, but it wouldn't get its name until 1951. Until then, all danzones would then be referred to as danzón-mambo. As the final touches were made to this musical legacy, the new section became an independent style—named in 1951 by violinist Enrique Jorrín, and singers were added to the charanga orchestra as the cha-cha-chá became a vocal style as well as one of the most popular dances of the 20th century. Rebeca Mauleon
