Montuno

The Montuno ( Spanish : from the mountain ) denotes an instrumental part in Cuban music ; also a dance style of son .

origin

The term Montuno refers to the eastern part of Cuba, interspersed with mountain ranges : the Sierra Maestra , which runs between Cabo Cruz and the port of Santiago along the south coast and borders the valley of the Rio Cauto to the north, and extends further east into the Sierra de Cristal , in the area between Mayarí, Guantánamo and Baracoa with the highest peaks in Cuba ( Pico Turquino , Pico Martí and La Gran Piedra). In the real sense, however, it is not so much the mountain ranges that are meant, but the remote mountain regions and impassable areas of land in which only a few campesinos live. Montuno - rural - is in contrast to Urbano ( Spanish : urban ).

meaning

Montuno is a Cuban word creation that does not exist anywhere else in Spanish. The special semantics of the word are revealed when you listen to the different connotations :

The first settlers to settle in the east of the island were mostly of Spanish origin; they came either from Andalusia or from the Canary Islands . At the same time, the east of Cuba is geographically close to Haiti . During the uprising against the French colonial power in 1791, many black farm workers fled from Haiti to the neighboring island of Cuba and brought their drum rhythms with the associated customs, chants and dances. Over time, these mingled with the guitar music of the Spanish farmers. It was here that such important Cuban rhythms as the danzón and the son were born . The Montuno stands for origin and originality. Here in the east one finds the traditional family structures with their communal festivals; this is where the real roots of Cuban music lie .
A rural group of instruments dedicated to the son consisted of three musicians traveling through the country with tres , güiro and bongos . Cuban townspeople despised this as poor. It was only in the city salons that they were pepped up into a stately conjunto . When it comes to dancing, the urban Urbano stands for elegance and style. The man leads the woman around him discreetly with sensual movements. In Montuno , on the other hand, you dance with your whole body: shoulders, head, knees and a lot of upper body and arm movements. He looks playful. Dance figures are often called montunos if they contain jumping elements. When dancing, the Montuno is often perceived as simple and gross.

In Danzón the fourth and last part is called Montuno . This consists of an accelerated finale in which all topics and quotes from the previous parts are mixed up again. In the 1930s, a hybrid of Danzón and Son, the Son montuno , emerged in Cuba . It consists only of two parts, a vocal part with chorus and stanzas and an instrumental and rhythm part. The latter is the Montuno . Here the rhythm is turned up and the listener really heated up again. The instruments improvise in free solos . Montuno stands for joie de vivre and free musical play.

Montuno describes the pattern of Cuban music in the piano and guitar part.