tahona

{{infobox music genre|name=Tahona

|color=

|stylistic_origins=18th century Afro-Haitian music and early tumbas francesas

|cultural_origins=Early 19th century in Oriente, Cuba

|instruments=Tahona drums, tumbadoras, tambora, bimba, tragaleguas, hierros, chachá or maruga, claves, marímbula

|subgenres=

|derivatives=

|regional_scenes=Santiago de Cuba

}}

Tahona, alternatively spelled tajona due to its pronunciation or taona, is a secular style of Afro-Cuban music developed in the 19th century in Santiago de Cuba after the arrival of Haitian slaves following the Haitian Revolution. It is named after the ensembles and the drums played by them. It is considered one of the oldest styles within the rumba complex, and its performance became rare by the 20th century.

History

The word "tahona" initially described a type of single-headed hand drum with a body made of a wooden barrel and a goatskin head, larger than the tumbadora (conga drum).{{cite book|author1=Ortiz, Fernando|authorlink1=Fernando Ortiz Fernández|title=Los instrumentos de la música afrocubana, Vol. IV|date=1954|publisher=Cárdenas y cía|location=Havana, Cuba|page=109}} The ensembles, and ultimately the music itself, also adopted the term tahona.{{cite book|last1=Orovio|first1=Helio|title=Cuban Music from A to Z|date=2004|publisher=Tumi|location=Bath, UK|page=208|isbn=0822332124|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XGzKzOH9vawC}} As a genre, tahona is considered a style of Cuban rumba, and together with yambú it is one of the oldest.{{cite book|last1=Miller|first1=Ivor|title=Voice of the Leopard: African Secret Societies and Cuba|date=2009|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|location=Jackson, MS|page=159|isbn=9781934110836|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FRUgAU2Z2-MC}} However, it differs from the canonical rumba styles in the fact that it developed in the eastern part of Cuba, the Oriente Province, due to the immigration of Haitian slaves following the Haitian Revolution of the 1790s. Thus, tahona exhibits similarities to tumba francesa (another Afro-Cuban style imported by Haitians) and conga (a style of street music developed in Santiago de Cuba).{{cite book|last1=Ramos Venereo|first1=Zobeyda|editor1-last=Kuss|editor1-first=Malena|title=Music in Latin America and the Caribbean: An Encyclopedic History, Vol. 2|date=2007|publisher=University of Texas Press|location=Austin, TX|pages=265–280|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uspTNzJ_NoYC|chapter=Haitian Traditions in Cuba|isbn=9780292784987}}

Initially, tahonas were holiday dances performed by the slaves and their descendants, later turning into "rural congas" (Afro-Cuban parades) performed during carnival celebrations. The instrumentation of these parades in the 1860s revolved around two tahonas often called huecos ("hollow"), which are tuned in high and low registers, and two tamboras (a bass drum also found in tumba francesa). The different tahona drums are called repique (drumroll) and fondo (background). When the tahona ensembles participated in carnival parades they added one or two tumbadoras, hierros (iron idiophones), trumpet and saxophone. According to Harold Courlander, in Matanzas, tahonas were performed on two tumbadoras, claves and marímbula.{{cite journal|author1=Courlander, Harold|authorlink1=Harold Courlander|title=Musical Instruments of Cuba|journal=The Musical Quarterly|date=1942|volume=28|issue=2|pages=238–239|doi=10.1093/mq/XXVIII.2.227|url=http://mq.oxfordjournals.org/content/XXVIII/2/227.abstract}} According to Fernando Ortiz, tahona ensembles emerged as a way of making tumbas francesas "portable", since the drums in tumba francesas were to large to be carried in street parades. He described tahona ensembles as containing three tahonas (one repique and two fondos), one tambora, one tragaleguas (another drum), a hierro, and a guamo (an aerophone made of a sea snail).Ortiz (1954). p. 109. Chachás (rattles) were also added as in tumba francesa.Ortiz (1954). p. 113. An additional bass drum called bimba, which is smaller but deeper than the tambora, was also played by tahona ensembles.{{cite web|last1=Mirabeu|first1=Daniel|title=Tradiciones danzario musicales de raices haitianas en el oriente cubano|url=http://www.ritmacuba.com/haitianocubain02_danmir.pdf|date=2013|accessdate=June 1, 2015|website=Ritmacuba|language=Spanish|archive-date=June 28, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160628224348/http://ritmacuba.com/haitianocubain02_danmir.pdf|url-status=dead}}

Tahona spread across Oriente to Alto Songo, La Maya and Ti Arriba. It was brought to Havana by a percussion ensemble of ñáñigos (Efik descendants in Abakuá societies) named "La Tajona".Ortiz (1954). p. 157. In the Havana neighborhood of Carraguao, the tahona became commonly performed on many festivities.{{cite book|last1=Fernández|first1=Olga|title=Solo de música cubana|date=2005|publisher=ABYA-YALA|location=Quito, Equator|page=169|isbn=9789978225226|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=713V722Up4IC&pg=PA169|language=Spanish}} Its popularity among bakers led many to believe that it was named after the Spanish tahona, i.e. bakery.{{cite book|last1=Mestas|first1=María del Carmen|title=Pasión de rumbero|date=1998|publisher=Puvill Libros|location=Barcelona, Spain|page=13|language=Spanish}}

Style

Like tumba francesa and rumba, tahona performances are percussion-driven and feature call and response singing between a solo singer and a chorus. Lyrics are typically about everyday life. There are different toques or types of tahona performances with distinct dances. Two toques (called pasos, steps) have survived:

Paso de camino ("walking step"), which is slow.
Paso de tahona ("tahona step"), which is faster. It is associated with three choreographies: hechacorral, bastones and cinta. The latter is also a toque found in tumba francesa. In fact, it was common for tahonas to sometimes dance el baile francés, i.e. the tumba francesa dance.

tahona

History

Style

References

Further reading