El Meu Avi
The habanera is a musical style from Cuba with a characteristic "Habanera rhythm"; it is one of the oldest mainstays of Cuban music and the first of the dances from Cuba to be exported all over the world.
In the mid-19th century, the habanera started incorporating Spanish and African influences into its repertoire. It was brought back to Spain by sailors who had participated in the Cuban Independence war (Spain lost Cuba as its last colony in 1898.) Habaneras became very popular in Spain, and in Catalonia in particular, before the turn of the twentieth century. Popular knowledge has it that the habanera was mixed with the "tango flamenco" and eventually became what we currently know as the "tango" in Argentina.
In Catalonia the habaneras became specially popular in sailor zones. The village of Calella de Palafrugell started organizing habanera concerts in the 1960's carrying on the tradition. The habanera El meu avi (My grandfather) is known by nearly the entire population even nowadays.
Incidentally, Catalonia has one of the oldest documented musical traditions in Europe. It has had a rich musical culture continuously for at least two thousand years. Records from Roman times indicate that the city of Barcelona already had a very active musical life with frequent dances and masquerades in the 4th century (!)
The link below offers renditions of the popular El Meu Avi as a traditional habanera, and also as a Rumba (which is a lot more lively and fun.) Rumba is a dance style that originated in Africa and traveled via the slave trade to Cuba and the New World. The so-called rumba rhythm, a variation of the African standard pattern or clave rhythm, is the additive grouping of an eight pulse bar (one 4/4 measure) into 3+3+2 or, less often, 3+5. Original Cuban rumba is highly polyrhythmic, and as such is often far more complex than the examples aforementioned. Rumba arose in Havana in the 1890s. As a sexually charged Afro-Cuban dance, rumba was often suppressed and restricted because it was viewed as dangerous and lewd.
El Meu Avi - Traditional
El Meu Avi - Rumba
The song talks about the author's grandfather departing with other sailors from Calella headed to the Cuban war. They mention el cremat, a Catalan drink made with rum, coffee, lemon skin and sugar, which is flamed before serving.
01/020/02007 7:34 PM
