Clave (rhythm)

Encyclopedia : C : CL : CLA : Clave (rhythm)

Clave is a rhythmic pattern or timeline which has its roots in West African music and was developed in Cuba. The clave serves as a tool for temporal organization, and essentially all Afro-Cuban music of Yoruban descent (including Cuban popular music such as salsa) is based around the clave rhythm. The word “clave” is Spanish for “key”, in the sense of an answer key or a musical key signature. This is in contrast to the Spanish word “llave”, which means key in the sense of the key to a door. This name helps to emphasize the functional importance of the clave as a structural element in Cuban music.

Depending on the style and musicians involved, the clave may play a role from a simple rhythmic decoration to an elaborate structural framework upon which the rest of the music must relate. This framework is functional, and all parts are seen as relating to or derived from the framework in some sense. This is a fundamental difference between the Cuban conception of clave and other rhythmic timelines found in African and African-Diaspora music, which often simply mark recurring cycles of time.

“Claves” is also the name of the percussion instrument that plays the clave rhythm, consisting of two small wooden sticks that are hit together to produce a high-pitched sound.

The most common type of clave rhythm in Cuban popular music is called the “son clave”, named after the Cuban musical style of the same name:

Because there are three notes in the first measure and two in the second, the above is said to be in the 3-2 direction. The 2-3 clave is the same but with the measures reversed.

Another type of clave is the rumba clave. This is most commonly associated with the folkloric Guaguancó style. It also can be in the 3-2 direction, as shown below, and in the 2-3 direction, although 3-2 is more common.

The third Cuban clave, often called the "6/8 clave", is an adaptation of the well-documented West African 12/8 timeline. It is a cowbell pattern and is played mainly in the ‘’rumba colombia’’, ‘’abaquá’’, and other older styles.

The rhythmic pattern of the Brazilian Bossa Nova, developed in the 1950s, is also frequently called a clave because it resembles son clave. However, it is worth noting several factors that suggest that the similarity is purely superficial:

Clave is a Spanish word and Brazil’s official language is Portuguese.
Cuban clave is invariant and has a specific function, whereas the Bossa Nova pattern that resembles clave is only one of a large collection of available patterns which may be interchanged and improvised at will or even omitted. This suggests that they are decorative and largely non-functional.
Cuban clave is directional (3-2/2-3) but the Bossa Nova pattern is not.
Slaves brought to Cuba by the Spaniards and to Brazil by the Portuguese were largely from different regions of Africa.
There are important differences in instrumentation between Cuban and Brazilian music--whereas much Cuban music is driven by the clave, much Brazilian music is driven by the surdo drum and its rhythms. Surdo rhythms bear little resemblance to the clave.

Nevertheless, it is possible that the “Bossa clave” may have been influenced by Cuban music. More likely, however, is that it was adapted from Samba music, as the Bossa rhythm resembles a pattern played by the agogo bells or the tamborim in the Samba School tradition.

Other Latin-American rhythms that are often associated with the clave, whether in fact related or not, include:

baqueteo, used in Cuban danzón.
partido alto, used in samba, bossa nova and other Brazilian styles.
cuá, used in bomba, a genre from Puerto Rico.

Although the actual term clave is mostly used in the context of Afro-Cuban music, the rhythm also permeates Rock and Roll and Jazz. This is not surprising, as early twentieth-century musicians from Havana and New Orleans would take the twice-daily ferry between both cities to perform. Both the New Orleans Second-Line rhythm, and the variation in popular music which came to be known as the Bo Diddley beat are in fact the son clave rhythm, with a shift of the accent from the third note of the three-note portion to the first note of that portion. The son clave rhythm is also used in the catch phrase "Shave and a haircut, two dimes" (inflation turned it into "Shave and a haircut, two bits").

References

Ortiz, Fernando (1950). La Africania De La Musica Folklorica De Cuba. Ediciones Universales, en español. Hardcover illustrated edition. ISBN 8489750181.
Mauleón, Rebeca (1993). Salsa Guidebook for Piano and Ensemble. Petaluma, California: Sher Music. ISBN 0961470194.

Clave (rhythm)

References

External links

See also