“During Puerto Rico’s colonial years, a series of musical traditions evolved based on the folk songs and romantic ballads of 18th- and 19th-century Spain.”

“In the 20th century, Narciso Figueroa continuated the tradition of collecting folk songs and re-orchestrating them for chamber orchestras; his recordings have been sponsored by the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture.”

Bomba y plena are two entirely different types of music that are couple with dance.

http://www.musicofpuertorico.com/

“There are various music genres that were “born” in Puerto Rico – native genres such as the decima and seis folk music genres, danza, plena, bomba and salsa.”

http://aris.ss.uci.edu/rgarfias/courses/latino/pr1.html

“The ‘jibaros’ of the highlands of Puerto Rico preserve a rich musical heritage, one which is both uniquely Puerto Rican as well as one which manifests strong ties to its Spanish cultural roots.”

“The ‘plena’ is traditionally associated with the region around the city of Ponce in the Southwestern portion of the island.”

http://worldmusic.nationalgeographic.com/view/page.basic/country/content.country/puerto_rico_12/en_US

“During the colonial era, a series of musical traditions based on folk songs and ballads of 18th- and 19th- century Spain evolved, to create the basis of what is today known as jíbaro music (country music).”

                This piece is in duple meter with very fast tempo. This piece has about three different timbres with different rhythmic movements. They are a guitar, a shaker, a hand drum, and two voice lines. In this piece, down beats are played very strong. All the beats are strongly accented and sound like staccato. It was more evidence more in the beginning of this piece. It was more legato during the chorus of this piece.

                Melody line has a medium vocal range. He is very conjunct during the verses, but it shows disjunctive motion during the chorus line of this piece. When I was hearing this piece I thought the melody tune was repetitive and using the similar pronounced words throughout this piece made me to think that way more. Background singers join during the concert. I believe they are closer to constant harmony rather than dissonant.

                This piece has multiple layers of timbres. Like many of African music, they are in different rhythms; however, they are not as syncopated as African music. They are more structured in the meter system with the stronger beats on the down beats. It was hard for me to the find the rhythmically similarity between this piece and pieces from Africa.

                I can see that this piece was very repetitive once again from watching the video. Their dance movements were well organized and had repetitive motions. This piece seems to be a dance piece and it sounds like one too. The upbeat and the fast tempo even make me to feel the rhythm and tab my fingers.

                Voices come in the middle of this piece. They do not sing for the whole song. Voices sound like they are used as sprinkles on a cup cake. Voices do not sing more than six measures when they come in. Vocalists sing in very monotone voices. They have very narrow range that almost does not have any motion. When they come in, they also start with loud volume, but they quiet down as the y go on. The last measure they sing, they almost sound like they are echoing.

                Like many African influenced music, this piece also had the call and response relationship. It happens between the voices and the trumpet. While the trumpet is playing, voices are not heard when the voices come in for the first time. The trumpet and the voices harmonize when the voices come in for the second time. Every parts of this piece start with an attack entrance then they fade away. It is noticeable in melody lines.

                Rhythm of this piece is constant and heard throughout the piece with a shaker keeping the down beat. I feel like in many pieces from Africa, shakers are usually beat keeper. I would say that this piece has that characteristic, because of its origin.

• Wikipedia is the most used page to start a research. This link is about the music of Cuba. It gives a lot of information about Cuban music. Its content is split in six big categories such as overview of Cuban music, 18^th to 20^th century, popular music, African heritage, diversification and popularization, and 1980s to the present.

http://www.pbs.org/buenavista/music/timeline.html

• This website gives the readers a timeline of Cuban’s music history. It gives some information about the big events as well as the musical events that affected Cuban music in different ways.

http://www.danzon.com/eng/history/cuban-music.htm

• This website talks about different types of Cuban’s popular music. It gives some background information about different types of music such as Son, Cha Cha Cha, Bolero, Charanga and Guajiro.

http://www.boogalu.com/

• This website is an independent group from the San Francisco Bay Area devoted to presenting with multimedia, traditional and contemporary Cuban culture, with a focus on music and dance. This website provides some of video clips and reference page that help readers to understand Cuban music better.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Son_(music)

•  This page shows the one of Cuban’s popular music style in detail. Son is described well in this page.

                There is one solo line with multiple voices of background singers which create the call and response relationship later on in this piece. Background singers sing in dissonant harmonies, but without distraction. They are dissonant from one another, but if audience is familiar with African style of musical culture, it would not bother them. Melody line has a fairly wide vocal range. It sounds like he is talking in the beginning with little bit of motion with conjunct contour. Later on his range gets wider and wider. There seems to be a sub-lead vocalist who comes in the beginning with the main soloist. Sub-lead vocalist has the similar characteristics as the main vocalist. Choir is quieter than main vocalist even though they have more voices.

                From what I hear, I assume that there are about four drums used in this piece. One is playing two sticks and creates sound by hitting them. Second one sound likes a bongo or hand drums. One playing a shaker and the last one sounds like a bongo to me.

                Those instruments are playing in all different rhythms which make this piece to be syncopated. Like most of African music, there are stacked up on top of one another. However, the influence of Spain’s musical cultural is shown in this piece. Even in the midst of all different rhythms, there is a constant down beat throughout the piece and kept in certain meter format.

                This piece shows the typical characteristics of African music such as the call and response format, multiple layers of rhythms, melody lines, and syncopation. We can also see the Spain’s influence throughout this piece by the language used for the lyrics and the constant down beat that keeps this piece in certain format.

                This piece has only two layers of timbre. One is acoustic guitar that Bob Marley is playing and his voice. This helps the listeners to focus on his voice and the lyrics of this piece. Melody line that is sung by Bob is very simple with medium vocal range. Like a lot of reggae pieces, this piece almost sounds like a talking piece. Voice line sounds closer to conjunct motion to me rather than disjunction.

                This piece is in duple meters. This piece has fairly simple rhythmic line as well as the melody line. Bob Marley differs the way of playing guitar when he is singing and not singing. While he is singing, he strums guitar and emphasizes more on strums. When he is not singing, he plays his guitar with more finger style. This helps the listeners to identify where he is heading towards in this piece.

                Dynamic change of this piece is strongly related to Bob Marley’s vocal presence and absents. Since there are only two timbres, when one of two is missing, it is very noticeable.

                This piece has the motion of repetition in both melody line and the rhythmic line. They make the listeners to follow along and remember this piece in a short amount of time. Also, some of audience can find the call and response in between a guitar and a vocal. When they overlap, I would say the guitar is working as the accompaniment, but when the guitar is playing its solo line, it becomes the main line.

                This piece has only two layers of timbre. One is acoustic guitar that Bob Marley is playing and his voice. This helps the listeners to focus on his voice and the lyrics of this piece. Melody line that is sung by Bob is very simple with medium vocal range. Like a lot of reggae pieces, this piece almost sounds like a talking piece. Voice line sounds closer to conjunct motion to me rather than disjunction.

                This piece is in duple meters. This piece has fairly simple rhythmic line as well as the melody line. Bob Marley differs the way of playing guitar when he is singing and not singing. While he is singing, he strums guitar and emphasizes more on strums. When he is not singing, he plays his guitar with more finger style. This helps the listeners to identify where he is heading towards in this piece.

                Dynamic change of this piece is strongly related to Bob Marley’s vocal presence and absents. Since there are only two timbres, when one of two is missing, it is very noticeable.

                This piece has the motion of repetition in both melody line and the rhythmic line. They make the listeners to follow along and remember this piece in a short amount of time. Also, some of audience can find the call and response in between a guitar and a vocal. When they overlap, I would say the guitar is working as the accompaniment, but when the guitar is playing its solo line, it becomes the main line.