Date of Award
2018
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Graduate Group
Music
First Advisor
Carol A. Muller
Abstract
ABSTRACT
CUBANEO IN LATIN PIANO: A PARAMETRIC APPROACH TO GESTURE, TEXTURE, AND MOTIVIC VARIATION
COPYRIGHT
Orlando Enrique Fiol
2018
Dr. Carol A. Muller
Over the past century of recorded evidence, Cuban popular music has undergone great stylistic changes, especially regarding the piano tumbao. Hybridity in the Cuban/Latin context has taken place on different levels to varying extents involving instruments, genres, melody, harmony, rhythm, and musical structures. This hybridity has involved melding, fusing, borrowing, repurposing, adopting, adapting, and substituting. But quantifying and pinpointing these processes has been difficult because each variable or parameter embodies a history and a walking archive of sonic aesthetics. In an attempt to classify and quantify precise parameters involved in hybridity, this dissertation presents a paradigmatic model, organizing music into vocabularies, repertories, and abstract procedures.
Cuba's pianistic vocabularies are used very interactively, depending on genre, composite ensemble texture, vocal timbre, performing venue, and personal taste. These vocabularies include: melodic phrases, harmonic progressions, rhythmic cells and variation schemes to replace repetition with methodical elaboration of the piano tumbao as a main theme. These pianistic vocabularies comprise what we actually hear.
Repertories, such as pre-composed songs, ensemble arrangements, and open- ended montuno and solo sections, situate and contextualize what we hear in real life musical performances.
Abstract procedures are the thoughts, aesthetics, intentions, and parametric rules governing what Cuban/Latin pianists consider possible. Abstract procedures alter vocabularies by displacing, expanding, contracting, recombining, permuting, and layering them.
As Cuba's popular musics find homes in its musical diaspora (the United States, Latin America and Europe), Cuban pianists have sought to differentiate their craft from global salsa and Latin jazz pianists. Expanding the piano's gestural/textural vocabulary beyond pre-Revolutionary traditions and performance practices, the timba piano tumbao is a powerful marker of Cuban identity and musical pride, transcending national borders and cultural boundaries.
Recommended Citation
Fiol, Orlando Enrique, "Cubaneo In Latin Piano: A Parametric Approach To Gesture, Texture, And Motivic Variation" (2018). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 3112.
https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3112
Additional Files
Andy GonzxE1lez (September 16, 2014).zip (89907 kB)audio examples.zip (281972 kB)
Benjamin LxE1pidus (September 11, 2013).zip (190560 kB)
Carlos Caro (December 2, 2014).zip (141371 kB)
cuban interviews (2011-2012)- susan margaret miller.zip (477697 kB)
Danny Rosales Castro (September 4, 2014).zip (138140 kB)
don pancho entrevista (03_24_2014).mp3 (118262 kB)
Elizabeth Sobol (September 14, 2012).zip (132444 kB)
Gilberto el Pulpo ColxF3n Jr (June 18, 2013).zip (167674 kB)
Henry Theodore Fiol (February 28, 2013).zip (135045 kB)
ivxE1n melxF3n lewis(1).zip (272135 kB)
John Amira (September 18, 2012).zip (86382 kB)
Larry Harlow (April 8, 2013).zip (67311 kB)
Lazarito Valdes- Stockholm, Sweden (March 29, 2018).zip (10848 kB)
Mario Allende (October 13, 2012).zip (75720 kB)
Miguel xC1ngel de Armas (August 20, 2014).zip (151605 kB)
Rafael Ithier (August 11, 2014).zip (216945 kB)
Rebecca Cline (July 7, 2014).zip (91309 kB)
Richard Ortega (August 19, 2013).zip (98905 kB)