''Canción'' ("song") is a popular genre of

Latin American music The music of Latin America refers to music originating from Latin America, namely the Romance-speaking regions of the Americas south of the United States. Latin American music also incorporates African music from enslaved African people who were ...

, particularly in

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

, where many of the compositions originate.Orovio, Helio 2004. ''Cuban music from A to Z''. p42 Its roots lie in Spanish popular song forms, including tiranas,

polos The ''polos'' crown (plural ''poloi''; el, πόλος) is a high cylindrical crown worn by mythological goddesses of the Ancient Near East and Anatolia and adopted by the ancient Greeks for imaging the mother goddesses Rhea and Cybele and Hera. ...

and

boleros Bolero is a genre of song which originated in eastern Cuba in the late 19th century as part of the trova tradition. Unrelated to the older Spanish dance of the same name, bolero is characterized by sophisticated lyrics dealing with love. It has ...

; also in Italian light

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its s ...

, French

romanza ''Romanza'' is the first compilation album by Italian singer Andrea Bocelli, released internationally in 1997. Although a compilation, ''Romanza'' is considered Bocelli's breakthrough album and remains his most commercially successful to date, ...

, and the slow waltz. Initially, even when written by the creole population of Cuba, who opposed the ruling hierarchy, the music retained its European style of "intricate melodies, and dark, enigmatic and elaborate lyrics". Later, in the latter part of the nineteenth century, the canción came under the influence of the

trova ''Trova'' is a style of Cuban popular music originating in the 19th century. Trova was created by itinerant musicians known as ''trovadores'' who travelled around Cuba's Oriente province, especially Santiago de Cuba, and earned their living by s ...

dor movement. This resulted in the lyrical expression of the feelings and aspirations of the population. The accompaniment of the guitar followed naturally, and the canción gradually fused with other forms of Cuban (and therefore Latin American) music such as the bolero.Leon, Argeliers 1964. ''Musica folklorica cubana''. Biblioteca Nacional Jose Marti, La Habana. p185 As a distinguishing mark, though, the canción never has the full-blooded Afro-Cuban percussion which marks so much Cuban popular music. "Canción" means ''

song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...

'' in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

. In the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

, the term was often used interchangeably with

cantiga A ''cantiga'' (''cantica'', ''cantar'') is a medieval monophonic song, characteristic of the Galician-Portuguese lyric. Over 400 extant ''cantigas'' come from the ''Cantigas de Santa Maria'', narrative songs about miracles or hymns in praise of th ...

, cantar, canson, and sometimes

villancico The ''villancico'' (Spanish, ) or vilancete (Portuguese, ) was a common poetic and musical form of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America popular from the late 15th to 18th centuries. Important composers of villancicos were Juan del Encina, Pedro ...

; it was related to the

chanson A (, , french: chanson française, link=no, ; ) is generally any lyric-driven French song, though it most often refers to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval and Renaissance music. The genre had origins in the monophonic s ...

of the Franco-Flemish school. Canción was the least specific term to cover all the popular, secular styles of vocal music of Spain at the time. In Spanish-language concerts and recordings, when the title of a particular song does not belong to a danceable genre (such as

son A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative. Social issues In pre-industrial societies and some current c ...

, or

chacarera The Chacarera is a dance and music that originated in Santiago del Estero, Argentina. It is a genre of folk music that, for many Argentines, serves as a rural counterpart to the cosmopolitan imagery of the Tango. A dance form played by contemporar ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, its genre is mentioned as "canción".

References

19th-century music genres Latin American styles of music Cuban styles of music Song forms {{music-genre-stub

See also

References