During the 1960s, a methodological organization was consistently applied to the Cuban popular music; and that methodology, called of the "generic complexes" was mainly based on the works of Cuban musicologist Argeliers León. In his book Del canto y el tiempo, León divided the study of Cuban popular music in several sections presented in the following order: Música yoruba, Música bantú, Música abakuá, Música guajira, El son, La rumba, La guaracha, La canción y el bolero, Música instrumental, De la contradanza al danzón, al chachachá and Hacia el presente, en el presente. Dr. Olavo Alén says about the "generic complex system": "In his book Música Folklórica Cubana as well as in his opus masterpiece Del canto y el tiempo, he shows us a panoramic view of our music departing fundamentally from the description of the original genres of Cuba. But those divisions proposed by Argeliers didn't pretend to be as rigorous as a scientific organization that would be in compliance with the classificatory principles of coherence, exclusivity, exhaustivity and most importantly, dychotomy." According to the Cuban popular music "Generic complex theory", Cuban folk music is classified as follows:
Punto cubano Complex, with its variations Punto libre y Punto fijo.
The "Generic complex theory" has been refuted since long time ago by renowned musicologists such as Leonardo Acosta, which explains in his article titled "About the Generic Complexes and other matters": According to Cuban composer and musicographist Armando Rodríguez Ruidíaz: From the elaboration and fusion process of the first Spanish song-dances with sesquiáltera rhythm that arrived in Cuba, such as the Sarabanda and Chacona from the 16th century, three main lines of generic evolution originated, which may be classified as follows: 1 – The "song-dances", which include in chronological order: the Punto cubano and Zapateo, The Cuban Guaracha, the Rural Rumba, and the Urban Rumba, the popular conga, the son, the mambo, the songo and the timba. 2 – The "dance-songs", comprised by genres such as the Cuban Contradanza and Danza, the Danzón, the Danzonete, the Danzón-mambo and the Cha-cha-chá. 3 – The "songs", composed of the Habanera, the Cuban Bolero, the Guajira, the Clave, the Criolla, the Tango-congo, the Salon Conga, the Pregón, and other hybrid genres such as the Guaracha-Son, the Guajira-Son, the Bolero-Son, the Lamento-Son, the Criolla-Bolero, the Bolero-Danzón, the Canción-Habanera and the Canción-Bolero.
Cuban folk genres
According to its encyclopedic definition, the term folk music serves to designate the music spontaneously created and preserved by the people of a country, in contrast with the terms commercial and classical music, which are related to works generated by trained specialists. In the case of Cuban music, some of its most popular musical genres may be considered within the boundaries of the previous definition. The first Cuban popular music genres that emerged to the public awareness at the beginning of the 19th century, known as Punto cubano and Zapateo, were created by peasants without any formal musical education; as well as the popular styles of Rumba Urbana or "de cajón" and the Cuban Carnival Conga. Also the Cuban Guaracha was considered to be a product of the common people from Havana, in a similar way as the Rural Rumbas and other ancestors of the Son cubano were considered to be. The Son cubano itself was born from a synthesis of different popular styles such as the Rumba Urbana and Rumba Rural, and performed until the 1930s by amateur musicians. Another Cuban folk music style emerged between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th in the poor neighborhoods of Havana. It was called Clave upon the name of the instrument utilized to accompany it, the Cuban Claves. This style was sung by popular choirs mostly integrated by colored people, called "Coros de Clave", and its rhythm was the vertical hemiola, also utilized in the ternary Cuban Contradanza.
Instruments
Cuba also has produced a wealth of folk musical instruments. Among the most important ones we should mention the Claves, the Bongo drum and the Conga, derived from original African instruments; as well as the Tres, a descendant of the Spanish Laúd. There are also others less well known folk instruments such as the Tingo-Talango or Tumbandera, the Botija and the Marímbula, a sort of African Mbira.
