Clave

[Juan Amalbert]

I did check the site you mentioned, and I must say that the "theory" here is quite "Hybrid." In other words not musically correct in the notation, whether it is 2-3 clave or 3-2 clave as they try to describe it.

First, let me say that should one notate a clave in 4/4 it will never sound correct when

it is read by a musician who should play it.

Musically,

Juan Amalbert

[couw]

for all puzzled readers, click here for that site with the "hybrid" "theory."

I never heard term until Juan used it out in his poll, I searched a bit and saw some stuff that went a bit beyond me, but became interested. Í have nothing to contribute but my interest.

oh, and I like the word too.

[mikeweil]

Clave is the Spanish word for key, not in the sense of a tonal key, but the one you use for opening a lock; it also means the key of a keyboard, or the wooden pegs used on sea vessels to tie the ropes to. I always suspected the use of that Spanish term for two wooden sticks that are beaten together to generate rhythmic patterns might have dvelopped when African slaves used these pegs to beat out rhythms on the slave ships.

In Afro-Cuban music, it means a specific pattern, or rather a family of rhythmic patterns which define a rhythmic cycle - practically all non-Western music is cyclic in nature, only European classical music developped concepts of playing music without the use of repetitive rhythmic patterns, or only in dance music.

To notate that pattern always is an approximation - I had many discussion with my drum maker about this, and he passed this on to an ethnomusicologist in Berlin, who wrote his master thesis on the Cuban Rumba. He did measurements of the position of all the five strokes in a clave pattern relative to a metronomic beat, and found that they do not fall on exact places of the elementary pulsation like eight notes, or sixteenth notes, or triplets, but fall between these grids to enable approximations to any of these.

There is very interesting research on the cognitive processes by which African and African-American players achieve this flexible playing with patterns.

Other than deus62, I would say it is only a pain in the ass when you stubbornly stick to Western concepts of playing - you have to learn and practice how to play in overlapping parallel patterns instead of linear beats.

Edited May 27, 2004 by mikeweil

[mikeweil]

oh, and I like the word too.

which one? "clave" or "hybrid theory"?

[couw]

I suspected it had something to do with those - what did I call them? - circular drums patterns (?) I happen to like so much. I'll stick around and read these threads.

[couw]

oh, and I like the word too.

which one? "clave" or "hybrid theory"?

guess