Contradanza: A 19th-century Cuban salon and popular dance and music genre often mistaken abroad as habanera, but which denotes Havana-style contradanza in addition to an earlier style of contradanza: namely, a Spanish line dance popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries thought to come from an older English "country dance" (thus the Spanish corruption of the name). It was Franco-Haitian slaves seeking refuge in Oriente in the 1790s, however, not the Spanish, who introduced the genre to island, in the form of the French contredanse.

Although rhythmically tame by contemporary Afro-Cuban standards, the contradanza was scandalously syncopated for its time because it represented one of the earliest obvious entrances of African rhythm into Cuban music salons which had until then been a venue for strictly European forms like waltzes, quadrilles and schottisches. Previously, European instruments, melodies and harmonies had worked their way into the musical practices of Cuban slaves, but no such reversal of musical influence had been so strong until the appearance of the contradanza. the earliest surviving example is "San Pascual Bailón," which dates form 1803.

Habanera: Cuban musicologist Emilio Grenet calls habanera "perhaps the most universal of our genres" because of its far-reaching influence on the development of many Latin American song forms such as the Argentine tango and its frequently Europeanized treatment in classical music, such as in Georges Bizet's 1875 opera, Carmen, in which the title character sings the now-famous habanera aria.

In 1884 Sebastian Yradier's "La Paloma" became the first exported habanera to gain popularity in Mexico. Already decade before, any music in Mexico with the habanera rhythm was called danza. In 1890, Eduardo Sanchez de Fuentes' habanera "Tu" became so popular, both within and outside of Cuba, that it epitomized the form. Its absorption in Buenos Aires was such that early 20th-century French publishers mistook its origin and printed the sheet music as an example of "tango habanera."

According to preeminent Cuban music historian Alejo Carpentier, the habanera was never called such by the people of Havana (for them it was just the local style of contradanza). It only adopted its present name when it became popular outside of Cuba.
 

Rumba: Having flourished as a Cuban-flavored commercial dance-music import in the Americas and Europe starting in the 1930s and continuing through the early 1960s, rumba on its native soil began as and continues to be an informal, street dance music popular in lower-class urban black neighborhoods. Unlike its famous offshoots outside of Cuba, traditional island rumba employs neither melodic nor harmonic instruments. Usually, three conga drums, a pair of palitos, a clave, and a lead vocalist and chorus (who sing in call-and-response fashion) accompany one or two dancers (the number depending on the style).

Although rumba shares formal features with the santería music of the island's Yorubá slave descendants -- namely, instrumentation, vocal performance style and use as dance accompaniment -- its performance context is never likewise religious. It apparently springs from secular dances that Congolese slaves invented on the island during the 18th and early 19th centuries, which leaves no question that it is a Cuban creation rather than a retention of an older African dance-music form. Rumba holds pride of place both as Cuba's national dance music and for its distinction of having spawned, in tandem with the Cuban son, countless Latin-influence music styles throughout the world since the 1950s, including salsa.

Several variations thrived in the early decades of its development, and briefly, in the 1950s, traditional rumba groups emerged in Spanish-speaking neighborhoods in New York City and Miami. However, in Cuba since the 1950s, only three traditional types have survived: yambú, guaguancó (the most popular form) and columbia. Today, folkloric groups perform rumba in Cuba but only infrequently do the music and dance transpire in their original context of spontaneous street gatherings.

Son: The most popular Cuban music and dance genre of the 20th century, and the oldest national form, the earliest known example being Son de la Má Teodora. The origins and definitions of the formal musical elements of son are elusive to denote insofar as there is no single meter, rhythmic pattern or instrumental setup that characterizes the genre. However, the performance style and its origins in Santiago de Cuba seem to be what most experts agree upon as acceptably classifying criteria. Likewise, the heart of the performance style is the "anticipated bass," the bass rhythm pulse that precedes the expected downbeat and lends the distinctive "push" that characterizes all Cuban music derived from the son, namely salsa.

Many consider Trío Matamoros -- founded in Santiago de Cuba in 1912 -- to have defined the sound of the modern son and to be responsible for bringing it to Havana in 1920. Other groups eventually settled in Havana where more instruments were added until a standard sextet ensemble came to represent urban son in the 1920s, the instrumental lineup of which consisted of guitar, tres, marímbula, double bass and two vocalists (who played maracas and claves). In the 1930s, the sextet became a septet with the addition of a trumpet.

Septeto :The modern instrumental format for the son, consisting of guitar, tres (in rural ensembles) or piano (in urban ensembles), marímbula (in rural ensembles) or double bass (in urban ensembles), bongos, trumpet and two singers who play claves and maracas. It is an outgrowth of the sexteto ensembles, which began adding a trumpet to the standard lineup around 1930 to increase overall volume in outdoor venues.