From Habanera to Tango, Part 1

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The habanera was a type of music extremely popular in the second half of the 19^thcentury. Yet, one finds hardly any descriptions of what characterizes pieces called habanera. One thing, however, a prime indicator of its kind, is fundamental to the habanera: a particular rhythmic figure that serves as an accompaniment throughout the piece.

Habanera rhythm

Since this rhythmic figure is so prevalent in the habanera, the rhythm itself has been named after the composition it accompanies, to the point that descriptions of the habanera form go rarely beyond a reference to the rhythm. However, a rhythm is not the same as the form of a piece of music, being only part of the whole. What a habanera form really is remains to be explained. 

One more detailed description asserts that an habanera usually consists of two parts and that the two parts are distinguished through major and minor keys. Indeed, one frequently finds pieces that match such description but they apply mainly to certain habanera songs. One quickly realizes that these indicators determine the musical form: the two-part division relates to strophic texts where the first part sets the verse and the second the refrain. Furthermore, a differentiation of musical sections in major and minor keys was common practice in 19th century music. Hence, the musical form of a habanera remains to be determined more precisely.

The word “habanera”, meaning “from Havana”, obviously refers to something originating from the city in Cuba. It is said that the habanera was an adaption of the French contredanse. Thus, it is often implied to be dance music. Furthermore, being from Cuba, is it also considered to be music of people of color. The characters appearing in habanera songs are usually negros or mulatos.

Habaneras began to gain popularity in Spain in the 1850s. The first known pieces were published as piano pieces and songs identified as contradanza habanera, danza habanera, canción habanera or simply habanera. The composers were conservatory-trained musicians who were well-known instrumental soloists or professors of music. Today, the habanera is associated with one composer in particular: Sebastián Iradier (1809-1865). Among his compositions are two habaneras that even today will be recognized by just about everyone. The first one, La Paloma has the reputation of being the piece of music most often recorded. The second, El arreglito, became the model for the famous habanera in Georges Bizet's opera Carmen.

1. La Paloma

The date of composition of La Paloma is uncertain. The earliest known edition was published in Madrid in 1859. By that time, Iradier had been a professor of music in Madrid; later he alternated residences in Paris and Madrid.

Iradier dedicated La Paloma to Sarolta Bujanovics, at the time the prima donna assoluta at the royal theater in Madrid. The piece is identified as a canción americana (which in the Spanish-speaking world was understood as originating from Cuba). The text is a strophic poem written by Iradier himself.

Mlle. Sarolta Bujanovics

The musical form of La Paloma consists of three sections of slightly irregular length (listed as A, B, and C, respectively, in the table below), plus an introduction and a coda. The fundamental length of each section (including the coda) consists of 16 measures, though the actual measure count can differ due to phrase extensions of the accompaniment or section overlaps. The introduction is an extended version of the antecedent phrase of section A.

Section	Actual Length  (in Measures)	Fundamental Length (in Measures)
Introduction (a)	14	8
A	18	16
B	15	16
C	16
Coda	16

The first section sets the strophe of the poem, the second and third the refrain. Contrary to the description of the habanera form mentioned above, the sections are not tonally contrasted but are all written in the same key, C major.

The habanera rhythm, played in the lower register of the piano, is the most striking feature of the piece. It is continuous and invariable. Since the composition is a song, the continuous rhythm is also the strongest, if not only, reference to dance music in the piece.

In addition, La Paloma shows another feature typical of the habanera that curiously is never mentioned in discussions of its musical form: the structure of the melody. It is striking (and a feature especially consistent in Iradier's compositions) that the melody persistently sets triplets against the dotted habanera rhythm. This creates a particular rhythmic tension known as cross rhythm. That is, there are notes in each of the voices that do not sound together on the same subdivision of the measure, but slightly misaligned. 

Cross rhythms, indicated by red arrows

More then the simple presence of the habanera rhythm, it is the superimposition of conflicting rhythmical figures, the cross rhythms, that are characteristic of the habanera. This is true, in particular, for Iradier's “American” pieces (whether they were labeled as habaneras or not), but also for the genre as a whole. In La Paloma, the figure of the habanera rhythm with superimposed triplets is the nucleus of the melody in each of the three phrases.

La Paloma, excerpts.
Brackets indicate corresponding motives with cross rhythms.

2. El Arreglito

Iradier's habanera El Arreglito, while it has never reached the fame of La Paloma, will immediately be recognized by modern listeners. It served the model to the famous habanera in Georges Bizet's opera Carmen.

The publication date of El Arreglito is uncertain, but a Spanish edition has been dated 1864. The piece has been labeled a canción habanera with piano accompaniment by the composer and, as the title page announces, it had been sung to great applause by Mlle. Treveli at the “Imperial Italian Theater” (perhaps the Théâtre-Italien) in Paris.

Musically, El Arreglito is quite similar to La Paloma. Listeners will quickly recognize the characteristic features of the habanera, that is,the typical rhythm in the bass accompaniment and cross rhythms provided by the melody through triplets.

Unlike the strophic structure of La Paloma, however, the text El Arreglito is a narrative poem. As a consequence, the musical structure is not a three-part division with strophe and refrain, but a more extensive form of six sections (listed as A through F, respectively, in the table below), plus an introduction and a coda.

Section	Actual Length  (in Measures)	Fundamental Length (in Measures)	Tonality
Introduction	8		d minor
A	16		d minor
B	25	24 = 16+8	D major
C	16		d minor
D	17	16	D major
E	17	16	d minor
F	17	16	D major
Coda	12		D major

Essentially, all proper phrases are built on a 16-measure framework. Only section B seems to differ, but actually it does not: the subsequent phrase is repeated and thus the section is extended from 16 to 24 measures. Thus, although the text of El Arreglito is longer and its format different, the compositional procedure of the music corresponds to La Paloma.

In order to emphasize the change from one section to the next in El Arreglito, the composer had recourse to a device commonly used in habaneras: contrasting tonalities. The six sections alternate parallel major and minor keys. Hence, the first section is written in d minor, the second in D major, the third in d minor, and so on. The following example gives a rendition of the piece from the beginning to the opening measures of the fourth section.

Our comparison of Iradier's habaneras shows that the pieces, on the one hand, are quite similar. They both are built on a framework of 16-measure phrases, use the habanera rhythm as an accompaniment and cross rhythms in the melody. On the other hand, they are different kinds of musical pieces. La Paloma is a strophic song and El Arreglito a through-composed vocal piece without repetitions. 

Organizing music pieces based on 16-measure phrases is perhaps the most common form of musical composition in Western music, and the way Iradier arranged his two pieces is typical for song-like compositions. This may lead us to the conclusion (to be confirmed or refuted through further investigation) that the habanera is not so much a musical form but a style—a style in which common forms of Western music have been “decorated” with exotic elements by the composer.

3. La Cubana

Among the early pieces to be found with habanera in the subtitle is the danza habanera La Cubana by Florencio Lahoz (1815-1868). Lahoz was a Spanish organist and composer who published numerous piano compositions but also orchestral works. He also compiled piano reductions of Spanish music theater works. Most of his piano pieces draw on genres of Spanish folk music, especially the jota of his native Aragón, but there are also “American” examples. Lahoz is not known to have travelled outside of Spain and, thus, his acquaintance with the habanera must stem from the “American” compositions of his fellow Spanish composers.

La Cubana is a short piano piece whose date of composition is again uncertain. It is believed to have been composed around 1850, thus early on when the habanera gained popularity in Spain. The piece, written throughout in G major, consists of two phrases (A and B) of 16 measures length and a coda of 10 measures.

Certainly, La Cubana is an unpretentious composition. Section A presents the main musical idea of the piece and section B introduces a contrasting melody. However, it does so only in the antecedent phrase. The subsequent phrase of section B takes up again the melody of section A.

As in Iradier's vocal compositions, the habanera rhythm is maintained as a continuous accompanying figure. Section B also shows cross rhythms in the melody created through triplets. The most striking figure in the melody is, however, another type of rhythm: the síncopa (syncope).

Example of the síncopa, indicated by brackets.

The síncopa is not as characteristic of the style as the habanera rhythm and cross rhythms, but it appears nevertheless frequently in habaneras. Interestingly, this síncopa was to become later the most characteristic rhythmical figure of Argentinian tango.

La Cubana is a fascinating example of an habanera as it is stylistically very close to Argentinian tango as it emerged about 50 years later. Well into the second decade of the 20th century, Argentinian tangos were still written with the habanera rhythm as an accompaniment. They were longer pieces, usually consisting of three sections, and favored minor keys and terse, somewhat choppy melodic motives. La Cubana is, by comparison, too short and the major key with its parallel thirds and sixths sound a bit too “sweet” for an Argentinian tango. This, together with the wavering imprecision of the cross rhythms, makes up the charm of the “voluptuous” habanera, but it is too mellow for the tango criollo. Nonetheless, the affinity between La Cubana and Argentinian tango is evident and intriguing.

© 2018 Wolfgang Freis