Charanga

Charanga may refer to:

Charanga (Spain)

Charanga is, in several areas of Spain, a name given to represent a small musical band, with wind and percussion instruments, which typically plays during popular festivals. The musicians are often amateur and usually travel around as different towns celebrate their festivals.

For the most part, charangas play popular, traditional songs, which have simple rhythms and often feature risqué lyrics. Also, they often play medleys. The most typical type of event in which they play is the pasacalles, a performance which moves along the streets of a town, while the public follow the band and dance to its tunes.

In the past the name charanga was also applied to certain military musical bands.

Charanga (Cuba)

Charanga is a term given to traditional ensembles of Cuban dance music. They made Cuban dance music popular in the 1940s and their music consisted of heavily son-influenced material, performed on European instruments such as violin and flute by a Charanga orchestra. (Chomsky 2004, p. 199). The style of music that is most associated with a Charanga is termed 'Danzón', and is an amalgam of both European classical music and African rhythms.

Origins

"Scholars agree that Spain and parts of West and Central Africa provided the most crucial influences in the development of Cuban popular and religious music. But in the case of charanga, the contributions of French and Haitian influences cannot be ignored. Charanga began its history in the early nineteenth century when Haitians, both African and French, escaped the island's revolution. They brought with them a love for the French contredanse, a multi-sectional dance form that evolved into the danzón, the quintessential charanga style. Both were performed by an ensemble called an orquesta típica, a group with brass, woodwinds and timpani that performed outdoors. When the upper classes decided to dance indoors, the instrumentation was radically altered. The new ensemble was called charanga francesa. Although the word francesa literally means "French," it was used in nineteenth-century Cuba more specifically as a name for Haitian Creoles. In the charanga francesa, flutes and strings replaced the brass and woodwinds of the orquesta típica, and a small drum kit called pailas (now called timbales) replaced the booming tympany. While the orquesta típica was raucous in a New Orleans jazz fashion, the charanga francesa produced a light and somewhat effete music. The French influence extends to instrumentation for the modern charanga is based on charanga francesa."