The Punto
This musical expression par excellence of the Cuban peasant has a deep Spanish origin with the presence of Canaries at the beginning of colonization.
From the literary point of view, the Cuban country music has a unique structure, the décima , a poetic composition made up by a first period of four verses followed by another one of six verses.
Stanza and music harmoniously combine to express a song with a melodious line known as tune. Its musical instruments include the laud, guitar, tres and harpsichord and is framed within EL PUNTO.
EL PUNTO, name given to the Cuban peasant song, has two styles: free punto and fixed punto. The free punto has a very fluid melodic line, flexible rhymes and soft air. Instruments can only be slightly played or follow the singer with some accords but without playing the harpsichord. The fixed punto is characterized by the fact that the singer uses the same breath and it has an exact rhyme. That is why the accompaniment with both guitar and laud are metrically stable and the harpsichord can be played.
Other variants include the ones known as punto espirituano (from Sancti Spiritu Province) and punto matancero (from Matanzas Province), and the seguidilla , without any interruption, singing a tune that, at any time, can cut a word. So this was the usual way to tell stores in décimas without any interruption and, almost always on fantastic and unconnected themes.
Another variant of the fixed punto is the crossed punto, syncopatedly singing over the accompaniment.
The symbol par excellence of the Cuban décima is Juan Cristóbal Nápoles Fajardo also known as "El Cucalambé".
