Briefly - the cumbee is an African rather than a Mexican popular dance
- and surprise, surprise - there were a lot of Africans in Spain during
the 16th and 18th centuries. North African is just a short distance
across the Mediterranean from Spain. There are examples of the cumbee
in other Spanish sources which have nothing to do with the New World.
What Russell has to say on the subject is not very helpful as he
thought it was Mexican or rather that Spaniards got it from African
slaves in Mexico and brought it back to Spain. Pity he didn't look at
an atlas.
Monica
----Original Message----
From: lucashar...@live.ca
Date: 26/05/2017 19:47
To: "lute@cs.dartmouth.edu"<lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Subj: [LUTE] Cumbées
Hello, friends,
Can anybody give me any background about the âCumbéesâ
variations from
Santiago de Murciaâs SaldÃvar Codex?
Is it related at all to the popular dance genre in Colombia called
âcumbiaâ?
Does anyone have Craig Russellâs book on de Murcia and could
possibly
look up for me what he says about the Cumbé?
If itâs indeed a West African genre, how would de Murcia have
heard it
if, as is now thought, he didnât travel to the New World and hear
it as
brought there by slave populations? Should we presume that Africans
would have brought those sounds to Iberia as well?
Many thanks!
* Lucas Harris
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