[Listening extract audio not available in printed QP. Skeleton score in Insert.] Afro-Cuban music includes two important forms: son and rumba. (a) Explain w...

(a) Son is characterised by its combination of Spanish guitar-based melody and song with African-derived rhythmic patterns and call-and-response vocals. [1]

Son is one of the most important genres of Cuban music and the foundation from which salsa later developed. It blends European harmonic and melodic elements (guitar or tres, vocal melody) with African-derived rhythmic structures, including the clave pattern, syncopated bass lines, and percussion patterns played on instruments such as bongos, maracas, and claves. The vocal style typically involves a lead singer alternating with a chorus in a call-and-response format, particularly in the montuno section of a son performance.

(b) One feature that distinguishes rumba from son is that rumba is primarily percussion-based. [1]

Other acceptable distinguishing features include: rumba features complex polyrhythmic drumming; rumba centres on dance and vocal improvisation rather than guitar melody; rumba uses more African-derived rhythmic elements than son. While son integrates melody instruments such as the guitar and trumpet alongside percussion, rumba is built primarily around drums (including the conga drums known as tumbadora, segundo, and quinto), claves, and vocal chanting. The emphasis in rumba is on rhythm, dance, and spontaneous vocal and percussive improvisation rather than on composed melody and song form.