Cuban Ophecleides
Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2015 5:26 pm
Hi All, you may have seen my previous posting about my band touring Cuba last week. One of the groups we met when we played in the city of Matanzas was a very good 5 piece brass quintet called Atenas (sort of like Canadian Brass but with mostly their own arrangements.)
After they performed I got a chance to talk briefly about a bit of history I had read on a Brazilian website - apparently the Ophicleide was an important instrument in Cuban dance bands will into the 1920s, but I couldn't find any confirmation. They told me the Cuban name of the instrument was "Figle" and that got me on track: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... C3%B1a.jpg
Now, after Googling I see that I probably read about this several years ago in "Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo" By Ned Sublette, but I must have forgotten...
After they performed I got a chance to talk briefly about a bit of history I had read on a Brazilian website - apparently the Ophicleide was an important instrument in Cuban dance bands will into the 1920s, but I couldn't find any confirmation. They told me the Cuban name of the instrument was "Figle" and that got me on track: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... C3%B1a.jpg
Now, after Googling I see that I probably read about this several years ago in "Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo" By Ned Sublette, but I must have forgotten...