Alejo Carpentier

Originally published in 1946, Music in Cuba is not only the best and most extensive study of Cuban musical history, it is a work of literature. 

How and when did the unmistakable Cuban sound emerge? Why did a small island become such a fertile, flourishing musical paradise? In 1939 Alejo Carpentier, one of the foremost Latin American writers and also a musicologist, was commissioned to write a first treatise on the history of Cuban music. 

The result is a fascinating journey through Africa, Europe and America that traces the history of classical and popular music from the sixteenth century to the 1940s, the time when the guaracha, the mambo, the bolero and other rhythms brought the whole world out on to the dance floor. 

Carpentier composes a masterful score that resonates with the rhythms and melodies that have forged the true spirit of Cuba.