Cuba | Batá Drums of the Cuban Santería | Ensemble Omo Abillona | Orun Cantado

This video presents excerpts of a performance held by the ensemble Omo Abillona, four young players of batá drums, coming from the Afro-Cuban community living in Marianao, a municipality in Havana, Cuba. The name of the group is in Lukumi language, the language spoken by the Yoruba slaves deported to Cuba, that became the liturgical language of the Santería. The name of the group can be translated as ‘Sons of the open paths’. Members of the sacerdotal caste of the Omo Aña, consecrated to Aña, the divinity of the drums, the musicians of Omo Abillona play the batá drums during the religious ceremonies. The batá drums are played in consorts of three instruments of different size: okónkolo, itótele, and iyá (from the smallest to the largest, and most important). During the ceremony of the toque de santo the drums perform to evoke the orichas, divinities of the pantheon of the Santería, with a sequence of polyrhythmic patterns (toques), also accompanying songs and dances devoted to the orichas.
This video excerpt presents the beginning of the ‘orun cantado’, performed during the second part of the ‘toque de santo’. The singer (called ‘awpon’) performs a series of songs in Lukumi language devoted to the orichas worshipped in the Santeria. The singer is accompanied by the three batá drums led by the larger one, iyá. The tamboreros, together with the participants to the rite, also perform a collectively sung answer to the awpon. This video excerpt shows the songs for the three warrior orichas: Elegua (0.11”), Ogun (2’56”), and Ochosi (4’06”).
The performance, part of a series named ‘Music and Rite’ was organized by the Intercultural Institute for Comparative Music Studies of Fondazione Giorgio Cini, after a research, and with the scientific advice of Marco Lutzu, in cooperation with Conservatorio di Musica “Benedetto Marcello” of Venice.

Ensemble Omo Abillona: Andres Alain Medina Monteagudo, Daylon Gordon Urgelles, Alberto Elejalde Bonilla, Yester Luis Anaya Soublet


Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, 10 November 2016
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Video: Giuseppe Drago

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