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.
In this video excerpt the musicians play the toque known as Meta, a sequence of rhythms devoted to Changó, a divinity syncretised with Saint Barbara, considered as the oricha of sexual strength, of thunder, and master of the music. From a musical standpoint, Meta is characterized by a gradual accelerando guided by the main drum (iyá), and by the constant exchange (conversaciones) between iyá and the second drum (itótele).
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
More info on this event: [ Ссылка ]
Video: Giuseppe Drago

IISMC: [ Ссылка ]

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