| Music of Cuba | |
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| General topics | |
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| Specific forms | |
| Religious music | |
| Traditional music | |
| Media and performance | |
| Music awards | Beny Moré Award |
| Nationalistic and patriotic songs | |
| National anthem | La Bayamesa |
| Regional music | |
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The clave, (Spanish pronunciation: ['klaβe], Anglicized pronunciation: CLA(H)-vay), is a rhythmic pattern used as a tool for temporal organization in Afro-Cuban music. It is present in a variety of genres such as Abakuá music, rumba, conga, son, mambo, salsa, songo, timba and Afro-Cuban jazz. The five-stroke clave pattern represents the structural core of many Afro-Cuban rhythms.
The clave pattern originated in sub-Saharan African music traditions, where it serves essentially the same function as it does in Cuba. In ethnomusicology, clave is also known as a key pattern,guide pattern,phrasing referent,timeline, or asymmetrical timeline. The clave pattern is also found in the African diaspora musics of Haitian Vodou drumming, Afro-Brazilian music, African American music which is known as Hambone and also found in Louisiana Voodoo drumming as well as Afro-Uruguayan music (candombe). The clave pattern (or hambone, as it is known in the United States) is used in North American popular music as a rhythmic motif or simply a form of rhythmic decoration.