Requinto

[niallgregory]

Can anyone shed some light on the term Requinto when used to refer to a quinto drum .I never heard that name until recently and have never heard it in cuba or in relation to cuban drumming at all . Am i right in saying that its used in puerto rico for a drum used in plena and also a guitar or piccolo flute ? When did it come into use in relation to congas ? Is it being used to describe a very small quinto ? It seems to be only used in the states and puerto rico when talking about congas . Cheers .Niall .

[Anonimo]

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[Omelenko1]

A Requinto, in relation to tumbadora playing, is a drum used in a "Comparsa" setting only for soloing (solo para quintear o repicar en la rumba). Is a soloing instrument and is delegated to gifted "repicadores" (Papin,Mongo, Tata, Pancho Quinto, Giovanni, Puntilla, Daniel Ponce.....) Its diameter ideally is 9", it should not be used to play "tumbao", it's strictly a soloing instrument. Here is a photo of a SOS requinto, (small one in front) made by Jay Bereck. Requintos in Cuba are used in a Comparsa ( a Carnival group that plays rumba).

Dario

[bongosnotbombs]

I wrote an article on this topic a while back. The original with pictures and comments from barry cox and mark sanders is on my blog http://rumbainstruments.blogspot.com/20 ... uinto.html.

Quinto or Requinto???
The little drum in rumba is the quinto. It is the highest pitched drum for rhythms like Guaguanco , Rumba Columbia, Guarapachangeo and Yambu. For Guaguanco , Rumba Columbia and Yambu it is the main improvising drum, responding to the dancers movements, the singer and the other drums. Frequently during the montuno of a song the lead singer may cry "Quinto!!!", which is a signal for the coro to stop and for the quinto player to really let loose and play a solo. Guarapachangeo is kind of a different story with all the cajons and multiple drums being played sometimes.

There can be some confusion regarding this drum, mainly in the terms quinto and requinto. When we look at big manufacturers like LP we see the quinto and the requinto in their catalogs. However when we look at this album by Grupo Afro-Cubano and look at the quinto player, we see what Lp would call a requinto. To Grupo Afro-Cubano it is the quinto, and they credit Giraldo Rodrigues with playing it.

LP is mainly referring to the requinto as a size of drum, their smallest. While in rumba the names for the drums mainly refer to their role or position in the ensemble. I've also heard the quinto referred to as "a fifth", assuming the fifth drum. I don't know how accurate that really is, but if you have claves, palito, tres dos, salidor then quinto, that makes five. Also quintet means five, thus quinto???

So why requinto? I'm assuming LP adopted the name for size purposes again. An LP quinto is not really different enough in size from the conga and tumba be an authentic sounding quinto for rumba. You need something smaller, with a different shape to sound like that. Listen to an old Los Munequitos album and hear how high pitched the quinto is. Look at the examples in this blog and see how small the "quintos" are.
From Wikipedia:

The term requinto is used in both Spanish and Portuguese to mean a smaller, higher-pitched version of another instrument. Thus, there are requinto guitars, drums and other instruments.


It doesn't look like Jesus Alfonso needs a smaller version of his quinto here does it? An 11" LP quinto just isn't going to compare with Jesus's drum there, so they've got to have a requinto. We also have Nolan Warden saying:

The words quinto, conga, and tumbadora are now used as a practicality among performers and retailers to indicate size. Quinto, the smaller drum, traditionally refers to the lead part in rumba......

Some manufacturers now produce requintos (extra small) and/or supertumbas (largest). It should not be inferred, however, that drums with these names were ever used together in a traditional ensemble. ~(Warden pg.2)


You never see Jesus Alfonso Mira credited with playing the "requinto", he plays quinto, he is a quintocero. You also never hear the gallo call out "requinto!" when he wants to hear the solo, it's always "quinto!". As Nolan Warden says, you really don't hear the word requinto used referring to a traditional rumba ensemble at all, unless your referring to drums that have been sized along the newer LP "standards". This old Gon Bops ad doesn't use the word requinto, even though their "Super Quinto" size is what we might think of as requinto nowadays. Actually super is the name of the line, along with the Voodoo, and International lines, which also feature the 9 3/4" size. What's even more confusing is the new DW Gon Bops feature a "super quinto" as well, but it is a size in their California series, it's a smaller quinto, what others call a requinto, however DW Gon Bops call it a super quinto, perhaps in reference to the older Gon Bops.

The only rhythm that I have actually learned that calls for a drum part with the name of requinto is a Comparsa taught to me by Sandy Perez. In that rhythm the quinto is still the main improvising drum with the highest pitch, and the requinto drum plays a repeating rhythm and is described as being the 3rd highest pitched drum.

I've also heard that the music Plena from Puerto Rico uses a drum called a requinto. However I know so little about that music, that all I am going to do is mention it and post this little image I found describing what a requinto is in Plena. I assume it's accurate. There is also this from Wikipedia.

The requinto drum is used in the Puerto Rican folk genre plena, wherein it is a small conical hand drum that improvises over the other drum rhythms.

I myself have 3 quintos, or 2 small quintos or "requintos", and a quinto. My largest quinto is by Resolution drums and is 10 1/2". I use this drum as a cachimbo for folkloric rhythms like Bembe, Palo, Makuta, etc. It is a fantastic little drum, but it is not quite the right size to get that high, high pitch that your really want for an authentic sounding rumba. I mean, I can and I have used it for rumba, and it works fine, but I was after a different sound. In folkloric rhythms it works great, because in that music the cachimbo, or high drum typically plays a recurring rhythm that forms a melody with the other drums. The larger size makes a pitch that is closer to the middle and low drums and makes the rhythm more melodious. In most folkloric rhythms the low drum is the improvisor. In contrast, a rumba quinto is so high pitched it occupies it's own realm in the music, along with the other drums and the voices.

The other two quintos (requintos) are 9 3/4" by Isla Percussions and a 9 3/4" California series Gon Bops. They both have the high, high sound you can hear in rumba recordings from Cuba.

I'm assuming the LP sized quinto is intended for a Salsa or Latin Jazz 3 drum set up, as it's range would be more compatible with a conga and tumba. However, many of the guys I play with use that size as part of their rumba set and that is perfectly fine and acceptable.

Then there's the Guarapachangeo. It's not unusual to see the quinto player for that rhythm to be playing a quinto cajon between his knees, a quinto to his right and then requinto or smaller quinto to the right of that. Not only that, but it's entirely possible for the quinto player to be playing very conservatively while the big bass cajon's are going off all over the place.

So what can I say? Confusing isn't it? A quinto really isn't a quinto, a requinto is a quinto, unless of course you have a quinto and a requinto, but then you have a quinto and a smaller quinto. Oh, and a fifth isn't a bottle, it's a drum.

[pcastag]

From what I've seen it's common to use the smaller quinto for colombia, which is a faster 6/8 based rumba ptrimarily for gys to dance to. The riffing is generally a bit more rapid fire than a guaguanco.
PC

[niallgregory]

Thanks all for the responses . Bongosnotbombs artice is what im talking about . Ive heard the term requinto many times but never in relation to cuban music . We all know there are many names for the different tumbadoras in cuba but i never came across the term requinto . Thats why i said i only ever really heard it used by usa musicians and puerto ricans . To them a quinto is a quinto regardless if its size . Cheers .Niall ..

[Quinto Governor II]

Excellent article bnbs. You've reiterated for me in clear and simple terms why I now feel comfortable using a quinto as a conga when playing tumbao. The modern mas produced quintos have a much larger head, than the traditional quinto - even enough room to perform the heel-toe movement, which is almost impossible on a traditional size quinto.

[Anonimo]

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[niallgregory]

niall and other's
Just to get you on a right track with more information :
Bus,truck ,car,wagon,panal truck all are automotives yet all have there name's. When in rumba the word's ''suena el Quinto'' they do no say el Re quito is because of improper grammer pronociation in spanish language. But yes the drum's proper name is Re quinto as being the smallest drum . BnB in part is correct but in part is not and I say this because when transposing Spanish to English there are many mistakes that have never been correct in dictionarys around the world . In cuba as mention before do not relate to Re quinto but to quito, the Re quito in Cuba is called Quintico which in Cuban dialect mean small quinto. Even though spanish in Cuba,Puerto Rico and Dominican republic and even South America all have a slite veriation in pronuciation of words it mean same.

Groups like los papines that play rumba and rhythm of sort use a Re quinto and Quinto 2 different sizes to create different tones when they play such rhythms . Here is an other example you have Alto , Baritone , Soprano ,Tenor all are saxes but all have a name. It is not that regardles of the size it a Quinto is a Quinto they all have proper names. And in congas you have re quinto smallest drum made ,quinto , the conga , and tumba . The Re quinto Is the singer of the group or solo drum of group and when it is call as suena el quinto it call for the singer of the group the Re quinto.

Just read an old interview with giovanni hidalgo from a few years back in a drum magazine and he claims the word requinto wasnt used before he had his signature range with lp LOL Thanks for the replies guys and ive pretty much worked it out ( in my head anyway ) , the drum companies are the ones who came up with the term requinto because of the size of the quinto when you buy a set of 3 drums i.e 11 . 11 3/4 , 12/ 1/2 so they had to call the smaller drum something .Still isnt a phrase thats used in cuban rumba from my experience of playing rumba and being in cuba with rumberos . Cheers .Niall ...

[Anonimo]

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