Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on the following topics: experience of continuity, reflect body for situation, variation and conceptualization of music, and body as multilayered experience, through the case studies of some Cuban musicians who perform various categories of music easily.

Paper long abstract:

This paper focuses on the variation and continuity of bodily experience of music in Cuba. For some musicians, it is possible to perform various categories of music. Even western classical musicians, who are known to play undergoing various constraints formally, perform Cuban popular music and jazz, singing and dancing. However, they feel that performance of these various things is "something similar" rather than "different". This is influenced by their daily musical experience and flexible music education in Cuba. Besides that, the following cases are of great interest. One day a piano student practiced only a 5 seconds phrase for 2 hours repeatedly. In this "crazy-like" sound, she aimed at the learning of automatic and highly reproducible form rather than diversity. Moreover, a guitarist played, using the various form of combinations in the jazz session, he had just enjoyed feeling the music. In fact, he only had responded to the music automatically. In contrast, a percussionist absolutely recognized the difference between the play for dance music and the play for instrumental one. It is worthwhile mentioning the point that the variation of music does not consist of a linear scheme of learning such as "for the diversity of music, from learning the variations". In this essay we see the following topics: experience of continuity, reflect body for situation, variation and conceptualization of music, and body as multilayered experience. The very Cuban case would give us an opportunity to consider this theme in the anthropological field.