It wasn’t until the early 19th century that we finally found the first expressions of a music that sounded distinct from European music, particularly in its rhythmic aspects. From the Contradanza “San Pascual Bailón” (anonymous, 1803) to the contradanzas of Manuel Saumell (1817-1870), who became the first exponents of a truly Cuban music, with a truly indigenous sound that took shape in just a few years. From this moment on, and from this development, the fertility and influence of Cuban music would be assured by the Cuban composers and performers who would emerge.

Among the composers of this century who dedicated themselves to cultivating secular music, three deserve special mention. Antonio Raffelin (1796-1882) was the promoter of Havana’s musical culture, and his fundamental work includes: His Third Symphony, a Haydn imitation. Manuel Saumell Robredo (1817-1880), considered the father of the Cuban nationalist trend, aimed to write a nationalist opera but later abandoned it, concentrating instead on composing Cuban contradanzas, of which more than 50 survive. They are exquisitely crafted and encompass all the Cuban genres: habanera, criolla, clave, guajira. Nicolás Ruíz Espadero (1832-1890), possessed a great spirit of universality, yet his Canto de guajiro, one of his few forays into national music, is counted among his most interesting pieces.

Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier described Nicolás Ruiz Espadero as the most famous Cuban composer of his time. He composed more than 50 pieces of music for piano, violin, and piano, as well as two chamber works. He was a piano teacher to Angelina Sicouret, Cecilia Arizti, and Ignacio Cervantes, among other prominent Cuban pianists of the time. As a composer, he left behind an oeuvre of such magnitude that it prompted José Martí to exclaim: “What we cannot fail to mention, because it is by this that the height of man will later be measured, is the wild secrecy in which they say that tamer of notes lived.”

In this early period of the 19th century, a piano performer, influenced by the Romantic style and also with a strong nationalist tendency, stood out. Fernando Arizti (1828-1888), is considered one of the great founders of Cuban musical culture. He managed to transmit the musical teachings he mastered to perfection throughout the country, contributing to the development of new talents in Cuban music of that era. He worked as a teacher for 40 years, and his principal students included Nicolás Ruiz Espadero, Angelina Sicouret, María de los Ángeles Soberón, and his own daughter, Cecilia Arizti.