Phew! This brings us to "Hagamos un Chen", which is considerably more straightforward.The beginning leaves no doubt where the clave is...it's being played loud and clear on the jam block, but the ambiguous bass figure leaves considerable doubt as where the beginning of the harmonic phrase is, so even though we can easily clap along with the clave, we don't know whether to call it 2:3 or 3:2. And Sombrilla's sycopated opening rap could easily be heard either way. The mystery is solved as soon as the coro comes in - we're in 3:2 clave. [audio example]

When the Phil Collins-esque horn intro comes in we're still in 3:2, with the campana bell clearly accenting the first two notes, but as soon as Michel sings "vamos a hacer un negocio redondo" we're in the typical CH cuerpo mode of 2:3 by way of a 2:2 Clave License style clave change. [audio example]. The syllable ne or "negocio" is the first hit of the 2-side. [audio example]

If you've learned to hear the beginning of the track correctly (which is to say that you hear the opening notes as the pickups to 3:2 clave) then the following example [audio example] should sound like a textbook perfect NY style clave change to 3:2, and it's smooth sailing in 3:2 from there on out.

The only remaining clave issue on "Tremendo Delirio" is the afore-mentioned opening seconds of "¿Qué quieres de mí?". Other than the intro, the whole chart is in straighforward 2:3 rumba clave, including this section at 2:27. [audio example]

coro 1: y qué tú quieres de mí?
que yo te de un beso ahí?
de queso?
y eso?

The clave, the traditional "big drum on the 3-side" conga pattern, the campana... it's pure 2:3 and it swings like crazy.

And yet, the same coro occurs in the introduction in 3:2 [audio example].

This is a similar case to that of "Charanguéate" above. The intro is a piece of music unto itself, which refers in passing to the later coro without regard to its clave orientation. It would be nice if every musical phrase carried within it an intrinsic and irreversible clave direction, but that just isn't the case. Here's the coro in question with the notes of the coro in red and the notes of the clave underlined:

in 2:3

xxx|xxxx|xxxx |x000
0000|x000|0000|xxx0
0x0x|xxx0|0x0x|x000

in 3:2

xxx|xxxx|xxxx |x000
0000|x000|0000|xxx0
0x0x|xxx0|0x0x|x000

This brings us to the strange and wonderful intro. The one thing of which we can be absolutely certain is that the timbalero "jumps" the clave just as the horns come in, so however we look at it, we know that a clave change occurred. The thing about "clave license" changes is that they're completely objective, requiring no interpretation on the part of the listener. If you start counting clave at the beginning and at ANY point in the arrangement you find yourself crossed, then you know with certainty that a case of clave license has occurred.

But the other type of clave change always depends on where the listener's ear thinks the phrase is starting. The clave continues uninterrupted, but the arranger creates the illusion that it has flipped over through the way the music is presented against the clave.

So, the intro is presented in a way that encourages the listener to hear it as if it were in 2:3, but as soon as the coro comes in at 0:09 it becomes obvious that it was really in 3:2 all along and the phrase just started halfway through...something that Charanga Habanera loved to do. Here's a MIDI recording with a countoff designed to make you hear the phrase in 2:3 (which is wrong, so don't listen to it too many times!) [audio example]. And now here's another designed to help you learn to hear it right! (listen to this until it sounds totally right to you) [audio example]. Finally, here's the real introduction, which leads you to believe you're in 2:3 and then the swirling piano comes in and before you know it the coro has made it clear that it's 3:2.[audio example] And then, of course, as soon as you start to get comfortable in 3:2, you get the NY clave change to the standard 2:3 cuerpo groove.