The Music of the Carribean

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvMaMbEN_RY

the region born in slavery indentured laborers European laws, languages, religions, and

economies Descendants, over the course of several

centuries, became Creoles and Caribbean nationals.

Creole experiences are audible in the region’s musical instruments and styles.

Caribbean Islands share a colonial history

African rhythmic concepts such as: timelines clave call-and-response syncopation interlocking parts 3+3+2 patterns

Combined African and European musical practices,

the result of a fusion, or reconciliation, of differing cultures, mixing belief systems, religion, and music, the success of which is the result of the heterogeneity

Syncretism

Clave Pattern

also known as Garifuna, a diaspora of people of West African and Amerindian descent, who settled along the Caribbean coast of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua during the nineteenth century

Garinagu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBb4R95EAoI

a person of mixed African and European ancestry, who speaks a Creolized language, based on French, Spanish, or English, and an African language

Creole

Rake-n-scrape –– a traditional Bahamian music played on accordion, saw, and goat-skin drum

Rake-n-Scrape Music in the Bahamas

The accordion most commonly is a two-row button accordion

the saw is literally a carpenter’s saw goat-skin drum is African derived

Rake-n-scrape ensembles traditionally accompanied quadrille dancing and are an example of Creole musical style

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMb1fvcGsj0

Ophie and the Websites “40 Years”

19th century French-derived dance for four or more couples, found in the Caribbean islands

In the past in conjunction with Rake and Scrape

Quadrille

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g_ruzfW0yQ

Calypso and Steel bands in Trinidad

Calypso

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiYoBGgTRxo

a traditional French-Creole humorous song that comments on life in the Caribbean

chantwells, assisted by drums and alternating in call-and-response, were a central component of the practice called kalenda (stick-fighting).

In 1883, drumming was banned in an attempt to clean it up. This injunction came after a disturbance in the 1881 carnival, known as the Canboulay Riots. Canboulays were processions during carnival that commemorated the harvesting of burnt cane fields during slavery.

After drumming and stick fighting were banned Tamboo Bamboo was created to accompany Calypso songs during carnival.

boom, foulé, and cutter.

Tamboo Bamboo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QVEX_Fiinw

Traditionalist see calypso as social commentary because in earlier years it served the purpose of telling stories, relaying news events and giving criticisms of persons and policy. social commentaries

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvAIFAcbssA&list=PL5VlG2Z1aaTadIGFrPTFGGavRiq-HNMeT

humorous calypso http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-HHQWm7rrA

Political issues reflected in song

In 1939, Growling Tiger was crowned the first calypso monarch of Trinidad (for his song, entitled “The Labor Situation in Trinidad”). Calypsonians came to be considered dangerous by the government because they could sway public opinion with their songs.

By the end of WWII, calypso ensembles became reminiscent of jazz combos, and a typical calypso ensemble came to include a horn section, drums, percussion, bass, guitar, and keyboard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btUY8rGJGU8&list=PL782948F7BCB9EB20

Steelband

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fd1yPJmRTg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKzpoO3q87w

an ensemble of steeldrums made from oil drums, tuned to Western pitches Building Steel drums http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

4eLLJ4VWmyY

Rumba –– an Afro-Cuban music and dance, derived from African sacred traditions

Bèlè –– a cross-rhythmic drumming style developed in rural Martinique

Bomba –– a drum style that emerged in the 18th century in Puerto Rico from the slave barracks

Rumba in Cuba and Other Drum Styles

Rumba developed during the second half of the nineteenth century as a secular alternative to sacred African-derived drumming traditions in Cuba.

The ensemble generally consists of a lead vocalist, a chorus, and at least three types of percussion instruments

Rumba

clave palitos [short sticks] three congas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVQB1FFrigY

Rumba Percussion

canto (narrative text)

montuno (call and response with the chorus/percussion)

Rumba consists of two main sections:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaNfdh0iWCg

Bèlè drumming (also called belair) developed in rural Martinique and is played on a drum of the same name

The drum is played by two performers: one straddles the drum, playing on the drum-head with both hands and a foot

other performer uses a pair of sticks (called tibwa) to beat out characteristic and intricate cross-rhythms on the side of the drum

Bèlè

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reZCnVNkneE

Bomba is a Puerto Rican tradition that emerged out of the slave barracks, probably during the middle decades of the eighteenth century.

The bomba was traditionally danced on special days: to mark the end of harvesting, for birthdays, christenings, and weddings.

Bomba

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J09tYXHH0uk

The dance is essentially a challenge pitting the virtuosity of the dancers against the skill and speed of the lead drummer.

Two levels of call-and-response happen in bomba dancing: between the lead singer and the coro, and between the lead drummer and the dancers.

Garingua—also known as Garifuna, a diaspora of people of West African and Amerindian descent, who settled along the Carribean coast of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua during the nineteenth century

Punta—a song genre that symbolically reenacts the cock-and-hen mating dance and is usually composed by women. It is performed at festivals, wakes, and ancestor venerations. It involves call and response singing.

Punta of the Garinagu

Punta is performed during festivals, at wakes, and at celebrations that follow dugu ceremonies (religious ceremonies during which a family appeals to the ancestors for help in solving a given problem).

Punta usually involves call and response singing, drums, rattles, and sometimes conch shell trumpets. The drums used in punta are called the primero and the segunda. Punta Rock is a popular music style developed by the Garifuna peoples from punta.

Traditional Punta http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

Yzw484QaXLw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

CZatx3gSOscPunta Rock http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ6TJ7xP8y

w&list=PLD6CAD312B5447285

popular dance music of the Dominican Republic

The rural merengue was denounced as primitive by those the elite.

The early merengue ensemble usually included guira, guitar/quatro, marimba (like the marímbula), and tambora (a double headed drum),

Merengue

Merengue is in 4/4 meter, and the “one, two, three, four” of each measure is pounded out by the kick drum and by the bass guitar

The structure of these songs is similar to Cuban rumba/son in that there is a narrative section (called merengue) followed by a call-and-response section (called jaleo).

Traditional Merengue http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-viFokl1mDE

Modern Merengue http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K9-ZFg5jPk

Caribbean music has become globalized. Caribbean immigrants bring their music where they go, while tourists to the Caribbean purchase the cultural products and disseminate them.

Globalization is a double-edged process that globalizes the local while localizing the global.

Travel and Tourism

Syncretism –– maintaining elements from two or more traditions combined into a new practice Orisha –– any of a number of West African spirits venerated in Caribbean syncretic religious rites

Gospelypso –– a hybrid of gospel and calypso musics http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b05zEpFgnN8

Religion

Religious syncretism is the result of traveling religious practices

African-derived drumming is a major component of the ceremonial music central to syncretic religious systems such as Cuban santería, Trinidadian shango, and Haitian vodoun, all of which have found ways of combining African deities and cosmologies with Catholic saints and doctrines.

The drums are considered sacred, and important rules and rituals circumscribe their construction, care, and use. Only initiated drummers may touch these drums, and the drums are imbued with a spiritual force, usually called Añá, upon their initiation.

The drums are played without the improvisational elements present in genres such as rumba, bélé, and bomba.

Sacred Drums

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68zJfDc_pGc

Bata Drumming

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poVoN421VMY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuKro0rOmIg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go16di77DOA

Santería,

developed in the 1930s is particularly interesting in that it managed to link its theological and social message to the soundtrack of reggae, particularly Bob Marley.

Niyabinghi drumming, however, continues to be an important component of Rastafarian religious life. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNBPniDJSFM

Rastafarianism

Obeah is associated in the Bahamas with folk magic and at times with black magic. The juxtaposition of Christianity with obeah, in the case by singing gospel music in obeah country, is a religious and musical syncretism.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQnMa2R-AwI

Obeah

The Caribbean Islands share a colonial history, each negotiated and interpreted according to their individual circumstances. All shared the creolization process, creating unique cultures.

Summary

Creolization was the process of mixing African and European peoples, cultures, and languages, via colonialism, creating Creole cultures of the Caribbean.

Syncretism is the result of the fusion of differing cultures, mixing belief systems, the success of which is the result of the heterogeneity. Musical syncretisms studied in this unit are Bahamian rake- n-scrape, Trinidadian calypso, Cuban rumba, Garifuna punta.

Each Creole music today has become a measure and symbol of Caribbean national identity.

Caribbean music has become globalized. Caribbean immigrants bring their music where they go, while tourists to the Caribbean purchase the cultural products and disseminate them.

Christianity and African religions syncretized in the Caribbean and brought about new forms of music and reinterpretations of traditional musics

With which globalized forms of Caribbean music are you most familiar, and how have you had access to them?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQSJ9qz55_E

Discussion

Can we think of any other music and cultural syncretisms than those found in the Caribbean?

Do we regard any form of music as a symbol of our national identity as Caribbean nationals do?

American , Asian, Armenian, Persian, etc.

What is your music?

What forms of political protest music exist in cultures outside of the Caribbean, especially in The United States, China, Africa, or Latin America?

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Native American Music