Music of the Lesser Antilles

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The music of the Lesser Antilles encompasses the

Afro-American musical complex, being a mixture of African, European and indigenous American elements. The Lesser Antilles' musical cultures are largely based on the music of African slaves brought by European traders and colonizers. The African musical elements are a hybrid of instruments and styles from numerous West African tribes, while the European slaveholders added their own musics into the mix, as did immigrants from India
. In many ways, the Lesser Antilles can be musically divided based on which nation colonized them.

The former

zouk style and have also had extensive musical contact with the music of Haiti, itself once a French colony though not part of the Lesser Antilles. The Dutch colonies of Curaçao, Bonaire and Aruba share the combined rhythm popular style. The islands also share a passion for kaseko, a genre of Surinamese music; Suriname and its neighbors Guyana and French Guiana
share folk and popular styles that are connected enough to the Antilles and other Caribbean islands that both countries are studied in the broader context of Antillean or Caribbean music.

Characteristics

While Lesser Antillean music is very often discussed as a

music area, this division is of limited usefulness. The islands of the Lesser Antilles divide musically along linguistic lines, with the most significant overlap coming from Dominica and Saint Lucia, both primarily Anglophone but strongly influenced by a French colonial past. Because the islands are divided linguistically, the term Antillean music is usually used in reference to one such music area. Thus, for example, the Rough Guide to World Music features a chapter on "Antillean music", which is entirely about the French Antillean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, with a brief sidebar specifically about the Dutch Antilles.[1]

In the context of Anglophone music, the term Antillean music most commonly refers to Trinidad and Tobago, home to the well-known calypso style. Music author Peter Manuel, for example, treats all the Anglophone islands as a subject of Trinidadian calypso traditions, while using the title Music of the Lesser Antilles for Francophone Antillean music. Manuel also, like many authors, treats Suriname and Guyana as integral aspects of Caribbean music; due to the Dutch colonial history of both countries, they are often grouped with Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles.[2]

Nevertheless, Antillean music can be characterized by the prominence of the

Labor Day Carnival features music and parades, mas and steel bands; this Carnival is distinct to New York, and reflects elements of a pan-Caribbean nature.[3]

Calypso and calypso-like traditions

Further information:
list of calypso-like genres

Calypso is most closely associated with the island of Trinidad, but it has spread throughout the Lesser Antilles, and abroad. Similar traditions can be found natively on many of Caribbean islands. Within the Antilles, most of the popular calypso stars have come from Trinidad and Tobago; the majority of the exceptions, such as Arrow from Montserrat, have come from other Anglophone islands. Music author Peter Manuel has argued that, despite the modern Anglophone focus to calypso-like song forms, their origins lie in the "Afro-French creole culture", and notes that the ancestor of the word calypso, cariso, was first used to refer to a Martinican singer.[4]

The calypso song complex is characterized by satirical, political, risque and humorous lyricism, a competitive and celebratory nature and its function in social organization and informal communication. Jamaican mento is perhaps the best-known form of calypso-like music. The island of Carriacou is home to a calypso-like song style, as well as canboulay feasts, calinda songs, and steel bands, all similar to the related Trinidadian traditions, though distinct from them. Modern influences from Trinidad have organized the Carriacou song style, and there are competitions similar to calypso tents on the island.[5] The Antiguan benna is part of the same song complex, featuring news-oriented and ribald, often satirical lyrics and a rhythmic, uptempo style.[6]

Carnival

Further information:
Caribbean Carnival
A Carnival troupe in the Virgin Islands

Annual

U.S. Virgin Islands as well as French Saint Martin and elsewhere. The British Antillean Carnivals are also mostly united by the J'ouvert tradition, which involves calypso and soca band parades and are the highlight of their celebrations.[citation needed
]

Summer Carnivals include those on

Saint-Barthélemy, Bonaire, Curaçao, Dominica, Saint Thomas and Guadeloupe.[7]

British Antilles

Further information: Music of Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Virgin Islands

There are many popular traditions common to the English-speaking islands of the Lesser Antilles. Calypso, originally an old folk music–based genre from West Africa, is popular throughout the islands; other popular traditions, like soca originally from Trinidad, are also well known throughout the region. Steel drum ensembles is also found throughout the English-speaking Lesser Antilles (and abroad), especially in Trinidad and Tobago as well as Antigua and Barbuda. The British Antilles also share in certain folk traditions. Eastern Caribbean folk calypso is found throughout the area, as are African-Caribbean religious music styles like the Shango music of Trinidad.[8] Variants of the Big Drum festival occur throughout the Windward Islands, especially in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Carnival is an important folk music celebration on all the islands of the Lesser Antilles, and the rest of the Caribbean.

Calypso is part of a spectrum of similar folk and popular Caribbean styles that spans

Attila the Hun[9] and Roaring Lion.[8] calypso remained popular throughout the Caribbean in the later 20th century, the islands began producing calypso stars. In the 1970s, a calypso variant called soca arose, characterized by a focus on dance rhythms rather than lyricism. Soca has since spread across the Caribbean and abroad.[8]

The Mongoose Play, a popular Kittitian production of folk theatre and music

Steel drums are a distinctively

Trinidadian ensemble that evolved from improvised percussion instruments used in Carnival processions. By the late 1930s, bamboo tubes, a traditional instrumental, were supplemented by pieces of metal used percussively; over time, these metal percussion instruments were pitched to produce as many as twenty-some tones. Steel bands were large orchestras of these drums, and were banned by the British colonial authorities. Nevertheless, steel drums spread across the Caribbean, and are now an entrenched part of the culture of Trinidad and Tobago.[8]

Though

call-and-response form with both European and African lyrics.[10]

French Antilles

Further information: Music of Martinique, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Saint Lucia
French Antillean Carnival in Paris

French Creole music is most famously associated with Martinique and Guadeloupe, though the islands of Saint Lucia and Dominica are also home to French Antillean music. Creole music is characterized by the prominence of the quadrille dance, distinct from the French version and related to the Haitian mereng. The quadrille is a potent symbol of French Antillean culture.[11]

Martinique and Guadeloupe are also home to their own distinct folk traditions, most influentially including Guadeloupan

gwo ka moderne, though traditional rural performances (lewoz) are still common.[12] Tambour and ti bwa ensembles are the origin of several important Martinican popular styles, including chouval bwa and biguine, and also exerted an influence on zouk. Lucian folk music features ensembles of fiddle, cuatro, banjo, guitar and chak-chak (a rattle), with the banjo and cuatro being of iconic importance, and recreational, often lyric song forms called jwé.[13] The French Creole folk music of Dominica is based on the quadrille, accompanied by ensembles called jing ping. Folk storytelling (kont) and songs (bélé) are also a major part of the country's musical identity.[14]

Cadence-lypso

Main article: Cadence-lypso

Cadence-lypso is the Dominican kadans of the 1970s.

Grammacks that featured the Haitian Cadence rampa or compas with the Trinidadian calypso,[16]
hence the name cadence-lypso; however, most of the bands repertoire was kadans.

This fusion of kadans and calypso accounts only for a small percentage of the band's repertoire: Exile One like all Dominica kadans bands featured reggae, calypso and mostly kadans or compas music.[17]

The Dominican kadans has evolved under the influence of Dominican and Caribbean/

Gordon Henderson defined Cadence-lypso as "a synthesis of Caribbean and African musical patterns fusing the traditional with the contemporary".[15]
It was pushed in the 1970s by groups from Dominica, and was the first style of Dominican music to find international acclaim.

Main article: Exile One

Exile One, based in Guadeloupe, is a leading Dominican kadans group of the 1970s that was very influential in the development of caribbean music. The full-

French Antilles emulated in the 1970s.[19][20]

Zouk

Main article:
Zouk (musical movement)

The inspiration for Zouk's style of rhythmic music comes from the Haitian

Grammacks and Exile One.[21] Elements of gwo ka, tambour, ti bwa and biguine vidé are prominent in zouk. Though there are many diverse styles of zouk, some commonalities exist. The French Creole
tongue of Martinique and Guadeloupe is an important element, and are a distinctive part of the music. Generally, zouk emphasises star singers, with little attention given to instrumentalists, and performances consist almost entirely of studio recordings.

Ethnomusicologist Jocelyn Guilbault believes zouk's evolution was influenced by other Caribbean styles especially Dominica cadence-lypso, Haitian cadence and Guadeloupean biguine.[22][23] Zouk arose in the late 1970s and early 1980s, using elements of previous styles of antillean music, as well as importing other genres.[24]

The band

Kassav' remain the best known zouk group. Kassav' drew in influences from balakadri and bal granmoun dances, biguine's and mazurka's, along with more contemporary Caribbean influences like compas, reggae and salsa music. Zouk live shows soon began to draw on American and European rock
and heavy metal traditions, and the genre spread across the world, primarily in developing countries.

Zouk has diversified into multiple subgenres. These include

R&B, and ragga-zouk bands like Lord Kossity
who fused the genre with other influences.

Zouk-love

Main article:
zouk-love

Zouk Love is the French Antilles cadence or compas, characterized by a slow, soft and sexual rhythm.[21] The lyrics of the songs often speak of love and sentimental problems.

The music kizomba from Angola and cabo-love from Cape Verde are also derivatives of this French Antillean compas music style,[25][26][27] which sounds basically the same, although there are notable differences once you become more familiar with these genres. A main exponent of this subgenre is Ophelia Marie. Other Zouk Love artists come from the French West Indies, the Netherlands, and Africa.

Popular artists include French West Indian artists Edith Lefel and Nichols, or like Netherlands based Suzanna Lubrano and Gil Semedo, the African artist Kaysha.

Bouyon

Main article: Bouyon music

Bouyon (Boo-Yon) is a form of popular music of Dominica, also known as jump up music in Guadeloupe and Martinique. The best-known band in the genre is Windward Caribbean Kulture (WCK), who originated the style in 1988 by experimenting elements of kadans (or cadence-lypso), lapo kabwit drumming, the folk style jing-ping, and a quick-paced electronic drum pattern. From a language perspective, Bouyon draws on English and Dominican Creole French. More recently, deejays with raggamuffin-style vocals (bouyon-muffin) have moved to the fore, updating the sound for the New Generation.

Due to the popularity of Triple K International, Ncore, and the New generation of bouyon bands who toured the

French Antilles, a popular offshoot of bouyon from Guadeloupe is called bouyon gwada.[28]
The jump up had its heyday from the 90s with songs such as Met Veye WCK, but remained stamped background music or carnival. Over the years, thanks to inter-trade with the Dominicans and the mass participation of Guadeloupe at the World Creole Music Festival, the flagship group as Triple kay and MFR band began to democratize and local artists were inducted including the remix Allo Triple kay with Daly and "Big Ting Poppin 'Daly alone.

A popular offshoot within the bouyon gwada is called bouyon hardcore, a style characterized by its lewd and violent lyrics. Popular Bouyon gwada musicians include, Wee Low, Suppa, Doc J, Yellow gaza, etc.

Popular folk music

Though zouk is the most well-known form of modern French Antillean music, the island of Martinique has also produced the chouval bwa and biguine styles, which were especially popular in the early 20th century. Chouval bwa is includes multiple distinctive instruments and internationally famous performers like

Tumpak, while biguine has achieved international fame since the 1920s and has since been modernized and adapted for pop audiences, making it a major influence on zouk.[12] Between the 1930s and 1950s, the dance biguine was popular among the islands' dance orchestras. The biguine uses a cinquillo variant related to that found in other Caribbean genres like méringue and Compas. In the 1940s and 1950s, these dance bands absorbed influences from Cuban, American and Haitian popular music.[11]

Dutch Antilles

Further information:
Music of Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles, Curaçao

The islands of

bow benta.[30]

The tambu is an instrument, and a form of music and dance found on Aruba, Bonaire (where it is sometimes known as bari), and Curaçao. The tambu is an especially important symbol of Curaçaoan identity. Instrumentation for the tambu uses the agan, chapi,

tumba.[31]

The smaller islands of Saint Martin, Saba and Sint Eustatius largely share in the same folk instruments, dances and songs as their neighbors; however, these islands remain largely unstudied. Saba is home to a vital percussive music tradition, most closely associated with private parties, using instrumentation similar to Curaçao, Bonaire and Aruba. Saint Martin is home to a national dance form called the ponum, which dates to the 19th century and was only displaced by string bands in the mid-20th century. Saint Martin is also home to a calypso-like quimbe song form, that remains a major part of the island's culture.[31]

Indo-Antillean

Further information: Indo-Caribbean music

Indo-Caribbean people in the Lesser Antillean music area are clustered in Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. Indo-Caribbean folk traditions include the chowtal songs from the springtime festival phagwa, and Hindi bhajans which are still sung at temples despite there being few people who understand Hindi. Guyanese and Trinidadian Indo-Caribbeans developed a tradition that fused elements of calypso with the folk music of North India, a style that was referred to as local music.[33]

Indo-Caribbean music plays a vital role in various annual festivals like the springtime phagwa, where chowtal is traditionally performed competitively and in teams. Indo-Caribbean

chutney-soca.[33]

Notes

  1. ^ De Ledesma and Scaramuzzo, p. 289–303.
  2. ^ Manuel, Caribbean Currents, p. 140–145, 183–208.
  3. ^ Manuel, Caribbean Currents, p. 210.
  4. ^ Manuel, Caribbean Currents, p. 208.
  5. ^ Manuel, p. 209–210; Manuel specifically cites much of the material on Carriacou to Donald Hill, Calypso Calaloo: Early Carnival Music in Trinidad (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1993)
  6. ^ "Calypso". Antigua and Barbuda's Cultural Heritage. Archived from the original on October 26, 2005. Retrieved December 3, 2005.
  7. ^ Cameron, p. 480, 502, 525, 536, 573, 593.
  8. ^ a b c d e Manuel, Caribbean Currents, p. 183–211.
  9. ^ Quevedo, Raymond (Atilla the Hun). 1983. Atilla's Kaiso: a short history of Trinidad calypso. University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad. (Includes the words to many old calypsos as well as musical scores for some of Atilla's calypsos.)
  10. ^ J. Higgins-Rosebrook (2006-07-14). "Paradise Inn". Archived from the original on 2005-08-31. Retrieved 2006-11-08.
  11. ^ a b Manuel, Caribbean Currents, p. 140–141.
  12. ^ a b c De Ledesma, Charles and Gene Scaramuzzo
  13. ISBN 0-8153-1865-0
    .
  14. ISBN 0-8153-1865-0
    .
  15. ISBN 9781841622170. Retrieved August 10, 2010. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help
    )
  16. ^ Grammacks: mediba (kadans), banana (sweet kadans), ou pa bon, (kadans), ou pitit (kadans), reggae down, disco live (kadans) this same tune is categorized as zouk retro by Deejay Zak (midlay kadans 11/24/2011) Exile one: akiyaka, gade deye...(Midnight) get ready 1997, etc.
  17. ISBN 9781588433930. Retrieved December 3, 2005. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help
    )
  18. ISBN 9781441132253
    . Retrieved August 10, 2010.
  19. ^ Funkyorgan. Cadence Lypso and the organ. Archived from the original on 2014-12-20. Retrieved August 10, 2010.
  20. ^
    ISBN 0292784988
    . Retrieved April 10, 2012.
  21. ^ Guilbault, Jocelyne (1993). Zouk: World Music in the West Indies. University of Chicago Press. p. 111. Retrieved 20 January 2014. biguine evolution.
  22. ^ Jocelyne Guilbault (1993). Zouk: world music in the West Indies. University of Chicago Press. p. 50. Retrieved April 10, 2012.
  23. ^ Jocelyne Guilbault (1993). Zouk: world music in the West Indies. University of Chicago Press. Retrieved August 10, 2010. Zouk.
  24. ^ "Origin of kizomba". www.kizombalove.com. Archived from the original on February 23, 2012. Retrieved December 3, 2005.
  25. ISBN 9780313087943
    . Retrieved December 3, 2005.
  26. ISBN 9789053569948. Retrieved December 3, 2005. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help
    )
  27. ^ "YouTube:bouyon gwada". bouyon gwada. Archived from the original on June 19, 2013. Retrieved November 11, 2012.
  28. ^ Cameron, p. 549–582.
  29. ^ Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, pp. 927–931
  30. ^ a b c New Grove Encyclopedia of Music, pp 775–777
  31. ^ "Curaçao Culture & Folklore". Archived from the original on 2006-10-24. Retrieved 2006-11-08.
  32. ^ a b c Manuel, East Indian Music in the West Indies, p. 212–221.

References

Further reading

English Antilles

French Antilles

Indo-Antillean

Other topics
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