The Music of the Carribean

1. The Music of the Carribean

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

4. Caribbean Islands share a colonial history 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.

5. Combined African and European musical practices, • African rhythmic concepts such as: • timelines • clave • call-and-response • syncopation • interlocking parts • 3+3+2 patterns

6. Syncretism 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

7. Clave Pattern

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

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

10. Rake-n-Scrape Music in the Bahamas • Rake-n-scrape –– a traditional Bahamian music played on accordion, saw, and goat-skin drum

11. Ophie and the Websites “40 Years” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMb1fvcGsj0 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

12. Quadrille http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g_ruzfW0yQ • 19th century French-derived dance for four or more couples, found in the Caribbean islands • In the past in conjunction with Rake and Scrape

13. Calypso and Steel bands in Trinidad

14. 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. Canboulayswere processions during carnival that commemorated the harvesting of burnt cane fields during slavery.

15. Tamboo Bamboo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QVEX_Fiinw After drumming and stick fighting were banned Tamboo Bamboo was created to accompany Calypso songs during carnival. boom, foulé, and cutter.

16. Political issues reflected in song • 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

17. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btUY8rGJGU8&list=PL782948F7BCB9EB20http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btUY8rGJGU8&list=PL782948F7BCB9EB20 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.

18. Steelband http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKzpoO3q87w http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fd1yPJmRTg • an ensemble of steeldrums made from oil drums, tuned to Western pitches • Building Steel drums http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eLLJ4VWmyY

19. Rumba in Cuba and Other Drum Styles • 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

20. Rumba 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

21. Rumba Percussion clave palitos[short sticks] three congas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVQB1FFrigY

22. Rumba consists of two main sections: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaNfdh0iWCg canto (narrative text) montuno(call and response with the chorus/percussion)

23. Bèlè http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reZCnVNkneE Bèlèdrumming (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

24. Bomba http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J09tYXHH0uk Bombais a Puerto Rican tradition that emerged out of the slave barracks, probably during the middle decades of the eighteenth century. The bombawas traditionally danced on special days: to mark the end of harvesting, for birthdays, christenings, and weddings.

25. 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 bombadancing: between the lead singer and the coro, and between the lead drummer and the dancers.

26. Punta of the Garinagu • 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.

27. Punta is performed during festivals, at wakes, and at celebrations that follow duguceremonies (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 primeroand the segunda. Punta Rock is a popular music style developed by the Garifuna peoples from punta.

28. Traditional Punta • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzw484QaXLw • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZatx3gSOsc Punta Rock • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ6TJ7xP8yw&list=PLD6CAD312B5447285

29. Merengue 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),

30. 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

31. Travel and Tourism 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.

32. Religion • 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 musicshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b05zEpFgnN8

33. 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.

34. Sacred Drums 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.

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

36. Santería, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poVoN421VMY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuKro0rOmIg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go16di77DOA

37. Rastafarianism 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

38. Obeah 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

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

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

41. 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, Garifunapunta.

42. 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.

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

44. Discussion 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

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

46. Do we regard any form of music as a symbol of our national identity as Caribbean nationals do? American , Asian, Armenian, Persian, etc.

47. What is your music?

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

49. Native American Music Read 355-381