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Music of the Lesser Antilles

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Musical genres, styles,
eras and events

   The music of the Lesser Antilles encompasses the musics of Martinique,
   Guadeloupe, Dominica, Trinidad and Tobago, Aruba and the Netherlands
   Antilles, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Anguilla, Antigua and
   Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, Virgin Islands, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts
   and Nevis and Montserrat. Lesser Antillean music is part of the broader
   category of Caribbean music; much of the folk and popular music is also
   a part of 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 ex- British colonies include Trinidad and Tobago, whose calypso
   style is an especially potent part of the music of the other former
   British colonies, which also share traditions like the Big Drum dance.
   The French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, which share the
   popular 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, who
   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 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. 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.

   Nevertheless, Antillean music can be characterized by the prominence of
   the Carnival celebration, and the importance of calypso-like song
   traditions. The Lesser Antilles is also home to a strong Indo-Caribbean
   population; though Indo-Caribbean music is found elsewhere in the
   Caribbean, the prominence of Indian-influenced styles is a hallmark of
   the Antillean music scenes. Regional forms can also be found outside of
   the Caribbean entirely, most notably in New York City, where Brooklyn's
   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.

Calypso and calypso-like traditions

   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.

   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 most well-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
   though distinct from the related Trinidadian traditions. Modern
   influences from Trinidad have organized the Carriacou song style, and
   there are competitions similar to calypso tents on the island. The
   Antiguan benna is part of the same song complex, featuring
   news-oriented and ribald, often satirical lyrics and a rhythmic,
   uptempo style.

Carnival

   A Carnival troupe in the Virgin Islands
   Enlarge
   A Carnival troupe in the Virgin Islands

   Annual Carnival celebrations are an important part of the culture of
   all the Lesser Antillean islands. The Carnivals occur at varying times
   of year on each island, either pre-Lent, Christmastime or in July and
   August, and feature a wide variety of dances, songs and parades.
   Contests are common, especially Calypso King and Queen contests, which
   are held on most of the British Antillean islands, the 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.

   Summer Carnivals include those on Antigua, Saint Vincent and the
   Grenadines, Sint Eustatius, Saint John, Saint Lucia, Grenada, Saba,
   Nevis and Anguilla, the latter two of which are especially known for
   popular calypso competitions. Christmastime Carnivals are held on
   Montserrat, Saint Croix, Saint-Martin and St. Kitts; Montserrat's
   distinctive Carnival includes masquerades and steelbands, and both
   islands also feature calypso competitions. The Carnival of Sint
   Maarten, which takes place a month after Easter, is known for the
   burning of King Moui-Moui as the culmination of the festival. Many
   islands, especially the French and Dutch Antilles, are home to
   pre-Lenten Carnivals, including Martinique, Aruba, Saint-Barthélemy,
   Bonaire, Curaçao, Dominica, Saint Thomas and Guadeloupe .

British Antilles

   There are many popular traditions common to the English-speaking
   islands of the Lesser Antilles. Calypso, originally from the island of
   Trinidad, has spread to the neighboring islands; other Trinidadian
   popular traditions, like soca, are also well-known throughout the
   region. Steeldrum ensembles is also found throughout the
   English-speaking Lesser Antilles (and abroad), especially in Trinidad
   and Tobago and Antigua and Barbuda. The British Antilles also share in
   certain folk traditions. Trinidadian folk calypso is found throughout
   the area, as are African-Caribbean religious music styles like the
   Shango music of Trinidad. 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 benna and mento, but remains the most prominent genre
   of Lesser Antillean music. Calypso's roots are unclear, can be traced
   to 18th century Trinidad. Modern calypso, however, began in the 19th
   century, a fusion of disparate elements ranging from the masquerade
   song lavway, French Creole belair and the stick fighting chantwell.
   Calypso's early rise was closely connected with the adoption of
   Carnival by Trinidadian slaves, including camboulay drumming and the
   music masquerade processions. Popular calypso arose in the early 20th
   century, with the rise of internationally known calypsonians like
   Attila the Hun and Roaring Lion. Trinidadian calypso remained popular
   throughout the Caribbean in the later 20th century, and other Antillean
   islands, like Antigua 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.
   The Mongoose Play, a popular Kittitian production of folk theatre and
   music
   Enlarge
   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, steeldrums spread across
   the Caribbean, and are now an entrenched part of Trinidadian culture.

   Though Trinidadian popular music is by far the most well-known style of
   Lesser Antillean music, the other Anglophone islands are home to their
   own musical traditions. Carriacou and Grenada are home to Carnival
   celebrations that feature distinct form of calypso, canboulay feasts,
   calinda stick-fighting songs and the steelband accompanied jouvert, as
   well as the Big Drum dance, which is also found in Saint Vincent and
   the Grenadines. Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines share
   other musics as well including the funereal music of the saraca rite, a
   call-and-response form with both European and African lyrics.

French Antilles

   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 Martinique and Guadeloupe are also home to
   their own distinct folk traditions, most influentially including
   Guadeloupan gwo ka and Martinican tambour and twi ba. Gwo ka is a type
   of percussion music which consists of seven basic rhythms and
   variations on them. It has been modernized into gwo ka moderne, though
   traditional rural performances ( lewoz) are still common. Tambour and
   twi ba ensembles are the origin of several important Martinican popular
   styles, including chouval bwa and biguine, and also exterted 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. The French Creole folk music of Dominica are based
   around the quadrille, accompaniedby ensembles called jing ping. Folk
   storytelling (kont) and songs (bélé) are also a major part of the
   country's musical identity.

   Music authors Charles De Ledesma and Gene Scaramuzzo trace zouk's
   development to the Guadeloupan gwo ka and Martinican tambour and twi ba
   folk traditions. Ethnomusicologist Jocelyn Guilbault, however,
   describes zouk as a synthesis of Caribbean popular styles, especially
   cadence-lypso, biguine, kompa direk and kadans rampa. Zouk arose in the
   late 1970s and early 1980s, using elements of previous styles of
   Antillean music, as well as imported genres. In the 1950s, Haitian
   compas and cadence rampa became the dominant pop sounds of the Lesser
   Antilles, especially Webert Sicot and Nemours Jean Baptiste. These were
   followed by the Antillean mini-jazz bands like Les Gentlemen, Les
   Leopards and Les Vikings de Guadeloupe in the late 1970s, who drew on
   the Haitian sound of Sicot and Baptiste. Later in the decade and into
   the 1980s, the French Antilles became home to a style of cadence music
   called cadence-lypso. Gordon Henderson's Exile One innovated this style
   by adding calypso horns, and turned the mini-jazz combos into
   guitar-dominated big bands, paving the way for the success of large
   groups like Malavoi, among others. Drawing on these influences, the
   supergroup Kassav' invented zouk and popularized it with hit songs like
   "Zouk-La-Se Sel Medikaman Nou Ni". Kassav' formed from Paris in 1978.
   Kassav' soon added elements of rock and other influences and became
   some of the biggest stars in the Caribbean, France and elsewhere as
   zouk diversified into multiple subgenres. These include zouk-love, pop
   ballads by artists like Edith Lefel and Gilles Floro, and zouk funk and
   ragga-zouk bands like Lord Kossity who fused the genre with other
   influences.
   French Antillean Carnival in Paris.
   Enlarge
   French Antillean Carnival in Paris.

   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 especally popular in the early 20th century.
   Chouval bwa is includes multiple distinctive instruments and
   internationally famous performers like Claude Germany, Dede Saint-Prix,
   Pakatak and 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. Between the 1930s and 50s, 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 mereng and kompa direk. In the 1940s and 50s,
   these dance bands absorbed influences from Cuban, American and Haitian
   popular music.

Dutch Antilles

   The islands of Curaçao, Bonaire, Aruba, St. Eustatius and St. Martin
   share musical styles, as well as maintain their own sets of folk and
   popular dances, ranging from the impromptu Statian road block to
   calypso, zouk and soca . African, indigenous and European ancestry
   predominate, though more recent immigrants have brought musics from
   Lebanon, China and India. In popular music, the islands are known for
   the Combined Rhythm, like local favorites the Happy Peanuts and
   Expresando Rimto i Ambiente. Kaseko music from the mainland country
   Suriname is also popular. Traditional music of Aruba and the
   Netherlands Antilles, however, is primarily African, characterized by
   the use of complex, highly developed polyrhythms, dance styles and
   drums like the tambú. Other African-derived instruments include metal
   percussion rods, agan, the rasp wiri, aerophones like the cachu
   trumpet, becu transverse double-reed wind instrument, and the bow
   benta.

   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, triangle, wiri and other
   instruments, many of which are also part of the African-derived muziek
   di zumbi, or spirit music, of Curaçao. Curaçao's folk music also
   includes a rich tradition of work songs with apentatonic lyrics sung in
   Guene or a Papiamento variant called seshi. The Simadan harvest
   festival is found across the islands, and features the cachu trumpet,
   made from a cowhorn. Bonaire's Simadan festival is also notable for the
   use of the becu, an aerophone made from the stalk of a sorghum plant,
   and the kinkon, made from a conch shell and known elsewhere as the
   carco. Folk song forms range from the harvest seu, simadan and wapa.
   Other songs were imported beginning in the 19th century, including the
   South American joropo and pasillo, Spanish Caribbean merengue and other
   new songs, dances and instruments. This diverse mixture was the origin
   of the Dutch Antilles' most distinctive and long-standing popular
   tradition, the tumba.

   The smaller islands of Saint Martin, Saba and St. 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 Curacau, 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.

Indo-Antillean

   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 .

   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 Shia Muslims celebrate Hosay
   ( Muharram) with floats accompanied by barrel drums called tassa.
   Wedding music is another important part of Indo-Caribbean music, and is
   dominated by tan singing. Tan singing is based around the dholak drum
   and dantal, and sometimes includes verbal duels influenced by picong.
   Indo-Caribbean popular music gained international attention in the late
   1980s, with the rise of chutney music. Chutney is a dance music, in its
   modern form accompanied by soca instrumentation, such as synthesizers
   and pressure drums. This style is called chutney-soca.
     * Babla and Kanchan's "Abu na Jaibe" —
          + A chutney song by Babla and Kanchan
          +

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