Sawyer_MUSI322

Christine Gangelhoff's lecture videos on the Spanish-speaking Caribbean highlights numerous examples of creolization in the music of that region.  One example Gangelhoff provides in the  Spanish part 3  video   is the bachata musical style that originated in the Dominican Republic. Bachata is a danceable musical genre derived from blending the rhythmic bolero with other Afro-Antillean genres such as son, cha-cha-chá, and merengue. Bachata's instrumentation evolved from classic bachata's nylon string Spanish guitar and maracas to modern bachata's electric steel-string and guira. The emergence of urban bachata styles by bands like Monchy y Alexandra and Aventura further changed bachata in the twenty-first century. The typical bachata group consists of seven instruments: requinto (lead guitar), segunda (rhythmic syncopation guitar), electric guitar, guitar, bass guitar, bongos and guira. Below is a photo of Dominican, Jose Manuel Calderon, who recorded the first Bachata so

The textbook Tour de Force: A  Musical Journey of the Caribbean outlines a few examples of creolization in the music of the Dutch-speaking Caribbean.  One example the text provides is the Antillean waltz from Curaçao. The Antillean waltz evolved from the European, Spanish and Viennese waltzes forming a unique combination of traditional waltz and Caribbean syncopation. Authors Christine Gangelhoff and Cathleen LeGrand describe this creole metamorphosis of the Antillean waltz in detail. Domestic workers on the island often issued the music at dance parties for the European, Dutch, Sephardic and Venezuelan communities. They provided this music using the ka'i òrgel accompanied by the wiri instrument which added a unique rythmic syncopation to the imported waltzes recorded on the ka'i òrgel. It is likely that this accompaniment resulted in the evolution of the Antillean waltz.  Here is a photo of renowned Curaçaoan composer and pianist Wim Statius Muller whose piano works in Antill

The theme of creolization in the music of the French-speaking Caribbean will be examined next. The textbook  Tour de Force: A  Musical Journey of the Caribbean  also highlights numerous examples of creolization in French Caribbean music.  One example the text provides is the méringue musical style from Haiti. This creolized musical style evolved from a fusion of contredanse music from European ballrooms with African-derived music. Typical instruments in méringue music are the tanbou, congas, saxophone, trumpets, guitars, trombones and bass. According to the authors however, salon instruments like the violin, piano and flute are featured in méringues of more cosmopolitan settings.  Here is a photo of the Haitian musical group Orchestre Septentrional who has more than 300 tracks in the meringue, konpa, bolero and other Haitian vodou rhythms: Photo taken from https://xpnkanaval.org/2021/04/18/watch-orchestre-septentrional-in-concert/ Below is a video of the band's méringue song '