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Music of Dominica

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

   A Dominican band
   Enlarge
   A Dominican band

   The music of Dominica plays an important role in the social and culture
   life of the Antillean island of Dominica. Popular music is widespread,
   with a number of native Dominican performers gaining national fame in
   imported genres like calypso, reggae, soca, zouk and rock and roll. In
   addition, Dominica's own popular music industry has created a form
   called bouyon, which combines elements from several styles and has
   achieved a wide fanbase in Dominica, especially the group WCK (
   Windward Caribbean Kulture). Native musicians in various forms, like
   reggae ( Nasio Fontaine, Brother Matthew Luke), soca ( Derick St.
   Rose-De Hunter, Young Bull), zouk ( Ophelia Marie, Exile One) and
   calypso ( Lazo, The Wizzard) have also become stars at home and abroad.

   Like the other Francophone musics of the Lesser Antilles, Dominican
   folk music is a hybrid of African and European elements. The quadrille
   is an important symbol of French Antillean culture, and is, on
   Dominica, typically accompanied by a kind of ensemble called a jing
   ping band. In addition, Dominica's folk tradition includes folk songs
   called bélé, traditional storytelling called kont, masquerade,
   children's and work songs, and Carnival music.

   Until the late 1950s, the Afro-Dominican culture of most of the island
   was repressed by the colonial government and the influence of the Roman
   Catholic Church, both of which taught that African-derived music was
   evil, demonic and uncultured. This perception changed in the mid- to
   late 20th century, when Afro-Dominican culture came to be celebrated
   through the work of promoters like Cissie Caudeiron.
   A Dominican band
   Enlarge
   A Dominican band

Characteristics

   Dominica's terrain is rugged, which has fostered distinct regional
   traditions. The northern, eastern, southern, western and central parts
   of the island are music areas. The villages of Wesley and Marigot are
   also unique in their preservation of English language and music rather
   than the more French-based styles of the rest of the island.

   Dominican folk music is an oral tradition, learned informally through
   watching others perform. As of 1987, most performers of traditional
   music were either over fifty years old or under thirty-five, which
   indicates an ongoing revival of previously declining traditions. Music
   is evaluated based on both characteristics of the music, such as
   complex syncopated rhythms, as well as social factors, such as the
   ability of the performers to improvise and respond to their
   surroundings and to keep the audience excited and participating in the
   music.

   Characteristics of Dominican music include the use of call and response
   singing, clapping as a major part of rhythm and lyrical, dance and
   rhythmic improvisation. Lyrics are almost all in French Creole, and are
   traditionally sung by women (chantwèl), while the instrumental
   traditions are predominately practiced by men. Drums, generically known
   as lapo kabwit, are the most prominent part of Dominica's instrumental
   tradition.

Folk music

   Dominican folk music includes, most influentially, the French Antillean
   quadrille tradition, the jing ping style of dance music, as well as
   bélé and heel-and-toe polka. Traditional Carnival music includes chanté
   mas and lapo kabwit. Folk music on Dominica has historically been a
   part of everyday life, including work songs, religious music and
   secular, recreational music.

   The quadrille is the most important dance of the Dominican folk
   tradition, which also includes the lancer and distinctive forms of
   several dances, many of them derived from European styles. The bidjin (
   biguine), mereng ( merengue), sotis ( schottische), polka pil (pure
   polka), vals o vyenn (Viennese waltz) and mazouk ( mazurka) are
   particularly widespread.

Bélé

   Bélé are folk songs traditionally performed recreationally in the
   evening during the full moon, and more rarely, lavèyé ( wakes). The
   bélé tradition has declined in the 20th and 21st century, but is still
   performed for holidays like Easter, Independence Day, Christmas, Jounen
   Kwéyòl and patron saint festivals held annually in the Parishes of
   Dominica, especially in the Fèt St.-Pierre and the Fèt St.-Isidore for
   fishermen and workers respectively.

   All bélé are accompanied by an eponymous drum, the tanbou bélé, along
   with the tingting ( triangle) and chakchak ( maracas). Bélés start with
   a lead vocalist, who is followed by the responsorial chorus (lavwa),
   then a drummer and dancers. Traditional dances revolve around stylized
   courtship between a male and female dancer, known as the kavalyé and
   danm respectively. The bélé song-dances include the bélé soté, bélé
   priòrité, bélé djouba, bélé contredanse, bélé rickety and bélé pitjé.

Quadrille

   The quadrille is a dance form that is an important symbol of French
   Antillean culture, not just in Dominica, but also Martinique,
   Guadeloupe and other Francophone islands. Dominican quadrilles are
   traditionally performed by four sets of couples in subscription picnics
   or dances, and in private parties. However, the quadrille tradition now
   only survives at holidays and festivals.

   The Dominican quadrille generally has four figures, the pastouwèl,
   lapoul, lété and latrinitez. Some regions of Dominica, such as Petite
   Savanne, are home to local variants such as the caristo. Many
   quadrilles are found across Dominica under a wide variety of names. In
   addition to the standard quadrille, the lancer is also an important
   Dominican dance.

   Accompaniment for the quadrille is provided by a four instrument
   ensemble called a jing ping band, or less commonly, an accordion band;
   jing ping groups also accompany the flirtation, a circle dance. Jing
   ping bands are made up of a boumboum ( boom pipe), syak or gwaj (
   scraper- rattle), tambal or tanbou ( tambourine) and accordion. The
   double bass and banjo are also sometimes used. Bamboo flutes led the
   jing ping ensembles before the 1940s, when accordions were introduced.
   The Dominican flute tradition declined as a result, despite their
   additional use in serenades, until being revived after the National
   Independence Competitions.

Other folk music

   Dominica's folk musical heritage includes work songs, storytelling,
   children's music and masquerade songs. Dominican work songs are
   accompanied by the tambou twavay drum, and are performed by workers
   while gathering fruit, building roads, fishing, moving a house or
   sawing wood. Many are responsorial, and are generally short and simple,
   with the lyrical text and rhythm tying into the work to be accompanied.
   On modern Dominica, work songs are rarely performed.

   The kont, or storytelling, folk tradition of Dominica was focused
   around entertainment for night-time festivals, funeral wakes and feasts
   and festivals. Modern kont is mostly performed during major festival
   competitions. Most kont storytellers work with local traditions, such
   as legends and history, and provide an ethical or moral message. A one
   line theme song, often based around a duet between two characters,
   recurs throughout most kont performances.

   Unlike most Dominican folk songs, children's songs and musical games
   are mostly in English. They were originally in the same Creole as the
   rest of the island, but have come to be primarily of English and
   Scotch-Irish derivation. Children's musical traditions include ring
   games and circle dances, and music accompanied by thigh-slapping and
   circle dancing.

   The chanté mas ( masquerade song) tradition is based around pre-calypso
   Carnival music performed in a responsorial style by partygoers. The
   Dominican Carnival masquerade lasted for two days of parading through
   the streets, with a singer dancing backwards in front of the drummer on
   a tanbou lélé. Chant&eacute mas lyrics are traditionally based on
   gossip and scandal, and addressed the personal shortcomings of others.

Popular music

   The first internationally known bands from Dominica were 1970s groups
   like Exile One and Grammacks. These bands were the stars of the
   cadence-lypso scene, which was the first style of Dominican music to
   become popular across the Caribbean. By the 1980s, however, Martinican
   zouk and other styles were more popular. In 1988, WCK formed, playing
   an experimental fusion of cadence-lypso with the island’s jing ping
   sound. The result became known as bouyon, and has re-established
   Dominica in the field of popular music.

Early popular music

   Dominican popular music history can be traced back to the 1940s and
   50s, when dance bands like the Casimir Brothers and later, The Swinging
   Stars, became famous across the island. Their music was a
   dance-oriented version of many kinds of Caribbean and Latin popular
   music, such as Cuban bolero, Brazilian samba, the merengue of the
   Dominican Republic and Trinidadian calypso and funk.

   By the beginning of the 1960s, calypso and Trinidadian steelpan became
   the most popular styles of music on Dominica, replacing traditional
   Carnival music like chanté mas and lapo kabwit. Early recording stars
   from this era included Swinging Busters, The Gaylords, De Boys an Dem
   and Los Caballeros, while chorale groups also gained fans, especially
   Lajenne Etwal, Siflé Montan'y and the Dominica Folk singers. These
   early popular musicians were aided by the spread of radio broadcasting,
   beginning with WIDBS and later Radio Dominica.

   Of these early popular musicians, a few pioneering the use of native
   influences. The Gaylords’ hits, like “Ti Mako”, “Pray for the
   Blackman”, “Lovely Dominica” and “Douvan Jo”, were either English or
   the native Creole, kwéyòl. By the end of the 1960s and beginning of the
   1970s, American rock and roll, soul and funk had reached Dominica and
   left lasting influences. Funky rock-based bands like Voltage Four,
   Woodenstool and Every Mother's Child became popular.

   Calypso has been popular in Dominica since the 1950s; the first Calypso
   King was crowned in 1959. Popular calypso in Dominica has always been
   closely associated with steelpan music. The first wave of Dominican
   steelpan includes bands like Esso, Shell and Regent, Vauxhall and Old
   Oak.

   Cadence-lypso developed in the 1970s, and was the first style of
   Dominican music to find international acclaim, eventually becoming a
   part of styles like zouk. The most influential band in the development
   of cadence-lypso was Exile One who combined calypso with compas and
   cadence, styles derived from Haitian music. Cadence-lypso was
   influenced by nationalist movement that espoused Rastafari and Black
   Power. Many groups performed songs with intensely ideological
   positions, and much of the repertoire was in the vernacular kwéyòl
   language.

Recent popular music

   During the 1980s, cadence-lypso’s popularity declined greatly. Some
   Dominican performers remained famous, such as Ophelia, a very renowned
   singer of the period. Popular music during this time was mostly zouk, a
   style pioneered by the Martinican band Kassav, who used styles of folk
   music of Martinique and Guadeloupe. Soca, a kind of Trinidadian music,
   was also popular at the time, producing bands like RSB, Windward
   Caribbean Kulture (WCK) and First Serenade. The 80s also saw a rise in
   popular for jazz and the formation of several jazz bands, while groups
   like Exile One began exploring tradition rhythms from jing ping and
   lapo kabwit.

   Bouyon is a fusion of jing ping, cadence-lypso and other styles of
   Caribbean music, developed by a band called Windward Caribbean Kulture
   (later WCK). WCK was among the most prominent of 80s Dominican soca
   bands. They began using native drum rhythms and elements of the music
   of jing ping bands, as well as ragga-style vocals. Bouyon is popular
   across the Caribbean, and is known as jump up music in Guadeloupe and
   Martinique. A modern offshoot of bouyon, bouyon-muffin, uses more
   prominent elements of Jamaican raggamuffin music. Modern bouyon bands
   include Rough and Ready, Wassin Warriors and Seramix.
     * WCK's "Conch Shell" —
          + WCK (Windward Caribbean Kulture) is one of the most prominent
            popular musicians of Dominica, and has performed styles such
            as bouyon and soca.
          +

   Religious music, influenced by American gospel, has become an important
   part of Dominican popular music in the 1990s. Performers include Cegid,
   Exeters, Agnes Aaron, Leon Esprit, Jerry Lloyd and End Time Singers.
   Calypso has also retained much popularity in Dominica, as has jazz. The
   band Impact has fused jazz with Caribbean music. Other styles include
   steelpan, which has declined popularity despite the efforts of groups
   like Phase Five, and dancehall, which includes performers like Puppa
   Tino, Miekey Moreau, Cecil Moses and Skinny Banton.

Music institutions and festivals

   The Caribbean Carnival is an important part of the Dominican culture.
   Originally featuring masquerade songs (chanté mas) and other local
   traditions, traditional Carnival, Mas Domnik, came to be dominated by
   imported calypso music and steel bands in the early 1960s; calypso
   appealed to Carnival-goers because the lyrical focus on local news and
   gossip was similar to that of chanté mas, despite a rhythmic pattern
   and instrumentation which contrast sharply with traditional Dominican
   Mas Domnik music. After a fire in 1963, the traditional Carnival was
   banned, though calypso and steelpan continued to grow in popularity.
   Modern Carnival on Dominica takes place on the Monday and Tuesday
   before Ash Wednesday, and is a festive occasion during which laws
   against libel and slander are suspended. The modern Dominican Carnival
   is heavily based on the Trinidadian celebration, but is not as
   commercialized due to a lack of corporate sponsorship.

   The World Creole Music Festival takes place on the island of Dominica,
   in Festival City, Roseau, which is run by the governmental Dominica
   Festivals Commission. The National Independence Competitions are an
   important part of Dominican musical culture. They were founded by Chief
   Minister of Dominica Edward Olivier Leblanc in 1965, and promote the
   traditional music and dance of Dominica. The government of Dominica
   also promotes Dominican music through the Dominican Broadcasting
   Station, which broadcasts between 20% and 25% local music as a matter
   of policy.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Dominica"
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