Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Introduction to Caribbean music
Introduction to Caribbean music
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Introduction to Caribbean music
Pansy
ENG 401
Dr. Champagne
December 11, 2013
Calypso in the Caribbean “She say she don’t like bamboo/but she don’t mind meh cane/She say cane juice real sweet/it does reach to she brain” are song lyrics from the calypso song “Sweet Cane Juice” sung in Roger McTair’s short story, “Visiting”. According to Britannica Encyclopedia, calypso is “a type of folk song primarily from Trinidad though sung elsewhere in the southern and eastern Caribbean islands. The subject of a calypso text, usually witty and satiric, is a local and topical event of political and social import, and the tone is one of allusion, mockery, and double entendre”. This music genre is one of the most important traditions in Caribbean music history. Calypso music was developed
…show more content…
While working, the slaves were forbidden to converse with each other. Instead of speaking, they sang songs that they knew from their native land, West Africa. The slaves used a song or chant called kaiso “which originated in West Africa, and later evolved into Calypso” (“A brief history of kaiso”). “Kaiso songs are generally narrative in form and often have a cleverly concealed political subtext” (“A brief history of kaiso”). Early calypso music was sung in Creole French to imitate slave owners. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, “During the carnival season before lent, groups of slaves led by popular singers, or shatwell, wandered through the streets singing and improvising veiled lyrics directed toward unpopular political …show more content…
After the abolishment of slavery in the 1830s, calypso became more popular. “Calypso traveled outside Trinidad in the 1920s and 30s and, in a highly commercialized form, became very popular in the United State during the late 1940s and 1950s” (Lagassé, Paul 1). By the 1930s, Atilla the Hun, Roaring Lion, and Lord Invader were idols in the calypso music industry. In addition, the boom for calypso in the 1930s faced hardships because the music was considered too provocative (Sunshine 582). “Probably the most famous of the many 20th –century calypso artists are, in Trinidad, the Mighty Sparrow, and in the United States, Harry Belafonte” (Lagassé, Paul 1). In 1956, Harry Belafonte recorded the “Banana Boat Song” or better known as “Day-O.” This song is the most internationally famous calypso song and is still used in present times for movies and sports events. Calypso music is still popular and now contains a more up-beat tempo mixed with rhythm and blues, dance, and rap
For centuries, music has been defined by history, time, and place. To address this statement, Tom Zè, an influential songwriter during the Tropicália Movement, produced the revolutionary “Fabrication Defect” to challenge oppression as a result from the poor political and social conditions. On the other hand, David Ramsey discusses, in mixtape vignettes, the role of music to survive in New Orleans’ violent setting. Furthermore, “The Land where the Blues Began”, by Alan Lomax, is a film and perfect example to understand under what musical conditions profound ways of communication are made to stand the hard work of cotton plantations. As a result, music plays a crucial role in the sources’ cultures and its creation relies on particular conditions such as the social
Except using the analogy method to analyze the two cities in Caribbean, Mintz also include people’s real living story to enhance his research. For example, Worker in the Cane, a story of a Puerto Rican sugar can worker, Don Taso, his family and the village he lived. “Don Taso portrays his harsh childhood, his courtship and early marriage, his grim struggle to provide for his family” (Mintz 1974: 1). Although Worker in the Cane is not Mintz’s most famous book, it provided people a direct impression of ethnographic contact, and the detailed description and vivid storytelling of a human’s life explain the reason this book continuing appeal young anthologists.
The ocean is what connects the people of the Caribbean to their African descendants in and out of time. Through the water they made it to their respective islands, and they, personally, crafted it to be temporal and made it a point of reference. The ocean is without time, and a speaker of many languages, with respect to Natasha Omise’eke Tinsley’s Black Atlantic, Queer Atlantic. The multilingualism of the ocean is reminiscent that there is no one Caribbean experience. The importance of it indicates that the Afro-Caribbean identity is most salient through spirituality. It should come to no surprise that Erzulie, a Haitian loa, is a significant part of the migration of bodies in Ana Maurine Lara’s Erzulie’s Skirt. Ana Maurine Lara’s depiction
The plantation systems in the Caribbean were its most distinctive and characteristic economic form. These plantation systems were created in the New World during the early years of the sixteenth century and were mostly staffed with slaves imported from Africa. It was Spain that pioneered sugar cane, sugar making, African slave labour, and the plantation form in the Caribbean. Before long, within a century, the French and British became the world’s greatest makers and exporters of sugar. The film, Sugar Cane Alley, depicts the essence of a key transitional moment in French Caribbean history. It highlights the tribulations (daily efforts and working conditions) of many Noir sugar plantation workers in Martinique in the early 1930s. Hence,
Released in 1997, Buena Vista Social Club immediately became an international success and won a Grammy Award in 1998. Around the world, especially in U.S. where the album was welcomed most heartily, Ry Cooder was considered the hero of Cuban music (Hernandez 65). Being the producer of the album, Cooder was assumed to discover a “lost treasure” in Cuban culture. However, Tanya Kateri Hernandez, in an article about Buena Vista Social Club, revealed that Juan de Marcos Gonzalez, not Cooder, was the person “who masterminded and facilitated the collaboration.” (Hernandez 62). Also in this article, it is noted that Juan de Marcos Gonzalez “implicitly acquiesced to Cooder’s propagation of the colonial myth for the purpose of ensuring the commercial success of the collaboration.” (Hernandez 64). Other musicians in the Buena Vista Social Club ensemble followed Gonzalez’s step, as there was hardly another choice for them.
The origin of Mexican Folklorico dances originate from Mesoamerican days when the Mayas and the Aztecs
Since 1979, the Caribbean festival has held month-long programs about Caribbean cultural, which includes different acts going on throughout the concerts an art exhibition and academic conferences on “Establishing an africentric world view in contemporary society” held at the symphony space. Contradict to what one may believe these types of events will continue to bring us together in the future.
...ly convey the shared experiences of unhappiness and helplessness. Cuiqiao’s performances of folksongs are often paralleled with visuals of the desolation of the land or the ambiguity of her singing. Much like the function of the Odes as a “didactic instrument,” while Cuiqiao is never depicted actually singing, the ambiguity creates a more relatable folksong that can move the masses and encourage a virtuous change (Nylan 75). The function of both the Odes and Cuiqiao’s folksongs work as expressions of intense emotions, which are interpreted in order to understand “human capacities and aspirations and how to motivate them” (Nylan 75). While the workings of the feudal system eventually prove too intolerable, the ending of Cuiqiao’s story is her final act of autonomy in search of personal liberation, empowered by the performance and promises of the Communist’s folksong.
The piece is roused by the Cuban essayist Nicolás Guillén's ballad "Sensemayá: canto para matar una culebra", which delineates an Afro-Caribbean custom speaking to the slaughtering of a snake. The score's winding rhythms pass on the snake's movements, and its bizarre, once in a while discordant, harmonies bring out a feeling of approaching
The Dominican Republic declared their independence from Haiti by the liberal thinker Juan Pablo Duarte in 1844. Before the island was named La Hispaniola and its habitants were the Taino. It was discover by the Italian but, working under the Spaniard Catholic Monarchs Christopher Columbus. La Hispaniola was made out of two countries we know today Haiti and Dominican Republic. While the country was declared under Spain power, the Taino got banish off the land, by the hard labor Spaniards made them do. Therefore, the Spanish speakers started to import slaves from Africa. Now there’s around 10,478,756 Dominicans with a population of 73% mix, 16% white, and 11% black. Today, the Dominican Republic is one of the most famous touristic places in the
Within Brazil and the Caribbean lies a racial mixture of cultures. Since the 1930's the people have, overall, enthusiastically adopted the notion that racial and cultural mixture defines this regions national identity (Samba 1). This region consists of a very historic background which has shaped the beliefs and customs of celebration, music and dance.
Costa Rica, which means “rich coast,” is one of the twenty-one Spanish speaking nations in the world. Christopher Columbus was the person to give Costa Rica its name because of the valuable metals he believed the country would possess. It is located in North America and is home to over four million people. Costa Rica is filled with wildlife, forests, volcanoes, and springs. There are many factors that helped form Costa Rica into the country it is today. Costa Rica’s history of gaining independence, religion, holidays, foods, music, and sports are some of the many important components of the country.
As the Hispanic Caribbean has evolved it has managed to grow and thrive beyond belief, whether one is discussing art, music or just the culture alone the Hispanic Caribbean is truly reaping the benefits of allowing themselves to be influenced by many other cultures. While the Hispanic Caribbean is thriving they are still facing the many new found struggles that come along with the territory of becoming more affluent as well as more accepting to other cultures and their beliefs. Often with the growth of large proportions comes many problems, problems also can come about when incorporating of different cultures as a whole as well as just bringing in their beliefs and mannerisms. None the less it can be argued that the struggles being faced in
All islands in the Caribbean share a similar colonial history which has caused creolization of languages, communities and culture. These creole language function as symbols of identity to those that are mainly of African and indigenous decent. This research paper written by Diana Ursulin Mopsus of the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, entitled, “The Attitudes Toward Caribbean Creoles of European Descended Communities in Martinique and St. Croix” has the Caribbean as its target audience. The research problem proposed is, what are the attitudes of propertied European descended people towards Caribbean creoles, in particular, toward Martinican and Crucian. This research is important to the Caribbean because in order to gain a fuller understanding of the sociolinguistic situation of the Caribbean, the attitudes toward creole of propertied descendants of early European settlers who were born and raised in Martinique and St. Croix, must be analysed. In order to determine that the research paper is trustworthy; techniques and methods used must be critically analysed, using the research process as a guide.
Caribbean culture is affected greatly by migration. The foundation of Caribbean culture was based on the forced migration of African people, indentured east-Indian workers, the migration and colonization’s of European powers like the Spanish, British, and FrenchThe history of each island is individually different but they all share the foundation of a syncretism for development each nation’s culture. Over time how individuals would migrate from country to country has change a lot, especially in the last one hundred years. . In modern times people have a tendency to move from one Caribbean country to another Caribbean country and from a Caribbean country to places in North America and Europe.