| Music of Haiti | ||||
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Themusic of Haiti combines a wide range of influences drawn from the diverse population that has settled on this Caribbean island. It often has hints of French, African rhythms, Spanish elements and others who have inhabited the island ofHispaniola and minor nativeTaino influences. Styles of music unique to the nation ofHaiti include music derived fromrara parading music,twoubadouballads,mini-jazzrock bands,rasin movement,hip hop Creòle, the wildly popularcompas,[1] andméringue as its basic rhythm. Haitian music is influenced mostly by European colonial ties and African migration (through slavery). In the case of European colonization, musical influence has derived primarily from the French.
One of Haiti's musical traditions is known to outsiders simply ascompas. But in the former non-standardizedHaitian Creole, Haitians identify it variously ascompa, conpa, and konpa-dirék.[2] Regardless of its various spellings, compas refers to a complex, ever-changing music genre that fuses African rhythms, European ballroom dancing, and Haitianbourgeois aesthetics. The word may have derived from theSpanishcompás, which relates to the musical rhythm of the "beat" or "pulse." One of the most distinctive features of Haitian compas music is its steady, pulsing drumbeat, which makes it easy to dance to.[3]
Haïti Chérie is a traditional patriotic and most recognizable song of Haiti that was written and composed byDr. Othello Bayard de Cayes and was initially calledSouvenir d'Haïti. It represents the pride Haitian people feel for their country and culture. Within the Haitian community, at home and abroad, it is widely considered as a second national anthem toLa Dessalinienne and the song has recorded several different versions.
Haiti did not have recorded music until 1937 whenJazz Guignard was recorded non-commercially. One of the most current popular Haitian artists isWyclef Jean. His music is somewhathip hop mixed withworldbeat.
Karabiyen orCarabineer is a Haitian traditional dance style that is said to be created by Euphémie Daguilh, one ofDessalines' friend. The dance is said to be created for the Haitian soldiers during theHaitian Revolution, and meant to be danced with theircarabine strap to their back, hence the name. Dessalines himself was an excellent karabiyen dancer according to oral and written tradition.
Méringue is a guitar-based style historically connected tomerengue but without the use of the accordion. The blend of African and European cultures has created popular dance music, music played on simple acoustic instruments. Méringue has lost popularity tokompa.
Rara music is aLenten processional music with strong ties to theVodou religious tradition. It has often been confused with Haitian Carnival, since both celebrations involve large groups of dancing revelers in the streets. Rara is performed betweenAsh Wednesday (the day after Carnival ends) untilEaster Sunday (or Easter Monday in some parts of Haiti.) Rara bands roam the streets performing religious ceremonies as part of their ritual obligations to thelwa.Gede, a spirit associated with death and sexuality,[4] is an important spiritual presence in Rara celebrations and often possesses ahoungan (male Vodou priest) ormambo (female Vodou priest) before the band begins its procession, blessing the participants and wishing them safe travels for their nightly sojourns.
Twoubadou is a form of music played by peripatetic troubadours playing some combination ofacoustic,guitar,beat box andaccordion instruments singingballads of Haitian,French orCaribbean origin.[5] It is in some ways similar toSon Cubano fromCuba as a result of Haitian migrant laborers who went to work on Cubansugar plantations at the turn of the 20th century.[6] Musicians perform at thePort-au-Prince International Airport and also at bars and restaurants inPétion-Ville.
Compas, short forcompas direct, is the modernméringue (mereng increole) that was popularized in the mid-1950s by the sax and guitar playerNemours Jean-Baptiste. His méringue soon became popular throughout theAntilles, especially inMartinique andGuadeloupe.Webert Sicot andNemours Jean-Baptiste became the two leaders in the group. Sicot then left and formed a new group and an intense rivalry developed, though they remained good friends. To differentiate himself from Nemours, Sicot called his modern méringue,cadence rampa.
InCreole, it is spelled askonpa dirèk or simplykonpa. It is commonly spelled as it is pronounced askompa.[7]
Mini-jazz was formed in the mid-'60s characterized by the rock bands formula of two guitars, one bass, drum-conga-cowbell, some use an alto sax or a full horn section, others use a keyboard, accordion or lead guitar. However, all these small jazz or bands had their guitars with sophisticated styles. The 1970s were dominated by mini-jazz, which still used a variant of theméringue style. One of the mini-jazz groups,Tabou Combo, became the most popular ensemble of Haiti.[8] From Haiti the mini-jazz formula replicated in the French Antilles in the 1970s.
Haitian rock originated asrock n roll in Haiti in the early 1960s, performed by rock bands calledyeye bands. These were short-lived when they addedcompas direct to their repertoire and called the resultmini-jazz. Today, Haitian rock is an alternative rock music with a blend of Caribbean flavor that was first introduced to Haiti byYohann Doré. Splash were a popular Haitian rock band of the 1990s.[9]
Starting in the late 1970s (with discontent surrounding the increasing opulence of theDuvalier dictatorship), youth fromPort-au-Prince (and to a lesser extentCap-Haïtien and other urban areas) began experimenting with new types of life.François Duvalier's appropriation of Vodou images as a terror technique, the increase in U.S. assembly and large-scale export agriculture, the popularity ofdisco, andJean-Claude Duvalier's appreciation ofkompa and chanson française disillusioned many youth and love.
To question the dictatorship's notion of "the Haitian nation" (and thus the dictatorship itself), several men began trying a new way of living, embodied in theSanba Movement. They drew inspiration from the global movements such asBlack power andHippies, along with a major influence fromreggae superstarBob Marley and extensively from rural life in Haiti. The Sanba dressed in the traditional blue denim (karoko) ofpeasants, eschewed the commercialized and processed life offered by globalcapitalism, and celebrated the values ofcommunal living. Later, they adopted matted hair similar to Jamaicandreadlocks, but identified the style as something that existed in Haiti with the termcheve simbi, referring to water spirits.
The most well-known of these artists were Sanba Zao (Louis Leslie Marcellin),Ayizan (Harry Sanon), Azouke (Gregory Sanon), Aboudja (Ronald Derencourt), Kebyesou Danle (Jean Raymond) and Chico (Yves Boyer). They formed a band called Sanba yo and later, Gwoup Sa. Later still, other musicians likeLòlò (Theodore Beaubrun), Papa Bonga, and Eddy François joined the trend. This was the modern precursor to what would becomemizik rasin. One of these groups recorded a song in the 1980s for a UNICEF campaign for vaccination, which is included on the LPKonbit!.
In the 1990s, commercial success came to the musical genre that came to be known asmizik rasin, orroots music. Musicians likeBoukman Eksperyans, andBoukan Ginen, and to a lesser extentRAM, incorporatedreggae,rock andfunk rhythms into traditional forms and instrumentation, includingrara, music fromkanaval, or traditional spiritual music from the rural hamlets called lakous, like Lakou Souvnans, Lakou Badjo, Lakou Soukri, or Lakou Dereyal. Though initially the people involved followed the ways of the Sanba Movement, eventually this began to fade. Increased political and economic pressures saw many of these people emigrate (to the U.S. and Canada, primarily). Both those who stayed and those who traveled between countries began adding more non-Haitian (strictly speaking) elements and implemented a more commercial sound to earn more money and a wider audience.
RAM recorded a traditionalVodou folk song in Haïti called"Fèy". In Haitian Creole, "fèy" means "leaf", and the lyrics of the song describe a leaf falling from a tree.
The Haitiancadence and itscompas has been dominating the Antilles music scene since its introduction in the late 1950s.Compas direct is a modernméringue popularized in 1955 by theNemours Jean-Baptiste, a Haitiansaxophone and guitar player, which was appropriated by the Antilleans who labeled their versioncadence-lypso and later,zouk orzouk-love.
The original zouk was zouk béton, a fast tempo jump up carnival style of music originating from the Caribbean islands ofGuadeloupe andMartinique, was popularized by theFrench AntillesKassav' in the 1980s. However it was too fast, and the style lost ground in the 1980s due to the strong presence ofkadans orcompas, the main music of the French Antilles. The problem is that musicians from Martinique and Guadeloupe have wrongly labeled compas aszouk orzouk love, creating a sense of confusion inAfrica,Cape Verde,Angola,Brazil,Portugal and other places. Haitian musicians taught Antilleans how to play compas, and it is from them that zouk's rhythms derive in origin, which some[who?] credit is due in its creation. In all account, Haitian musicians describe zouk musicians as first rate, because they are now part of the forefront of the musical scene.[10]
Today,[when?] zouk-love (the currentzouk) is the French Antilles cadence or compas, characterized by a slow, soft and sexual rhythm.
The local homegrownHaitian hip hop movement is rising in popularity in Haiti and otherHaitian communities. It is becoming more and more popular with Haitian youth, often communicating social and political topics as well as materialism.Kompa as well as other popular local music beats are used frequently with urban sounds. Recent years have seen a rise in popularity for Haitian Hip-Hop artists such asBarikad Crew,Mach-Hommy andJimmy O. Other Haitian hip hop artists have yet to evolve.
BLUME Haiti (Building Leaders Using Music Education)[11] is an AmericanNGO that trains teachers ofclassical music in Haiti and partners with other organizations to provide training in instrument repair. It has reached approximately 5,000 students. It partners withLuthiers Sans Frontieres UK[12] among others.
Carrefour Collaborative,[13] an NGO based inChicago, promotes and producesUnderground music and musicians in Haiti by providing high end audio recording equipment, video production help and mentors. The goal is exposure to American audiences. Gaetville, an MC who also doesHip hop and Dance Hall music, was the first musician they produced.
El Sistemia - a Venezuelan method of teaching classical music, started in Haiti in 2012[14] with the encouragement of former president of HaitiMichel Martelly - a former singer.
TheHaitian Carnival is an important part of the Haitian culture. It is also significant for Haitian musicians as an opportunity to showcase their talents and expand their audience by performing for Carnival crowds.
Ten days after the2010 earthquake, the "Hope for Haiti Now"telethon event was launched in the United States, effectively taking over the mediasphere and reaching hundreds of millions of households and viewers. It focused on appealing to the viewing public's empathy for the survivors of the disaster, allowing ordinary citizens to help in a collective relief effort by contributing money donations toNGOs providing Humanitarian aid to earthquake survivors.[15][16] The telethon attracted support through a variety of celebrity musical performances and staged calls for empathy, using digital social networks to disseminate its appeal to the moral responsibility of the viewer-consumers. It offered the possibility for viewers to text donations on cell phones, and raised a reported $58 million by the day after its launch. The form of this fundraising effort emphasizes and aligns with the power of music and singing in Haitian society. Quake survivors used the embodied technique of singing to orient themselves in the face of sudden and violent rupture.
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