Kontradans

Last updated

Kontradans or the French-Haitian Contredanse, [1] is creolized dance music formed in the 18th century in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti) [2] that evolved from the English contra dance , or ( country dance ), which eventually spread throughout the Caribbean, Louisiana, Europe and the rest of the New World from the Creoles of Saint-Domingue. [3] [4]

Contents

History

The "contredanse," the French-renamed country dance as indicated in a 1710 dance book called Recuil de Contradance, [5] began in the English courts and was imported to Haiti via France (Brittany) through colonial rule and had been incorporated with African influences in Saint-Domingue. [6] [7] [8] Contredanse flourished as it took on this creolized form establishing strong traditions in Haiti that would later influence variant forms throughout the Caribbean. [9]

Origins

The usage of the drums, poetic song, antiphonal song form, and imitations of the colonial elite dance were the elements that had already begun to transform the contredanse. [10]

Evolution

A broad group of Saint-Domingue planters, along with their slaves that fled the Haitian Revolution resettled in the old Providence of Oriente in eastern Cuba, that began coffee production around the cities of Santiago and Guantanamo. This settlement provided an impetus of musical activities in those eastern areas. So, this creolized version of contredanse imported from Haiti would fuse with and reinforce the criolla over the next couple of decades. Rhythmic styles such as the tango , habanera , and the cinquillo became dominant patterns as new emerging styles and led to the development of the contradanza , [11] and later in 1879, the danzón ; a couples dance and is regarded as the first truly national dance genre of Cuba. [12] [13]

Méringue

A five-note musical figure called quintolet (cinquillo in Cuba and the rest of the Spanish speaking Caribbean), became a chief feature to the kontradans and would figure prominently into the Haitian folk dance music called méringue [9] (a whipped egg and sugar confection popular in 18th century France), presumably because it captured the essence of the light nature of the dance where one gracefully shifts their weight between feet in a very fluid movement, animating the final section of the Haitian kontradans. [1]

Related Research Articles

The music of Latin America refers to music originating from Latin America, namely the Romance-speaking regions of the Americas. Latin American music also incorporates African music from enslaved African people who were transported from West and Central Africa to the Americas by European settlers, as well as music from the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Due to its highly syncretic nature, Latin American music encompasses a wide variety of styles, including influential genres such as cumbia, bachata, bossa nova, merengue, rumba, salsa, samba, son, and tango. During the 20th century, many styles were influenced by the music of the United States giving rise to genres such as Latin pop, rock, jazz, hip hop, and reggaeton.

Güiro Latin-American percussion instrument

The güiro is a Latin American percussion instrument consisting of an open-ended, hollow gourd with parallel notches cut in one side. It is played by rubbing a stick or tines along the notches to produce a ratchet sound.

The music of Haiti combines a wide range of influences drawn from the many people who have settled on this Caribbean island. It reflects French, African rhythms, Spanish elements and others who have inhabited the island of Hispaniola and minor native Taino influences. Styles of music unique to the nation of Haiti include music derived from rara parading music, twoubadou ballads, mini-jazz rock bands, rasin movement, hip hop Creòle, the wildly popular compas, and méringue as its basic rhythm. Haiti hadn't had a recorded music until 1937 when Jazz Guignard was recorded non-commercially. One of the most current popular Haitian artists is Wyclef Jean. His music is somewhat hip hop mixed with worldbeat. Haitian music is influenced mostly by European colonial ties and African migration. In the case of European colonization, musical influence has derived primarily from the French.

The music of the Lesser Antilles encompasses the music of this chain of small islands making up the eastern and southern portion of the West Indies. 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.

Charanga is a traditional ensemble that plays Cuban dance music. They made Cuban dance music popular in the 1940s and their music consisted of heavily son-influenced material, performed on European instruments such as violin and flute by a Charanga orchestra.. The style of music that is most associated with a Charanga is termed 'Danzón', and is an amalgam of both European classical music and African rhythms.

Danzón is the official musical genre and dance of Cuba. It is also an active musical form in Mexico, and is much loved in Puerto Rico as well. Written in 2
4 time, the danzón is a slow, formal partner dance, requiring set footwork around syncopated beats, and incorporating elegant pauses while the couples stand listening to virtuoso instrumental passages, as characteristically played by a charanga or típica ensemble.

Culture of Haiti

The culture of Haiti is an eclectic mix of African, Taino and European elements due to the French colonization of Saint Domingue and its large and diverse enslaved African population, as is evidenced in the Haitian language, music, and religion.

Compas is a modern méringue dance music of Haiti. The genre was popularized following the creation of Ensemble Aux Callebasses in (1955), which became Ensemble Nemours Jean-Baptiste In 1957. The frequent tours of the many Haitian bands have cemented the style in all the Caribbean. Therefore, compas is the main music of several countries such as Dominica and the French Antilles. Whether it is called zouk, where French Antilles artists of Martinique and Guadeloupe have taken it, or compas in places where Haitian artists have toured, this méringue style is influential in part of the Caribbean, Portugal, Cape Verde, France, part of Canada, South and North America.

Contradanza is the Spanish and Spanish-American version of the contradanse, which was an internationally popular style of music and dance in the 18th century, derived from the English country dance and adopted at the court of France. Contradanza was brought to America and there took on folkloric forms that still exist in Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Panama and Ecuador.

Cadence rampa, or simply kadans, is a dance music and modern méringue popularized in the Caribbean by the virtuoso Haitian sax player Webert Sicot in the early 1960s. Cadence rampa was one of the sources of cadence-lypso. Cadence and compas are two names for the same Haitian modern meringue.

Rara Festival music originated in Haiti

Rara is a form of festival music that originated in Haiti that is used for street processions, typically during Easter Week. The music centers on a set of cylindrical bamboo trumpets called vaccine, but also features drums, maracas, güiras or güiros, and metal bells, as well as alsos which are made from recycled metal, often coffee cans. The vaccine perform repeating patterns in hocket and often strike their instruments rhythmically with a stick while blowing into them. In the modern day, standard trumpets and saxophones may also be used. The genre though predominantly Afro-based has some Taino Amerindian elements to it such as the use of güiros and maracas.

Tumba francesa

Tumba francesa is a secular Afro-Cuban genre of dance, song, and drumming that emerged in Oriente, Cuba. It was introduced by slaves from the French colony of Saint-Domingue whose owners resettled in Cuba's eastern regions following the slave rebellion during the 1790s. The genre flourished in the late 19th century with the establishment of sociedades de tumba francesa, of which only three survive.

Méringue, also called méringue lente or méringue de salon, is a dance music and national symbol in Haiti. It is a string-based style played on the lute, guitar, horn section, piano, and other string instruments unlike the accordion-based merengue, and is generally sung in Haitian Creole and French, as well as in English and Spanish.

A bélé is a folk dance and music from Martinique, St. Lucia, Dominica, Haiti, Grenada, Guadeloupe, and Trinidad and Tobago. It may be the oldest Creole dance of the creole French West Indian Islands, and it strongly reflects influences from African fertility dances. It is performed most commonly during full moon evenings, or sometimes during funeral wakes. The dance is also popular in Saint Lucia. In Tobago, it is thought to have been performed by women of the planter class at social events in the planters' great houses, and the dress and dance style copied by the enslaved people who worked in or around these houses.

Dance from Cuba

Cuban culture encompasses a wide range of dance forms. The island's indigenous people performed rituals known as areíto, which included dancing, although little information is known about such ceremonies. After the colonization of Cuba by the Spanish Kingdom, European dance forms were introduced such as the French contredanse, which gave rise to the Cuban contradanza. Contradanza itself spawned a series of ballroom dances between the 19th and 20th centuries, including the danzón, mambo and cha-cha-cha. Rural dances of European origin, such as the zapateo and styles associated with punto guajiro also became established by the 19th century, and in the 20th century son became very popular. In addition, numerous dance traditions were brought by black slaves from West Africa and the Congo basin, giving rise to religious dances such as Santería, yuka and abakuá, as well as secular forms such as rumba. Many of these dance elements from European dance and religious dances were fused together to form the basis of la técnica cubana. Cuban music also contributed to the emergence of Latin dance styles in the United States, namely rhumba and salsa.

The catá or guagua is a Cuban percussion instrument which originated in the eastern region of the island. It is classified as a directly struck idiophone, traditionally made out of a hollowed tree trunk, which the player hits with wooden sticks or mallets. The resulting sound is dry and penetrating, similar to that of the claves, although with a different pitch. Of Congolese origin, it is an essential instrument in tumba francesa, yuka and some rumba ensembles.

Tresillo is a rhythmic pattern used in Latin American music. It is a more basic form of the rhythmic figure known as the habanera.

Twoubadou music is a popular genre of guitar-based music from Haiti that has a long and important place in Haitian culture. The word comes from troubadour, a medieval poet-musician who wrote and sang songs about courtly love. Like the troubadours of old, the Haitian twoubadou is a singer-composer who accompanies himself on songs that tell about the bitterness and humor of love, often using risqué or suggestive lyrics.

The Carabinier is a traditional cultural dance from Haiti that originated back to the time of the Haitian Revolution deriving from a section of the kontradans that is said to have evolved into the méringue or mereng dance.

References

  1. 1 2 Averill, Gage (1997). A Day for the Hunter, a Day for the Prey: Popular Music and Power in Haiti. The Chicago University Press. p. 33. ISBN   0226032914 . Retrieved 19 March 2014.
  2. ↑ Manuel, Peter; Bilby, Kenneth; Largey, Michael (2006). Caribbean Currents: Caribbean Music from Rumba to Reggae. Temple University Press. p. 157. ISBN   9781592134649 . Retrieved 17 May 2015.
  3. ↑ Daniel, Yvonne (1989). Caribbean and Atlantic Diaspora Dance: Igniting Citizenship. Stanford University. p. 60. ISBN   9780252036538 . Retrieved 19 March 2014.
  4. ↑ Sublette, Ned (1951). Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo. p. 120. ISBN   1556525168 . Retrieved 17 May 2015.
  5. ↑ Holenko, John (2010). Contra Dance Encyclopedia. Mel Bay Publications. p. 6. ISBN   978-1609743772.
  6. ↑ Steward, Sue (1999). Musica!: The Rhythm of Latin America - Salsa, Rumba, Merengue, and More. p. 33. ISBN   9780811825665 . Retrieved 17 May 2015.
  7. ↑ Gilbert Chase. "Chapter 15: The Exotic Periphery" (PDF). p. 309. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
  8. ↑ Manuel, Peter (1988). Popular Music of the Non-Western World: An Introductory Survey . Oxford University Press. p.  27. ISBN   0195053427 . Retrieved 17 May 2015. contredanse Saint-Domingue.
  9. 1 2 Torres, George, ed. (2013). Encyclopedia of Latin American Popular Music. p. 191. ISBN   9780313340314 . Retrieved 15 April 2014.
  10. ↑ Daniel, Yvonne (1995). Rumba: Dance and Social Change in Contemporary Cuba . Indiana University Press. p.  37. ISBN   025320948X . Retrieved 19 March 2014. haitian contredanse.
  11. ↑ Da Fonseca-Wollheim, Corinna (24 June 2010). "The Haitian-Born Rhythm Revolution An Uptown Concert Celebrates the Tradition That Grew From the Music Exported to Cuba and New Orleans by Freed Slaves" . Retrieved 19 March 2014.
  12. ↑ Fernandez, Raul A. (2006). From Afro-Cuban Rhythms to Latin Jazz. University of California Press. p. 9. ISBN   9780520247079 . Retrieved 25 March 2014.
  13. ↑ Nadeau , Jean Benoit; Barlow, Julie (2013). The Story of Spanish. p. 260. ISBN   9780312656027 . Retrieved 17 May 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.