This is a list of chordophones used in the Caribbean music area, including the islands of the Caribbean Sea, as well as the musics of Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Belize, Garifuna music, and Bermuda.
Instrument | Tradition | Hornbostel–Sachs classification | Description |
---|---|---|---|
calorine | See tambou maringouin | - | |
banjo [1] | Belize | 321.312 | Guitar, used in Brukdown |
bass guitar [1] | Jamaica | 321.322 | Guitar, used in popular styles like ska, reggae and rocksteady |
bass guitar, electric [2] | Trinidad and Tobago | 321.322 | Electric bass guitar, used in soca |
bass guitar, electric [2] | Garifuna music | 321.312 | Electric bass guitar, used in punta |
bass guitar, electric [2] | Belize | 321.312 | Electric bass guitar, used in Brukdown |
bass, upright [3] | Cuba | 321.322 | Used in popular son ensembles, where it replaced the more traditional marimbula and botija |
cuatro [4] | Dominican Republic | 321.322 | Stringed instrument, part of some popular merengue groups' instrumentation |
cuatro [4] | Puerto Rico | 321.322 | Five-stringed instrument |
guitar [3] [5] | Cuba | 321.322 | Guitar, used for the Zapateo dance and other rural music |
guitar [4] | Dominican Republic | 321.322 | Guitar, part of some popular merengue groups' instrumentation |
guitar [6] | Haiti | 321.322 | Guitar, used in méringue |
guitar [1] | Jamaica | 321.322 | Guitar, used in popular styles like ska, reggae and rocksteady |
guitar [7] | Martinique and Guadeloupe | 321.322 | Guitar, used in zouk |
guitar [8] | Trinidad and Tobago | 321.322 | Guitar, used in traditional calypso, introduced from Venezuela |
guitar, electric [2] | Trinidad and Tobago | 321.322 | Electric guitar, used in soca |
guitar, electric [2] | Garifuna music | 321.312 | Electric guitar, used in punta |
laúd [3] [5] | Cuba | 321.321 | Seven double-stringed mandolin, used in son and other fields |
maringouin, tambou [9] calorine | Haiti | 3 | Earth bow, made from a covered hole in the ground, across which a bow is laid[ dubious ] |
piano [3] | Cuba | 3 | Used in popular genres like son |
piano [4] | Dominican Republic | 3 | Part of some merengue bands |
seis [5] | Cuba | 321.322 | Six double-stringed guitar |
sitar [10] | Trinidad and Tobago | 3 | Indo-Caribbean stringed instrument |
tres [3] [5] | Cuba | 321.322 | Three double-stringed guitar, used in son and other rural folk genres |
violin [4] | Dominican Republic | 321.322 | Stringed instrument |
Harold Courlander was an American novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist and an expert in the study of Haitian life. The author of 35 books and plays and numerous scholarly articles, Courlander specialized in the study of African, Caribbean, Afro-American, and Native American cultures. He took a special interest in oral literature, cults, and Afro-American cultural connections with Africa.
The masenqo also spelled masinko or chira-wata in Tigrinya, is a single-stringed bowed lute commonly found in the musical traditions of Eritrea and Ethiopia. As with the kirar, this instrument is used by Ethiopian minstrels called azmaris . Although it functions in a purely accompaniment capacity in songs, the masenqo requires considerable virtuosity, as azmaris accompany themselves while singing.
The New Grove Dictionary of Opera is an encyclopedia of opera, considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volumes.
La valse, poème chorégraphique pour orchestre, is a work written by Maurice Ravel between February 1919 and 1920; it was first performed on 12 December 1920 in Paris. It was conceived as a ballet but is now more often heard as a concert work.
Images pour orchestre, L. 122, is an orchestral composition in three sections by Claude Debussy, written between 1905 and 1912. Debussy had originally intended this set of Images as a two-piano sequel to the first set of Images for solo piano, as described in a letter to his publisher Durand as of September 1905. However, by March 1906, in another letter to Durand, he had begun to think of arranging the work for orchestra rather than two pianos.
The word boula can refer to at least four different drums played in the Caribbean music area.
Macbeth is an opera in three acts, with music by Ernest Bloch to a libretto by Edmond Fleg, after the eponymous play of William Shakespeare. Bloch composed the opera between 1904 and 1906, but it did not receive its first performance until 30 November 1910 by the Opéra-Comique in Paris with Henri Albers in the title role and conducted by François Ruhlmann. Alex Cohen has written of quarrels within the cast that contributed to the opera's poorly received premiere.
The pantalon was a very large type of hammered dulcimer, invented by Pantaleon Hebenstreit in the early 18th century and briefly popular in France and Germany.
The rondador is a set of chorded cane panpipes that produces two tones simultaneously. It consists of pieces of cane, placed side by side in order by size and closed at one end, and is played by blowing across the top of the instrument. The rondador is considered the national instrument of Ecuador. Further knowledge on the instrument is required, as the musical scale of which note each tube played projects is unknown.
The Holiday Overture is a composition for orchestra by Elliott Carter. Carter wrote the work during the summer of 1944, on commission from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, to celebrate the liberation of Paris during World War II. In addition, Carter composed the overture for the Independent Concert Music Publisher's Contest 1945, and won this competition. The overture was to have been premiered in Boston. However, Carter made a copy of some parts of the work. Eventually, the work received its premiere in Frankfurt in 1946, conducted by Hans Blümer. In 1961, Carter revised the overture.
The rajão is a 5-stringed instrument from Madeira, Portugal. The instrument traces back to the country's regional folk music, where it is used in folklore dances of Portugal in addition to other stringed instruments from the same region.
This is a partial discography of William Tell, an opera with music by Gioachino Rossini and a French libretto by Etienne de Jouy and Hippolyte Bis. The work was first performed on 3 August 1829 by the Paris Opera at the Salle Le Peletier. It was first performed in Italian as Guglielmo Tell in Germany on 28–29 January 1831 in Dresden and in Italy on 17 September 1831 in Lucca.
Ernst Thomas Ferand (1887-1972) was a Hungarian music educator and musicologist.
Tahona, alternatively spelled tajona due to its pronunciation or taona, is a secular style of Afro-Cuban music developed in the 19th century in Santiago de Cuba after the arrival of Haitian slaves following the Haitian Revolution. It is named after the ensembles and the drums played by them. It is considered one of the oldest styles within the rumba complex, and its performance became rare by the 20th century.
Vaccine are rudimentary single-note trumpets found in Haiti and, to a lesser extent, the Dominican Republic as well as Jamaica. They consist of a simple tube, usually bamboo, with a mouthpiece at one end.