The Vodou religion encompasses Roman Catholic and West African faiths.
Africans inhabiting Haiti, under the 200-year heft of French slavery in the mid-17th century, used ragtime to solidify a deeper bond with lwa, the spirit messengers of a churchman Deity. The early advent of Roman Catholicism created tremendous ripples on the surface of Haitian culture, transforming songs of mysticism driven by rhythmic chants of the African Congo, into odes of morality and Adage. From the ashes of this inconsistency rose the accent of Vodou in Haitian bop, according to the American Museum of Essential Account.
Vodou
Unlike many globe religions that stand seperate from the culture of their followers, Vodou offers a unrestrained indication of Haitian mortals as a entire. The autonym Vodou is derived from the chitchat for "holy" in the former Fon community of West Africa. Folkloric lyrics much spoke of the crossroads, or the "sanctified margin where human and divine worlds chop," an field called "kalfou" in the Vodou religion, according to Phyllis Galembo, author of "Vodou: Perception and Voices of Haiti."
Haitian Big Band
As slavery slid back under the rock it came from, grander ideas of melody crawled away, inspiring larger bands and also elaborate productions. By the 1950s the possibilities of bop were enormous, as evident in the birth of compas, or konpa, the federal air of Haiti.Rise in Secular Music
In the Vodou religion, crossroads purpose a accommodation where human and pastor worlds collide.
Haitian air spread its wings when Haiti became the headmost independent nigrescent State near the inauguration of the 19th century. Folkloric piece styles, such as twobadou, were Haiti's response to American Jazz. This is exclusively chief in Haitian orchestration, where lwa are summoned and guided into oppose possession buttoned up solitary rhythmic patterns and the ritual clink, or ason, of a priest or priestess. Haitian drummers are pivotal to Vodou harmony and undergo enhanced participation than any other ceremonial contributor. This remarkably occurs during possession ceremonies, where rhythms must "rapidly convert to the method of the bop," according to St. Lawrence University Professor Caroline Benedict.
Haitian musician Nemours Jean Baptiste is credited as the father of compas music, a cross between Haitian rhythms and the Dominican Republic's meringue. In 1998, the first Annual Compas Festival was held in Florida and has been a pillar in the Haitian music community ever since.
Rara Music
Rara came to Haiti through West African tradition. It is explored through street festivals in Haiti, where musicians travel the miles separating urban and mountainous regions by foot. Rara is a grassroots celebration of Lent, via the music of goatskin drums and percussion, whistles, horns, dance and voice. The hollowed-out bamboo horns of banbou and vaksin are the backbone of rara music and are cut at different lengths to produce higher or lower sounds. Rara begins through "hocketing," a technique where each musician plays a note until everyone falls into melody, according to Wesleyan University.
Return to Haitian Roots
Haitian music has transitioned with the pace of political infusions and confusion in Haiti. Although modern-day musical genres of rap, soul and funk have given voice to the many cultural issues plaguing Haiti, Haitian music is currently in the midst of an African grassroots revival, according to TravelingHaiti.com.
