Music of Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles

The music of the former Netherlands Antilles is a mixture of native, African and European elements, and is closely connected with trends from neighboring countries like Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

and Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

and islands like Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

, Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

, Santo Domingo

Santo Domingo

Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...

, Haiti

Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

, Martinique

Martinique

Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...

, Trinidad

Trinidad

Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...

, Dominica

Dominica

Dominica , officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its size is and the highest point in the country is Morne Diablotins, which has an elevation of . The Commonwealth...

, and Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe is an archipelago located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,000. It is the first overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe...

. The former Netherlands Antilles

Netherlands Antilles

The Netherlands Antilles , also referred to informally as the Dutch Antilles, was an autonomous Caribbean country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, consisting of two groups of islands in the Lesser Antilles: Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao , in Leeward Antilles just off the Venezuelan coast; and Sint...

islands of Curaçao

Curaçao

Curaçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands...

and Aruba

Aruba

Aruba is a 33 km-long island of the Lesser Antilles in the southern Caribbean Sea, located 27 km north of the coast of Venezuela and 130 km east of Guajira Peninsula...

are known for their typical waltz

Waltz

The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...

es, danza

Danza

Danza is a musical genre that originated in Ponce, a city in southern Puerto Rico. It is a popular turn-of-the-twentieth-century ballroom dance genre slightly similar to the waltz. Both the danza and its cousin the contradanza are sequence dances, performed to a pattern, usually of squares, to...

s, mazurka

Mazurka

The mazurka is a Polish folk dance in triple meter, usually at a lively tempo, and with accent on the third or second beat.-History:The folk origins of the mazurek are two other Polish musical forms—the slow machine...

s and a kind of music called tumba, which is named after the conga

Conga

The conga, or more properly the tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed Cuban drum with African antecedents. It is thought to be derived from the Makuta drums or similar drums associated with Afro-Cubans of Central African descent. A person who plays conga is called a conguero...

drums which accompany it.

The remaining islands are much smaller than Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao. They are Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten and Saba. Sint Eustatius has little nightlife, with only one nightclub (the zouk

Zouk

Zouk is a style of rhythmic music originating from the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe & Martinique. Zouk means "party" or "festival" in the local Antillean Creole of French, although the word originally referred to, and is still used to refer to, a popular dance, based on the Polish dance, the...

Largo Height Disco) as of 1996. The inhabitants, Statians, hold impromptu street dances called road blocks, using booming car stereos. Saba has a number of dances at various restaurants, including a wide variety of hip hop

Hip hop music

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

, disco

Disco

Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...

, soca

Soca music

Soca is a style of music from Trinidad and Tobago. Soca is a musical development of traditional Trinidadian calypso, through loans from the 1960s onwards from predominantly black popular music....

, Kompa

Kompa

Compas is a musical genre derivative of the Haitian Méringue, the national music of Haiti that people have been dancing and playing since the 1800s. written as Compas Direct in French, and Kompa or konpa in Haitian Creole. Worldwide, several festivals annually feature Compas music and other aspects...

, zouk

Zouk

, reggae

Reggae

Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...

and merengue

Merengue music

Merengue is a type of music and dance from the Dominican Republic. It is popular in the Dominican Republic and all over Latin America. Its name is Spanish, taken from the name of the meringue, a dessert made from whipped egg whites and sugar...

. Sint Maarten has a well-known Carnival

Carnival

Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...

tradition featuring music and dance, held in mid-April and culminating in the traditional burning of King Moui-Moui, as well as a number of nightclubs and casinos featuring music; popular "spots" where locals go to dance include Boo Boo Jam and Lago Hight both located on the Northern (French) part of Sint Maarten; the most popular recent casino band is King Bo-Bo, known as the King of Calypso.

Modern Aruban music

Music is very closely connected to the Aruban culture, and plays a major role in holidays, carnivals and informal celebrations. Carnival music originated in Trinidad in the late 18th century, and combines romantic themes, calypso-inspired tunes, and drums from tumba

Tumba

Besides Grave in Spanish, Tumba can refer to:Places:*Tumba, Sweden - a town in Botkyrka, Sweden.*Tumba - an ancient Neolithic settlement in the Republic of Macedonia.*Tumba - a village in the Vranje municipality of southern Serbia....

. Other Aruban celebrations that are based around music include Dera Gai, Dande, Gaita and Aguinaldo.

Classical and traditional music of Curaçao

The tumba

Tumba

is the most internationally renowned kind of Curaçao music. Tumba is the name of an African-derived rhythm, as are seú and tambú

Tambu

Tambu is a drum, music genre and dance form, found on Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao, and is a major part of the Dutch Antillean music. On Bonaire, it is also known as bari...

. The Curaçao born composer Jan Gerard Palm

Jan Gerard Palm

Jan Gerard Palm was a 19th century composer. Palm is often referred to as the "father of Curaçao's classical music".-Biography:...

(1831–1906) was the first composer to write music for the lyrics of tumba's. There are traditional lyrics associated with different tumba songs, but they are sometimes scandalous and accusatory, and are thus not always sung. Tumba was known as early as the 19th century, and it is now a popular part of the Carnival Road March

Carnival Road March

The Carnival Road March is the musical composition played most often at the "judging points" along the parade route during Carnival. The Road March title is among the most prestigious titles in Trinidad Carnival. In Trinidad and Tobago the most Road march titles have gone to the Mighty Sparrow and...

.

Besides tumba

Tumba

s, there is a very rich tradition of Antillean waltz

Waltz

es, mazurka

Mazurka

s, danza

Danza

s and pasillo

Pasillo

Pasillo is a South American genre of music extremely popular in the territories that composed 19th century Gran Colombia: Colombia; Ecuador, where it is considered the national musical style; and to a lesser extent in the mountainous regions of Venezuela and Panamá...

s that are popular in Curaçao, Bonaire and Aruba. This music is often referred to as the Classical Music from Curaçao and Aruba. Well known composers of the Netherlands Antilles are Jan Gerard Palm

Jan Gerard Palm

Jan Gerard Palm was a 19th century composer. Palm is often referred to as the "father of Curaçao's classical music".-Biography:...

(1831–1906), Chris Ulder (1843–1895), Joseph Sickman Corsen (1853–1911), Paul de Lima (1861–1926), Jacobo Conrad (1879–1918), Rudolph Palm

Rudolph Palm

Rudolph Palm is a Curaçao born composer.- Biography :Rudolph Theodorus Palm is the grandson of Jan Gerard Palm who is often referred to as the "father of Curaçao classical music"...

(1880–1950), Charles Maduro (1883–1947), John Palm

John Palm

-Biography:Johan Antoine Palm -- better known as John Palm -- was a grandson of Jan Gerard Palm , who is often referred to as the "father of Curaçao classical music". Like his cousin Jacobo Palm and his brother Rudolph Palm, John started at music lessons from his grandfather at a young age.Palm...

(1885–1925), Toni Palm (1885–1963), Jacobo Palm

Jacobo Palm

-Biography:Jacobo José Maria Palm is the grandson of Jan Gerard Palm who is often referred to as the "father of Curaçao classical music". At the age of seven Jacobo Palm started to take lessons in music from his grandfather. Jacobo played several musical instruments such as piano, organ, violin,...

(1887–1982) Albert Palm (1903–1958), Edgar Palm (1905–1998), Wim Statius Muller (1930), Robert Rojer (1939) and Randal Corsen (b 1972). Aruba is well known by its composers Rufo Wever (1917–1977) and Padu Lampe (b. 1925).

Traditional work song

Work song

A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a specific form of work, either sung while conducting a task or a song linked to a task or trade which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song....

s were very diverse on Curaçao, where they were sung in seshi (semi-Papiamento

Papiamento

Papiamento is the most widely spoken language on the Caribbean ABC islands, having the official status on the islands of Aruba and Curaçao. The language is also recognized on Bonaire by the Dutch government....

) or Guene

Guénè

Guénè is a town and arrondissement in the Alibori Department of northeastern Benin. It is an administrative division under the jurisdiction of the commune of Malanville. According to the population census conducted by the Institut National de la Statistique Benin on February 15, 2002, the...

. Lyrics were apentatonic.

Tumba is the name of an African-derived rhythm, as are seú and tambú

Tambu

Tambu is a drum, music genre and dance form, found on Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao, and is a major part of the Dutch Antillean music. On Bonaire, it is also known as bari...

. Traditionally, Afro-Curaçaoan rhythms were often played in the muzik di zumbi
Zumbi
Zumbi , also known as Zumbi dos Palmares, was the last of the leaders of the Quilombo dos Palmares, in the present-day state of Alagoas, Brazil.-Quilombos:...

style, which included instruments such as the benta (bow harp), gogorobi (rattlers) and flute, which created an ethereal sound.

Tambú (sometimes called the Curaçao blues) was first sung by slaves (mostly women) expressing pain and sadness, usually accompanied by the tambú drum and the agan (a piece of iron or ploughshare) or chapi (a hoe), along with clapping

Clapping

A clap is the sound made by striking together two flat surfaces, as in the body parts of humans or animals. Humans clap with the palms of their hands, often in a constant drone to express appreciation or approval , but also in rhythm to match sounds in music and dance...

(usually only by the women in the audience).

Previously, drums were outlawed for slaves, and the bastèl, a large calabash

Calabash

Lagenaria siceraria , bottle gourd, opo squash or long melon is a vine grown for its fruit, which can either be harvested young and used as a vegetable, or harvested mature, dried, and used as a bottle, utensil, or pipe. For this reason, the calabash is widely known as the bottle gourd...

in a water barrel, was used instead. It is accompanied by an erotic dance that involves no physical touching. The dance was so racy that the government and the Roman Catholic Church

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

sought to end the practice.

The seú was performed during the harvest festival during traditional times, but is now continued during annual parades in the city of Willemstad

Willemstad, Netherlands Antilles

Willemstad is the capital city of Curaçao, an island in the southern Caribbean Sea that forms a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Formerly the capital of the Netherlands Antilles prior to its dissolution in 2010, it has an estimated population of 140,000. The historic centre of...

. Formerly the seú was a march through the fields, during which the workers brought the crops to the warehouses, the men playing drums, kachu and chapi, while the women carried produce on their heads. It was accompanied by a dance called wapa, which gracefully re-enacted the movements associated with planting and harvesting, often including work songs in Guene, the old slave language. As traditional agriculture began dying out with modern industrialization, the seú too began to fade away. The Curaçao Department of Culture now organizes an annual parade in Willemstad on Easter Monday

Easter Monday

Easter Monday is the day after Easter Sunday and is celebrated as a holiday in some largely Christian cultures, especially Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox cultures...

, which sees as many as 2500 people or more participate.

Traditional music on Bonaire

The island of Bonaire is known for an array of dances, including the Bari

Bari

Bari is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas...

and Simadan. Imported polka

Polka

The polka is a Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia...

, carioca

Carioca

Carioca is a Portuguese adjective or demonym that is used to refer to the native inhabitants of the city of Rio de Janeiro - capital of the homonym state , in Brazil...

, rumba

Rumba (dance)

Rumba is a dance term with two quite different meanings.In some contexts, "rumba" is used as shorthand for Afro-Cuban rumba, a group of dances related to the rumba genre of Afro-Cuban music. The most common Afro-Cuban rumba is the guaguancó...

, merengue

Merengue (dance)

Merengue El camino1ro de Secundaria-In popular culture:* Merengue was mentioned as a song performed between Babs and Charlie in the song by Steely Dan....

, danza

Danza

, joropo

Joropo

The Joropo is a musical style resembling the waltz, and an accompanying dance, having African and European influences originated in Venezuela and performed in Colombia and Venezuela. It's a fundamental genre belonging to its typical music or música criolla...

, jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

waltz

Waltz

and mazurka

Mazurka

are also popular. The Baile di Sinta is a popular fertility dance, performed around a maypole

Maypole

A maypole is a tall wooden pole erected as a part of various European folk festivals, particularly on May Day, or Pentecost although in some countries it is instead erected at Midsummer...

. Traditional African work song

Work song

s on Bonaire evolved over time into ritual songs with complex dances, instrumentation and polyphony.

The Bari, performed during the festival of the same name, as well as at other times, is led by a single singer who improvises lyrics commenting on local events and figures (such a singer is similar to a calypsonian

Calypsonian

A calypsonian , originally known as the chantwell is a musician, from the Anglophone Caribbean, who sings songs called calypso. Calypsos are musical renditions having their origins in the West African griot tradition...

). Confusingly, the Bari dance, which is performed during the Bari festival, is accompanied by a bongo

Bongo drum

Bongo or bongos are a Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of single-headed, open-ended drums attached to each other. The drums are of different size: the larger drum is called in Spanish the hembra and the smaller the macho...

-like drum called a Bari. The first part of the dance features men competing in a stylized, ritual dance for women, followed by a part where the couples dance, though they don't touch (it is similar to tumba).

After the sorghum

Sorghum

Sorghum is a genus of numerous species of grasses, one of which is raised for grain and many of which are used as fodder plants either cultivated or as part of pasture. The plants are cultivated in warmer climates worldwide. Species are native to tropical and subtropical regions of all continents...

harvest in February through April, the Simadan festival is held to celebrate, with the wapa

WAPA

WAPA may refer to:* WAPA , a radio station licensed to San Juan, Puerto Rico* WAPA-TV, a television station licensed to San Juan, Puerto Rico...

, a rhythmic, shuffling dance, accompanying the celebration. Simadan's traditional songs include three call-and-response

Call and response (music)

In music, a call and response is a succession of two distinct phrases usually played by different musicians, where the second phrase is heard as a direct commentary on or response to the first...

forms, the Dan Simadan, Belua

Belua

Belua is a village in Pirojpur District in the Barisal Division of southwestern Bangladesh.-External links:*...

and Remailo. These use instruments including the bari, wiri

Wiri

Wiri is a mostly industrial-commercial focused suburb in Manukau City, located to the southwest of the city.As of 2009, Ports of Auckland is building an inland port / rail siding in Wiri, to connect road freight to the port facilities on the Waitemata Harbour further north...

, karko

Karko

Karko is an ethnic group in the Nuba Mountains in Northern Sudan. They speak Karko, a Nubian language . Most members of this ethnicity are Muslims. The population of this ethnicity exceeds 10,000....

, quarta, guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

, triangle and clapping

Clapping

Modern music on Curaçao

The indigenous Papiamento

Papiamento

(Papiamento Song) record industry peaked in the 1950s. Three men were instrumental in this renaissance: Jules de Palm, Rene de Rooy and Pierre Lauffer. They published under the pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

Julio Perennal, including a cancionero

Cancionero

Cancionero is name of an early music ensemble based in the Sevenoaks and Maidstone area of Kent who perform the songs and dance music of the Middle Ages and also early Renaissance music from the Tudor court.-Current members:...

and a manifesto that called for more Papiamento songs to be written. Many did so, recording throughout the 50s in a mixture of styles, including Cuban and Dominican genres like son montuno

Son montuno

The son montuno is a style of the Cuban son, but exactly what it means is not an easy question to answer. The son itself is the most important genre of Cuban popular music. In addition, it is perhaps the most flexible of all forms of Latin-American music...

, bolero

Bolero

Bolero is a form of slow-tempo Latin music and its associated dance and song. There are Spanish and Cuban forms which are both significant and which have separate origins.The term is also used for some art music...

, pambiche

Pambiche

Pambiche is a Latin American dance derived from Merengue, the national dance of the Dominican Republic. The Merengue was once called the "Palm Beach One Step" and it is said that "Pambiche" is a derivation of "Palm Beach." The Pambiche is slower and less syncopated than the Merengue. It is...

, merengue and guaracha

Guaracha

The guaracha is a genre of Cuban popular music, of rapid tempo and with lyrics. The word had been used in this sense at least since the late 18th and early 19th century. Guarachas were played and sung in musical theatres and in low-class dance salons. They became an integral part of Bufo comic...

. Also, RITMO KOMBINA, a combination of a lot of style music. It's very popular with the young people on Curaçao. The tumba was especially popular.

External links

Aruban Music Official Aruban Government Portal

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Modern Aruban music

Classical and traditional music of Curaçao

Traditional music on Bonaire

Modern music on Curaçao

Further reading

External links