Music of Barbados
Encyclopedia
The music of Barbados includes distinctive national styles of folk
and popular music
, including elements of Western classical and religious music
. The culture of Barbados
is a syncretic mix of African and British elements, and the island's music reflects this mix through song types and styles, instrumentation, dances, and aesthetic principles.
Barbadian folk traditions include the Landship
movement, which is a satirical, informal organization based on the British navy, tea meeting
s, tuk
bands and numerous traditional songs and dances. In modern Barbados, popular styles include calypso
, spouge
, contemporary folk and world music
. Barbados is, along with Trinidad, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, one of the few centers for Caribbean jazz.
, a popular national genre that reflects Barbadian heritage and African origins; spouge helped kindle a resurgence in national pride, and became viewed as Barbados' answer to the popular Caribbean genres reggae
and calypso
from Jamaica and Trinidad, respectively.
The religious music of the Barbadian Christian churches plays an important role in Barbadian musical identity, especially in urban areas. Many distinctive Barbadian musical and other cultural traditions derive from parodies of Anglican church hymns and British military drills. The British military performed drills to both provide security for the island's population, as well as intimidate slaves. Modern Barbadian tea meeting
s, tuk
bands, the Landship
tradition and many folk songs come from slaves parodying the practices of white authorities. British-Barbadians used music for cultural and intellectual enrichment and to feel a sense of kinship and connection with the British Isles through the maintenance of British musical forms. Plantation houses featured music as entertainment at balls, dances and other gatherings. For Afro-Barbadians, drum, vocal and dance music was an integral part of everyday life, and songs and performance practices were created for normal, everyday events, as well as special celebrations like Whitsuntide, Christmas
, Easter
, Landship
and Crop Over
. These songs remain a part of Barbadian culture and form a rich folk repertoire.
Western classical music is the most socially accepted form of musical expression for Barbadians in Bridgetown
, including a variety of vocal music, chamber
and orchestra
l music, and piano
and violin
. Along with hymn
s, oratorio
s, cantata
s and other religious music, chamber music of the Western tradition remains an important part of Barbadian musical through an integral role in the services of the Anglican church.
industry, bringing still more new music to the island. The middle of the 18th century saw the decline of the tobacco industry and the rise of sugarcane
, as well as the introduction of large numbers of African slaves.Brazilian exiles however, along with sugarcane introduced Samba to the island which featured a mixture of Latin music with African influences which soon developed into Soca-Samba which is indigenous to Barbados. Modern Barbadian music is thus largely a combination of English and African elements, with Irish, Scottish, and modern American and Caribbean (especially Jamaican) influences as well.
By the 19th century, the Barbadian colonialists grew to fear slave revolts, and specifically, the use of music as a tool of communication and planning for revolution. As a result, the government passed laws to restrict musical activities among slaves. At the same time, American and other forms of imported music were brought to Barbados, while many important elements of modern Barbadian music, like tuk band
s, also emerged. In the 20th century, many new styles were imported to Barbados, most influentially including jazz
, ska
, reggae
, calypso
and soca
. Barbados became home to many performers of these new genres, especially soca and calypso, while the island also produced an indigenous style called spouge
, which became an important symbol of Barbadian identity.
The earliest reference to Afro-Barbadian music may come from a description of a slave rebellion, in which the rebels were inspired to fight by music played on skin drums, conch trumpets and animal horns. Slavery continued, however, and the colonial and slaveowning authorities eventually outlawed musical instruments among slaves. By the end of the 17th century, a distinctly Barbadian folk culture developed, based around influences and instruments from Africa, Britain and other Caribbean islands.
Early Barbadian folk music, despite legal restrictions, was a major part of life among the island's slave population. For the slaves, music was "essential for recreation and dancing and as a part of the life cycle for communication and religious meaning". African musicians also provided the music for the white landowners' private parties, while the slaves developed their own party music, culminating in the crop over
festival, which began in 1688. The earliest crop over festivals featured dancing and call-and-response singing accompanied by shak-shak
, banjo
, bone
s and bottles containing varying amounts of water.
. Many traditional songs concern events current at the time of their composition, such as the emancipation of the slaves of Barbados, and the coronations of Victoria
, George V
, and Elizabeth II
; this song tradition dates back to 1650. The most influential Barbadian folk songs are associated with the island's lower-class laborers, who have held on to their folk heritage.
Some Barbadian songs and stories made their way back to England, most famously "Inckle the English Sailor" and "Yarico the Indian Maid", which became English plays and an opera by George Coleman
with music by Samuel Arnold
, and first performed in London in 1787.
Contemporary Barbadian folk songs, especially through the pioneering albums of author and singer-songwriter Anthony Kellman, show a bold fusion of indigenous rhythms such as tuk and calypso with African, latin, jazz and East Indian influences. Songs such as his modern-day rewrite of the traditional folk songs "King Jaja" and "See My Little Brown Girl" (as "If You See My Girl") and the instrumental "Tuk, Tabla, and Fedounoum" (from his 2009 album Blood Mates), are examples of making the old new and relatable to contemporary audiences.
, holidays and other occasions. Dancers and other performers at the crop over
festivals, for example, are popular and an iconic part of Barbadian culture, known for dancing in the costumes of sugarcane-cutters. The Landship movement features song and dance meant to imitate the passage of a British navy ship through rough seas; Landship and other occasions also feature African-derived improvised and complexly-rhythmic dances, and British hornpipe
s, jig
s, maypole
dances and Marches.
The Jean and Johnnie dance was an important part of Barbadian culture until it was banned in the 19th century. This was a popular fertility dance performed outdoors at plantation fairs and other festivals, and was functional in that it allowed women to show off to men, and more rarely, vice versa. The dance was eventually banned because the dance was associated with non-Christian African traditions.
s. These include numerous drums, among them the pump and the tum tum, made from a hollowed-out tree trunk, the side snare drum
and a double-headed bass drum
of tuk bands. Folk musicians also use gong
s made from tree trunks, bones, rook jaw, triangle, cymbal
s, bottles filled with water, and xylophone
s. Rattle
s are also widespread, and include the pan-Antillean shak-shak
and the calabash
, de shot and rattle. More recently imported folk percussion instruments include the conga
and bongo
from Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Cuba, and the tambourine
.
String and wind instruments play an important role in Barbadian folk culture, especially the bow-fiddle
, banjo
and acoustic guitar
; more modern groups also use an electric and bass guitar. The shukster is a distinctive instrument, made by stretching a guitar string between two sides of a house. Traditional Barbadian wind instruments are largely metal, but in their folk origins, were made out of locally found materials. Barbadian villagers burned fingerholes, for example, on bamboo tubes, made trumpets out of conch
shells and pipes from pumpkin
vines. Many modern groups use harmonica
, accordion
, alto
and tenor saxophone
, trumpet
and trombone
.
, a kind of praise song mostly sung on Sundays, a day when Christian Barbadians come together with family members to sing and praise God to ask for strength for the next week's work.
Pentecostal music has become a part of Barbadian religious and musical traditions since the 1920s. Music plays a role in Pentecostal ceremonies, and is provided by emotional and improvised performances accompanied tambourine
s. In addition to the Anglican and Pentecostal traditions, Rastafarian music has spread to the island in more recent years, along with African American music
al forms, especially gospel
, and the Spiritual Baptist
religion, which derives from the Trinidadian Shango
cult that spread to Barbados in the 1960s. One of the more Internationally known religious music groups from Barbados are The Silvertones of Barbados.
festival and the Landship
movement.
The original crop over festival celebrated the end of the sugarcane harvest. These festivals were held in the great house of the plantations, and included both slaves and plantation managers. Celebrations included drinking competitions, feasting, song and dance, and climbing a greased pole. Musical accompaniment was provided by triangle, fiddle, drums and a guitar, played by slave entertainers. Crop over festivals continue to play a part of Barbadian culture, and always feature music by performers in sugarcane-cutting costumes, even though many modern performers are not themselves sugarcane-cutters.
The Barbadian Landship movement is an informal entertainment organization which mocks, through mimicry and satire, the British navy. Landship began in 1837, founded by an individual known variously as Moses Ward and Moses Wood, in Britton's Hall in Seamen's Village. The structure of the Landship organization mirrors the structure of the British navy, with a "ship" which is connected to a "dock" (a wooden house similar to a chattel house
), and leaders known as Lord High Admiral, Captain, Boatswain and other navy ranks. Each unit is named like a typical navy ship and may include actual names of British ships or places. Landship performances symbolize and reflect the passage of ships through rough seas. Parades, jigs, hornpipes, maypole dances and other music and dance types are a part of the Landship Society's celebrations. The Council of the Barbados Landship Association regulates the movement.
Barbadian Christmas music is mostly based on church and concert hall performances, where typical North American Christmas carol
s are performed, such as "White Christmas
" and "Silver Bells", alongside works by English composers like William Byrd
, Henry Walford Davies
and Thomas Tallis
. In more recent years, calypso, reggae and other new elements have become a part of local Christmas traditions. As recently as the 1960s, Barbados was home to a distinctive practice, in which scrubbers traveled from house to house singing hymns and receiving rewards from households.
bands are Barbadian musical ensembles, consisting of a bow-fiddle
or pennywhistle flute, kittle
triangle and a snare and double-headed bass drum. The kittle and bass drum provide the rhythm, while the flute gives the melody. The drums are light-weight so they can be carried easily, and are made by both rural villagers and drummers using cured sheepskin and goatskin. Tuk bands are based on the British military's regimental bands, which played for many years for special occasions, like visiting royalty and coronations. The tuk sound has evolved over the years, as has the instrumentation, with the bow-fiddle used before being most commonly replaced by the pennywhistle flute. Tuk bands are now most common in Landship events, but are still sometimes independent. On their own, tuk bands are generally accompanied by a range of iconic Barbadian characters, including "shaggy bears", "mother sally", "the steel donkey" and "green monkeys". The upbeat modern sound of tuk ensembles are a distinctly Barbadian blend of African and British musics.
Tea meeting
s are celebrations held in society lodges or school halls, and feature both solo and group performance, theatrical rhetoric
and oratory
, and other activities. After declining following World War 1, tea meetings have recently been revived and have regained their widespread popularity. They are held at nighttime, beginning at 9:00 PM and continuing until midnight, when there is a two-hour break for food and drink before the tea meeting is resumed.
being the most famous. It has however created a well-developed local scene playing imported styles like American jazz
and calypso
, as well as the indigenous spouge
style. Calypso was the first popular music in Barbados, and dates back to the 1930s. Barbadian calypso is a comedic song form, accompanied by guitar and banjo. More recent styles of calypso have also kept a local scene alive, and produced a number of famous calypsonians. Spouge is a mixture of calypso and other styles, especially ska
, and became very popular in the 1960s, around the same time as the Barbadian jazz scene grew in stature and became home to a number of famous performers. Modern Barbadian popular music is largely based around reggae
, ragga
and soca
, and includes some elements of indigenous styles. Artists like Terencia Coward have used modern popular music with instrumentation borrowed from folk tuk
bands. Two of the more popular bands of Barbadian popular music are Krosfyah and Square One [now defunct]; the new wave of singers, largely soca, include Rupee, Lil' Rick and Jabae with lead vocalist Bruce and Barry Chandler, all recent winners at crop over
. A more experimental artist such as poet and fiction writer Anthony Kellman writes thoughtful poetic lyrics delivered in a musical style deeply rooted in Barbadian indigenous folk music with strong elements of African and latin influences. His albums Wings of a Stranger, Limestone, and Blood Mates have been described as groundbreaking due to his original style.
was called banja, and was performed by laborers in village-tenantry areas. Itinerant minstrels like Mighty Jerry, Shilling Agard and Slammer were well-known forerunners of modern Barbadian calypso. Their song tradition embraced sentimentality, humor, and opinionated lyrics that continued to the 1960s, often by then accompanied by guitar or banjo.
The mid-20th century brought new forms of music from Trinidad
, Brazil
, the United States
, Cuba
and the Dominican Republic
to Barbados, and the Barbadian calypso style came to be viewed as lowbrow or inferior. Promoters like Lord Silvers and Mighty Dragon, however, kept the popular tradition alive through shows at the Globe Theatre
, featuring pioneers Mighty Romeo, Sir Don Marshall, Lord Radio and the Bimshire Boys and Mike Wilkinson. These performers set the stage for the development of popular Barbadian calypso in the 1960s.
In the early 1960s, Barbadian calypso grew in popularity and stature, led by Viper, Mighty Gabby
and The Merrymen
. The first calypso competitions were held in 1960, and they quickly grew larger and more prominent. The Merrymen became the island's most prominent contribution to calypso by the 1970s and into the 80s. Their style, known as blue beat
, incorporated Barbadian folk songs and ballads, as well as American blues
, country music
, and a distinctive sound created by harmonica, guitar and banjo.
By the beginning of the 1980s, kaiso
, a form of stage-presented calypso pioneered in Trinidad, was widespread at crop over and other celebrations. The foundation of the National Cultural Foundation
in 1984 helped to promote and administer calypso festivals, which attracted tourists, stimulating the calypso industry. As a result, calypso has become a very visible and iconic part of Barbadian culture, and some calypsonians have become internationally renowned, including Mighty Gabby
and Red Plastic Bag
.
in the 1960s. It is primarily a fusion of Jamaican ska
with Trinidadian calypso
, but is also influenced by a wide variety of musics from the British Isles and United States, include sea shanties
, hymns and spiritual
s. Spouge instrumentation originally consisted of cowbell, bass guitar, trap set and various other electronic and percussion instruments, later augmented by saxophone
, trombone
and trumpet
s. Of these, the cowbell and the guitar are widely seen as the most integral part of the instrumentation, and are said to reflect the African origin of much of Barbadian music.
Two different kinds of spouge were popular in the 1960s, raw spouge (Draytons Two style) and dragon spouge (Cassius Clay style). The spouge industry grew immensely by the end of the 1970s, and produced popular stars like Blue Rhythm Combo, the Draytons Two
and The Troubadours
. Recent years has seen a resurgence of interest in spouge among some quarters, with people like Desmond Weekes of the Draytons Two indicating that spouge should be encouraged because it is a national form that can reach international audiences and inspire the nation's pride in their cultural heritage.
is a genre of music from the United States which reached Barbados by the end of the 1920s. The first major performer from the island was Lionel Gittens, who was followed by Percy Green, Maggie Goodridge and Clevie Gittens. These bandleaders played a variety of music, including swing, a kind of pop-jazz, Barbadian calypso and waltz
es. With little recorded music on the island, radio broadcasts such as Willis Conover
's Voice of America
had a major influence. In 1937, riots over poverty and disenfranchisement occurred, and people like Clement Payne
had risen to fame advocating reform. In that year, Payne was deported and riots broke out in Bridgetown, spreading throughout the island. The following year, the Barbados Labour Party
was formed by C. A. Braithwaite and Grantley Adams.
As political awareness among the black majority on the island spread, so did bebop
, a kind of jazz which was associated, in the United States, with social activism and Afrocentrism
. The first Barbadian bebop musician from the island was Keith Campbell, a pianist who had learned to play many styles while living in Trinidad during a time when American soldiers were stationed there, providing a ready market for bands that could play American music. Other musicians of this period included Ernie Small, a trumpeter and pianist, and bandleader St. Clare Jackman.
In the 1950s, R&B and rock and roll
became popular on the island, and many jazz bands found themselves pushed aside. A wave of Guyanese musicians also appeared on the island, including Colin Dyall, a saxophonist who later joined the Police Band, and the Ebe Gilkes Quartet
. Though mainstream audiences were still listening to R&B and rock, modern jazz retained a small core of followers into the 1960s. The foundation of the Belair Jazz Club in Bridgetown in 1961 helped to keep this scene alive. With independence in 1966 came a focus on black Barbadian culture, and music like calypso, reggae and spouge, rather than the preoccupation with British standards of musical development. Calypso jazz arose during this period, pioneered by groups like the Schofield Pilgrim
. The genre had developed by 1965, when original works like "Jouvert Morning" and "Calypso Lament" were composed. Artists like the pianist Adrian Clarke became popular during the 60s as well.
In the early 1970s, jazz fan and critic Carl Moore
launched a project to keep jazz alive on the island, while Zanda Alexander's performance in Bridgetown in 1972 is said to be the first Caribbean jazz festival. Oscar Peterson
's 1976 performance in Trinidad also inspired Barbadian musicians, as did the radio program Jazz Jam, which was broadcast starting in the mid-70s on the Caribbean Broadcast Corporation. In 1983, however, the Belair Jazz Club closed, and was not replaced by any long-term clubs. Later in the 1980s, jazz declined greatly in popularity, though saxophonist Arturo Tappin
organized the International Barbados/Caribbean Jazz Festival
, while other performances were organized by a group called the Friends of Jazz. More jazz calypso fusion musicians appeared on the scene during this period, including Janice Robertson and her Trinidadian husband Raf.
and Chinese musics
. Due to a lack of archaeological and historical records, the island's indigenous music is unknown. Since the 1970s, an increase in general interest in Barbadian culture has spurred greater study of music, and given an incentive to radio and television stations to create and maintain archives of cultural practices.
On modern Barbados, oral transmission remains the primary mode of music education
, and there are few opportunities for most people to become formally educated in music of any kind. The elders of the island, who are the most educated in oral traditions, are held in high esteem due to their knowledge of folk culture. Modern Barbados is home to several institutions of musical education. There are dedicated schools for ballet
: Dance Place
and the Liz Mahon Dancers. A number of schools sponsor orchestras, steelbands and tuk bands, including the St. Lucy Secondary School Steel Orchestra. Music is a part of the curriculum for early childhood as well as primary and secondary education. The Barbados Community College has an associate degree programme in music. However, the University of the West Indies
, though it has a campus on Barbados, does not offer degree programs in music. As a matter of fact, only recently has the University started offering students the opportunity to pursue a minor in music.
in Barbados is crop over
, which is celebrated with song, dance, calypso tent
competitions and parades, especially leading up to the first Monday in August, Kadooment Day. The crop over festival celebrates the end of the sugarcane
harvest, and is inaugurated by the ritual delivery of the last of the harvest on a cart pulled by mules. The champion sugarcane workers are crowned King and Queen for the event. In addition to crop over, music plays an important role in many other Barbadian holidays and festivals. The Easter Oistins Fish Festival
, for example features a street party with music to celebrate the signing of the Charter of Barbados and the fishing industry of the island, and the Holetown Festival, which commemorates the arrival of the first settlers in 1627. Opera
, cabaret
and sports are a major part of the Easter Holders Season. On November 30, the Barbadian Independence Day, military bands in parades play marches, calypsos and other popular songs. This is preceded for several weeks by the National Independence Festival of Creative Arts
. The National Independence Festival of Creative Arts and Crop Over are two of the festivals sponsored by the National Cultural Foundation
(NCF); the other is Congaline
, a recently-organized street party that begins in April and ends on May Day
. NCF also assists with the Holers Opera Season, Oistins Fish Festival, Holetown Festival and the B'dos Jazz Festival.
Other major musical institutions in Barbados include the Barbados Chamber Orchestra
and the Cavite Choral
. There are also dance and ballet
groups known as Dance National Afrique, Barbados Dance Theatre Company, Dance Strides, The Dance Place and Dancing Africa. The island's music industry is home to several recording studios, the largest being Blue Wave, a 48-track system, and Paradise Alley, a 24-track system. Others include Chambers' Studio, Gray Lizard Productions and Ocean Lab Studios.
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
and popular music
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
, including elements of Western classical and religious music
Religious music
Religious music is music performed or composed for religious use or through religious influence.A lot of music has been composed to complement religion, and many composers have derived inspiration from their own religion. Many forms of traditional music have been adapted to fit religions'...
. The culture of Barbados
Culture of Barbados
The culture of Barbados is a blend of West African and British cultures present in Barbados. The Bajan, or Barbadian dialect is an iconic part of the culture. But English is still the official language, reflecting centuries of British rule....
is a syncretic mix of African and British elements, and the island's music reflects this mix through song types and styles, instrumentation, dances, and aesthetic principles.
Barbadian folk traditions include the Landship
Landship (Barbados)
The Barbadian Landship movement is an informal organization that mimics the British navy organization and engages in social activities. Landship began in 1837 and was founded in Britton's Hill in Seamen's Village...
movement, which is a satirical, informal organization based on the British navy, tea meeting
Tea meeting
The tea meeting tradition is a part of the culture of Saint Kitts and Nevis and Barbados. Tea meetings feature music and performances that include comic speeches, stentorian oratory and songs. The performances are introduced by a chairman and vice-chairman, who are also performers themselves. ...
s, tuk
Tuk
Tuk and similar can mean:*Tuk band, a kind of Barbadian musical ensemble, which plays tuk music*T.U.K. , a British boot and shoe manufacturer*T.U.K. Tuk and similar can mean:*Tuk band, a kind of Barbadian musical ensemble, which plays tuk music*T.U.K. (or Tread United Kingdom), a British boot and...
bands and numerous traditional songs and dances. In modern Barbados, popular styles include calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
, spouge
Spouge
Spouge On earlier album labels the word appears as spooge. A Music form of Barbados created by Dalton Bishop who performed as Jackie Opel in the 1960s. It is differentiated from Reggae by having a more even and repetitive backbeat...
, contemporary folk and world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
. Barbados is, along with Trinidad, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, one of the few centers for Caribbean jazz.
Characteristics and musical identity
Barbadian culture is syncretic, and the island's musical culture is perceived as a mixture of African and British musics, with certain unique elements that may derive from indigenous sources. Tension between African and British culture has long been a major element of Barbadian history, and has included the banning of certain African-derived practices and black Barbadian parodies of British traditions. Simple entertainment is the basis for most Barbadians' participation in music and dance activities, though religious and other functional musics also occur. Barbadian folk culture declined in importance in the 20th century, but then rekindled in the 1970s, when many Barbadians became interested in their national culture and history. This change was heralded by the arrival of spougeSpouge
Spouge On earlier album labels the word appears as spooge. A Music form of Barbados created by Dalton Bishop who performed as Jackie Opel in the 1960s. It is differentiated from Reggae by having a more even and repetitive backbeat...
, a popular national genre that reflects Barbadian heritage and African origins; spouge helped kindle a resurgence in national pride, and became viewed as Barbados' answer to the popular Caribbean genres 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 calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
from Jamaica and Trinidad, respectively.
The religious music of the Barbadian Christian churches plays an important role in Barbadian musical identity, especially in urban areas. Many distinctive Barbadian musical and other cultural traditions derive from parodies of Anglican church hymns and British military drills. The British military performed drills to both provide security for the island's population, as well as intimidate slaves. Modern Barbadian tea meeting
Tea meeting
The tea meeting tradition is a part of the culture of Saint Kitts and Nevis and Barbados. Tea meetings feature music and performances that include comic speeches, stentorian oratory and songs. The performances are introduced by a chairman and vice-chairman, who are also performers themselves. ...
s, tuk
Tuk
Tuk and similar can mean:*Tuk band, a kind of Barbadian musical ensemble, which plays tuk music*T.U.K. , a British boot and shoe manufacturer*T.U.K. Tuk and similar can mean:*Tuk band, a kind of Barbadian musical ensemble, which plays tuk music*T.U.K. (or Tread United Kingdom), a British boot and...
bands, the Landship
Landship (Barbados)
The Barbadian Landship movement is an informal organization that mimics the British navy organization and engages in social activities. Landship began in 1837 and was founded in Britton's Hill in Seamen's Village...
tradition and many folk songs come from slaves parodying the practices of white authorities. British-Barbadians used music for cultural and intellectual enrichment and to feel a sense of kinship and connection with the British Isles through the maintenance of British musical forms. Plantation houses featured music as entertainment at balls, dances and other gatherings. For Afro-Barbadians, drum, vocal and dance music was an integral part of everyday life, and songs and performance practices were created for normal, everyday events, as well as special celebrations like Whitsuntide, Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
, Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
, Landship
Landship
A landship is a large vehicle that travels on land, as opposed to on water, air, or in space. Because of their large size, their use on land is seen as impractical due to terrain obstacles, and soft ground that cannot support such large weight. Such problems are non-existent on water and in space...
and Crop Over
Crop over
Crop Over , is a traditional harvest festival which began in Barbados, having had its early beginnings on the sugar cane plantations during the colonial period. The crop over tradition began in 1688, and featured singing, dancing and accompaniment by bottles filled with water, shak-shak, banjo,...
. These songs remain a part of Barbadian culture and form a rich folk repertoire.
Western classical music is the most socially accepted form of musical expression for Barbadians in Bridgetown
Bridgetown
The city of Bridgetown , metropolitan pop 96,578 , is the capital and largest city of the nation of Barbados. Formerly, the Town of Saint Michael, the Greater Bridgetown area is located within the parish of Saint Michael...
, including a variety of vocal music, chamber
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
and orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
l music, and piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
and violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
. Along with hymn
Hymn
A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...
s, oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
s, cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
s and other religious music, chamber music of the Western tradition remains an important part of Barbadian musical through an integral role in the services of the Anglican church.
History
Though inhabited prior to the 16th century, little is known about Barbadian music before the arrival of the Portuguese in 1536 and then the English in 1627. The Portuguese left little influence, but English culture and music helped shape the island's heritage. Irish and Scottish settlers emigrated in the 17th century, working in the tobaccoTobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
industry, bringing still more new music to the island. The middle of the 18th century saw the decline of the tobacco industry and the rise of sugarcane
Sugarcane
Sugarcane refers to any of six to 37 species of tall perennial grasses of the genus Saccharum . Native to the warm temperate to tropical regions of South Asia, they have stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in sugar, and measure two to six metres tall...
, as well as the introduction of large numbers of African slaves.Brazilian exiles however, along with sugarcane introduced Samba to the island which featured a mixture of Latin music with African influences which soon developed into Soca-Samba which is indigenous to Barbados. Modern Barbadian music is thus largely a combination of English and African elements, with Irish, Scottish, and modern American and Caribbean (especially Jamaican) influences as well.
By the 19th century, the Barbadian colonialists grew to fear slave revolts, and specifically, the use of music as a tool of communication and planning for revolution. As a result, the government passed laws to restrict musical activities among slaves. At the same time, American and other forms of imported music were brought to Barbados, while many important elements of modern Barbadian music, like tuk band
Tuk band
A tuk band is a kind of Barbadian musical ensemble, which plays tuk music. They consist of a double-headed bass drum, triangle, flute and a snare drum; the traditional fiddle has most recently been replaced by the pennywhistle...
s, also emerged. In the 20th century, many new styles were imported to Barbados, most influentially including 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...
, ska
Ska
Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...
, 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...
, calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
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....
. Barbados became home to many performers of these new genres, especially soca and calypso, while the island also produced an indigenous style called spouge
Spouge
Spouge On earlier album labels the word appears as spooge. A Music form of Barbados created by Dalton Bishop who performed as Jackie Opel in the 1960s. It is differentiated from Reggae by having a more even and repetitive backbeat...
, which became an important symbol of Barbadian identity.
Folk music
Barbadian culture and music are mixtures of European and African elements, with minimal influence from the indigenous peoples of the island, about whom little is known. Significant numbers of Asian, specifically Chinese and Japanese, people have moved to Barbados, but their music is unstudied and has had little impact on Barbadian music.The earliest reference to Afro-Barbadian music may come from a description of a slave rebellion, in which the rebels were inspired to fight by music played on skin drums, conch trumpets and animal horns. Slavery continued, however, and the colonial and slaveowning authorities eventually outlawed musical instruments among slaves. By the end of the 17th century, a distinctly Barbadian folk culture developed, based around influences and instruments from Africa, Britain and other Caribbean islands.
Early Barbadian folk music, despite legal restrictions, was a major part of life among the island's slave population. For the slaves, music was "essential for recreation and dancing and as a part of the life cycle for communication and religious meaning". African musicians also provided the music for the white landowners' private parties, while the slaves developed their own party music, culminating in the crop over
Crop over
Crop Over , is a traditional harvest festival which began in Barbados, having had its early beginnings on the sugar cane plantations during the colonial period. The crop over tradition began in 1688, and featured singing, dancing and accompaniment by bottles filled with water, shak-shak, banjo,...
festival, which began in 1688. The earliest crop over festivals featured dancing and call-and-response singing accompanied by shak-shak
Shak-shak
The shak-shak is a kind of Antillean musical instrument, similar to maracas. They are played in Barbados, Montserrat, Grenada and elsewhere in the Caribbean...
, banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
, bone
Bone
Bones are rigid organs that constitute part of the endoskeleton of vertebrates. They support, and protect the various organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells and store minerals. Bone tissue is a type of dense connective tissue...
s and bottles containing varying amounts of water.
Folk Song
Barbadian traditional folk songs are heavily influenced by the music of EnglandMusic of England
Folk music of England refers to various types of traditionally based music, often contrasted with courtly, classical and later commercial music, for which evidence exists from the later medieval period. It has been preserved and transmitted orally, through print and later through recordings...
. Many traditional songs concern events current at the time of their composition, such as the emancipation of the slaves of Barbados, and the coronations of Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
, George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
, and Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
; this song tradition dates back to 1650. The most influential Barbadian folk songs are associated with the island's lower-class laborers, who have held on to their folk heritage.
Some Barbadian songs and stories made their way back to England, most famously "Inckle the English Sailor" and "Yarico the Indian Maid", which became English plays and an opera by George Coleman
George Coleman
George Edward Coleman is an American hard bop saxophonist, bandleader, and composer, known chiefly for his work with Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock in the 1960s.-Biography:...
with music by Samuel Arnold
Samuel Arnold (composer)
Samuel Arnold was an English composer and organist.Arnold was born in London , and began writing music for the theatre in about 1764. A few years later he became director of music at the Marylebone Gardens, for which much of his popular music was written...
, and first performed in London in 1787.
Contemporary Barbadian folk songs, especially through the pioneering albums of author and singer-songwriter Anthony Kellman, show a bold fusion of indigenous rhythms such as tuk and calypso with African, latin, jazz and East Indian influences. Songs such as his modern-day rewrite of the traditional folk songs "King Jaja" and "See My Little Brown Girl" (as "If You See My Girl") and the instrumental "Tuk, Tabla, and Fedounoum" (from his 2009 album Blood Mates), are examples of making the old new and relatable to contemporary audiences.
Dance
Barbadian folk dances include a wide variety of styles, performed at LandshipLandship
A landship is a large vehicle that travels on land, as opposed to on water, air, or in space. Because of their large size, their use on land is seen as impractical due to terrain obstacles, and soft ground that cannot support such large weight. Such problems are non-existent on water and in space...
, holidays and other occasions. Dancers and other performers at the crop over
Crop over
Crop Over , is a traditional harvest festival which began in Barbados, having had its early beginnings on the sugar cane plantations during the colonial period. The crop over tradition began in 1688, and featured singing, dancing and accompaniment by bottles filled with water, shak-shak, banjo,...
festivals, for example, are popular and an iconic part of Barbadian culture, known for dancing in the costumes of sugarcane-cutters. The Landship movement features song and dance meant to imitate the passage of a British navy ship through rough seas; Landship and other occasions also feature African-derived improvised and complexly-rhythmic dances, and British hornpipe
Hornpipe
The term hornpipe refers to any of several dance forms played and danced in Britain and elsewhere from the late 17th century until the present day. It is said that hornpipe as a dance began around the 16th century on English sailing vessels...
s, jig
Jig
The Jig is a form of lively folk dance, as well as the accompanying dance tune, originating in England in the 16th century and today most associated with Irish dance music and Scottish country dance music...
s, 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...
dances and Marches.
The Jean and Johnnie dance was an important part of Barbadian culture until it was banned in the 19th century. This was a popular fertility dance performed outdoors at plantation fairs and other festivals, and was functional in that it allowed women to show off to men, and more rarely, vice versa. The dance was eventually banned because the dance was associated with non-Christian African traditions.
Instrumentation
The Barbadian folk tradition is home to a great variety of musical instruments, imported from Africa, Great Britain or other Caribbean islands. The most central instrument group in Barbadian culture is the percussion instrumentPercussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
s. These include numerous drums, among them the pump and the tum tum, made from a hollowed-out tree trunk, the side snare drum
Snare drum
The snare drum or side drum is a melodic percussion instrument with strands of snares made of curled metal wire, metal cable, plastic cable, or gut cords stretched across the drumhead, typically the bottom. Pipe and tabor and some military snare drums often have a second set of snares on the bottom...
and a double-headed bass drum
Bass drum
Bass drums are percussion instruments that can vary in size and are used in several musical genres. Three major types of bass drums can be distinguished. The type usually seen or heard in orchestral, ensemble or concert band music is the orchestral, or concert bass drum . It is the largest drum of...
of tuk bands. Folk musicians also use gong
Gong
A gong is an East and South East Asian musical percussion instrument that takes the form of a flat metal disc which is hit with a mallet....
s made from tree trunks, bones, rook jaw, triangle, cymbal
Cymbal
Cymbals are a common percussion instrument. Cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys; see cymbal making for a discussion of their manufacture. The greater majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sound a...
s, bottles filled with water, and xylophone
Xylophone
The xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets...
s. Rattle
Rattle (percussion)
A rattle is a percussion instrument. It consists of a hollow body filled with small uniform solid objects, like sand or nuts. Rhythmical shaking of this instrument produces repetitive, rather dry timbre noises. In some kinds of music, a rattle assumes the role of the metronome, as an alternative to...
s are also widespread, and include the pan-Antillean shak-shak
Shak-shak
The shak-shak is a kind of Antillean musical instrument, similar to maracas. They are played in Barbados, Montserrat, Grenada and elsewhere in the Caribbean...
and the 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...
, de shot and rattle. More recently imported folk percussion instruments include 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...
and 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...
from Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Cuba, and the tambourine
Tambourine
The tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
.
String and wind instruments play an important role in Barbadian folk culture, especially the bow-fiddle
Fiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
, banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
and acoustic 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...
; more modern groups also use an electric and bass guitar. The shukster is a distinctive instrument, made by stretching a guitar string between two sides of a house. Traditional Barbadian wind instruments are largely metal, but in their folk origins, were made out of locally found materials. Barbadian villagers burned fingerholes, for example, on bamboo tubes, made trumpets out of conch
Conch
A conch is a common name which is applied to a number of different species of medium-sized to large sea snails or their shells, generally those which are large and have a high spire and a siphonal canal....
shells and pipes from pumpkin
Pumpkin
A pumpkin is a gourd-like squash of the genus Cucurbita and the family Cucurbitaceae . It commonly refers to cultivars of any one of the species Cucurbita pepo, Cucurbita mixta, Cucurbita maxima, and Cucurbita moschata, and is native to North America...
vines. Many modern groups use harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
, accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
, alto
Alto saxophone
The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...
and tenor saxophone
Tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
, trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
and trombone
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
.
Religious music
Though Western classical and other musics play an important role in Anglican church services on Barbados, religion and folk music are closely intertwined in the everyday lives of most Barbadians. The basis for religious folk music is the Anglican hymnHymn
A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...
, a kind of praise song mostly sung on Sundays, a day when Christian Barbadians come together with family members to sing and praise God to ask for strength for the next week's work.
Pentecostal music has become a part of Barbadian religious and musical traditions since the 1920s. Music plays a role in Pentecostal ceremonies, and is provided by emotional and improvised performances accompanied tambourine
Tambourine
The tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
s. In addition to the Anglican and Pentecostal traditions, Rastafarian music has spread to the island in more recent years, along with African American music
African American music
African-American music is an umbrella term given to a range of musics and musical genres emerging from or influenced by the culture of African Americans, who have long constituted a large and significant ethnic minority of the population of the United States...
al forms, especially gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
, and the Spiritual Baptist
Spiritual Baptist
The Spiritual Baptists faith is an Afro-Caribbean syncretic religion which combines elements of traditional West African religions with Christianity. The Spiritual Baptist faith originated in St. Vincent....
religion, which derives from the Trinidadian Shango
Shango
In the Yorùbá religion, Sàngó is perhaps one of the most popular Orisha; also known as the god of fire, lightning and thunder...
cult that spread to Barbados in the 1960s. One of the more Internationally known religious music groups from Barbados are The Silvertones of Barbados.
Holidays, festivals and other celebrations
A number of holidays, festivals and other celebrations play an integral role in Barbadian folk, and popular, music. Whitsuntide, Christmas, Easter are important, each associated with their own musical traditions, as are distinctly Barbadian festivities like the crop overCrop over
Crop Over , is a traditional harvest festival which began in Barbados, having had its early beginnings on the sugar cane plantations during the colonial period. The crop over tradition began in 1688, and featured singing, dancing and accompaniment by bottles filled with water, shak-shak, banjo,...
festival and the Landship
Landship (Barbados)
The Barbadian Landship movement is an informal organization that mimics the British navy organization and engages in social activities. Landship began in 1837 and was founded in Britton's Hill in Seamen's Village...
movement.
The original crop over festival celebrated the end of the sugarcane harvest. These festivals were held in the great house of the plantations, and included both slaves and plantation managers. Celebrations included drinking competitions, feasting, song and dance, and climbing a greased pole. Musical accompaniment was provided by triangle, fiddle, drums and a guitar, played by slave entertainers. Crop over festivals continue to play a part of Barbadian culture, and always feature music by performers in sugarcane-cutting costumes, even though many modern performers are not themselves sugarcane-cutters.
The Barbadian Landship movement is an informal entertainment organization which mocks, through mimicry and satire, the British navy. Landship began in 1837, founded by an individual known variously as Moses Ward and Moses Wood, in Britton's Hall in Seamen's Village. The structure of the Landship organization mirrors the structure of the British navy, with a "ship" which is connected to a "dock" (a wooden house similar to a chattel house
Chattel house
Chattel House is Barbadian word for a small moveable wooden house that working class people would occupy. The term goes back to the plantation days when the home owners would buy houses designed to move from one property to another. The word "Chattel" means movable property so the name was...
), and leaders known as Lord High Admiral, Captain, Boatswain and other navy ranks. Each unit is named like a typical navy ship and may include actual names of British ships or places. Landship performances symbolize and reflect the passage of ships through rough seas. Parades, jigs, hornpipes, maypole dances and other music and dance types are a part of the Landship Society's celebrations. The Council of the Barbados Landship Association regulates the movement.
Barbadian Christmas music is mostly based on church and concert hall performances, where typical North American Christmas carol
Christmas carol
A Christmas carol is a carol whose lyrics are on the theme of Christmas or the winter season in general and which are traditionally sung in the period before Christmas.-History:...
s are performed, such as "White Christmas
White Christmas
A white Christmas refers to the presence of snow on Christmas Day. This phenomenon is most common in the northern countries of the Northern Hemisphere...
" and "Silver Bells", alongside works by English composers like William Byrd
William Byrd
William Byrd was an English composer of the Renaissance. He wrote in many of the forms current in England at the time, including various types of sacred and secular polyphony, keyboard and consort music.-Provenance:Knowledge of Byrd's biography expanded in the late 20th century, thanks largely...
, Henry Walford Davies
Henry Walford Davies
Sir Henry Walford Davies KCVO OBE was a British composer, who held the title Master of the King's Musick from 1934 until 1941.-Early life and education:...
and Thomas Tallis
Thomas Tallis
Thomas Tallis was an English composer. Tallis flourished as a church musician in 16th century Tudor England. He occupies a primary place in anthologies of English church music, and is considered among the best of England's early composers. He is honoured for his original voice in English...
. In more recent years, calypso, reggae and other new elements have become a part of local Christmas traditions. As recently as the 1960s, Barbados was home to a distinctive practice, in which scrubbers traveled from house to house singing hymns and receiving rewards from households.
Tuk bands and tea meetings
TukTuk
Tuk and similar can mean:*Tuk band, a kind of Barbadian musical ensemble, which plays tuk music*T.U.K. , a British boot and shoe manufacturer*T.U.K. Tuk and similar can mean:*Tuk band, a kind of Barbadian musical ensemble, which plays tuk music*T.U.K. (or Tread United Kingdom), a British boot and...
bands are Barbadian musical ensembles, consisting of a bow-fiddle
Fiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
or pennywhistle flute, kittle
Kittle
Kittle may refer to:* Kittle, an area of Pennard, Swansea, Wales* A kettle drum used in the music of GuyanaKittle is the surname of:* Ron Kittle , American baseball player* Katrina Kittle, American novelist...
triangle and a snare and double-headed bass drum. The kittle and bass drum provide the rhythm, while the flute gives the melody. The drums are light-weight so they can be carried easily, and are made by both rural villagers and drummers using cured sheepskin and goatskin. Tuk bands are based on the British military's regimental bands, which played for many years for special occasions, like visiting royalty and coronations. The tuk sound has evolved over the years, as has the instrumentation, with the bow-fiddle used before being most commonly replaced by the pennywhistle flute. Tuk bands are now most common in Landship events, but are still sometimes independent. On their own, tuk bands are generally accompanied by a range of iconic Barbadian characters, including "shaggy bears", "mother sally", "the steel donkey" and "green monkeys". The upbeat modern sound of tuk ensembles are a distinctly Barbadian blend of African and British musics.
Tea meeting
Tea meeting
The tea meeting tradition is a part of the culture of Saint Kitts and Nevis and Barbados. Tea meetings feature music and performances that include comic speeches, stentorian oratory and songs. The performances are introduced by a chairman and vice-chairman, who are also performers themselves. ...
s are celebrations held in society lodges or school halls, and feature both solo and group performance, theatrical rhetoric
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
and oratory
Oratory
Oratory is a type of public speaking.Oratory may also refer to:* Oratory , a power metal band* Oratory , a place of worship* a religious order such as** Oratory of Saint Philip Neri ** Oratory of Jesus...
, and other activities. After declining following World War 1, tea meetings have recently been revived and have regained their widespread popularity. They are held at nighttime, beginning at 9:00 PM and continuing until midnight, when there is a two-hour break for food and drink before the tea meeting is resumed.
Popular music
Barbados has produced few internationally popular musicians, worldwide pop superstar RihannaRihanna
Robyn Rihanna Fenty , better known as simply Rihanna, is a Barbadian recording artist. Born in Saint Michael, Barbados, Rihanna moved to the United States at the age of 16 to pursue a recording career under the guidance of record producer Evan Rogers...
being the most famous. It has however created a well-developed local scene playing imported styles like American 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...
and calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
, as well as the indigenous spouge
Spouge
Spouge On earlier album labels the word appears as spooge. A Music form of Barbados created by Dalton Bishop who performed as Jackie Opel in the 1960s. It is differentiated from Reggae by having a more even and repetitive backbeat...
style. Calypso was the first popular music in Barbados, and dates back to the 1930s. Barbadian calypso is a comedic song form, accompanied by guitar and banjo. More recent styles of calypso have also kept a local scene alive, and produced a number of famous calypsonians. Spouge is a mixture of calypso and other styles, especially ska
Ska
Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...
, and became very popular in the 1960s, around the same time as the Barbadian jazz scene grew in stature and became home to a number of famous performers. Modern Barbadian popular music is largely based around 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...
, ragga
Ragga
-Origins:Ragga originated in Jamaica during the 1980s, at the same time that electronic dance music's popularity was increasing globally. One of the reasons for ragga's swift propagation is that it is generally easier and less expensive to produce than reggae performed on traditional musical...
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....
, and includes some elements of indigenous styles. Artists like Terencia Coward have used modern popular music with instrumentation borrowed from folk tuk
Tuk
Tuk and similar can mean:*Tuk band, a kind of Barbadian musical ensemble, which plays tuk music*T.U.K. , a British boot and shoe manufacturer*T.U.K. Tuk and similar can mean:*Tuk band, a kind of Barbadian musical ensemble, which plays tuk music*T.U.K. (or Tread United Kingdom), a British boot and...
bands. Two of the more popular bands of Barbadian popular music are Krosfyah and Square One [now defunct]; the new wave of singers, largely soca, include Rupee, Lil' Rick and Jabae with lead vocalist Bruce and Barry Chandler, all recent winners at crop over
Crop over
Crop Over , is a traditional harvest festival which began in Barbados, having had its early beginnings on the sugar cane plantations during the colonial period. The crop over tradition began in 1688, and featured singing, dancing and accompaniment by bottles filled with water, shak-shak, banjo,...
. A more experimental artist such as poet and fiction writer Anthony Kellman writes thoughtful poetic lyrics delivered in a musical style deeply rooted in Barbadian indigenous folk music with strong elements of African and latin influences. His albums Wings of a Stranger, Limestone, and Blood Mates have been described as groundbreaking due to his original style.
Calypso
Prior to the 1930s, Barbadian calypsoCalypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
was called banja, and was performed by laborers in village-tenantry areas. Itinerant minstrels like Mighty Jerry, Shilling Agard and Slammer were well-known forerunners of modern Barbadian calypso. Their song tradition embraced sentimentality, humor, and opinionated lyrics that continued to the 1960s, often by then accompanied by guitar or banjo.
The mid-20th century brought new forms of music from 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...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, 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...
and the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
to Barbados, and the Barbadian calypso style came to be viewed as lowbrow or inferior. Promoters like Lord Silvers and Mighty Dragon, however, kept the popular tradition alive through shows at the Globe Theatre
Globe Theatre
The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613...
, featuring pioneers Mighty Romeo, Sir Don Marshall, Lord Radio and the Bimshire Boys and Mike Wilkinson. These performers set the stage for the development of popular Barbadian calypso in the 1960s.
In the early 1960s, Barbadian calypso grew in popularity and stature, led by Viper, Mighty Gabby
Mighty Gabby
Anthony "Mighty Gabby" Carter is a legendary Barbadian calypsonian and a Cultural Ambassador for the island of Barbados. He is the youngest calypsonian to win the calypso crown in Barbados at age 19 in 1968 and went on to win the Calypso king title again in 1969, 1976, 1985, 1999, 2000 and again...
and The Merrymen
The Merrymen
The Merrymen, sometimes written as The MerryMen, are a popular calypso band from Barbados.The Merrymen's career spans five decades, from the early 1960s to the 2000s...
. The first calypso competitions were held in 1960, and they quickly grew larger and more prominent. The Merrymen became the island's most prominent contribution to calypso by the 1970s and into the 80s. Their style, known as blue beat
Blue Beat
Blue Beat Records was a record label that released Jamaican rhythm and blues and ska music in the United Kingdom in the 1960s. It led to the creation of the term bluebeat as a generic term to describe all styles of early Jamaican music from R&B to Ska, Rocksteady and early Reggae, including music...
, incorporated Barbadian folk songs and ballads, as well as American blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
, and a distinctive sound created by harmonica, guitar and banjo.
By the beginning of the 1980s, kaiso
Kaiso
Kaiso is a type of music popular in Trinidad and other Islands of the Caribbean such as Grenada, St. Lucia, Barbados and St. Kitts & Nevis which originated in West Africa, and later evolved into Calypso. Kaiso songs are generally narrative in form and often have a cleverly concealed political...
, a form of stage-presented calypso pioneered in Trinidad, was widespread at crop over and other celebrations. The foundation of the National Cultural Foundation
National Cultural Foundation
The National Cultural Foundation is a statutory body in Barbados, created by an Act of Parliament in March 1983. It organises several major local Barbadian events including Congaline, National Independence Festival of Creative Arts and the crop over festival, as well as sponsoring the Holders...
in 1984 helped to promote and administer calypso festivals, which attracted tourists, stimulating the calypso industry. As a result, calypso has become a very visible and iconic part of Barbadian culture, and some calypsonians have become internationally renowned, including Mighty Gabby
Mighty Gabby
Anthony "Mighty Gabby" Carter is a legendary Barbadian calypsonian and a Cultural Ambassador for the island of Barbados. He is the youngest calypsonian to win the calypso crown in Barbados at age 19 in 1968 and went on to win the Calypso king title again in 1969, 1976, 1985, 1999, 2000 and again...
and Red Plastic Bag
Red Plastic Bag
Stedson Wiltshire, better known by the sobriquet of Red Plastic Bag, RPB, or merely Bag, is a calypsonian from Barbados. He has won the Barbadian calypso monarch competition a record nine times. Hailing from the eastern, rural Barbadian parish of Saint Philip, RPB became one of few performers from...
.
Spouge
Spouge is a style of Barbadian popular music created by Jackie OpelJackie Opel
Born Dalton Sinclair Bishop in Bridgetown, Barbados, Jackie Opel possessed a rich, powerful voice with a high octave range. He was known as the "Jackie Wilson of Jamaica", and was a gifted dancer....
in the 1960s. It is primarily a fusion of Jamaican ska
Ska
Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...
with Trinidadian calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
, but is also influenced by a wide variety of musics from the British Isles and United States, include sea shanties
Sea shanty
A shanty is a type of work song that was once commonly sung to accompany labor on board large merchant sailing vessels. Shanties became ubiquitous in the 19th century era of the wind-driven packet and clipper ships...
, hymns and spiritual
Spiritual (music)
Spirituals are religious songs which were created by enslaved African people in America.-Terminology and origin:...
s. Spouge instrumentation originally consisted of cowbell, bass guitar, trap set and various other electronic and percussion instruments, later augmented by saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
, trombone
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
and trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
s. Of these, the cowbell and the guitar are widely seen as the most integral part of the instrumentation, and are said to reflect the African origin of much of Barbadian music.
Two different kinds of spouge were popular in the 1960s, raw spouge (Draytons Two style) and dragon spouge (Cassius Clay style). The spouge industry grew immensely by the end of the 1970s, and produced popular stars like Blue Rhythm Combo, the Draytons Two
Draytons Two
The Draytons Two were a popular Barbadian spouge band of the 1970s, and were known for their own unique style of syncretic style, spouge, known as raw spouge. Raw Spouge is also a Draytons Two album....
and The Troubadours
The Troubadours
The Troubadours were an English rock band comprising members from Liverpool, Runcorn and Wigan. The band was originally formed by Mark Frith and Johnny Molyneux in 2005, and they split in late 2009. Their debut single, "Gimme Love" was released in 2007, and reached #20 on the Radio 1 Indie Chart...
. Recent years has seen a resurgence of interest in spouge among some quarters, with people like Desmond Weekes of the Draytons Two indicating that spouge should be encouraged because it is a national form that can reach international audiences and inspire the nation's pride in their cultural heritage.
Jazz
JazzJazz
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...
is a genre of music from the United States which reached Barbados by the end of the 1920s. The first major performer from the island was Lionel Gittens, who was followed by Percy Green, Maggie Goodridge and Clevie Gittens. These bandleaders played a variety of music, including swing, a kind of pop-jazz, Barbadian calypso and 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. With little recorded music on the island, radio broadcasts such as Willis Conover
Willis Conover
Willis Clark Conover, Jr. was a jazz producer and broadcaster on the Voice of America for over forty years. He produced jazz concerts at the White House, the Newport Jazz Festival, and for movies and television. By arranging concerts where people of all races were welcome, he is credited with...
's Voice of America
Voice of America
Voice of America is the official external broadcast institution of the United States federal government. It is one of five civilian U.S. international broadcasters working under the umbrella of the Broadcasting Board of Governors . VOA provides a wide range of programming for broadcast on radio...
had a major influence. In 1937, riots over poverty and disenfranchisement occurred, and people like Clement Payne
Clement Payne
Clement Osbourne Payne was a Barbadian pioneer in the Caribbean trade union movement. By an act of Parliament in 1998, Payne was named as one of the ten National Heroes of Barbados....
had risen to fame advocating reform. In that year, Payne was deported and riots broke out in Bridgetown, spreading throughout the island. The following year, the Barbados Labour Party
Barbados Labour Party
The Barbados Labour Party is the main opposition party of Barbados. Led by Rt. Hon.Owen Arthur, the BLP holds 9 out of 30 seats in the House of Assembly as of January 2008...
was formed by C. A. Braithwaite and Grantley Adams.
As political awareness among the black majority on the island spread, so did bebop
Bebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...
, a kind of jazz which was associated, in the United States, with social activism and Afrocentrism
Afrocentrism
Afrocentrism is cultural ideology mostly limited to the United States, dedicated to the history of Black people a response to global racist attitudes about African people and their historical contributions by revisiting this history with an African cultural and ideological center...
. The first Barbadian bebop musician from the island was Keith Campbell, a pianist who had learned to play many styles while living in Trinidad during a time when American soldiers were stationed there, providing a ready market for bands that could play American music. Other musicians of this period included Ernie Small, a trumpeter and pianist, and bandleader St. Clare Jackman.
In the 1950s, R&B and rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
became popular on the island, and many jazz bands found themselves pushed aside. A wave of Guyanese musicians also appeared on the island, including Colin Dyall, a saxophonist who later joined the Police Band, and the Ebe Gilkes Quartet
Ebe Gilkes Quartet
The Ebe Gilkes Quartet was a Guyanese band that became very popular on Barbados in the 1950s, led by Ebe Gilkes.Other members:- James Gilkes- Jesus Gilkes- Gilkes Gilkes-References:...
. Though mainstream audiences were still listening to R&B and rock, modern jazz retained a small core of followers into the 1960s. The foundation of the Belair Jazz Club in Bridgetown in 1961 helped to keep this scene alive. With independence in 1966 came a focus on black Barbadian culture, and music like calypso, reggae and spouge, rather than the preoccupation with British standards of musical development. Calypso jazz arose during this period, pioneered by groups like the Schofield Pilgrim
Schofield Pilgrim
Schofield Pilgrim was a Barbadian jazz group of the late 20th century, most notable for helping to pioneer the calypso jazz genre. They collaborated with American jazz greats like Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker....
. The genre had developed by 1965, when original works like "Jouvert Morning" and "Calypso Lament" were composed. Artists like the pianist Adrian Clarke became popular during the 60s as well.
In the early 1970s, jazz fan and critic Carl Moore
Carl Moore
Carl Moore is a Barbadian jazz critic, journalist, radio broadcaster and former head of the Barbados Broadcasting Association.- References :...
launched a project to keep jazz alive on the island, while Zanda Alexander's performance in Bridgetown in 1972 is said to be the first Caribbean jazz festival. Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...
's 1976 performance in Trinidad also inspired Barbadian musicians, as did the radio program Jazz Jam, which was broadcast starting in the mid-70s on the Caribbean Broadcast Corporation. In 1983, however, the Belair Jazz Club closed, and was not replaced by any long-term clubs. Later in the 1980s, jazz declined greatly in popularity, though saxophonist Arturo Tappin
Arturo Tappin
-External links:***...
organized the International Barbados/Caribbean Jazz Festival
Barbados Jazz Festival
The Barbados Jazz Festival is an annual jazz festival of the Caribbean island of Barbados. It is a week-long celebration held annually in January, a jubilant affair that attracts a cast of talented musical maestros to the streets of Bridgetown who play for hours every night in festivity...
, while other performances were organized by a group called the Friends of Jazz. More jazz calypso fusion musicians appeared on the scene during this period, including Janice Robertson and her Trinidadian husband Raf.
Education and musicology
Academic study of Barbadian music remains limited. Some song collections and other activities have been conducted, but there remain significant holes in scholarship, such as the musics of recent immigrants from China and India, who presumably have brought with them styles of IndianMusic of India
The music of India includes multiple varieties of folk, popular, pop, classical music and R&B. India's classical music tradition, including Carnatic and Hindustani music, has a history spanning millennia and developed over several eras. It remains fundamental to the lives of Indians today as...
and Chinese musics
Music of China
Chinese Music has been made since the dawn of Chinese civilization with documents and artifacts providing evidence of a well-developed musical culture as early as the Zhou Dynasty...
. Due to a lack of archaeological and historical records, the island's indigenous music is unknown. Since the 1970s, an increase in general interest in Barbadian culture has spurred greater study of music, and given an incentive to radio and television stations to create and maintain archives of cultural practices.
On modern Barbados, oral transmission remains the primary mode of music education
Music education
Music education is a field of study associated with the teaching and learning of music. It touches on all domains of learning, including the psychomotor domain , the cognitive domain , and, in particular and significant ways,the affective domain, including music appreciation and sensitivity...
, and there are few opportunities for most people to become formally educated in music of any kind. The elders of the island, who are the most educated in oral traditions, are held in high esteem due to their knowledge of folk culture. Modern Barbados is home to several institutions of musical education. There are dedicated schools for ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
: Dance Place
Dance Place
Dance Place is an arts organization in the Brookland neighborhood of Northeast Washington, D.C.. "The heart and home of Washington Dance," Dance Place aims to "transform lives through performing arts and creative education programs that inspire personal growth, professional success, physical...
and the Liz Mahon Dancers. A number of schools sponsor orchestras, steelbands and tuk bands, including the St. Lucy Secondary School Steel Orchestra. Music is a part of the curriculum for early childhood as well as primary and secondary education. The Barbados Community College has an associate degree programme in music. However, the University of the West Indies
University of the West Indies
The University of the West Indies , is an autonomous regional institution supported by and serving 17 English-speaking countries and territories in the Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Dominica,...
, though it has a campus on Barbados, does not offer degree programs in music. As a matter of fact, only recently has the University started offering students the opportunity to pursue a minor in music.
Music institutions and festivals
The main music festivalMusic festival
A music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, and are often inclusive of other attractions such as food and merchandise vending machines,...
in Barbados is crop over
Crop over
Crop Over , is a traditional harvest festival which began in Barbados, having had its early beginnings on the sugar cane plantations during the colonial period. The crop over tradition began in 1688, and featured singing, dancing and accompaniment by bottles filled with water, shak-shak, banjo,...
, which is celebrated with song, dance, calypso tent
Calypso tent
Calypso tents are venues in which calypsonians perform during the Carnival season. They usually are cinema halls, community centers, or other indoor buildings which have seating and stage arrangements to host the entertainers, guests and patrons; or outdoor shows which are held in parks or, more...
competitions and parades, especially leading up to the first Monday in August, Kadooment Day. The crop over festival celebrates the end of the sugarcane
Sugarcane
Sugarcane refers to any of six to 37 species of tall perennial grasses of the genus Saccharum . Native to the warm temperate to tropical regions of South Asia, they have stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in sugar, and measure two to six metres tall...
harvest, and is inaugurated by the ritual delivery of the last of the harvest on a cart pulled by mules. The champion sugarcane workers are crowned King and Queen for the event. In addition to crop over, music plays an important role in many other Barbadian holidays and festivals. The Easter Oistins Fish Festival
Oistins Fish Festival
The Oistins Fish Festival is a folk festival organized by the National Cultural Foundation of Barbados. It celebrates the founding of the Charter of Barbados and the fishing industry of Oistins, Christ Church. Arts, crafts, music, food, fish-deboning competitions and boat races are common....
, for example features a street party with music to celebrate the signing of the Charter of Barbados and the fishing industry of the island, and the Holetown Festival, which commemorates the arrival of the first settlers in 1627. Opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
and sports are a major part of the Easter Holders Season. On November 30, the Barbadian Independence Day, military bands in parades play marches, calypsos and other popular songs. This is preceded for several weeks by the National Independence Festival of Creative Arts
National Independence Festival of Creative Arts
The National Independence Festival of Creative Arts is a festival organized by the National Cultural Foundation, held annually to commemorate the independence of Barbados. Music and other performing arts have been a part of the festival since it was inaugurated in 1973. Successful performers are...
. The National Independence Festival of Creative Arts and Crop Over are two of the festivals sponsored by the National Cultural Foundation
National Cultural Foundation
The National Cultural Foundation is a statutory body in Barbados, created by an Act of Parliament in March 1983. It organises several major local Barbadian events including Congaline, National Independence Festival of Creative Arts and the crop over festival, as well as sponsoring the Holders...
(NCF); the other is Congaline
Congaline
Congaline is a large village on the Caribbean island of Barbados where the annual Congaline Carnival is held....
, a recently-organized street party that begins in April and ends on May Day
May Day
May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....
. NCF also assists with the Holers Opera Season, Oistins Fish Festival, Holetown Festival and the B'dos Jazz Festival.
Other major musical institutions in Barbados include the Barbados Chamber Orchestra
Barbados Chamber Orchestra
The Barbados Chamber Orchestra is a chamber orchestra in Barbados. Its current president is Mike Williams, also a leader in the Barbados Boy Scouts Association....
and the Cavite Choral
Cavite Choral
The Cavite Chorale is one of the premier choral groups of the Caribbean, sponsored by the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill....
. There are also dance and ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
groups known as Dance National Afrique, Barbados Dance Theatre Company, Dance Strides, The Dance Place and Dancing Africa. The island's music industry is home to several recording studios, the largest being Blue Wave, a 48-track system, and Paradise Alley, a 24-track system. Others include Chambers' Studio, Gray Lizard Productions and Ocean Lab Studios.