Folk Music
This rich and varied musical traditions of the Creole-speaking islands of the Lesser Antilles are practically unknown outside the region. This album of the music of St. Lucia is an introduction to a rare and living musical heritage. Listen to the drum-accompanied song-dances attending workers at their chores; the often irreverent St. Lucian 'play' entertainments; the funeral wakes; and the ancestral religious cult, the kélé. Here, too, is an original ensemble of violin, banjo, quatro, and percussion instruments accompanying the quadrille and closed-couple dances; songs for Christmas and masquerades; and, unique to St. Lucia, the contrasting music of two competing social societies named after their patron saints and flowers - La Rose and La Marguerite. Intricate and driving rhythms, moving melodies with French, English, and African echoes - all come together in the traditional music of St. Lucia.Compiled and annotated by Jocelyn Guilbault and Embert Charles.
Price: US$27. (Email frc@candw.lc to order)