![]() ![]() First, of all of Jaegerhuber's compositions that incorporate ethnographic material, the Complaintes Haitiennes retain the closest possible link, through their text and melody, to the original sources. Two factors recommended these songs as more central to the genesis of a nationalist music than the many other compositions of this composer. Based on a period of ethnographic research beginning in 1937 and spanning eight years (Jaegerhuber 1937-45), these songs constitute a conscious and deliberate attempt to establish a music possessing a distinctively national character founded on an indigenous source. Jaegerhuber's originality rests in the manner in which his art is founded upon the largely neglected musical traditions of the rural majority of his nation, combined with his own European conservatory training. Even within the confines of the art music produced by Haitian composers, Jaegerhuber's songs constitute a departure from a musical tradition that typically fused the popular Creole rhythms and melodies of the urban elites with the imported forms and standards of European art music. They achieve their unique status by virtue of the fact that their texts and musical material are derived entirely from the rituals of Haitian voodoo. ![]() In 1945, the Haitian composer Werner Jaegerhuber (1900-1953) published a set of six art songs entitled Complaintes Haitiennes that is without precedent in the literature of art song. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |