Biguine ( , ; gcf, label=

Antillean Creole Antillean Creole (Antillean French Creole, Kreyol, Kwéyòl, Patois) is a French-based creole that is primarily spoken in the Lesser Antilles. Its grammar and vocabulary include elements of Carib, English, and African languages. Antillean Creo ...

, bigin) is a rhythm-centric style of music that originated from Saint Pierre, Martinique in the 19th century. It fuses Bèlè and 19th-century French ballroom dance steps with African rhythms.

History

Two main types of French antillean biguine can be identified based on the instrumentation in contemporary musical practice, called the ''drum biguine'' and the ''orchestrated biguine''. Each of these refers to characteristics of a specific origin. The drum biguine, or ''bidgin bèlè'' in Creole, comes from a series of bèlè dances performed since early colonial times by the slaves who inhabited the great sugar plantations. Musically, the bidgin bèlè can be distinguished from the orchestrated biguine in the following ways: its instrumentation (cylindrical single-membraned drum (bèlè) and the rhythm sticks (

tibwa Historically, idiophones (percussion instruments without membranes or strings) have been widespread throughout the Caribbean music area, which encompasses the islands and coasts of the Caribbean Sea. Some areas of South America that are not geogra ...

); the call-and-response singing style; the soloist's improvisation, and the nasal voice quality. According to a study by Rosemain (1988), the biguine figured in fertility rituals practiced in West Africa, but its ritual significance has since disappeared in Martinique.

Origin

Bidgin bèlè originates in

slave Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

bèlè Bel Air ( ht, Bèlè, en, Good Air) is a neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It is a slum area of the city and suffers from poverty. Crime is widespread, and kidnappings and killings have created panic among the local population. The neighbor ...

dances and is characterized by the use of bèlè drums and

rhythm sticks, along with

call and response Call and response is a form of interaction between a speaker and an audience in which the speaker's statements ("calls") are punctuated by responses from the listeners. This form is also used in music, where it falls under the general category of ...

, nasal vocals and improvised instrumental solos. It has its roots in West African dances. The ''bèlè'' is also the name of medium size

tambour In classical architecture, a tambour ( Fr.: "drum") is the inverted bell of the Corinthian capital around which are carved acanthus leaves for decoration. The term also applies to the wall of a circular structure, whether on the ground or rais ...

drum. Players sit astride the drum. It is characterized, in its rhythm, by the "

" (two wooden sticks) played either on a length of bamboo mounted on a stand or on the sides of the tambour bèlè. Added to the tambour bèlè and tibwa are the

maracas A maraca (), sometimes called shaker or chac-chac, is a rattle which appears in many genres of Caribbean and Latin music. It is shaken by a handle and usually played as part of a pair. Maracas (from Guaraní ), also known as tamaracas, were ...

, more commonly referred to as the ''chacha''. The cinquillo- tresillo is beat out by the tibwa, but it translates very well to the ''chacha'' when the rhythms are applied for playing biguine. The ''tibwa'' rhythm plays a basic pattern and the drum comes to mark the highlights and introduce percussion improvisations.

Biguine and Jazz of Louisiana

Biguine is one of the ancestors of the musical genre

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

that was created by the Creoles of

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is bord ...

Orchestrated biguine

By combining the traditional bèlè music with the European dance genres, the black musicians of Martinique created the biguine, which comprises three distinct styles: * the ''biguine de salon'' * the ''biguine de bal'' * the ''biguine de rue''. In the 1930s several biguine artists from Martinique and Guadeloupe moved to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, where they achieved great popularity in Paris, especially in the wake of the colonial exhibition in 1931. Early stars like

Alexandre Stellio Alexandre may refer to: * Alexandre (given name) * Alexandre (surname) * Alexandre (film) See also * Alexander Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom o ...

and Sam Castandet became popular in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

. Between the 1930s and 1950s, the dance biguine was popular among the islands' dance orchestras. Its popularity abroad died relatively quickly, but it lasted as a major force in popular music in Martinique and Guadeloupe until Haitian

Cadence In Western musical theory, a cadence (Latin ''cadentia'', "a falling") is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards.Don Michael Randel (199 ...

and Compas music took over in the 1950s. In the later part of the 20th century, biguine musicians like

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitch ...

virtuoso Michel Godzom helped revolutionize the genre.

Evolution of biguine

The signature sound of the biguine is the interplay between the clarinet and trombone, both solo and as a duet, which can still be heard today throughout Antilles music, from the most traditional forms like

cadence In Western musical theory, a cadence (Latin ''cadentia'', "a falling") is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards.Don Michael Randel (199 ...

or the pop sounds of today's zouk.

Biguine vidé

Biguine vidé is an up tempo version of the biguine rhythm (''tambour'' and ''tibwa''), combining other carnival elements. It is a form of participatory music from

Guadeloupe Guadeloupe (; ; gcf, label= Antillean Creole, Gwadloup, ) is an archipelago and overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands— Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and ...

and Martinique, with the bandleader singing a verse and the audience responding. Modern instrumentation includes a variety of improvised drums made from containers of all kinds, plastic plumbing,

bell A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inte ...

s, tanbou débonda, chacha bèlè,

and

drums. The fast pace of the carnival-associated biguine provided the rhythmic basis for zouk béton ("hard" zouk), which is reserved for individual jump up.

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=March 2020 20th-century music genres Martinican music Guadeloupean music French styles of music Caribbean music genres Polka derivatives