More than a hundred years ago Thibault de Chanvallon expressed his
astonishment at the charm and wonderful sense of musical rhythm
characterizing the slave-songs and slave-dances of Martinique. The
rhythmical sense of the negroes especially impressed him. "I have seen,"
he writes, "seven or eight hundred negroes accompanying a wedding-party
to the sound of song. They would all leap up in the air and come down
together;--the movement was so exact and general that the noise of their
fall made but a single sound."
An almost similar phenomenon may be witnessed any Carnival season in St.
Pierre,--while the Devil makes his nightly round, followed by many
hundred boys clapping hands and leaping in chorus. It may also be
observed in the popular malicious custom of the pillard, or, in creole,
_piyà._ Some person whom it is deemed justifiable and safe to annoy,
may suddenly find himself followed in the street by a singing chorus of
several hundred, all clapping hands and dancing or running in perfect
time, so that all the bare feet strike the ground together. Or the
_pillard-chorus_ may even take up its position before the residence of
the party disliked, and then proceed with its performance. An example of
such a _pillard_ is given further on, in the song entitled _Loéma
tombé._ The improvisation by a single voice begins the pillard,--which
in English might be rendered as follows:--
(_Single voice_) You little children there!--you who were by the
river-side!
Tell me truly this:--Did you see Loéma fall?
Tell me truly this--
(_Chorus, opening_) Did you see Loéma fall?
(_Single voice_) Tell me truly this--
(_Chorus_) Did you see Loéma fall?
(_Single voice, more rapidly_) Tell me truly this--
(_Chorus, more quickly_) Loéma fall!
(_Single voice_) Tell me truly this--
(_Chorus_) Loéma fall!
(_Single voice_) Tell me truly this--
(_Chorus, always more quickly, and more loudly, all the hands
clapping together like a fire of musketry_) Loéma fall! etc.
The same rhythmic element characterizes many of the games and round
dances of Martinique children;--but, as a rule, I think it is
perceptible that the sense of time is less developed in the colored
children than in the black.
The other melodies which are given as specimens of Martinique music show
less of the African element,--the nearest approach to it being in _Tant
sirop_; but all are probably creations of the mixed race.
_Marie-Clémence_ is a Carnival satire composed not more than four years
ago. _To-to-to_ is very old--dates back, perhaps, to the time of the
_belles-affranchies._ It is seldom sung now except by survivors of the
old régime: the sincerity and tenderness of the emotion that inspired
it--the old sweetness of heart and simplicity of thought,--are passing
forever away.
To my friend, Henry Edward Krehbiel, the musical lecturer and
critic,--at once historian and folklorist in the study of
race-music,--and to Mr. Frank van der Stucken, the New York musical
composer, I owe the preparation of these four melodies for voice and
piano-forte. The arrangements of _To-to-to_ and _Loéma tombé_ are Mr.
Van der Stucken's.
"TO-TO-TO"
(_Creole werds_)
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