St. Lucia, part 1

Bellwork: Please get out your scholar guide from Thursday

• Define terms:

• Vyolon- violin

• Tanbouwen- tambourine

• Chakchak- rattle

• Kwatwo- cuatro, 4 stringed instrument

• Gita- guitar

Kwadril Ensemble Video

Announcements

• Benchmark Exam: Tuesday October 14th 1-4

Kwatwo

Map Quest: Locate St. Lucia

Kwadril: Origins

• St. Lucia was an English colony who gained her independence in 1979.

• The St. Lucia kwadril has its roots in the European “first set” quadrille.

• In the 19th century, after the revolution in France, a new society was formed there. Passion for dancing, and especially for the most difficult dances, took hold in the urban milieu.

• In St. Lucia the newly freed slave society, cut off from its traditions and in search of a new unity, found in dance a common bond.

La Rose

Quadrille

Kwadril!

Listening Example #1Pwémyé Fidji

• What instruments do you hear?

• Do the strummed instruments sound in tune or out of tune?

• What is the musical word that describes a rhythm which accents the weak part of a beat?

Listening Questions #1Pwémyé Fidji

• Kwadrils use the following meters 6/8 and 4/4.

• This is the first dance in the kwadril set.

Fidji means figure in creole.

Guided Floats

• The quadrille, was not so much amusement, a dance master remarked, as to make oneself seen.

• Each quadrille consists of 5 dances.

• The dances promoted order, organization and proportion.

• Dances that are called fasi in creole, are easy—they require little training.

How to read Treble Clef

• Music is written on a staff.

• You read music from the bottom to the top.

• There are two types of notes: lines and spaces.

• Board races: write a line or space note as prompted.

How to read the notes

• The spaces spell FACE

• The Lines can be determined by remembering this acronym: Even Garfield Buys Dog Food

• Board Races on Note naming

Ledger Lines

• Ledger lines are on top of the staff—they extend past the staff one note at a time.

Counting in 12/8

• In 12/8 there are 12 eighth notes in every bar.

• An Eighth note can look like this:

• Or it can be beamed together to look like this:

• An eighth rest looks like this:

• Board races: Write the number of each beat underneath its place in the measure:

CFU: Playing a Kwadril Melody

Note reading workshop • Divide in groups of 2-3 people and go sit next to a piano.

• Study the sheet music in groups and try to play the violin part on the piano.

• Write the 12 counts per bar under the notes/rests.

• If you can’t play an instrument, use this time to label the note names of the violin part using the note key provided. Enlist the help of a partner to help you note read the violin part.

• The violin part is the first line of every stanza indicated by a v.

• Circle all complete triplet figures. Triplet figures are connected by a beam.

Order

• There is a hierarchy in each society which includes a king, queen, princes and princesses, nurses, police and soldiers.

• The establishing of roles helps community members to feel valued as individuals and gives each person a purpose.

• The members with greater power (like king and queen) make important decisions for the group and the shatwel leads the songs in each séance.

• The costumes of the King and Queen are copied directly from the English royal family and their actions embody the same spirit of extravagant display.

La Marguerite

La Rose song repertoire

• The songs sung at La Rose séances cover the following topics:

• Praise hymns of St. Rose

• Healing songs invoking the supernatural

• Playful Funeral songs meant to honor through humor

• Mepwi songs of teasing especially the opposite group.

CFU: Whiteboards

• Answer the following questions on your white boards:

Q1

• Which dance step involves raising one arm high and turning around in a circle?

Q2

• What is a style of violin playing which refers to a slightly separated bow stroke?

Q4

• Which dance step involves galloping or skipping sideways?

Q5

• Which St. Lucian society celebrates the daisy?

Guided Notes

• When notated, the majority of rhythms used in Kwadril music are: eighth and sixteenth notes.

• Unlike the European ensemble, the St. Lucian ensemble includes percussion instruments.

• The banjo, kwatwo, and the mandolin are mainly providing the harmony in a strumming style.

• Kwadril tunes encompass a greater range than those of singers’ songs, commonly with an interval of 12th as compared to an octave.

Exit Ticket

• 1. What is a gita?

• 2. The dances promoted ___________ ,___________ and  _________________ .

• 3. What country’s dance is the Kwadril based on?

• 4. The quadrille, was not so much amusement, a

• dance master remarked, as to make oneself _____________ .

• 5. Fidji means ______________ in creole.