How is it that a country as small as Dominica has consistently produced popular musics that inform and shape the sounds of the entire Caribbean? What sounds are Dominican musicians tapping into in order to generate such a disproportionate impact on Caribbean popular music? In this course, we will answer these questions by exploring the history of Dominican popular music in relation to the region and to the region’s musical life.
We will also work to develop a theoretical frame within which to think about these answers, coming to terms specifically with how “the creole” works in Dominica and throughout the region. By the end our time together, we will come to hear Dominica’s place in (and challenge to) the Carribean and be able to hear these ideas and concerns play out in cadence-lypso, and bouyon. And we will be attuned to the musical answers steadily echoing back from the region—answers ranging from calypso to konpa, and from soca to zouk.
Professor:
Timothy Rommen [click to view bio]
Professor of Music and Africana Studies