Haiti on Music Theory Print

Arly Larivière

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Arly Larivière (born on August 22, 1972 in Cap-Haïtien, Nord, Haiti) is a Haitian singer, songwriter and keyboardist. He is best known as the lead singer and songwriter for the Kompa band Nu-Look. Early life Larivière was born in Cap-Haïtien, Nord, Haiti on August 22, 1972. He was the second oldest of five children. At a young age, he formed the band Kazak Eksperyans D’Haiti in his hometown. He eventually left Kazak to form the band Feeling with Shedly Abraham, Elliot “Prince Elo” Alouidor and Nickson “Niki Bass” Mesidor. In 1992, he joined archrival Lakol Mizik Majik forming a superband. That same year, they released a well acclaimed carnival song before heading to the United States for Lakol’s first international tour. All but two of the band’s members (Herard Atticus and Alphonse “Ti Fredo” Patrick Duret elected to overstay their visas and pursue their musical careers in the USA. Lariviere, also known as Ti Arly and whose father and primary influence is a Haitian composer for Tropicana, decided to settle in Florida where he eventually founded the musical formation D’Zine which was later rebranded Nu-Look. Career Larivière migrated to the U.S. and resided in Florida. During the 1

Édouard Woolley

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Édouard Joseph Woolley (31 March 1916 – 22 December 1991) was a Canadian tenor, actor, composer, and music educator of Haitian birth. He became a naturalized Canadian citizen in 1958. His compositional output includes masses for three voices and for four voices, a few songs, and some instrumental pieces. The section “Mazoumbel” from his suite for violin and piano Sous les palmiers (c. 1958) was performed in a concert of Haitian music in Montreal in 1979. Life and career Born in Port-au-Prince, Woolley began his studies in his native city with Carmen Brouard (piano and harmony), Élisabeth de Pesquidoux-Mahy (singing), Werner Jaegerhuber (German opera/lieder), Raoul Nargys (acting), and Henriette Perret-Duplessis (singing). After working for a few years as a choirmaster at a church in Port-au-Prince, he moved to Montreal in 1938 at the age of 22 where he studied singing with Salvator Issaurel from the time of his arrival through 1944. He then entered the Conservatoire national de musique where he earned a Doctor of Music in 1947 after writing his thesis “La phonétique appliquée à l’art du chant”. At the conservatoire he was an organ student of Eugène Lapierre and a piano pupil of Edm

Issa El-Saieh

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Issa Joseph El-Saieh (February 22, 1919 – February 2, 2005), also known as Maestro, was a Haitian saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader, composer, arranger, businessman, gallerist and art collector of Palestinian descent. Throughout his life and work he contributed to two facets of Haitian culture: music as well as art. From 1941 to the mid 1950s, as a musician, composer, arranger and bandleader of the Orchestre Saieh. In parallel to his music career, he began buying and collecting Haitian art. By the late 1950s, he founded the Galerie Issa, through which he promoted Haitian art and culture abroad. He died in Port-au-Prince from esophageal cancer on February 2, 2005, at the age of 85. Early life and education Issa El-Saieh was born in Petit-Goâve, Haiti, on February 22, 1919. Both his parents, Julia Moussa Talamas and Joseph Said El-Saieh, were Palestinian Christians who immigrated separately to Haiti from Bethlehem, Palestine. His mother, twice a widow, was a businesswoman who raised her three sons, Elias Noustas, Issa and André El-Saieh, between Petit-Goâve and Port-au-Prince. El-Saieh attended Saint-Louis de Gonzague in Port-au-Prince. In 1928, his younger brother André and him w

Justin Elie

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Justin Elie (1 September 1883 – 2 December 1931) was a Haitian composer and pianist. He is one of the best-known composers outside of Haiti. Biography Justin Elie was born in Cap-Haïtien. Return to the Americas In 1905 he returned to Haiti, where he met his colleague Ludovic Lamothe, composer and musician like himself, with which he will play and make a tour of major cities. In 1925, he composed the frames of silent films, including The Phantom of the Opera (Somers), and in 1931, the generic of a New York radio show, The Lure of the Tropics. Death Elie died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage on 3 December 1931 when he was composing Fantaisie Tropicale in New York City. His body was returned to Haiti. Notable works *Suite Babylon: 1. Pas des Odalisques (orchestre). Arrangement: C. J. Roberts. Edition: Carl Fischer (1925) *Suite Babylon: 2. Bayaderes (orchestre). Arrangement: C. J. Roberts. Edition: Carl Fischer (1925) *Suite Babylon: 3. La reine de la nuit (orchestre). Arrangement: C. J. Roberts. Edition: Carl Fischer (1925) *Suite Babylon: 4. Orgie (orchestre). Arrangement: C. J. Roberts. Edition: Carl Fischer (1925) *Firefly Fancies (orchestre). Edition: Carl Fischer (1929) *La Nui

Ludovic Lamothe

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ludovic Lamothe (12 May 1882 - 4 April 1953) was a Haitian composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of Haiti’s most important classical composers. Biography Early life A native of Port-au-Prince, he was born into a distinguished literary family, and both his parents were pianists. His grandfather, Joseph Lamothe, was also a noted instrumentalist. Lamothe had his first lessons from his mother and studied the piano and clarinet at the Institution Saint Louis de Gonzague in his native Port-au-Prince where he exhibited exceptional technical and compositional abilities from a young age. Lamothe’s repertoire included a range of méringue, from the most formal, elite-oriented forms to the méringue of the low orders. Another musical scholar, Claude Carré of the online magazine Boutoures has described Lamothe as “representing the nationalist movement in Haitian classical music” and being “an emblematic figure, a piano virtuoso and a performer of Chopin, who left us a number of important compositions for piano.” In 2001, a CD recording titled A Vision of Ludovic Lamothe was published on the IFA Music Records label, featuring some of his pieces, including the Ballade in A Minor, Dan

Occide Jeanty

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Occide Jeanty (1860–1936) was a Haitian composer, trumpeter, pianist and music director. Biography Occide Jeanty was born in 1860 in Port-au-Prince He was educated at Alexandre Pétion High School in Port-au-Prince. His father, Occilius Jeanty (1830–1882), was both director of the Central School of Music in Port-au-Prince, professor of mathematics at Alexandre Pétion High School, and director of the Military Music Corps attached to the National Palace. After attending music classes at his father’s Central School of Music, he obtained a scholarship to study at Paris with Jean-Baptiste Arban and Antoine François Marmontel. In 1885, back in Haiti, the Haitian President, Lysius Salomon, appointed him on recommendation to the National Palace’s Military Music Corps. He composes mainly for the National Palace. In 1915, during the occupation of Haiti by American forces, he left the army with the rank of general. He became a music teacher at Alexandre Pétion High School in Port-au-Prince. In 1922, he was recalled by the president Louis Borno. He became the conductor of the National Guard until his death in 1936. He had about twenty children, including Lydia Occide Jeanty, Haiti’s first femal