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Drum Rhythms of Haiti Cuba Brazil

by Katherine Dunham & The Singing Gods

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Ibo (Haiti) 03:31
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Mahi (Haiti) 03:43
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Santo (Cuba) 04:32
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about

NOTES ON THE SINGING GODS
by KATHERINE DUNHAM

The pulse-beat of any primitive or folk people is the beat of its drums. Sometimes these drums are profane, and may include anything from reconstructed pork or rum barrels to elaborately carved and hollowed tree trunks. More often they are sacred, and as distinct from the instruments of play and recreation, war and courting, the voices which emanate from the baptized drums are the voices of the ancestors of the gods.

Under the touch of the initiated they tell the secrets of the cult and the history of the tribe. Under the calloused fingers of the devotee or with the sticks which he may use to arouse his gods, they exhort, warn, soothe, and above all, at all times, exult in the power which they have over the seeking spirit of man.

It is through these consecrated drums that the gods reach man, to rouse his spirit to the ecstasy of possession, to seize his body in the frenetic motions of a cult dance, to give color, life and meaning to the ceremonies which extend the ancestral beliefs and lift the initiated out of the trials of everyday life into more supportable realms.

To people of African provenance a god which does not sing is of no service to his people. The officiating priest too must sing in order to transmit the will and the message of the god. The people too must sing to answer the gods and express devotion. Undoubtedly this vocalization along with the kinesthetic reaction to the drum rhythms adds to the emotional crescendo. Each song brings more joy, more power, more assurance both in self and in life. The gods sing from Cuba to Brazil in this particular collection of recordings, but always, in whatever dialect, they are the ancient gods of Africa.

PERSONAL NOTES

My own interest in cult, ceremony and the accompanying songs, dances and rhythms stems back perhaps even farther than my formal period of research, first in the West Indies and later in South America. I can remember that as a child, the revival meetings in store-front churches held a great fascination for me. To stand outside a tent service listening to the cadences of the voice of the presiding minister and the ecstatic answers of the congregation synchronized with the syncopation of tambourine and drum was one of the delights of a summer evening in a small town. Later this interest turned into a serious study of cults and minor religious groups in Chicago. But in between were years of research into the dances of the West Indies and all of the surrounding cultural traits, including musical instruments and their uses and rhythms.

Touring in theatrical performance has deepened this study, and each year brings more evidence of the interchangeability of cultures and of the universality of true rhythms.

Cubans, Brazilians, Trinidadians and recently Haitians have invaded Paris, London, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, in fact every great world capital, diffusing their rhythms and songs, providing perfect patterns of acculturation. As to my own studies, | look upon the months spent in the interior of Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Trinidad, and Brazil and the later years of scholarly investigation as only the starting point of a vast research. At one time only the few, privileged to travel in pleasure or research, heard the voices of the singing gods of these peoples. Now organized expeditions under trained scientists collect thousands of feet of film and record endless meters of song, rhythm and ceremony in remote places for presentation to the world at large. Most of this directly recorded material reaches the general public in the form of collectors’ items and specialized ethnological publications, and thus is preserved the culture of a people.

Another form of diffusion, perhaps more popular, comes through the impact of a theatrical company such as ours. Francisco from Cuba meets La Guerre from Haiti. They discuss the water-goddess Yemanjá as she is known in their respective countries. In Brazil, after performances at the Teatro Republica, they go to all-night ceremonies and there exchange ideas with Tia Lucia, Aunt of our Brazilian drummer Jairo. Forgotten African cult language is remembered, rhythms are refreshed. But before acculturation sets in and the special knowledges become again fused into one, almost the same one as the original source, it is the work of the discerning folklorist to record what he sees and hears. For the folklorist who is interested in theatre it becomes a matter of staging and editing to preserve reality and to present these findings for the uninitiated ear. In spite of an absorbing theatrical profession, research, staging and editing continue to be a driving interest in my own career.

It is with the greatest of pleasure and excitement that | am able to present these Singing Gods [recorded] in such form that, while preserving their purity, they can still be understood, loved, sung and danced to by the public made up of lovers of rhythm, which becomes every day more vast.

Katherine Dunham (1955)

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released July 19, 2021

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Cosmic Spy Music Hoboken, New Jersey

Finding things on the scrapheap of history that we know don't belong there, and salvaging them.

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