Versatility in Caribbean Music- Dutch Speaking Countries
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Survey of Caribbean Music
Versatility in Caribbean Music- Dutch Speaking Countries
Welcome back. In chapter three of Tour de Force, there were a few examples discussed about versatility. The topic of versatility gets better and better each time I write a blog discussing it. Therefore for this blog, I will be focusing on two of those examples given and add an additional example of my liking to dive more into the world of versatility BUT specifically this time in Dutch speaking Caribbean countries.
Since watching a few class videos, I took note of some people mentioned that I am interested to write about.
The first person is Wim Statius Muller. Wim Statius Muller was born in Curaçao, 26 January 1930 and died in Curaçao, 31 August 2019. Muller was a Curaçaoan composer and pianist, nicknamed "Curaçao's Chopin" for his romantic piano style of composition. He was noted as a Juilliard graduate but his musical career did not begin until after he retired from a career in security and counterintelligence. On top of that he was also assistant professor at Ohio State University. This is another person I am definitely interested in due to my new found love of piano playing lol. Let us take a look of a picture of Wim Statius Muller below.
According to the book Tour de Force, "Statius Miller has performed and recorded widely and composed almost exclusively for the piano, as did his idol, Frederic Chopin". He is therefore versatile when it comes to playing and composing for the piano. Now let us look at some of his work as a pianist below. This is called Wals Nostolgia (the title seems familiar to me). In this piece, I love how peaceful and soothing it sounds and then its gets dramatic/ dramatized when he speeds up and intensifies the notes. Whilst listening to this it certainly shows his undeniable talent as if this is the easiest thing in the world for him. That is amazing.
My second example that I chose was of a versatile Dutch musician named Roel Calister. He is known as a versatile percussionist that combines tambu beats with electronic dance. Roël Calister was born in Curaçao and is famous for his ability to tastefully mix dance, pop and jazz with folklore elements from Curacao. He is specialized in African and Caribbean instruments, which play a prominent role in Roël’s project 'Kuenta i Tambu'. Speaking of which, according to the authors of Tour de Force, "Calister demonstrates that traditional music is still fertile ground for musicians and composers". What is the saying? Home is where the heart is? Why not sure others a piece of your home from listening to your music? Below is an image of him.
Here is a piece from Roel Calister below. In this video, Roël Calister gave a wonderful performance starting on what is known as a Meinl Fiberglass Liquid Ibo Drum (Udu) and finishing with impressive playing with the Meinl Nino Ball Shakers. The shakers are seen as a modern take on the West Afrivan Kashaka shakers. It takes a lot of practice to play such intricate polyrhythmic passages, but Roël put in the time and effort ! I chose this because this seems very unique to me from the other music that I have encountered.
Now I know I can be a bit extra, but I wanted to include this because this person interested me. My extra on top of the extra example given above that is going to be introduced is Randal Corsen. He is another versatile musician that is a pianist, composer, and arranger from curacao that specializes in jazz, classical and popular music. According to Tour de Force, his composition and arrangements blend jazz with Antillean and classical elements". He worked as a professional musician and music teacher for about 23 years in the Netherlands and received many awards for his musical works. Randal Corsen is a very accomplished musician and a big contributor to Curacaoan culture.
Fun fact, he composed the first Papiamentu Opera "Katibu di Shon (Slave and Master). But that is not what I am going to show you at this very moment. So let us take a look at another piece of his work. Below is a music video produced and arranged by Randal Corsen and Oscar Bor. Some instruments used in the musical composition are trumpets, piano, trumbone, and keys, bass, congas, wiri and tambora and drums. The video represents local Tumba music. This is extraordinary.
Thank you for reading my blog once again!
References
Farandula. (2014). ‘Paranda di Pasku’ di Randal Corsen & Friends ku 4 kantante invitá na Brakapoti.
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