Home Blog Composers Musicians Black History Audio About Us Links
Composers:
Adams, H. Leslie Akpabot, Samuel Ekpe Alberga, Eleanor Bonds, Margaret Allison Brouwer, Leo Burleigh, Henry Thacker Coleridge-Taylor, Samuel Cunningham, Arthur Dawson, William Levi Dede, Edmond Dett, R. Nathaniel Elie, Justin Ellington, Edward K. "Duke" Euba, Akin Garcia, José Mauricio Nunes Hailstork, Adolphus C. Holland, Justin Jeanty, Occide Johnson, James Price Joplin, Scott Kay, Ulysses Simpson Khumalo, Mzilikazi Lambert, Charles Lucien, Sr. Lambert, Lucien-Leon G., Jr. Lamothe, Ludovic Leon, Tania Moerane, Michael Mosoeu Morel Campos, Juan Perkinson, Coleridge-Taylor Pradel, Alain Pierre Price, Florence Beatrice Smith Roldan, Amadeo Saint-Georges, Le Chevalier de Sancho, Ignatius Smith, Hale Sowande, Fela Still, William Grant Verret, Solon Walker, George Theophilus White, José Silvestre Williams. Julius Penson
AfriClassical Blog
Companion to AfriClassical.com
Guest Book
William J. Zick, Webmaster,
wzick@ameritech.net
©
Copyright 2006
William J. Zick
All rights reserved for all content of AfriClassical.com

Microsoft Encarta Africana Encyclopedia, Third Edition
|
Home ->
Composers -> Elie, Justin
Français
1 Youthful Talent
According to a column by W.E.B. Du Bois in the January, 1916
issue of Crisis, the magazine of the N. A. A. C. P., the Haitian
composer Justin Elie was born at Port-au-Prince on September 1,
1883. The column, as reproduced in Africana Encyclopedia, went
on to say:
|
At the age of five years he showed a passion
for music. His parents took him to France and
put him in the celebrated institution of Sainte
Croix. He was prepared for the Conservatory
of Paris by the great pianist, Marmontel, and
passed a brilliant entrance examination in
1903.
…
He graduated in 1905 and has since been in
concert work in Paris and in the West Indies.
He has written several compositions, notable among them
is Aphrodite. Monsieur Elie is expected in
the United States soon. |
2 Recorded Works
Three short pieces by the Haitian composer Justin Elie were
recorded with a MIDI guitar on IFA Music Records 256 (1999):
Chant De La Montagne #1, Isma-o! (1:55); Chant De La Montagne
#2, Nostalgie (2:17); and Legend
Creole (4:10). The CD may be ordered, and an audio
sample of
Chant De La Montagne #1, Isma-o! may be heard, at:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/sainteloi
The liner notes are by the guitarist,
Jean E. Saint-Eloi, and begin
with an overview of Haitian classical music:
|
The development of the Haitian classical
music takes its origin all the way back to the
independence of Haiti. The Haitian classical
music (mizik savant ayisyen) had a distinctive
palette based on French models of culture
then later African musical concept was added to it. The mizik savant ayisyen was called the
music of the elite. |
3 Haitian Meringue
Saint-Eloi explains that Haiti lost most of its White
population by the end of the long and bloody Haitian Revolution,
so a new system of music education was created:
|
In 1807, musical education became part of the
curriculum of the greatest schools in the
country. Around 1817, the teaching of music
appreciation, solfegio, voice
and instrumental technique was outlined by the department of public instruction. In 1830,
was born a great man Occilius Jeanty, Sr.
mathematics, music composition, and
teaching were his strength. Among his
musical works were some overtures, chanson
creoles, and Haitian meringues. The meringue
was a musical genre that is obviously carrying
an African influence, a mixture of Petro and
Congo, a set of complex rhythms found in the
vodu culture as part of the Ifa corpus. Therefore, the meringue possesses its own
style expressing the soul of the Haitian people. |
4 Haitian Masters
Several other prominent Haitian composers of classical music are
named in the liner notes. They include Occide Jeanty, Ludovic
Lamothe and Solon Verret, whose works for solo piano round out
the program of the CD and who have pages of their own at this
Web site. Saint-Eloi estimates that Haiti has produced about 60
classical composers. He concludes with these words:
|
In this anthology presented by the Cultural
Enlightenment Association of Ife, the past is
meeting the present to shape the future. You
will be enjoying the works of Occide Jeanty
(Invocation), a meringue and a waltz by Solon Verret, two old chants from the mountains and
a Haitian legend by Justin Elie, Scherzo and Sobo are directly taken from the vodu idiom
and a meringue (La Dangereuse) by Ludovic
Lamothe. |
This page was last updated
on
November 22, 2007
|