Music
The Reformation brought Calvinism to the islands and the later strong influence of Methodism suppressed dancing and secular music. A number of traditional songs and dances have been recorded, and some gentrified dances were collected in the 19th century in Guernsey. "La Bébée" ("the Baby Polka" or "Klatschtanz") is a 19th century novelty dance which also remains popular with costumed folklore groups in various parts of Europe. Some traditional folk songs such as Jean, Gros Jean and J'ai perdu ma faumme have survived. Groups such as La Guaine du Vouêt and Les Dànsaeurs dé L'Assembllaïe D'Guernésiais perform at events such as Lé Viaer Marchi.
According to Edith Carey (1903), the traditional chifournie had disappeared from Guernsey by the mid-nineteenth century.
John Ireland settled for a time in Guernsey.
Recently, Guernsey has hosted a live music event called Guernsey Live. This music festival has been one of the biggest events in the Channel Islands and sister festival of Jersey Live.
The Music Service in Guernsey is renowned for its high quality of teaching and the effects of this can be seen in the standard of performance of many young people in the island.
Read more about this topic: Culture Of Guernsey
Famous quotes containing the word music:
“All good music resembles something. Good music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivated it.”
—Jean Cocteau (1889–1963)
“We often love to think now of the life of men on beaches,—at least in midsummer, when the weather is serene; their sunny lives on the sand, amid the beach-grass and bayberries, their companion a cow, their wealth a jag of driftwood or a few beach plums, and their music the surf and the peep of the beech-bird.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I think sometimes, could I only have music on my own terms; could I live in a great city and know where I could go whenever I wished the ablution and inundation of musical waves,—that were a bath and a medicine.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)