Culture of Haiti - Music

Music

Haitian Compas (sometimes written as Compas Direct, konpa direk, konpa, or kompa) is a musical genre, as well as a dance that originates from Haïti. It was named «Compas Direct» by Nemours Jean-Baptiste, on a recording released in 1955. The name derives from compas, the Spanish word meaning rhythm or tones. It involves mostly medium-to-fast tempo beats with an emphasis on electric guitars, synthesizers, and either a solo alto saxophone, a horn section or the synthesizer equivalent. Unlike zouk (which derives from compas of the French Antilles), the lyrics are mostly in Haitian Creole.

Read more about this topic:  Culture Of Haiti

Famous quotes containing the word music:

    “I defied the machinery to make me its slave. Its incessant discords could not drown the music of my thoughts if I would let them fly high enough.”
    —Lucy Larcom (1824–1893)

    “It is hard to describe the thrill of creative joy which the artist feels when the conviction seizes her that at last she has caught the very soul of the character she wishes to portray, in the music and action which reveal it.”
    —Maria Jeritza (1887–1982)

    “If music in general is an imitation of history, opera in particular is an imitation of human willfulness; it is rooted in the fact that we not only have feelings but insist upon having them at whatever cost to ourselves.... The quality common to all the great operatic roles, e.g., Don Giovanni, Norma, Lucia, Tristan, Isolde, Brünnhilde, is that each of them is a passionate and willful state of being. In real life they would all be bores, even Don Giovanni.”
    —W.H. (Wystan Hugh)