Music of The Virgin Islands - Historiography and Musicology

Historiography and Musicology

There is a paucity of historical documentation and musicological research and analysis of Virgin Islander music. The sound recordist Mary Jane Soule and ethnomusicologist Margot Lieth-Philipp collaborated on an annotated CD, Zoop Zoop Zoop: Traditional Music and Folklore of St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John; these liner notes are among the comprehensive descriptions of folk music known. Lieth-Phillipp has also published some other material, on bamboula (which she refers to as a "forgotten" style of Caribbean music) and other topics. The loca and the Smithsonian Institution have also documented some folk traditions, but their research remains largely unpublished. Carmen Nibbs-O'Garra, wife of well-known Antiguan calypsonian Figgy, is the author of In de Calypso Tent, which, though perhaps no longer available, contains information of calypso competitions of St. Thomas and also reproduces the lyrics of popular Virgin Islands calypsos, and historical programs from past calypso tents on the islands. While not a scholarly history of the islands' musical life, The Memoirs of Alton Augustus Adams, Sr.: First Black Bandmaster of the United States Navy were recently published by the University of California Press in a scholarly edition by Mark Clague. This book offers a first-hand account of musical life in the Virgin Islands from the 1900s through the 1950s. Adams's remembrances are surprisingly precise as in addition to his musical activities, he worked as a journalist and much of his writing is based upon the articles and notes he penned for The St. Thomas Times and The Bulletin as well as The Pittsburgh Courier.