Creole music

The term "Creole music" applies to two genres from south Louisiana: (1) Creole folk music, and (2) black Creole music. Creole folk music dates from the 18th century or before, and it consists primarily of folk songs. Many were published, and some found their way into works by Louisiana composers Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Basil Barès, Camille Nickerson, and Moses Hogan. On the other hand, black Creole music is preserved primarily in the form of recordings rather than sheet music. Along with Cajun music, black Creole music played a role in early development of la-la, zydeco, and swamp pop.

Creole Folk Music

One possible definition of Creole folk music is this: melodies, sometimes including dance-related instrumental accompaniments, sung in French patois by Creole people of French and African descent; however, this depends on a definition of Creole people, which is notoriously problematic. A simpler definition, in view of the relatively few Creole folk melodies that have survived, is this: music represented as Creole folk music in certain compilations, such as those listed here (with full citations in the References):

Date	Code	Compilation
1867	SS	Slave Songs of the United States (final 7 songs)
1902	CS	Creole Songs from New Orleans in the Negro-Dialect
1915	AA	Afro-American Folksongs
1921	CF	Six Creole Folk-Songs
1921	BB	Bayou Ballads: Twelve Folk-Songs from Louisiana
1939	LF	Louisiana French Folk Songs (Chapter 6: "Creole Folk Songs")
1946	DS	Creole Songs of the Deep South

In the following table several melodies appear in more than one compilation; in each case, the title, spelling, etc., are as found in the earliest compilation.

Title	Compilations	First words
Ah, Mélanie	DS	Ah, Mélanie tu veu m'é mer, non, non totor, pas aujourdui.
Ah, Suzette, Chère	BB	Ah, Suzette, chère, to pas l'aimain moin, chère,
Aurore Bradaire (Aurore Pradère)	AA, SS, CF, DS	Aurore Bradaire, belle ti fille,
Beau Matin Mo Contré Manette	LF	Beau matin mo contré Manette qui t'a-pé couri cô-té pa' Chalot.
Belle Layotte	SS, CF, DS	Mo déjà roulé tout la côte Pancor ouar pareil belle Layotte.
Calinda	SS	Michié Préval li donnin granbal, Li fait naig payé pou sauté inpé.
Caroline	SS, AA, CF, DS	Aine, dé, trois, Caroline, ça ça yé comme ça ma chére,
Chaoui	LF (3rd ed., 1981)	Chaoui c'es' ain ti moun qui bien malin.
Cher', Mo L'aime Toi	DS	Cher', mo l'aime toi, Cher', mo l'aime toi, oui,
Clémentine	BB	Ça fait moin la peine, Clémentine,
Compèr Lapin	DS	Aie! Yaya compèr lapin, c'é tit' bête qui connin sauté.
Criole Candjo	AA	In zou' in zène Criole Candjo
Dan' Gran' Chimin	DS	Quan' mo té dan' gran' chimin, mo contré mou vié papa,
Dansez Codaine	BB	Dansez Codaine (twice), C'est macaque qu'a pv joué violon,
En Avan', Grénadié	CS, BB, DS	En avan' Grénadié, Ça qui mou ri n'a pas ration.
Gardé Piti Milat' La (= Misieu Bainjo)	CS, CF, BB	Gardé piti Milat' la' piti banjo la' com' li insolent
Gué-Gué Solingaie	BB	Gué-gué Solingaie, balliez chimin-là, M'a dis li, oui, m'a dis li,
La Maison Denise	DS	You' zen' connin tit' la maison, qui proch' coté l'église
Lolotte	SS, AA, DS	Pauve piti Lolotte a mouin,
Michié Préval	BB	Michié Préval li donnain grand bal,
Milatrés' Cou'ri Dan' Bal	DS	Milatrés' cou'ri dan' bal (twice), cocodril' porté fanal -
Mouché Mazireau	CS	Mouché Mazireau dan' son vié bireau li Semblé
Musieu Bainjo (Mister Banjo)	SS, AA, DS	Voyez cemulet là, Musieu Bainjo, Comme il est insolent.
Neg' Pa' Capab' Marché	CS	Neg' pa' capab' marché san maïs danś poche cé pou' volé poule.
Ou Som Souroucou	CS	Ou Som Souroucou, qui ça ou gagnien, ganien pou' do l'eau.
Po' Pitie Mamzé Zizi	CS, BB, DS	Po' pitie Mamzé Zizi (thrice), li gagnien bobo à son cheu'.
Quan' Mo Té Dan' Gran' Chimain	CS	Quan' mo té dan' gran' chimain mo contré niou vié papa
Quand Mo-Té Jeune	CF, DS	Quan' mo té jeune, mo té jonglé missié
Quan' Patate La Cuite	CS	Quan' patate la cuite. N'a va mangé
Papa Va Á La Riviére	CS	Manman va á la riviére, papa va péché de' crab'
Rémon	SS, AA, DS	Mo parle Rémon, Rémon, Li parle Simon, Simon,
Salangadou	CS, DS	Salangadou (4 times), 'cou té piti fille la yé
Suzanne, Suzanne, Jolie Femme!	BB	Suzanne, Suzanne, Jolie Femme! (twice) Li pas mandé fauteuil bourré,
Tan Patate-lá Tchuite	BB, DS	Et tan patate-lá tchuite, N'a nannan li, n'a nanan li!
Tan' Siro' É Dou'	DS	Tan' siro' é dou, Madeleine, tan' siro' é dou
Une Deusse Troisse (= Caroline)	CS	Une deusse troisse Adeline Ça Ça yé com' Ça me ché
Valsez, Valsez	DS	Valsez, Valsez pren' gar' vou tombé, va cassé bou di nez.
Vous T'é in Morico!	BB	Ah! Toucouyoute, mo connain vous, Vous t'é in morico!
Z'Amours Marianne	BB	Si l'amour vous si fort, Michié-là
Zélime, To Quitte' La Plaine	CS, DS	Zélime, to quitte' la plaine di pi qu'mo pli' miré toué;

Cultural Setting and Congo Square

In America's Music (2nd edition, p. 302-3), Gilbert Chase describes the cultural setting in which Creole folk music developed. To summarize, in 1803 the United Stated purchased the Louisiana Territory, including New Orleans, from France, and in 1809 and 1810, "more than ten thousand refugees from the West Indies arrived in New Orleans, most originally from [French-speaking Haiti]. Of these, about three thousand were free Negroes." At the time of Louis Moreau Gottschalk's birth in 1829, 'Caribbean' was "perhaps the best word to describe the musical atmosphere of New Orleans."

Central to Creole musical activities was Place Congo (in English: Congo Square). The much quoted 1886 article by George Washington Cable offers this description:

The booming of African drums and blast of huge wooden horns called to the gathering... . The drums were very long, hollowed, often from a single piece of wood, open at one end and having a sheep or goat skin stretched across the other... . The smaller drum was often made from a joint or two of very large bamboo...and this is said to be the origin of its name; for it was called the Bamboula.

Cable then describes a variety of instruments used at Congo Square, including gourds, triangles, jew's-harps, jawbones, and "the grand instrument at last," the four-stringed banjo. The bamboula, or "bamboo-drum", accompanied the bamboula dance and bamboula songs. Chase writes, "For Cable, the bamboula represented 'a frightful triumph of body over the mind,' and 'Only the music deserved to survive, and does survive...'"

Among other Creole dances mentioned by Chase (p. 312) are the babouilee, the cata (or chacta), the counjaille (or counjai), the voudou, the calinda, and the congo. "Perhaps the most widespread of all was the calinda..." The melody "Michié Préval," for example, was sung to the calinda. In Spanish, the name of this dance is calenda.

Songs Sung at Good Hope Plantation, St. Charles Parish

Songs numbered 130-136 in Slave Songs of the United States, according to a note on page 113,

were obtained from a lady who heard them sung, before the war, on the "Good Hope" plantation, St. Charles Parish, Louisiana... Four of these songs, Nos. 130, 131, 132, and 133, were sung to a simple dance, a sort of minuet, called the Coonjai; the name and the dance are probably both of African origin. When the Coonjai is danced, the music is furnished by an orchestra of singers, the leader of whom—a man selected both for the quality of his voice and for his skill in improvising—sustains the solo part, while the others afford him an opportunity, as they shout in chorus, for inventing some neat verse to compliment some lovely danseuse, or celebrate the deeds of some plantation hero. The dancers themselves never sing...and the usual musical accompaniment, besides that of the singers, is that furnished by a skilful performer on the barrel-head-drum, the jaw-bone and key, or some other rude instrument.

...It will be noticed that all these songs are "seculars" [not spirituals]; and that while the words of most of them are of very litle account, the music is as peculiar, as interesting, and, in the case of two or three of them, as difficult to write down, or to sing correctly, as any [of the 129 songs] that have preceded them.

The words "obtained from a lady who heard them sung" suggest that the songs were written down by someone, perhaps the lady herself, but certainly someone adept at music notation who was able to understand and write down the patois. It seems likely that she or he was a guest or a member of the La Branche family, who resided at the plantation until 1859, shortly after which the plantation was devastated by flood. This family included United States chargé d'affaires to Texas and a Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives, Alcée Louis La Branche.

We may never know the identity of the person who wrote down the seven Creole folk songs as sung at Good Hope Plantation, but it is noteworthy that Good Hope (town), Good Hope Floodwall, Good Hope Oil and Gas Field, Bayou La Branche, and, especially, La Branche Wetlands are today well known names in St. Charles Parish, where the seven songs were once sung.

Gottschalk's Use of Creole Melodies

Louis Moreau Gottschalk, widely acknowledged as America's foremost concert artist of the nineteenth century, was born in New Orleans in 1829. Perone's bio-bibliography lists hundreds of Gottschalk's compositions. Among them are three solo piano works based on Creole melodies:

      Bamboula, danse des nègres, based on "Musieu Bainjo" and "Tan Patate-là Tcuite"

      La Savane, ballad crèole, based on "Lolotte"

      Le Bananier, chanson nègre, based on "En Avant, Grenadiers," which like other Creole folk melodies, was also a popular French song

In America's Music (revised third edition, page 290), Chase writes:

Le Bananier was one of the three pieces based on Creole tunes that had a tremendous success in Europe and that I have called the "Louisiana Trilogy." [The other two are Bamboula and La Savane.] All three were composed between 1844 and 1846, when Gottschalk was still a teenager... . The pieces that created the greatest sensation was Bamboula.

Chase apparently overlooked a fourth Creole melody used by Gottschalk. In her 1902 compilation, Gottschalk's sister arranged "Po' Pitie Mamzé Zizi," and included a footnote: "L. M. Gottschalk used this melody for his piece entitled 'Mancenillier', [full name Le Mancenillier, sérénade]."

Regarding "Misieu Bainjo," used in Gottschalk's Bamboula, the editors of Slave Songs write "...the attempt of some enterprising negro to write a French song; he is certainly to be congratulated on his success." The song has been published in more than a dozen collections prior to 1963, listed by the Archive of Folk Culture, Library of Congress.

The Louisiana Lady

During the 1930s and 1940s, Camille Nickerson (1888-1982) performed Creole folk music professionally as "The Louisiana Lady." During an interview with Doris E. McGinty, Professor Nickerson told of her first performance at a parish in New Iberia. "I was dressed in Creole costume and sang for about an hour and a half, and was very well received. Now this was a white audience; such a thing was unheard of in Louisiana, especially in the rural section such as this was. The enthusiasm of the audience showed me what an impact the Creole song could have."

Compilations and Arrangements of Creole Melodies

In any discussion of Creole folk songs, compilations of such songs play an essential role, not only for defining "Creole folk music," but also as a source of information, and, for performers, a possible source of arrangements. A brief summary of published compilations (with citations in References) follows:

Slave Songs of the United States, 1867; the earliest known compilation; 7 unaccompanied melodies with words.

Creole Songs from New Orleans in the Negro-Dialect, 1902;

Notes d'ethnographie musicale - La Musique chez les peuples indegenes de l'Amerique du Nord, 1910; this scholarly work by Julien Tiersot contains several Creole folk songs not found elsewhere, notably "Chanson nègre de la Louisiane" obtained from Professor Alcée Fortier.

Afro-American Folksongs, 1915;

Six Creole Folk-Songs, 1921;

Bayou Ballads: Twelve Folk-Songs from Louisiana, 1921; texts and music collected by Mina Monroe, edited with the collaboration of Kurt Schindler. In the introduction, Monroe (who was born Marie Thereze Bernard in New Orleans, September 2, 1886), offers these insights:

The most definite recollections of my childhood on the Labranche Plantation in St. Charles Parish where we lived, are of the singing and dancing of the negroes. This plantation had been in our family from the days of the early settlers and, by a trick of fortune years after the war, with its resulting shiftings and changes, my grandmother found herself mistress of a plantation on which she had lived as a child. Many of the negroes who had wandered away (in fact, nearly all of them) had by then returned to their birthplace to find themselves practically under the same masters...

Monroe's compilation includes ample notes about each of the twelve folk songs. The songs are arranged for solo voice with piano accompaniment..."suitable and attractive for concert singers."

Chansons Nègres, includes arrangements by Tiersot for solo voice and piano of these Creole folk songs: "Papa Dit Non, Maman Dit Oui," "Monsieur Banjo," "Pauv' Pitit' Mamzell' Zizi," "Un Bal" (= "Michié Préval"),"Les Jours du Temps Passé," "Quand Patates Sont Cuites," "Bal Fini," "Compère Lapin," and "Aurore Bradère."

Louisiana French Folk Songs (Chapter 6: "Creole Folk Songs"), 1939

Creole Songs of the Deep South, 1946

Black Creole Music

"Black Creole music," often reduced to "Creole music," designates a genre found in connection with Cajun music, zydeco, and swamp pop. The beginnings of this genre are associated with accordionist Amédé Ardoin (1896-1941), who, in the early 1930s, made influential recordings with Cajun fiddler Dennis McGee.

Subsequent developments, in which black Creole and Cajun styles became increasingly inseparable, are covered at Contemporary Louisiana Cajun, Creole and Zydeco Musicians. Among the many pages, under the auspices of Louisiana State University Eunice, are tributes to black Creole musicians Alphonse "Bois Sec" Ardoin (1915-2007) and Boozoo Chavis (1930-2001).

External Links

Afro-American Folksongs - online book. Chapters IX, X, XI concentrate on Louisiana Creole music, dance, and patois, with comparisons to those of Martinique.

Contemporary Louisiana Cajun, Creole and Zydeco Musicians, from Louisiana State University Eunice.

Creole Songs Cable Sang, George Washington Cable's article in The Century Magazine, February 1886.

Historical Notes for African-American and Jamaican Melodies

Slave Songs of the United States. The Creole folk songs, numbered 130-136, can be viewed here as melodies with Creole lyrics.

Zydeco in The Handbook of Texas.

• Clarence's Greater New Orleans Area Cajun & Zydeco Schedule
• Clarence's Baton Rouge Cajun & Zydeco Schedule

References

William Francis Allen, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison, compilers, Slave Songs of the United States, A. Simpson & Co., New York, 1867.

Shane K. Bernard, Swamp Pop: Cajun and Creole Rhythm and Blues, University Press of Mississippi, Jackson, Mississippi, 1996. (Mentions black Creole music, but not Creole folk songs.)

Florence E. Borders, "Researching Creole and Cajun Musics in New Orleans," Black Music Research Journal, vol. 8, no. 1 (1988) 15-31.

George W. Cable, "The Dance in Place Congo," Century Magazine vol. 31, Feb., 1886, pp. 517-532.

Gilbert Chase, America's Music, from the Pilgrims to the Present, revised second edition, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1966.

Gilbert Chase, America's Music, from the Pilgrims to the Present, revised third, University of Illinois Press, 1987.

Maud Cuney-Hare, arranger, Six Creole Folk-Songs, Fischer, New York, 1921.

Henry Edward Krehbiel, Afro-American Folksongs, G. Schirmer, New York, 1915.

Doris E. McGinty and Camille Nickerson, "The Louisiana Lady," The Black Perspective in Music, vo. 7, no. 1 (Spring, 1979) 81-94.

Mina Monroe, Bayou Ballads: Twelve Folk-Songs from Louisiana, G. Schirmer, New York, 1921.

Camille Nickerson, Africo-Creole Music in Louisiana; a thesis on the plantation songs created by the Creole negroes of Louisiana, Oberlin College, 1932.

James E. Perone, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, a Bio-Bibliography, Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, 2002.

Clara Gottschalk Peterson, arranger, Creole Songs from New Orleans in the Negro-Dialect, L. Grunewald, New Orleans, 1902.

Dorothy Scarborough, On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs, Harvard University Press, 1925.

S. Frederick Starr, Bamboula! The Life and Times of Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Oxford University Press, 2000.

Julien Tiersot, "Notes d'ethnographie musicale: La Musique chez les peuples indigenes de l'Amerique du Nord," Sämmelbande der Internationalen Musikgesellschaft 11 (1910) 141-231. Melodies only, with musicological notes.

Julien Tiersot, Chansons Nègres, Heugel, Paris, 1933.

Ching Veillon, Creole Music Man: Bois Sec Ardoin, Xlibris, 2003.

Henri Wehrmann, Creole Songs of the Deep South, New Orleans, 1946.

Irène Thérèse Whitfield, compiler, "Creole Folk Songs," Chapter 6 in Louisiana French Folk Songs, Louisiana State University Press, 1939. Third edition, Hebert Publications, Eunice, Louisiana, 1981.