Funeral Music of Saint Lucia

In Saint Lucia, wakes are during held on the first and eighth night after the person has died, in compare to other Caribbean islands, which holds their wakes on the first and ninth days. Wakes frequently include music, like the singing of hymns and percussion. Folk music for wakes are done both inside and outside of the deceased’s home. The person who is mourning will be inside the house sing from a series of songs that are English and not in French Creole language, because they are originated from the English-using songs of Lucian churches. The melodies include both hymns and sankeys (gospel songs) and are usually responsorial which is led by a male singer with the slow, modified response of the chorus in agreement. The person who is mourning outside the house traditionally performs percussion and a type of responsorial song done in Creole and without supplement which is known as kont. These melodies frequently linked to the death of the deceased, and may deal with the cause of the person’s death, the last words or activities surrounding the death. The person who is mourning also dances both the bele and debot, accompanied zo or tibwa and ka too.

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The communities of La Grace, Laborie and Piaye in the southwest region of Saint Lucia were known for a distinctive song-dance which is known as the koutoumba. The koutoumba was the only one that is performed for the death of a djine, a person derived from Africans who arrived at the island in the middle of the 19^th century. The koutoumba is distinctive among Lucian traditional dance in particular and it is done by a sole dancer and who uses only the two to four stanzas of text, which is reminiscent of the song’s condition rather than narrative and the last drummer who knew this custom died in the year 1986.