Traditional Music Styles in Saint Lucia

More credit to jwe and other music performed for entertainment, Saint Lucia is also a place for patterns used only for particular events. These comprise the work songs, funeral music, drinking songs, masquerades and serenades. The two the customs are nearly in existence in the current Saint Lucia. The masquerade was a festival held during holiday like the Easter and New Year’s Day, which also include a group that is made up of a tanbou tenbal, chakchak and a bamboo flute. This same band also traditionally performs for cockfights merry-go-rounds and choral serenades known as sewinal in Lucian Creole.

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The very well-known type of Lucian composition song is known as the chante siay, which accompanies the sawing of wood. The choral are done by a lead singer and two responding singers which accompany the ka and tibwa duo. Both of the instruments are used to play in an atypical manner. Theka drum is played on the ground rather than upright, and the tibwa drumming sticks are struck against a bamboo or wooden stick rather than the edge of the drum.

The drinking songs of the Lucian are chante abwe, which are infrequently done in the present years. Their folk setting, though, is the wibot festival, which is held during the Christmas period. The Chante abwe are done in a game, in which the singers are seated at a long table, taking turns of singing as a new song of each time. Those who stayed until evening won prizes like a bottle of rum.