Cajun Music and Its Instruments

Cajun music, once only found in the backwoods of Louisiana, has now made a prominent place for himself in America. Music is a great vitality of Cajun culture. It is important that a continuation of this culture, and by continuing to live, it serves to bond together the generations. Those who can identify with this music can identify with the people because the music is a reflection of the lives, strengths, joys and sorrows of people.

Describes Cajun music would be like summarizing hundreds of years of evolution of a people. Probably the music is different things to different people. It is a lone ballad singer sings the song, stories, as remembered by the French and American ancestors, this is the acoustic whine of a harmonica heard an echo of miles from the veranda in an isolated house on the prairie, it is the music played by friends stowed together in the kitchen corner, play music and drink beer, while the spicy smells of a sauce piquanté fill the room. Cajun music is also smart electric band with accordion, steel guitar and twin fiddles in the dark, smoky club filled with dancers sliding, it is rubboard and the triple row accordion driving to the rhythm of an electric bass in a black club in a Creole society that is it's a lonely song with a fiddle seconding rhythm, while the lead fiddle player her heart out.

 In the past, Cajun music was regarded with, at best, some apathy of the middle class. The music was so alive, so constantly present in the radio and on the dancehall scene, it was simply taken for granted. It was just a part of life is inextricably linked to agriculture, celebration and entertainment. It was not an endangered species crying out for help from preservationists, it was not elite, it was not noticed.

When the American came from Nova Scotia to Louisiana in 1764, they brought with them many beautiful ballads that told stories of bygone years. Many of these songs can be traced back to France and many songs from France, drives to the Bayou and the Plains region through Nova Scotia and New Orleans. These ballads are not widely performed today, but was the basis of what is now accepted as Cajun music.

In its earlier days, it was the music, most often used as a hub for social gatherings, and was usually played by several people. The lyrics of the songs were repeated vocalizations of suffering and loneliness instead of a story or the lyrics were rhythmic, nonsensical rhymes to tease and have fun. Besides the voice, the fiddle was the primary "music maker" in the early American history. Usually two fiddles were played together to play the "lead" melody and the other plays a rhythmic back-up. The button accordion arrived in Louisiana as early as 1884 by German immigrants, but it did not immediately have the mass appeal it would have had in the 1920s. The guitar was added to the music in the late 1920s as a backup or rhythm accompaniment of accordion and violin. Therefore, a "group" usually consisted of an accordion, a violin and a guitar or a triangle for rhythm backup. Examples of some of the former "Legends" is Dennis McGee, Wade fruits, Sady Cour Ville and Lee Miller.

During the Second World War, was String Band era in southern Louisiana at its peak. To existing instruments were added to the upright string bass and drums. While able to mandolins and banjos be heard in bands. The steel guitar was also introduced during this time. This was a time of Hugh mainstream American influence in Cajun music. The HACKBERRY Ramblers, Leo Soileau and his Aces were JB Fuse Lier, Harry Choate, Doc Guidry and Happy Fats among the big names in this period.

After WWII, Cajun national pride was in full bloom, those who had left during the war, so Cajun was as good as everyone else. "They longed for the symbols of their homeland. It was during this period, the amplifier was introduced to Cajun music.

 As late as this modern era, the Cajun culture has been noticed by the world outside Louisiana's borders. Cajun cuisine, for example, continues to enjoy his popularity. Cajun music has also made great strides, especially in the newer styles of "swamp pop" and "Zydeco" music. Some of today's popular groups are Beausoleil, Wayne Toups, Steve Riely and the Mamou Playboys, The Basin Boys, and the Atchafalaya.

And the music continues to change the world is changing. The traditional music performed in dance halls in Louisiana today is usually compromised by an accordion, twin fiddles playing harmony, drums, electric bass, an electric guitar and pedal steel. The song is still in French, and the repertoire is often largely composed of old Cajun standards. The spirit of music is changing to reflect the spirit of Louisiana today, therefore, interpretation of music is not the same. In the twentieth century Louisiana, it will be difficult to recreate the music that came from extreme isolation from the daily contact with many diseases for which there was no cure. The early music came from a people who are treated overnight with the problems living in an almost tropical, insect-ridden inhospitable country. The work was hard and play was intense and liberating .... a way to get away from trouble and difficulties in farming in the hot sun, as insects eat the plants as soon as a man can plant them. The music was high that the food spicy and heavy enough to fill a hard-working appetite. Today, Louisiana has advantages of any modern country. The pain reflected in music today comes from various types of samples than those that existed in the past. The experience living in the past in Louisiana can not be copied, and Cajun music today is whether this new and different world, the words that the people who live in it, and products in this new world.