Jing Ping is a kind of folk music originated on the

slave Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

plantations of

Dominica Dominica, officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. It is part of the Windward Islands chain in the Lesser Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of t ...

, also known colloquially as an accordion band. Dominican folk music, jing ping bands accompany a

circle dance Circle dance, or chain dance, is a style of social dance done in a circle, semicircle or a curved line to musical accompaniment, such as rhythm instruments and singing, and is a type of dance where anyone can join in without the need of Partne ...

called the flirtation, as well as the Dominican quadrille.

Origin

The Dominican quadrille generally has four figures, the ''pastouwèl'', ''lapoul'', ''lété'' and ''latrinitez''. Some regions of Dominica, such as Petite Savanne, are home to local variants such as the ''caristo''. Many quadrilles are found across Dominica under a wide variety of names. In addition to the standard quadrille, the

lancer A lancer was a type of cavalryman who fought with a lance. Lances were used for mounted warfare in Assyria as early as and subsequently by India, Egypt, China, Persia, Greece, and Rome. The weapon was widely used throughout Eurasia during the M ...

is also an important Dominican dance. Accompaniment for the quadrille is provided by a four instrument ensemble called a ''jing ping'' band. Jing ping bands are made up of a ''boumboum'' ( boom pipe), ''syak'' or ''gwaj'' ( scraper- rattle), ''tambal'' or ''tanbou'' (

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, thoug ...

) and

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

. The

double bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

and

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

are also sometimes used. Bamboo flutes led the jing ping ensembles before the 1940s, when accordions were introduced. The Dominican flute tradition declined as a result, despite their additional use in

serenade In music, a serenade (; also sometimes called a serenata, from the Italian) is a musical composition or performance delivered in honour of someone or something. Serenades are typically calm, light pieces of music. The term comes from the Ital ...

s, until being revived after the National Independence Competitions.

Instruments

The accordion band is the most popular ensemble of folk instruments on the island of Dominica. In recent times, it has been referred to as the Jing Ping band - the name being an onomatopoeia resembling the finely textured sound that is produced by this ensemble: * Primary Rhythmic Instrument (Tanbal) – It is the most important since the Tanbal player keeps the meter consistent for the other players to key directly from it. The Tanbal is a shallow drum with tightly stretched goatskin, held down by two or three wooden rings. * Bass Instrument (The Boom-Boom) – A hollowed wooden bwa kan or piece of bamboo. There is no mouthpiece but the playing end has a slant cut to enhance the sound. * Percussion (Gwaj or Siyak) – Has two parts; a cylinder measuring 3.5 inches in diameter and 10.5 inches length with holes like a grate in it. The cylinder also has gwen toloman (Canna Edules) or Jombi beads (Arbas precatorius). The other part is three 6-inch long wires of metal. It is played by shaking the cylinder and scrapping the metal stick against it. * Melodic Instrument (Accordion, Banjo, flutes or Violin) – The accordion is mostly used. The accordionist keeps the tunes and may improvise from time to time. He/she key according to the rhythm of the Tanbal player.

Jing ping in Contemporary music

Cadence-lypso

Cadence-lypso came from calypso from Trinidad and cadence rampa from Haiti, with influences from jing ping, the Dominican traditional music.

Bouyon

Bouyon legends

Windward Caribbean Kulture The WCK Band (Windward Caribbean Kulture) was formed in 1988 in Dominica.Thompson, Keith (2010) ''Caribbean Islands: The Land and The People'', New Africa Press, , p. 187 The band played a blend of the local Cadence-lypso and traditional Jing pi ...

(WCK) has played an important role in the development of Jing ping, giving credibility to a style that was seen as backward and unsophisticated. They began experimenting a fusion of

Cadence-lypso Cadence-lypso is a fusion of cadence rampa from Haiti, Jazz, Blues and calypso music, calypso from Trinidad and Tobago that has also spread to other English speaking countries of the Caribbean. Originated in the 1970s by the Dominican band Exil ...

and Jing ping.Sullivan, Lynne M. (2004) ''Adventure Guide to Dominica and St. Lucia'',
p. 49
Hunter Publishing,

Contemporary Jing ping

Contemporary Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from about 1945 to the present. In the social sciences, contemporary history is also continuous with, and related t ...

Jing ping is a modernized version of Jing ping, which utilizes modern instruments such as

drum set A drum kit or drum set (also known as a trap set, or simply drums in popular music and jazz contexts) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and sometimes other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The drummer ty ...

, modern

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

, and

electric bass The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an electric but with a longer neck and scale leng ...

. It reflect a continuing trend to explore the jing ping sound and reproducing it using modern musical instruments and technolog

References

* {{cite web , url=http://www.avirtualdominica.com/music/bouyon.htm , title=Bouyon Music , work=Music in Dominica , accessdate=December 3, 2005 Music of Dominica