Chamberlain: 6 Caribbean Folk Songs - Trombone and Piano

To download the sample score click on the link below

https://warwickmusic.egnyte.com/dl/G76ePMYv3f/TB2021_sample_score.pdf_

A note on language: a number of these songs are in French Creole, locally called Patois.  This is a language born of contact between speakers of French and speakers of a number of West African languages during the colonisation of the Caribbean islands and the related enslavement of some African peoples.  When the language came into contact with English in Trinidad, it acquired some elements of English vocabulary. 

Guidance on Patois language from Lawrence Carrington, Emeritus Professor of Creole Linguistics at the University of the West Indies.   

I Ka Boukan, Jenny 
This folksong, from Trinidad and Tobago, is in Patois.  The song is a mother calling to her daughter.  It’s 8 o’clock and Jenny is still outside, supposedly organising the ‘boukan,’ an outdoor area for a fire where she is heating water for a bath, but her mother wants her to come in and go to bed! 
Grade 2/3 

Mi Bouyi 
This Trinidadian folk song in Patois, is the call of a street food vendor selling boiled corn, still a a common sight in the region.  “Mi” probably started as “Maiz” (Spanish for corn) and changed over the years to “Mi.” 
Grade 3/4

Pull Away, Me Boy 
This is a folksong from Trinidad and Tobago that depicts the fisherman hauling in their nets.  There is a call and response element to get everyone pulling together! 
Grade 3 

When Ah Was In Jail 
This is a stone game song which has singers pounding stones in time to the music.  In this case the pounding of stones was seen as something that convicts would have been doing in jail.  The outer sections have that strong rhythmic feel that would go with hitting rocks whilst the middle section is more contemplative. 
Grade 3 

Pweson 
A Patois folk song from Trinidad and Tobago that describes fishermen going out, sailing round the various small islands off the Trinidad coast and bringing back fresh fish.  Pweson comes from the French word for fish, poisson. 
Grade 4

Mango Vert 
This is an early calypso from Trinidad and Tobago and was the first calypso ever recorded.  Lovey's String Band, from Trinidad, went to New York in 1912 and recorded this and a number of other calypsos.  It is the call of a street vendor, using a mixture of Patois and English, selling the wide variety of delicious mangos that are so plentiful in Trinidad and Tobago. 
Grade 4 

Aiden Chamberlain 

2021

SKU:  TB2021
Composer:  Aiden Chamberlain
Instrumentation:  Trombone & Piano
Difficulty:  Beginner
Year Published:  2021