11 results
Traditional Bajan Music
This photograph shows drummers and flute players in a local band playing traditional folk music in a parade in Barbados, with a large crowd in the background. The parade is part of the five-week summer Crop Over festival, the most popular and colorful festival in Barbados. Its origins can be traced to the 1780s, when Barbados was a prolific sugar producer. At the end of each season, there was a huge celebration to mark the culmination of another successful sugar cane harvest, the “crop over” celebration. The photograph is from ...
Contributed by
Columbus Memorial Library, Organization of American States
Playing the Marimba
This photograph from Costa Rica shows a marimba player accompanied by two guitarists. The marimba, believed to have originated in southern Africa, was brought to South America in the early 16th century by Africans taken there as slaves. In the 1890s, the Guatemalan marimba builder Sebastian Hurtado made an instrument with a wooden resonator pipe instead of a gourd, an innovation that formed the basis of the modern marimba. The photograph is from the collection of the Columbus Memorial Library of the Organization of American States (OAS), which includes 45 ...
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Columbus Memorial Library, Organization of American States
Conga Drums at Carnival Time
This photograph from Cuba shows a group of male revelers in traditional costumes and large sombreros, with various types of drums and other musical instruments, in a Conga line. The conga is a dance that originated in Cuba, and in which the participants form a winding line, take three steps forwards or backwards, and then kick. The photograph is from the collection of the Columbus Memorial Library of the Organization of American States (OAS), which includes 45,000 photographs illustrative of life and culture in the Americas. Many of the ...
Contributed by
Columbus Memorial Library, Organization of American States
Musicians Playing the Marimba
This photograph from Guatemala shows a group of indigenous musicians playing a marimba. The marimba, believed to have originated in southern Africa, was brought to South America in the early 16th century by Africans taken there as slaves. In the 1890s, the Guatemalan marimba builder Sebastian Hurtado made an instrument with a wooden resonator pipe instead of a gourd, an innovation that formed the basis of the modern marimba. The photograph is from the collection of the Columbus Memorial Library of the Organization of American States (OAS), which includes 45 ...
Contributed by
Columbus Memorial Library, Organization of American States
Playing the Marimba
This photograph from Guatemala shows an indigenous musician playing a marimba made from gourds of different sizes. Two young girls are holding the instrument. The marimba, believed to have originated in southern Africa, was brought to South America in the early 16th century by Africans taken there as slaves. In the 1890s, the Guatemalan marimba builder Sebastian Hurtado made an instrument with a wooden resonator pipe instead of a gourd, an innovation that formed the basis of the modern marimba. The photograph is from the collection of the Columbus Memorial ...
Contributed by
Columbus Memorial Library, Organization of American States
Native Orchestra, Marimba
This photograph from Guatemala shows indigenous musicians playing two different types of marimbas, drums, a violin, and a harmonica. The photograph is from the collection of the Columbus Memorial Library of the Organization of American States (OAS), which includes 45,000 photographs illustrative of life and culture in the Americas. Many of the photographs were taken by prominent photographers on OAS missions to member countries. The OAS was established in April 1948 when 21 countries of the western hemisphere adopted the OAS Charter, in which they reaffirmed their commitment to ...
Contributed by
Columbus Memorial Library, Organization of American States
Native Drummers
This photograph from Haiti shows two drummers playing on elaborately-decorated drums. The photograph is from the collection of the Columbus Memorial Library of the Organization of American States (OAS), which includes 45,000 photographs illustrative of life and culture in the Americas. Many of the photographs were taken by prominent photographers on OAS missions to member countries. The OAS was established in April 1948 when 21 countries of the western hemisphere adopted the OAS Charter, in which they reaffirmed their commitment to the pursuit of common goals and respect for ...
Contributed by
Columbus Memorial Library, Organization of American States
Marimba: One of the Favorites
This photograph from Honduras shows three marimba players playing one marimba, on which are painted the words "Mi Farolito," presumably the name of the instrument. The marimba, believed to have originated in southern Africa, was brought to South America in the early 16th century by Africans taken there as slaves. In the 1890s, the Guatemalan marimba builder Sebastian Hurtado made an instrument with a wooden resonator pipe instead of a gourd, an innovation that formed the basis of the modern marimba. The photograph is from the collection of the Columbus ...
Contributed by
Columbus Memorial Library, Organization of American States
Aucaner Signal on Apintie
This photograph from Suriname shows a Maroon in a seated position beating an apintie, a drum made out of wood and wild boar skins. Maroon refers to fugitive slaves from the West Indies and the northern part of South America, and their descendants. The Maroon community was especially numerous in Suriname, a former Dutch colony in which many slaves managed to escape to the jungle. The photograph is from the collection of the Columbus Memorial Library of the Organization of American States (OAS), which includes 45,000 photographs illustrative of ...
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Columbus Memorial Library, Organization of American States
Steelband Playing on the Beach
This photograph from Trinidad and Tobago shows the Old Oak Starlift Steel Orchestra playing on a beach. The musicians are known as pannists. Steel pan music originated in Trinidad and Tobago. Steel pans are percussion instruments that are made of 55-gallon oil drums and tuned chromatically. The photograph is from the collection of the Columbus Memorial Library of the Organization of American States (OAS), which includes 45,000 photographs illustrative of life and culture in the Americas. Many of the photographs were taken by prominent photographers on OAS missions to ...
Contributed by
Columbus Memorial Library, Organization of American States
Cruel Tyrant Love
This previously unknown version of the solo cantata, Crudel tiranno Amor (Cruel tyrant Love) by George Friedrich Handel (1685–1759), resurfaced in a newly discovered, complete autograph score among the many posthumous estates housed in the Music Department of the Bavarian State Library. It was found in a miscellany of 18 manuscripts formerly owned by the well-known cultural historian, musicographer, and novelist Wilhelm Heinrich von Riehl (1823–97). The sensational discovery was made in 2004 by the musicologist Dr. Berthold Over, who succeeded in identifying the manuscript’s anonymous Italian ...
Contributed by
Bavarian State Library