Occide Jeanty (1860-1936), who is profiled at AfriClassical.com, was one of Haiti's leading classical composers. Michael Largey has written Vodou Nation: Haitian Art Music And Cultural Nationalism, published by The University of Chicago Press (2006). He says Jeanty's father was Occilius Jeanty, director of a Haitian military band called the Corps de Musique. Occide was also successful in music, and won a trumpet scholarship at the Paris Conservatory. Dr. Dominique-René de Lerma is Professor of Music at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin and has written about Black classical music for four decades. He has generously made his research entry on Occide Jeanty available to this Website: "His teachers in Paris included Arban (Jeanty’s principal instrument was the valve cornet), pianist Antoine-François Marmontel, and Douillon." "In 1885 he left Paris to become music director to President Lysius Felicité Salomon writing musique du palais in Port-au-Prince, where a street was later named for him, and a stamp issued in centennial tribute in 1960."
Largey adds: "Jeanty wrote at least eight processional marches, six funeral marches for Haitian dignitaries and their families, and four patriotic marches, as well as various polkas, gavottes, and méringues." "Jeanty also wrote patriotic pieces, including the 'Chant National' (with lyrics by Haitian poet, Oswald Durand) in 1897 and the commemorative march '1804' in celebration of the centennial of Haitian independence."Occide Jeanty composed 'Les Vautours de 6 Décembre' (The vultures of 6 December) to protest humiliation Haiti suffered at the hands of the German navy in the Emile Lüders Affair. Jeanty was a general in the Haitian army when the U.S. Occupation began in 1915. He left his post a year later; conflicting explanations were given for the departure. He was reinstated in 1922 and held the position during the rest of the occupation, which ended in 1934. The author continues: "By performing pieces that had extramusical programs referring to Haitian political resistance, the Musique du Palais National, with Occide Jeanty conducting, became a symbol of Haitian resistance, albeit in musical, not military terms." "Jeanty's most famous composition, 'Dessalines ou 1804: Marche Guerrière' (Dessalines or 1804: War March) - known to Haitian audiences as '1804' - was another example of a work that, through performance, became an unofficial anthem of Haitian resistance and political autonomy until the end of the occupation in 1934." Occide Jeanty died in 1936.
Occide Jeanty
Haitian Classical Composer
Dessalines ou 1804: Marche Guerrière
Corps de Musique
Les Vautours
Musical Resistance to U.S. Occupation
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