Haitian Composer Julio Racine (b. 1945) Featured in International Journal of Bahamian Studies, Vol. I

[Julio Racine]

The Haitian composer, arranger and flutist Julio Racine (b. 1945) is profiled at AfriClassical.com. Dr. Christine Gangelhoff provides a link to The International Journal of Bahamian Studies, Vol. I, http://journals.sfu.ca/cob/index.php/files/issue/view/30:

One of the Haitian composers featured in Vol. I is Julio Racine:

“The works of Haitian composer Julio Racine clearly display a folk-inspired compositional style. Unlike other composers who incorporate folk elements in a melodic manner, Racine relies more on rhythmic aspects to develop themes.

“I use rhythmic development in my music, because Haitian music is essentially rhythmic. In fact most every instrument in folk is a one-pitch instrument, which tells you it's mainly rhythmic (J. Racine, personal communication, July 2011).

“In his work, Tangente au Yanvalou for flute and piano, Racine invokes the folkloric rhythms of the Yanvalou. He manipulates the meter to suggest the folk rhythm: sometimes it will miss one step, sometimes it will have one step too many, until it finally becomes the Yanvalou (Racine, 2011).”