Biguine

Biguine
Stylistic origins	Traditional bélé, European polka, and 19th-century French ballroom dance steps
Cultural origins	Guadeloupe and Martinique
Typical instruments	Traditional: rhythm section: bèlè drums, tibwa, chacha, drum kit, tuba, acoustic guitar, accordion, saxophone, trumpet, clarinet, and piano
Fusion genres
Zouk

Music of Martinique
General topics
Related articles
Genres
Bélé Biguine Chouval bwa Hip hop Jump up Kadans Mini-jazz Quadrille Zouk
Nationalistic and patriotic songs
National anthem	La Marseillaise
Regional music
Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Aruba and the Dutch Antilles Bahamas Barbados Bermuda Bonaire Cayman Islands Cuba Curaçao Dominica Dominican Republic French Guiana Grenada Guadeloupe Guyana Haiti Jamaica Louisiana Montserrat Panama Puerto Rico St Kitts and Nevis St Lucia St Vincent and Grenadines Suriname Trinidad and Tobago Turks and Caicos Virgin Islands

Music of Guadeloupe
General topics
Related articles
Genres
Balakadri Biguine vidé Bouyon gwada Cadence-lypso Gwo ka Hip hop Kadans Mini-jazz Zouk
Nationalistic and patriotic songs
National anthem	La MarseillaiseChanté a lendependens
Regional music
Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Aruba and the Dutch Antilles Bahamas Barbados Bermuda Bonaire Cayman Islands Cuba Curaçao Dominica Dominican Republic French Guiana Grenada Guyana Haiti Jamaica Louisiana Martinique Montserrat Panama Puerto Rico St Kitts and Nevis St Lucia St Vincent and Grenadines Suriname Trinidad and Tobago Turks and Caicos Virgin Islands

Biguine is a rhythm-centric style of music that originated in Guadeloupe and Martinique in the 19th century. It fuses 19th-century French ballroom dance steps with African rhythms.

Two main types of French antillean biguine can be identified based on the instrumentation in contemporary musical practice, which is call the drum biguine and the orchestrated biguine. Each of these refer to contexts of a specific origin. The drum biguine, or bidgin bèlè in Creole, comes from a series of bèlè dances performed since early colonial times by the slaves who inhabited the great sugar plantations. Musically, the bidgin bèlè can be distinguished from the orchestrated biguine in the following ways: its instrumentation (cylindrical single-membraned drum (bèlè) and the rhythm sticks (tibwa); the call-and-response singing style; the soloist's improvisation, and the nasal voice quality. According to a study by Rosemain (1988), the biguine figured in fertility rituals practiced in West Africa, but its ritual significance has since disappeared in Martinique.

Bidgin bèlè originates in slave bèlè dances and characterized by the use of bèlè drums and tibwa rhythm sticks, along with call and response, nasal vocals and improvised instrumental solos; has its roots in West African dances.

The bèlè is also the name of medium size tambour drum. Players sit astride the drum. It is characterized, in its rhythm, by the "tibwa" (two wooden sticks) played either on a length of bamboo mounted on a stand or on the sides of the tambour bèlè. Added to the tambour bèlè and tibwa are the maracas, more commonly referred to as the chacha. The cinquillo is beat out by the tibwa, but it translates very well to the chacha when the rhythms are applied for playing biguine. The tibwa rhythm plays a basic pattern and the drum comes to mark the highlights and introduce percussion improvisations.

By combining the traditional bèlè music with the European dance genres, the black musicians of Martinique and Guadeloupe created the biguine, which comprises three distinct styles:

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