"Arrangement pour piano par Emile Desamours" : source David Bontemps
"Occide Jeanty (1860-1936)
Haitian Composer, Pianist & Music Director
Occide Jeanty (1860-1936) By AfriClassical.com
" Haitian Composer, Pianist & Music Director
Table of Contents
1 Birth
2 Parents
3 Early Studies
4 Paris Conservatory
5 Recall to Haiti
6 Presidential Audience
7 Musique du Palais
8 Official Works
9 Lüders Affair
10 Les Vautours
11 Folkways
12 Zizipan
13 U.S. Occupation
14 1804
15 Death
16 Haitian Masters
17 Works
18 Bibliography
Occide Jeanty and score from "1804" Marche Militaire. Centenary of the birth of Occide Jeanty, composer, Haiti stamp.
1 Birth
An important source on Occide Jeanty is Vodou Nation: Haitian Art Music And Cultural Nationalism, written by Michael Largey, and published by The University of Chicago Press (2006):
Occilius Jeanty fils (junior), better known to Haitian audiences as Occide, was born in Port-au-Prince in 1860 during a period of relative political stability under President Fabre Geffrard. The young Jeanty was an elementary school student at the L'Ecole Polymathique de Coupeaud and attended high school at the prestigious Lycée Pétion. According to Dumervé (1968, 124), Jeanty was an indifferent student, preferring to sing children's songs to himself while beating time with his ruler or pencil.
2 Parents
The author continues:
Occide Jeanty was part of a musical family. His mother was Mulerine Obin and his father was Occilius Jeanty père (1830-82). Occilius père was the director of the Ecole Centrale de Musique and a professor of mathematics at Lycée Pétion, as well as the director of the Corps de Musique, a military band attached to the National Palace in Port-au-Prince.
***
In contrast with his son, Occilius père was a talented student, excelling in mathematics and music.
We are told Occilius père was "conscripted" to play in the official band of Emperor Faustin I, and subsequently served five Haitian Presidents.
3 Early Studies
Michael Largey describes the son's early study of music:
Occilius Père encouraged his son, Occide, to study music from a young age. The younger Jeanty proved adept at music, eventually opening his own course of solfège at the Ecole Centrale de Musique under the Boisrond Canal regime. (Dumervé 1868, 60).
4 Paris Conservatory
The author tells us of Jeanty's trumpet scholarship at the Paris Conservatory of Music:
In 1881, Jeanty was awarded a scholarship to study trumpet in Paris with Jean Baptiste Arban. Despite the backing of the legendary Arban, Jeanty failed to win the first prize for the annual instrumental competition at the Paris Conservatory. To make matters worse, political problems in Haiti caused Jeanty's scholarship payments to stop shortly after he arrived in Paris. A frustrated Jeanty played in the streets of Paris for money to support himself.
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.
5 Recall to Haiti
Rumors claimed Jeanty was spending his time pursuing "les blondes des boulevards" instead of his music studies, Largey relates:
Whether or not the rumors about Jeanty's behavior were true, his reputation was already damaged in the eyes of the Haitian government. Jeanty was recalled to Haiti and dressed down personally by President Salomon.
6 Presidential Audience
The book tells us Jeanty's backers rose to his defense:
Père R. P. Saint Clair, a priest of the Saint Esprit order who had served on the jury that awarded Jeanty his scholarship to study in Paris, arranged an audience with President Salomon and other well-respected musicians, including Edmond Roumain, Toureau Lechaud, and Louis Astrée père (Dumervé 1968, 125; Herissé n.d.). Jeanty's brilliant playing prompted Salomon immediately to appoint the young cornetist to the ranks of the Musique du Palais National, the Haitian president's official military band (Herissé n.d.).
We learn from Dr. Dominique-René de Lerma that Occide Jeanty's return to Haiti took place in 1885:
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.
7 Musique du Palais
Largey describes Jeanty's output as a composer with the military band of the president:
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. M