Occide
Jeanty [1869-1936], 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