The Transformation of Language to Rhythm: The Hosay Drums of Trinidad

Abstract

This paper begins with the notion of speech surrogates in the study of music by suggesting the alternate "song surrogate" for forms of non-verbal music that have replaced spoken, chanted or sung communication. The specific example used is the Hosay drums (tassa) of Trinidad. On the island, as East Indian residents began favoring English as their common tongue, the song genre marcee waned in ritual usage. Simultaneously, the mournful narra- tives of the marcee were "translated" into drum melodies. My contention is that the tassa rhythms used to replace the song genre grew in importance as the genre fell into disuse.