A collaboration with the internationally renowned Creole singer and theatre artist Mariann Mathéus, we present here Mathéus's recordings of the traditional Creole songs called for in the script of Tale of Black Histories/Histoire de nègre. Mathéus is close to the music history: having performed and collaborated with Toto Bissainthe, she continues to work on documenting and sharing Bissainthe's legacy. Bissainthe, a celebrated Haitian singer and pioneering theatre artist, brought international attention to a repertoire of traditional Haitian Creole songs and performed her own syncretic compositions. She directly influenced the play, having performed at the Institute's first cultural festival and worked with Glissant's theatre group. Glissant later recruited her sister Cayotte Bissainthe (who taught English at the Institute) to continue their work on Caribbean traditional and popular songs. These songs are performance-based archives of Haitian and Caribbean history, culture, and belief systems and they are an integral part of the play’s transmission of history. We believe that artists and scholars will encounter a fuller vision of the song's power and context through Mathéus's recordings, as opposed to reading (in Creole or English translation) the lyrics on the page. The songs have not been previously recorded (to the best of our knowledge). Photography by David Merle Vocals, music production, and ethnomusicological research by Mariann MathéusElectric guitar by Ahmed Charles BarryMusic arranged by Mariann Mathéus and Ahmed Charles BarrySound engineering by Philippe PerrierRecorded and mixed at Fil Ipo Studio, Paris, FranceMastered by Studio Sextan Here are the page references for each song: Ezili : pp. 38-9 (English version) and p. 112 (French version) Aliker : pp. 53-4 and p. 125 Mungoué : p. 54 and p. 126 Zanminandanyo : pp. 63-4 and p. 134 / Yo Simin Wouanga : p. 64, p. 67 and p. 134, p. 137 Dèyè Monn'lan : pp. 76-7 and p. 146 Project produced by Emily Sahakian and generously funded by the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts, the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, and the Departments of Romance Languages, Anthropology, Theatre & Film Studies, English, and History at the University of Georgia.
