Othello Bayard

Dr. Louis Achille Othello Bayard "de Cayes" (1885–1971) is a Haitian musician, violinist, poet, and composer.[1] He is notable for composing the music of the patriotic song "Haïti Chérie."[2]

Biography

Othello Bayard was born in 1885 in the city of Les Cayes. In 1925, Bayard composed "Souvenir d’Haïti," a poem set to music and it will become the second Haitian patriotic hymn as "Haïti Chérie"[3] after the national anthem, La Dessalinienne.[2]

He wrote his poem in Haitian Creole as some other Haitian poets at that time did, in resistance to some Francophone Haitian elite who collaborated with the American occupier who had just landed in Haiti in 1915 for a long occupation of the country until 1934. Creole allows this return to indigenous and African origins of the population whose ancestors were slaves.[4]

At the beginning of 21st century, was opened a music school in Les Cayes which bears the name of this poet and musician, the Institut Othello Bayard des Cayes.[4]

References
  1. Largey, Michael (2006). "Vodou Nation: Haitian Art Music and Cultural Nationalism". p. 205. ISBN 0226468631. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
  2. Geaniton, Roger (2010). "Comment devenir millionnaire en trois saisons à Manhattan". p. 248. Retrieved 10 June 2015. (in French)
  3. Averill, Gage (1997). A Day for the Hunter, a Day for the Prey: Popular Music and Power in Haiti. The University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226032914. Retrieved 10 June 2015. cherie.
  4. Haïti chérie-musique


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