Music of Belgium
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Belgium is a cultural crossroads where Flemish Dutch-speaking and Walloon French-speaking inhabitants mix with German minorities and immigrant communities from Republic of the Congo and other distant countries.
Folk music
Belgian folk music has survived the 20th century much more effectively than folk traditions in most other countries due to the efforts of ethnomusicologists early in the century. Consequently, there was an ample repertoire and documentation of traditional Flemish music in the 1960s and early 1970s, when people like Wannes Van de Velde, Herman Dewit, Walter de Buck and Hubert Boone led a folk revival. Some of these musicians, especially Van de Velde, modernized Belgian folk music by using self-penned urban songs using influences from Spain and Greece. Wannes, for example, sang in the dialect of his native Antwerp and collaborated with Amparo Cortés, a Spanish flamenco singer.
The 1970s saw increased popularity of modernized folk music, with bands like Rum and Hubert Boone's influential Brabants Volksorkest. During the 1980s, folk became less popular, with only a few folk-rock bands like Kadril achieving much success, but Herman Dewit founded an annual music course in Gooik which kept the scene alive. In the mid-1990s, groups like Ambrozijn, Fluxus, Marc Hauman & De Moeite, Clouseau, Laïs emerged from these yearly events.
Walloon folk music has not had as vibrant a revival as Flemish, but artists like Coïncidence, Remy Dubois, Luc Pilartz, Rue du Village and Claude Flagel have kept the folk traditions alive.
African music
Since the early 1980s, African musicians have played an important part on the Belgian scene, especially those from the former Belgian colony of Congo. Congolese-Belgian Princesse Mansia M'Bila, Rwandan-Belgian Cécile Kayirebwa and Dieudonné Kabongo led this wave that soon incorporated Argentinean tango music, Moroccan oud and other music from around the world. The 1990s saw the emergence of Zap Mama, a group of Congolese-Belgian women who played a fusion of Pygmy and other African music with European influences.
Indie scene
Flanders has a lively indie scene, sprouted from Antwerp where dEUS is probably the most famous, next to other people and groups like Zita Swoon (formerly Moondog Jr), Kiss My Jazz, Dead Man Ray, Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung. In the noise genre Antwerp houses the pioneer band Club Moral. Ghent also has a booming indie scene: de Portables, Barbie Bangkok, Fifty Foot Combo, ’t Hof van Commerce (immigrants from Izegem), Vive La Fête, Das Pop, Awaken and the successful Soulwax bring indierock with a slightly rougher edge than their Antwerp fellows.
Chanson
One of the major French chansonnier Jacques Brel but also others like Salvatore Adamo (still Italian but Belgian at heart[link]) and Lara Fabian.
Jazz
Some major jazz musicians are coming from Belgium : Philip Catherine, Steve Houben, Django Reinhardt (who spent most of his life in France), Toots Thielemans.
Blues
Elmore D who sings in English and Walloon languages.
Romantic
- César Franck (1822–1890), born in Liège, composer, definitively moved to Paris in 1844.
- Eugène Ysaÿe (1858–1931), born in Liège, violonist and composer, brilliant soloist, professor in Brussels from 1886.
Rock
References
- Rans, Paul. "Flemish, Walloon and Global Fusion". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), World Music, Vol. 1: Africa, Europe and the Middle East, pp 25-30. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books. ISBN 1-85828-636-0
See also
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