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Abstract
music they hear around them in the same manner that they learn to talk. Over time, children in cultures around the world have developed repertoires of songs that are their own, influenced by, but separate from, the music that is current in the surrounding adult world. The repertoire of children's songs in Jamaica today is the subject of this paper. For this study, a song will be considered a children's song if it has become a part of the children's repertoire. It is part of the repertoire if it is used by children who learned it from other children, who presumably learned it from other children as well. At some point in the chain, some adult influence is likely, but if the song has been used independently by children for a reasonable time, it will have become a children's song. Any vocal piece characterized by a recognizable, prescribed rhythm will qualify as a song. This definition is designed to agree with the musical inclinations of the children who create the repertoire. Children produce a great many vocal pieces which possess highly developed rhythms and are definitely musical, but which lack definite pitch. The reverse-pieces possessing melody but no defined rhythm-seems to be nonexistent in Jamaican children's music. All the children's songs sung by Jamaican children will be considered Jamaican songs. It is true that many of these sound decidedly un-Jamaican, but the children themselves make no distinction between native and imported songs. The material used in this study was collected over a period of several months in the first half of 1979, in both urban and rural locations spread throughout the island of Jamaica. I depended for the most part upon primary schools and all-age schools as natural places to observe children in groups at play. I also collected in neighborhood and family situations. For historical perspective, I spoke with and recorded many old people who recalled songs from their childhood. Details regarding the field trips and resulting data are given in the appendix.
Published Version
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