Ripsaw music
Music of the Anglophone Caribbean | ||||
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Ripsaw is a
.The saw is played by scraping an object, usually an old knife blade, along the saw's teeth, while bending the saw to produce a different timbre. The sound is similar to a paper being ripped, and is believed to be the origin of the term ripsaw.[citation needed] Rake-and-scrape derives from the method used by a player to create sound from the saw.
Though little is known for certain about ripsaw's genesis, two major theories include that the instrument was played to imitate the sound of the güiro, a Dominican and Haiti percussion instrument, and that Loyalist colonists in the United States brought their African slaves to the islands and these slaves invented the ripsaw to imitate the sound of the shekere instrument.
In the Bahamas,
References
- ISBN 978-1-84162-268-2.
- ISBN 978-1-317-35029-3.
External links
- Music in the Turks and Caicos Islands at Turks and Caicos Tourist Board
- Ripsaw Music & Our Musical Heritage, by David Bowen, Cultural Officer, Turks & Caicos Tourist Board.