Wikipedia:Peer review/Music of Saint Lucia/archive1

Music of Saint Lucia[edit]

It's an interesting, if obscure topic. This article is easily the single most comprehensive source on the subject on the web, and possibly in print too. I think it's in pretty good shape, considering the subject is the music of a tiny island with virtually no historical documentation, international acclaim, scholarly study or web presence. Anyway, suggestions welcome! I'd like to move this on to WP:FAC in the near future, so please let me know if you know of any information to add. Thanks, Tuf-Kat 16:09, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Just saying I'm working on typing a long commentary. So far, the content looks fine, but the writing could really use some slicking. Circeus 15:43, 27 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The lead needs adjustments to conform to WP:LEAD.
- Avoiding a link inside the bolded title would be good.
- If Music of the Lesser Antilles is any hint, you probably don't need to bold "Lucian music" (it's not an "alternative name", more a grammatical variant)
I'd recommend "in Saint Lucia" (it's a country) over "on Saint Lucia"
Too much "especially"s in the lead.
The lead should probably be divided in three paragraphs,not two as it currently is. The way the first paragraph strings facts verges on the nonsensical.
The article lacks an historical overviews. Small bits across the articles have historical reflexions, but it's hard to have a picture about what styles where popular when.

Folk music

You start with "Lucian" in the lead, but "Saint Lucian" afterwards.
"based around" usually refer to a smaller subset. The list given easily constitutes a full band.
[H]owever, the kwadril is increasingly viewed as a national symbol.
- There doesn't seem to be a pertinent reason to use "however" here.
That paragraph mixes elements about dances and musical styles. Since the dances and their associated musical style are not discussed specifically, these two elements should be kept more separate.

jwé

You would probably do better merging jwé here. I realize that thearticle is brodly linked, which probably means that the section should be shortened slightlyand the bulk of it moved into the separate article.
Linking both as a "Main article" and in the firsts sentence is redundant.
débòt comes up without warning. What is it? (see Principle of least astonishment)
Jwé is performed as an informal, social event
- This is a strange formulation at best
Jwé includes both songs for men and women, both of which can be singers
- This comes off strange,since there has been no previous indication of musical division along gender lines
clapping, responding to the leader and singing and dancing
- Can you spot the redundant word?
Some Lucians avoid jwé altogether because of its sexually raunchy lyricism and atmosphere;
- Is the sexually raunchy part typical or integral to the genre? Maybe expanding slightly on the themes associated with it would be appropriate.
"saying the opposite of what is meant"
- In English, we call it sarcasm
'jwé chanté (sung songs) and jwé dansé (song-play-dance)
- How interesting! Such things as "unsung songs" exist? And what is a "song-play-dance"??
their use of call-and-response singing between a leader and a chorus, with the exception of listwa,
- dashes or parentheses would be more appropriate here.
You don't need to repeat the parenthetical definitions.
The last part makes it clear that débòt is a part of jwé (specifically jwé dansé), not the other way around,as implied at the beginning of the section (cf. above about débòt).
Overall, the section is poorly organized. A firmer instruments/substyles/dances division would help.

kwadril

Same merge as above suggested.
The modern kwadril has declined in popularity; it had come to be seen as a symbol of colonialism around the time of independence, and was shunned as old-fashioned and out-of-date.
- This sentence is rather clunky. The semicolon is probably superfluous.
Learners act as a sort of apprentice for more established performers.
- Act as X to Y
A successful performance brings respect and prestige for all participants who dance the correct steps which are traditionally said to "demonstrate control over behavior, manner, and skills" and "symbolize... a set of special values linked with a higher social class".
- Run-on relatives...
are the lakonmèt and the mazurka the same thing or not??
~~latwiyèm fidji~~ fixed this typo.

rose and marguerite

With only 3 other incoming link, this one can definitely be merged here for the time being.
La Rose and La Marguerite are rival societies that commemorate the Anglo-French heritage of the island; the factions represent the warring colonial powers, between whose hands Saint Lucia changed fourteen times.
- It should be made clear what type of societies they are. Cultural societies? Learned societies? Or something closer to the arab world's tariqahs?
- Also, that sentence is poorly built.
Both societies draw on English royalty traditions and have a number of positions, including the King, Queen, Prince, Princess and various lower titles like the Chief of Police and nurse.
- Why is "nurse" not capitalized?
- One redundant word in the two first.
La Rose and La Marguerite meet once weekly except during Lent.
- I'd think weekly meeting do occur only once a week.
At these meetings, which are on Saturday for La Rose and Sunday for La Marguerite, members sing or play instruments and dance.
- It,s not clear whether the last part is intended to split, or describe all meetings: parsing as "sing or play instrument, and dance" comes more naturally in this context.
earlier, it was vaguely implied that the lakonmèt can be substituted to parts of a kwadril, but here it's clearly made to be an entirely different dance. that needs to be cleared up.

other styles

Just making sure: is "merry-go-round" pointing to the right article?
Lucian drinking songs are the chanté abwè, which are rarely performed in recent years.
- Why "the" chanté abwé? And "recent years"? Not exactly the best word choices
Chanté abwè are performed in a game in which the singers
- Less than ideal stringing of prepositions
performed one couple with a leader and chorus

funereal

- looks like a word's missing
in contrast to other Caribbean islands, which hold their wakes on the first and ninth days
- Wow, wordy mcwordiness: "whereas other Caribbean islands hold theirs on the first and ninth days"
accompanied zo or tibwa and ka.
- Missing word
the images makes it difficult to spot the location of wherever the places are right away.
The villages of La Grace, Piaye and Laborie in the southwest area of Saint Lucia
- Missing commas
the paragraph switches from past to present.

Kélé

Yet another ridiculously short "sub article"
"region" is a wee bit sweeping term for a country the size of Laval and Montreal combined...
Only one family, from Resina, in modern Saint Lucia claims to have the religious authority to perform and pass on the kélé rituals.
- My mind reads this and expects a "still" somewhere
these are the adan, èrè, koudou and kèré rhythms.
- Use a colon and drops "these are"
Kélé rituals also include singing and dance
- "Singing and dancing" or "songs and dances"
The following enumeration? way too long and complex.

Popular music

"found through" should be "found throughout" or "found across"
Music scholar Jocelyne Guilbault has called calypso the primary way modern Lucians "express social commentary"
- The placeen of the quotation marks looks off. This probably needs to be recast.
Along with calypso, Lucia has
- Saint Lucia has...
mostly on 45-RPM
- If grammophone record is any indication, this probably should be "45 rpm"
That sentence does not connect well with the following one, and the paragraph seems mostly redundant to the "government and industry" section below. If its not, then the latter section probably needs to be re-titled.

Roots revival

I'm really not fond of a section having only a subsection. It can probably integrate into the parent section or an historical outlook.
I wasn't able to trace what the "1969 Expo in Grenada" was, but it's definitely not a World's fair: there was none in 1969. Also, "1969" appears twice in that sentence.
The section is odd, because there is no indication that the "revival" was preceded by a decline... Which leads me to recommend the whole "popular music" (by the article's own admission, St.Lucia has little Pop music proper, and no industry) be completely rewritten to an history overview.

Government and industry

Section is poorly organized, and hardly reflects its header.
The 2005 festival was a boost for the local music industry
- Is there or is there no music industry in St. Lucia?

Education

change the header to "musical education" or something similar
Music is a part of the curriculum at public schools in Saint Lucia; it has long been taught in younger grade levels [...]
- No semicolon, break the sentence.
Primary education on Saint Lucia, music and other artistic education is commonly used incidentally to teaching other subjects or for special occasions.
- Looks like you started a sentence and finished a different one.
while others spent more time on general group singing
- while the remaining spend [...]
Many of the schools that do not normally instruct in music may offer volunteer clubs
- drop the "may"
Many Lucian schools have formed ensembles, most commonly a wind ensemble (30% of schools), or a steelpan band (20%) or combo group (20%).
- Stringed "or"s
both for the benefit of all students and the enrichment of the musically-gifted among them.
- This is very poorly worded, bordering on the garden path sentence
from across the island.
- from the whole island
The footer template there needs to move to the full bottom of the article.

Circeus 23:50, 27 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]