Concert with Music from Swedish Saint Barthélemy Anno 1788
- Date: 21 November 2025, 17:00–18:00
- Location: Humanities Theatre
- Type: Concert
- Web page
- Organiser: Fredrik Thomasson
- Contact person: Fredrik Thomasson
Please join us for the premiere of music notated in 1788 in the Swedish Caribbean colony St. Barthélemy!
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In 1788, the medical doctor Christopher Carlander visited the Swedish island for several months. In his travel diary, he writes much about the enslaved and free Black population. Exceptionally, he also documented the music and dances he witnessed in the colony’s capital Gustavia.
Carlander appreciated the music and wrote:
“Each dancer pays for the music with a few dogg [small coins]. Although their entertainment takes place under the open sky, it is still enjoyable, even just to watch them … I particularly liked the solo voice that accompanied the music and the satisfied faces of some of the spectators, as well as the younger ones' longing to grow up so they could join the dance.”
The Swedish-American musician and musicologist Kristina R. Gaddy, together with Rhiannon Giddens, have transcribed and published Carlander’s sheet music in a collection of early Black American music.
At the concert, Kristina will play the music Carlander wrote down as well as other tunes, and tell us about the history of these melodies and dances that quickly spread through the Americas.
Free entrance and everyone is welcome!