The surge in publications on Caribbean music over the past twenty years has increasingly included attention to some of the smaller, lesser-known traditions in the region. Sharon Meredith's Tuk Music Tradition in Barbados is one such study. A tuk band is an ensemble that typically comprises a "kittle" (snare drum), bass drum, "steel" (often a triangle), and a "flute" (penny whistle), though a fiddle sometimes served as the melodic instrument in the past. Ensembles of this sort have roots in both European military and West African music traditions and can be found across the plantation regions of the Americas—from Mississippi, through various Caribbean countries (such as Jamaica, Haiti, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Vincent) to Brazil. Meredith outlines the particular characteristics of tuk within this wider range of village band music, based on extensive archival research and on fieldwork in Barbados that included observation of diverse performance settings as well as interviews with musicians, government officials, teachers, students, and tourists. Though she faced considerable challenges in finding written sources pertaining to the history of tuk, she pieces together a convincing account of its development and provides a comprehensive overview of its manifestation at present. Her crystal-clear writing and carefully constructed arguments are accompanied by thorough documentation, including a CD of tuk recordings and numerous citations of YouTube videos of tuk and similar music forms elsewhere in the Caribbean.
During the early-twentieth century, tuk bands were common in Barbadian villages. Along with regular performances in rum shops, the ensembles were an integral component of Sunday picnics and the celebration of Christmas and other holidays. Like other forms of Caribbean fife and drum music, bands sometimes paraded in contingents that included masqueraders. They also provided music for "Landships," Barbadian performance and mutual aid societies in which ranked members wore naval uniforms and engaged in choreographed displays of shipboard activities. By the mid-twentieth century, however, the popularity of tuk had declined considerably, due to the disruption of village life by a shift of employment from agriculture to the service sector, the rise of mass media, and the replacement of local mutual aid by government social security. When Barbados gained independence from Britain in 1966, tuk and Landship had only a minimal presence in the society. With postcolonial assertions of national identity, however, there was a gradual revival of interest in tuk, motivated especially by secondary school principal Wayne "Poonka" Willock (Meredith's primary consultant) and eventual government support. From the 1980s to the early 2000s, a small tuk band competition occurred during Crop Over, a traditional festival that government authorities re-created after independence as a national event. Willock also developed a program in schools for instruction in tuk, Landship, and stilt walking, though government funding for this was recently discontinued. Today tuk is performed primarily during official government events, festivals, and shows for tourists at some of Barbados's prominent hotels.
Meredith suggests that, though Barbadians generally accept tuk as a national music, there is considerable ambivalence. Some people deride it due to its longstanding associations with rum shops and working-class revelry. Others perceive it as a quaint relic of the past or are apprehensive about its employment as tourist entertainment. Many people, however, are glad that this element of Barbados's cultural heritage still exists in a society dominated by foreign media and cultural forms. Though no longer widely performed or supported by local audiences, the music continues to be valued as a Barbadian symbol. Meredith's cogent analysis of the rise, decline, and recontextualization of tuk will be of interest not only to Caribbean music specialists but to anyone concerned with efforts to maintain and represent endangered music traditions.
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[Review length: 605 words • Review posted on March 23, 2016]