FRENCH MUSIC. Under the rubric "French music in Texas" one thinks first of Cajun music. The Francophone musical heritage of East Texas and southwestern Louisiana, however, is quite complex. At least four major French-speaking groups have left their musical imprint on Texas and the American Southwest over the past three centuries.
French exploration of Texas began as early as 1682. By 1685 René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La qvSalle, had built the rudimentary Fort St. Louisqv near Matagorda Bay. But France was unable to establish a permanent presence along the Texas–Louisiana coastline until the founding of New Orleans at the mouth of the Mississippi River in 1718. Early in the eighteenth century, French settlers built a thriving port there, through which they could control the flow of goods up and down the Mississippi between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. The descendants of these original Frenchqv colonists, known as "white creoles," generally remained in New Orleans, where they developed a sophisticated urban culture. Their art, music, and literature largely reflected the "high culture" of their more aristocratic peers back in France.
Along with the trappings of European high culture, early French settlers brought black slaves to Louisiana. These bondsmen came from various regions in Africa and the Caribbean and consequently spoke a variety of languages. Over time, the slaves and their descendents, known as "black creoles," developed a common patois, or mixture of the French language with their own tongues. By the time the United States acquired New Orleans and the rest of the Louisiana Territory in the Louisiana Purchase (1803), thousands of former slaves living in the area had gained their freedom. These French-speaking free blacksqv soon spread across the region from New Orleans throughout southwestern Louisiana and into East Texas. With the constitutional abolition of slaveryqv in 1865, thousands more Francophone African Americansqv moved westward into Texas. World War IIqv and the attendant boom in the petrochemical industry, qv which affected the upper Gulf Coast from Houston to Port Arthur, brought another large influx of French-speaking blacks into the state during the 1930s and 1940s.
Throughout the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, black creoles and their descendants had a profound impact on the musical development of Texas and the Southwest. They combined their African and French musical heritage with the dominant culture around them. They also added gospel,qv blues,qv and other musical influences, which had evolved out of the experiences of Southern slaves. Blending African rhythms, gospel, blues, Cajun, and country,qv French-speaking blacks in Texas and Louisiana concocted a new musical style by the 1940s known as "La La" or "Zydeco."qv The word Zydeco, a derivative of the French term les haricots, or "snap beans," first appeared in print on sound recordings made in the Houston area during the immediate post–World War II era. The Louisiana-born brothers Clifton and Cleveland Chenier were the first black Francophone musicians to popularize Zydeco on a national scale. They developed a customized metal washboard that could be worn over the chest and strummed with spoons or other metal objects to create a sharp, rhythmic sound. They added accordion, fiddle, and guitar to produce an energetic blend of blues and Cajun music, with lyrics sung both in French and English. Based in Houston for many years, Clifton Chenier, the "King of Zydeco," died in 1987. The Zydeco style is evidence of the broad and lasting impact of Francophone African-American music in Texas and throughout the country.
The most well-known French-speaking group that has left a distinct musical legacy in Texas and Louisiana is the Cajuns. The term Cajun is a derivative of the French Acadien, which denotes an inhabitant of the region known as Acadia in what is now Nova Scotia. French settlers began arriving in the future Maritime Provinces of eastern Canada in 1605. Most of those who settled in Acadia were from the northern and western coastal areas of Brittany and Normandy in France. Consequently, their music reflected both French and Celtic traditions. In the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), France ceded Acadia and other parts of Nova Scotia to the British. Since many of the French-speaking residents of Acadia refused to pledge an oath of allegiance to the British Crown, Great Britain began imprisoning, killing, and deporting Acadians. By 1755 British forces had expelled around 8,000 Acadians and confiscated their homes, farms, and businesses. Many sought refuge in New Orleans, with its large French-speaking population. But the authorities in New Orleans, fearful that these uprooted Frenchmen would bring poverty and disease into the city, directed the refugees to settle in the less populated bayous and swamplands of southwestern Louisiana. Except for limited interaction with local blacks and Indians,qv the Acadians, or Cajuns, managed to live in relative isolation until the 1930s, when technology, industrialization, and highway developmentqv brought the region into closer contact with the outside world. Because of decades of cultural isolation, Cajuns were able to preserve much of their musical heritage well into the twentieth century.
During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, thousands of Cajuns migrated westward into East Texas. Again, the rapid growth of the oil and gas industryqv along the upper Texas coast was a factor. During the 1930s and 1940s it brought a huge influx of Cajuns into the Lone Star State. Cajun music soon blended with western swing, honky-tonk, and other forms of popular Texas music to produce such hits as "Corrina, Corrina" and "Jole Blon." Although Cajun music is often thought of as being a distinctly Louisiana-based music, many of the most influential Cajun musicians lived and recorded in East Texas. Cajun music and Cajun culture in general are now widely celebrated throughout the United States and the world.
The last major group of French-speaking people to settle in Texas arrived in the mid-1800s directly from France. The largest contingent, which settled in and around Castroville under the leadership of Henri Castro,qv was from Alsace in eastern France. Alsace, which straddles the border between Germany and France, has long had a culture that reflects both strong German and French influences. The Alsatian immigrants who settled in Texas during the mid-nineteenth century performed a wide variety of music, ranging from the formal works of Europe's most noted composers to the rich and complex folk music of the working classes. Through their celebration and preservation of cultural traditions, these Francophones, along with all the others who made Texas their home, have contributed to the widely varied musical mosaic of the state.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Chris Strachwitz and Pete Welding, eds., The American Folk Music Occasional (New York: Oak, 1970). "The Vieux Carré" on The Official City of New Orleans Website (www.new-orleans.la.us/cnowrb/vcc/hisfq.html), accessed January 15, 2002.
Gary Hartman
