cajun partie histoire, architecture et musique

Cajun" is the English pronounciation of the French word "Cadien." Cajun is usually defined as residents of south Louisiana who are descendents of French-Canadian settlers who moved here from Acadia, a part of Canada that is around what is known today as Nova Scotia.
We generally talk about two types of Cajuns: Prairie and Bayou. Prairie Cajuns lived farther West, and made their living mostly by farming and ranching. Bayou Cajuns lived near the water, and fished and trapped for a living. Each type has their own dialect of Cajun French.

Immigrants from Northwestern France, the Acadians actually established one of the first permanent colonies on the North American continent in 1604. In the Canadian provinces of what is now New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, they had, by the time the British won the colony from France in 1713, established a thriving, self-sufficient community. Refusing to take an oath of allegiance to the British crown which required that they abandon their traditional Catholic religion, the Acadians were exiled by the British in 1755. It's Le Grand Dérangement, separated households and families forcing the people to flee with only the possessions they could carry. Homes and crops were burned down by the British. Scattered along the U.S. eastern seaboard and throughout the world, some of the Acadians regrouped in the southern part of Louisiana, along Mississippi in many counties in south Louisiana
Thanks their love for music, Cajuns had to become expert musical instrument makers. Cajun fiddles (violins) and accordions are two instruments that the Cajuns are well-known for building.


Traditional Cajun Music
This style comprises the roots of Cajun dance music, involving only a few instruments such as the accordion, fiddle, and triangle. This music as existed since the early 1900s and the waltz and two-step are the most common dances of this Cajun music genre. Many songs that became standards in the Cajun music repertoire were first recorded in this period of the 1920s and 30s.
There are two part:
The part(party) Cajun (Cadienne) itself, played by the white population and which has numerous links with the country music and the Western Swing. The instrument of preference is the violin.
The part(party) Zydeco, played by the black population. She(it) appeared at about the 1930s and is diverted from the previous one, including numerous influences Blues and Rhythm ' not Blues. The instrument of preference is the accordion.
This kind of music evolved along the time: it will be influenced by many other styles as rock, R&B, blues and jazz. It is recognised because:
On June 7, 2007, The Recording Academy announced a new Grammy category, Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album, in its folk music field.

Acadian Architecture, 1765 - 1803
Following a brief period of adjustment and complex resettlement movements, the Acadian exiles adopted the pre-existing Creole culture of the area and transformed it into something uniquely their own.
At first the Acadians constructed temporary shelters supported with poles in the ground and thatched with palmetto (Le Page du Pratz 1775). The second generation Cajun house was generally of pieux debout (palisade) construction, consisting of hewn cypress planks set vertically in a trench, the roof framed in the French manner and covered with bark. Beginning in the 1790s, the Cajuns adopted Creole practice, building their frame houses poteaux-sur-solle. Cypress blocks supported the sill above the damp ground. The Acadians maintained a certain distinctiveness in the form of their folk cottages: they persisted rigidly in their ancient use of the gabled roof (toit à pignons), rejecting the hip roofs of the aristocratic Creoles. They employed the attic or grenier as sleeping space, particularly for the young men. This required a roof pitched at 30 degrees or higher. Stairs to the attic were often mounted on the front gallery.
A gabled roof cottage of either one or two rooms with an in-set gallery across the front, this house form had become the standard of the Cajun countryside by the first decade of the nineteenth century. It was constructed entirely by hand. The house was capped with a simple roof truss, rather than the complex Norman truss so loved by the Creoles. Bousillage, a mixture of clay, lime and Spanish moss, was used as infill between the posts and braces. The bousillage was supported on a lattice of split stakes ("bâtons" or "barreaux"). The entire house was raised above the damp soil about two feet on large cypress blocks, later on brick pillars.


The last recorded new Acadian house was constructed in 1911. Since that time, many have been replaced by single-story brick houses built on a concrete slab, or even by house trailers, offering more modern conveniences. Nevertheless, several thousand of Acadian style cottages survive in southern Louisiana, particularly along the waterways of the state. Approximately one-half of the surviving population of traditional timber-frame cottages was lost between 1960 and 1990.