Mr Baptiste was a musician living in late 17th-century Jamaica who composed music portraying African traditions as they were performed by enslaved musicians on the island. This article argues that Baptiste was probably a free person of colour and perhaps one of the earliest-known Black American composers to have published Western notation. His music was printed in Hans Sloane’s 1707 travelogue and natural history of Jamaica. The article also addresses broader issues concerning the underrepresentation of marginalized performers in colonial music histories, with special attention to musical life in the early modern Caribbean.

中文翻译：

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寻找巴蒂斯特先生：关于早期加勒比音乐、种族和殖民作曲家

Baptiste 先生是一位生活在 17 世纪后期牙买加的音乐家，他创作的音乐描绘了岛上被奴役的音乐家演奏的非洲传统。这篇文章认为，巴蒂斯特可能是一个自由的有色人种，也许是最早发表西方乐谱的美国黑人作曲家之一。他的音乐被印在汉斯·斯隆 1707 年的牙买加游记和自然史中。这篇文章还讨论了关于殖民音乐历史中边缘化表演者代表性不足的更广泛问题，特别关注现代早期加勒比地区的音乐生活。