Steel-Pan
Music: The True Story
By Zahra Gordon
Steel-pan,
the national instrument of Trinidad & Tobago,
has become ubiquitous, with its music being found
in numerous commercials for Caribbean tourism, in
school programs as close to home as Grenada and as
far away as Japan, and even in the song “P.I.M.P”
by rapper 50-Cent. Yet as popular as steel-pan has
become, people seem to know very little about its
origins. Many still think that the instrument is a
Jamaican invention. So in the interest of knowledge-sharing
and challenging misconceptions, here is the true story
of the steel-pan and its evolution.
The steel-pan is the only instrument
to be invented in the 20th century. Pan, as it is
locally referred to, developed as part of the Carnival
culture of Trinidad. Up until the 1930s, tamboo-bamboo
bands were still the norm for Carnival music among
Afro-Trinidadians. The tamboo-bamboo bands were Carnival
bands whose instruments consisted of different lengths
of bamboo which would be played with sticks and knocked
on the ground. Bamboo was used after drums were banned
by the colonial powers in the 1800s. It is believed
that the younger generation of Africans at the time
sought to and did change this. In his book, “Rituals
of Power and Rebellion: The Carnival Tradition in
Trinidad & Tobago,” Hollis “Chalkdust”
Liverpool, PhD, Trinidadian calypsonian writes that
“The evidence of several writers and eyewitnesses
show that following the Tamboo Bamboo band, younger
bamboo beaters began to slowly introduce pieces of
steel and old pans to provide more rhythm for the
revelers.” The steel brought to the tamboo-bamboo
bands was mostly recycled biscuit, paint and soda
tins.
These young people continued
to experiment with pans and by the early 1940s had
developed instruments that could play simple melodic
tunes. During the 1940s the steel pan would increase
in versatility and by 1949, steel pan tuners and builders
preferred discarded 55 gallon oil drums from which
to fashion their instruments. As pannists - a pan
player, as in “pianist” - sought to play
more complicated music on their instruments, they
developed more pans to suit, and by the 1950s the
steel-band grew to a full orchestra containing pans
to fit all voices – bass, alto, tenor –
as such.
Since the steel-bands developed
out of the poorer neighborhoods in Trinidad and were
associated with the violence of these areas, the instrument
was frowned upon by the upper and middle class Trinidadian
society who tended to be more adept in their knowledge
of European music. When students of prestigious secondary
schools formed their own bands and/or ventured to
join the lower class bands during the 1940s and 50s,
they aided in the steel-pan gaining recognition. Steel-bands
were also able to gain recognition by being allowed
to participate in the national music festival, forming
associations, gaining sponsorship from companies,
receiving support from key figures in the middle class,
and playing classical music and other genres besides
the indigenous calypso. In the fight for independence
and the rise of nationalism, the leading political
parties saw the importance of the steel-pan to Trinidadians
and it was then adopted as a symbol of nationalism.
According to Liverpool, “By 1962, the majority
of middle class people who had first spurned the movement
began to accept the steel-band as the national music
of the country. Its history showed a continuous march
from the Congo drum of enslavement, to the Cannes
Brulees of colonialism, to an orchestra on stage to
usher in the country’s independence.”
After independence, the national
Panorama competition was established by the new government
as the foremost showcase venue for steel bands. As
part of the nationalist doctrine, however, bands were
restricted to playing only calypsoes for this competition.
Some steel-band arrangers began to feel somewhat repressed
by these constraints. Whereas pannists may have been
able to “drop a Bomb” in the past while
on the road at Carnival or in other venues and gain
kudos, Panorama did not allow that comfort. “Dropping
a Bomb” was playing a classical or American
pop tune during carnival parades to gain prestige
among the middle class patrons. These songs were usually
rehearsed in secret to add to the element of surprise
and would sometimes be played in calypso tempo.
Arrangers soon figured out
how to add elements of the other genres to their calypso
arrangements, resulting in the lengthy, elaborate
arrangements we hear in the current Panorama competitions.
However, while Panorama remained the height of showcasing
for steel-bands, the sole playing of calypso at this
event might in turn have created a steel-band movement
of pannists, whose knowledge rests solely in calypso,
as opposed to musicians, who have a broad knowledge
of musical genres. Trinidadian Historian Kim Johnson
laments that the steel-pan seems to have “fell
to the social scientists by default, as if beating
pan was some quaint folk practice, an aspect of ethnicity
or national identity or pluralism – anything
but a serious, modern art form.” Steel-bands
spend months preparing and practicing these elaborate
calypso arrangements and this focus may be part of
the reason that some believe the steel-band movement
has not been taken seriously enough.
This is not to say that there
are not additional opportunities for pannists to showcase
their talents outside of the Carnival and calypso
setting. Outside of the Carnival season other competitions
and showcases have arisen where the central focus
is not calypso – although calypso is not absent.
These events include the World Steelband Music Festival,
where bands are required to play a classical piece
in addition to a test piece which is usually a calypso,
and the Pan in the 21st Century competition where
participating bands are given a list of suggested
musical genres to choose from, all of which are non-calypso.
Not to mention the numerous Pan Jazz festivals held
throughout the year.
For more in-depth
information about the steel-pan check out these books:
