STEELPAN
The steel pan originated in Trinidad. In the 1930s, African descendants expressed music, rhythms and harmonies by beating on pieces of metal. The reputed inventor of the steel pan is Winston Spree Simon. There are many legends and stories as to how exactly he invented the instrument, but one thing is certain: the steel pan has the honour of being the only musical instrument to be invented in the 20 th century. Subsequent to its invention, it faced a few problems, the major one being the music’s association with criminal activities. However, this did not last long. In the 1950s, the steel pan music achieved great progress with the decision to send a steelband to England as part of the Commonwealth celebrations. The result of this was international exposure and acceptance of steel pan. In the 1960s, steel pan played a huge role in the Independence celebrations, and the first ever Panorama was held on February 22 nd 1963. Today, steel pan is an internationally recognized and accepted art form. Steelbands have been instigated in countries all over the world, e.g. Sweden and Japan. The steelpan is the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago.
Steel pan is a very prominent part of culture in South Trinidad. There are a number of pan yards and there are both conventional (the widely recognized “big” bands) and traditional (pan around the neck). There are a number of pan yards e.g. the TCL Skiffle Bunch Pan Yard, Tropical’s Angel Harps, Petrotrin’s Deltones and Lee Chung’s Panosonic. Competitions for steelbands started in the early 1950s as an effort to channel the fierce and often violent rivalries of the different steelbands into the more sophisticated arena of musical competition. The most well-known of these competitions is the “Panorama Steelband Competition”. This competition was sponsored by the government, led by the late Dr. Eric Williams, in an effort to mobilise and inspire a musical resource of obvious abundance and talent. Panorama came to fruition in 1963, the year after Trinidad and Tobago gained Independence, flourished, and remains. Taking place around Carnival time, Panorama was traditionally held at The Grand Stand, Queens Park Savannah. However, in 2007, the Panorama finals (i.e. Medium and Large Bands), held on Saturday 17th February, was brought to Skinner Park in San Fernando for the first time ever. This was a very historic occasion for South Trinidad and for the country as a whole. The show was a great success despite many misgivings and complaints.
Prior to the finals every year, South/Central Trinidad hold a steelband competition of their own at Skinner Park – the “South-O-Rama”, a very highly attended event. Despite the high standard exhibited on Sunday 11th February 2007, no steelbands from South/Central Trinidad made it to the finals. A lot of work was put in to get the stadium ready for the Panorama finals. For one thing, the stage width was not enough, and therefore had to be extended by 12 feet from 45 feet to a usable 57 feet.
An uncharacteristically early start was announced for the finals – 5:00 pm. The show actually began 19 minutes later and finished at almost 1:00am the next morning! South-O-Rama winners, NLCB Fonclaire, made a guest appearance at the show, just before the results were announced.
The winner of the Medium Bands Category was Courts Sound Specialists of Laventille led by veteran southern arranger, Ken Professor Filmore, his first Panorama win. They ended with 279 points, just one more than the 2nd place winner. The winner of the Large Bands Category was Neal and Massy Trinidad All Stars led by Leon Smooth Edwards. He won with 288.5 points, two ahead of favourite HCL Phase II Pan Groove led by the well known Len Boogsie Sharpe.
The event was very well attended and the crowd thoroughly enjoyed the proceedings.
- Pantar
The most recent example of the merging of our cultures is “pantar”. This is the result of collaboration between well-known pan arranger Len Boogsie Sharpe and equally well-known sitarist Mungal Patasar. It involves combining the two vastly different sounds to produce a melodious masterpiece of music. A scintillating performance was given at this year’s Cricket World Cup opening ceremony held for the first time in the West Indies.
MUSIC FESTIVAL
The first Music Festival was held in March, 1948, at the Princes Building with Mr. Gerald Hutson as the first adjudicator. The idea was formulated in 1947 to encourage classical music among people of all ages. It has grown over the years to a standard competition in which many persons of distinction participate.
The festival was modeled after the amateur festivals that thrive all over Britain and functioned as a training ground for most of this country’s “classical” performers.
Since 1948, this festival has become a biennial event and although competition was once limited to the classics, Indian and Calypso music were finally included to bring indigenous music to the festival.
Taken from Fetes and Festivals of Trinidad and Tobago