 |
|
MUSIC
| Calypso,
(also known as kaiso), and steelband,
though today two distinct genres, grew historically from the same
tradition of Carnival. To fully understand their genesis, it is important
to keep in mind the politico-historical context in which it evolved. From 1783, Trinidad, long neglected by its first Spanish colonisers, saw the immigration of planters from the French West Indies who came with their African slaves to develop slave agriculture. In 1797 Trinidad passes into the hands of the English. The populating of the colony, whose Amerindian population was totally decimated, was done primarily by immigrations from the English and French islands, from Venezuela, then from India. Today, the vast majority of the population is of equal proportion of African and Indian descendants, to which we must add the mixed population and a weak minority of Whites and Chinese. |
 Richard Bridgen engraving, 1838. from "Carnival, Camboulay and Calypso", John Cowley. |
Trinidad’s
population of African descent had therefore very often transited other
colonies first, thereby importing the language locally called ‘patois’
(the Creole from the French West Indies which has almost disappeared
today), the Carnival, and musical practices like the bèlè
[ ],
joubha, bamboula,
kalinda (associated with the practice of
stick-fighting, a fight carried out by men armed with sticks). These
multiple musical genres influenced 19th century Carnival music
: responsorial songs (a soloist, the chantwel alternating with the
choir) accompanied in polyrhythics by drums and idiophones. |
 Calypso tent, 1956. Top, 4th from the left, Mighty Sparrow. |
The end of the 19th century was a period of transition. In 1884, the English colonial authority banned ‘drums and noisy musical instruments’. The chantwels who , at the same time, were fulfilling their role in the music of carnival, began to appear at the same time in a different context, in tents (bamboo huts situated in working-class districts) for which an entrance fee was paid. Accompanied by a change in instrumentation, this evolution marks the birth of calypso. Early
20th century calypsos had a particular musical style, called Oratorical
calypso or Sans Humanité. Each
stanza ends with a ritornello in patois “Sans humanité”,
(inherited from stick fighting), and the melody was in minor. If
this form has gradually disappeared, it is still a source of inspiration
and calypsos in minor are regularly redone in the style of the day.
|
| The
texts, subject from the inter-war period until 1951 to unrelenting
censure, touch on various social themes
with general good humour. At times sympathetic towards
the colonial power, they also speak of Man/Woman relationships, inter-ethnic
relationships, as well as sensitive political subjects (like, for
example the 1937 riots), but are then generally censured []. At the same time the Carnival groups that remained in the streets adopt the tamboo-bamboo [ ]
(bamboo that have been percussed and burrowed), then more and more
metallic instruments as support for the polyrhythms. The first groups
using only metallic instruments appear during the 1930’s with
much success, and facilitate the discovery of the possible differentiation
of heights of sound on surfaces like biscuit tins, paint tins, garbage
bins, and finally oil drums. |
 Group of musicians on metallic idiophones, Carnival 1940. |
 Steelband Invaders wearing their instruments hung around their necks - « Pan around the neck », at the beginning of the 1950’s. |
Then
come experiments in the 1940’s, slowly leading to the adoption
of oil drums as special support, and of the Western
range as scalar model near the end of the Second World War [ Very
few original pieces were composed for the pan (or
steeldrum), and the repertoire consists generally
of the arrangement of calypsos, Latin music, popular American music
aired on the radio, and even classical music, these genres being
previously creolised by the local rhythmic section
[ Despite the persistent scorn besmirching the pannists who came from lower-class areas, the pan earned its letters of noblesse by becoming a powerful symbol, the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago. Yet, organised today (like calypsos) in a succession of competitions which, , govern the entire movement and the very musical aesthetics at a national level, steelbands are still subject to organisation from above, a possible heritage of the colonial system. |
 Renegades juniors, Panorama 2002. |
The
most important of these competitions, Panorama,
has nevertheless a great federative role, and assembles each year
around Carnival about sixty groups each made up of around a hundred
musicians. The rules of the competition dictate that the piece played
must be a calypso produced during the precedent year. An arranger
is in charge of orchestration, adding virtuoso musical developments
which should impress the judges and the public [ Steelbands and calypsos were born of the separation of the solo singers from the music of Trinidad Carnival; thus linked through a common history, they still maintain a close relationship. |