Steelpans is a
musical instrumentA musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...
originating from The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Steel pan musicians are called
pannistA pannist is a person who plays the steelpan. A professional pannist can perform solo pieces, play with a steel band, or accompany one or more singers or solo instrumentalists...
s.
Description
The pan is a
chromaticallyThe chromatic scale is a musical scale with twelve pitches, each a semitone apart. On a modern piano or other equal-tempered instrument, all the half steps are the same size...
pitchedPitch is an auditory perceptual property that allows the ordering of sounds on a frequency-related scale.Pitches are compared as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melodies,...
percussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
(although some toy or dumb novelty steelpans are tuned
diatonicallyIn music theory, a diatonic scale is a seven note, octave-repeating musical scale comprising five whole steps and two half steps for each octave, in which the two half steps are separated from each other by either two or three whole steps...
), made from 55 gallon drums that usually store
oilAn oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....
. In fact,
drum refers to the steel drum containers from which the pans are made; the steeldrum is correctly called a
steel pan or
pan as it falls into the
idiophoneAn idiophone is any musical instrument which creates sound primarily by way of the instrument's vibrating, without the use of strings or membranes. It is the first of the four main divisions in the original Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification...
family of instruments, and is not technically regarded as a
drumThe drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
or
membranophoneA membranophone is any musical instrument which produces sound primarily by way of a vibrating stretched membrane. It is one of the four main divisions of instruments in the original Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification....
. The pan is struck by a pair of straight sticks tipped with rubber; the size and type of rubber tip is unique to the class of pan being played. Some musicians use four pansticks, holding two in each hand. This skill and performance has been conclusively shown to have grown out of Trinidad and Tobago's early 20th century
CarnivalCarnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
percussion groups known as Tamboo Bamboo. The pan is the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago. Since Pythagoras calculated the formula for the musical cycle of fourths and fifths, Steel Pans are the only instruments made to follow this configuration.
Origins
French planters and their slaves emigrated to Trinidad during the
French RevolutionThis is a page on the history of the island of Martinique.-100-1450:The island was originally inhabited by Arawak and Carib peoples. Circa 130 CE, the first Arawaks are believed to have arrived from South America. In 295 CE, an eruption of Mount Pelée resulted in the decimation of the island's...
(1789) from
MartiniqueMartinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
, including a number of
West AfricaWest Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
ns, and French creoles from
Saint VincentSaint Vincent and the Grenadines is an island country in the Lesser Antilles chain, namely in the southern portion of the Windward Islands, which lie at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea where the latter meets the Atlantic Ocean....
,
GrenadaGrenada is an island country and Commonwealth Realm consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea...
and
DominicaDominica , officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its size is and the highest point in the country is Morne Diablotins, which has an elevation of . The Commonwealth...
, establishing a local community before Trinidad and Tobago were taken from Spain by the British.
CarnivalCarnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
had arrived with the French, and the slaves, who could not take part in Carnival, formed their own, parallel celebration called
canboulayCanboulay is a precursor to Trinidad and Tobago Carnival. The festival is also where calypso music has its roots. It was originally a harvest festival, at which drums, singing, dancing and chanting were an integral part...
.
Stick fightingStick fighting is a generic term for martial arts which use simple long slender, blunt, hand-held, generally wooden 'sticks' for fighting such as a staff, cane, walking stick, baton or similar....
and African percussion music were banned in 1880, in response to the
Canboulay RiotsThe Canboulay Riots riots by the descendants of freed slaves in the cities of Trinidad and Tobago against attempts by the British police to crack down on aspects of the celebration of Carnival. The riots occurred in February 1881 in Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and in the southern...
. They were replaced by
bambooBamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family....
sticks beaten together, which were themselves banned in turn. In 1937 they reappeared, transformed as an orchestra of
frying panA frying pan, frypan, or skillet is a flat-bottomed pan used for frying, searing, and browning foods. It is typically in diameter with relatively low sides that flare outwards, a long handle, and no lid. Larger pans may have a small grab handle opposite the main handle...
s, dustbin lids and
oil drumOil drum may refer to:* Drum , a cylindrical container used for transporting bulk goods such as oil and fuel* The Oil Drum, an energy discussion website...
s. These
steelpanSteelpans is a musical instrument originating from The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago...
s are now a major part of the Trinidadian music scene and are a popular section of the Canboulay music contests. In 1941, the
United States NavyThe United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
arrived on Trinidad, and the panmen, who were associated with lawlessness and violence, helped to popularize steel pan music among soldiers, which began its international popularization.
The first instruments developed in the evolution of steelpan were Tamboo-Bamboos, tunable sticks made of
bambooBamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family....
wood. These were hit onto the ground and with other sticks in order to produce sound. Tamboo-Bamboo bands also included percussion of a (gin) bottle and spoon. By the mid-1930s, bits of metal percussion were being used in the tamboo bamboo bands, the first probably being either the automobile brake hub "iron" or the biscuit drum "boom". The former replaced the gin bottle-and-spoon, and the latter the "bass" bamboo that was pounded on the ground. By the late 1930s their occasional all-steel bands were seen at Carnival and by 1940 it had become the preferred Carnival accompaniment of young underprivileged men. The 55-gallon oil drum was used to make lead steelpans from around 1947. The Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra (TASPO), formed to attend the Festival of Britain in 1951, was the first steelband whose instruments were all made from oil drums. Members of
TASPOThe Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra was formed to participate in the Festival of Britain in 1951. The group presented the newly invented Steelpan to an international audience.-Members of TASPO:...
included
Ellie MannetteElliot "Ellie" Mannette is a musical instrument maker and Steel Pan musician, also known as "father of the modern steel pan instrument".-Life:...
and
Winston "Spree" SimonWinston "Spree" Simon was an inventor, pioneer and musician of the Steel Pan.-Life:Simon was born in Rosehill, East Dry River, Port of Spain, Trinidad...
. Hugh Borde also led the National Steel Band of Trinidad & Tobago at the Commonwealth Arts Festival in England, as well as the Esso Tripoli Steel Band, who played at the World’s Fair in
MontrealMontreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
,
CanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and later toured with
LiberaceWladziu Valentino Liberace , best known simply as Liberace, was a famous American pianist and vocalist.In a career that spanned four decades of concerts, recordings, motion pictures, television and endorsements, Liberace became world-renowned...
and were also featured on an album with him.
Construction
Steelpans are built using sheet metal with a thickness between 0.8 mm and 1.5 mm. Traditionally, steelpans have been built from used oil barrels. Nowadays, many instrument makers do not rely on used steel containers and get the resonance bodies manufactured according to their preferences and technical specifications. In a first step, the sheet metal is stretched into a bowl shape (this is commonly known as 'sinking'). This process is usually done with hammers, manually or with the help of air pressure. The note pattern is then marked onto the surface, and the notes of different sizes are shaped and molded into the surface. After the tempering, the notes have to be softened and tuned (initial tuning). The softening is part of this initial tuning process. The technician will use the best possible tuning device to get the right notes for each of the playing areas and to the pitch that is wanted. Often they will use an
electronic tunerThe term electronic tuner can refer to a number of different things, depending which discipline you wish to study.In the Discipline of radio frequency electronics an electronic tuner is a device which tunes across a part of the radio frequency spectrum by the application of a voltage or appropriate...
called a Strobe tuner to assist the tuning of the steelpan.
The note's size corresponds to the pitch—the larger the oval, the lower the tone.
The size of the instrument varies from one pan to another. It may have almost all of the "skirt" (the cylindrical part of the oil drum) cut off and around 30 soprano-range notes. It may use the entire drum with only three bass notes per pan, in which case one person may play six such pans. The length of the skirt generally corresponds to the
tessituraIn music, the term tessitura generally describes the most musically acceptable and comfortable range for a given singer or, less frequently, musical instrument; the range in which a given type of voice presents its best-sounding texture or timbre...
(high or low range) of the drum. The pans are usually either painted or
chromedChrome plating, often referred to simply as chrome, is a technique of electroplating a thin layer of chromium onto a metal object. The chromed layer can be decorative, provide corrosion resistance, ease cleaning procedures, or increase surface hardness.-Process:A component to be chrome plated will...
. Other processes such as nickel plating, powdercoating or hardening can also be applied as a finish.
Despite being a relatively new member of the percussion family, steelpan tuning techniques have advanced rapidly. Because of the short "voice" of the pan, needle/LED display type tuners cannot track the signal to identify a tone. Strobe tuners are real-time tuners, ideally suited for the task. The need to see the first few overtones further makes a strobe tuner a necessity for steelpan tuning. Steelpan makers have used strobe tuners since it was discovered that, by adjusting the overtones (1st (fundamental), 2nd and third partial), the pan's sound seemed to sparkle in a way that it did not previously.
There are several ways in which a steelpan may become out of tune (most commonly this is caused by playing the steelpan with excessive force and incorrect handling) and it is quite common that steelbands arrange to have their instruments tuned once or twice a year. A tuner must have great skill in his/her work to manage to make the notes sound both good and at the correct pitch. Much of the tuning work is performed using hammers.
Evolution and developments
Anthony WilliamsAnthony "Tony" Williams is an inventor, pioneer and musician of the Steel Pan.-Life:Williams was born at the General Hospital of Port-of-Spain and grew up in Nepal Street in St...
designed the "Fourths and Fifths" arrangement of notes, known as the cycle of fifths. This has become the standard form of note placement for lead pans. Other important developments include the tuning of harmonic overtones in individual notes, developed simultaneously and independently by
Bertie MarshallBertie Marshall is a pioneer, musician and music instrument maker of the Steel Pan.-Life and Merits:...
and Alan Gervais.
The Caribbean Research Institute CARIRI investigated possibilities to mass produce raw forms with the use of pressing machines in the 1970s. Much of this project took place in
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
in collaboration with the
SaabSaab AB is a Swedish aerospace and defence company, founded in 1937. From 1947 to 1990 it was the parent company of automobile manufacturer Saab Automobile, and between 1968 and 1995 the company was in a merger with commercial vehicle manufacturer Scania, known as Saab-Scania.-History:"Svenska...
Company. Although first results were promising, the project has been abandoned due to lack of finances and support by local pan tuners in Trinidad. Another method of shaping the pan was attempted: by spinning. The pan was spun on a
latheA lathe is a machine tool which rotates the workpiece on its axis to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, or deformation with tools that are applied to the workpiece to create an object which has symmetry about an axis of rotation.Lathes are used in woodturning,...
-like device, and a roller on the end of a bar was used to sink the pan. While this did create pre sunk pans, a problem was that there would often be scratches and grooves in the steel.
Since the steel is stretched pretty thin, any scratch will expand and can crack. Often drums have lettering stamped into the bottom. If done carefully, these can sometimes be stretched without breaking, but cracks around lettering on some drums is common. To avoid this problem, makers position the inner notes to avoid most of the letters.
BrazingBrazing is a metal-joining process whereby a filler metal is heated above and distributed between two or more close-fitting parts by capillary action. The filler metal is brought slightly above its melting temperature while protected by a suitable atmosphere, usually a flux...
over the holes and grinding, will often fix the problems, without damaging the sound, but it has to be done nearly at the end of the sinking process, and well before any final shaping.
A Swiss steel pan manufacturer (PANArt) researched the field of fine-grain sheet steel and developed a deep drawn raw form which was additionally hardened by nitriding. This process, and the instruments they called Pang, were presented at the International Conference of Steel pan and Science in Port-of-Spain in 2000.
Electronic steel pans have also been developed. One such version is the E-Pan, invented by Salmon Cupid, who holds utility patents for it. Another is the Percussive Harmonic Instrument (PHI),
The pan family
There are many different instruments and variations making up the family of steelband instruments. In the beginning of the steelband movement, the instruments consisted of one resonance body only, commonly called
Around the neck instruments. Later on, Steelpans became chromatic. Following are some of the most popular and known instruments:
| Instrument | Pitch | Inventor |
| Soprano, Lead, or Tenor |
Soprano |
Winston "Spree" Simon Winston "Spree" Simon was an inventor, pioneer and musician of the Steel Pan.-Life:Simon was born in Rosehill, East Dry River, Port of Spain, Trinidad...
|
| Double Tenor |
Mezzosoprano |
Bertie Marshall Bertie Marshall is a pioneer, musician and music instrument maker of the Steel Pan.-Life and Merits:...
|
| Double Second |
Alto |
Sonny Roach |
| Double Guitar |
Baritone |
Joshua Francis |
| Quadrophonic (four pans) |
Baritone |
Rudolph Charles Rudolph Charles was a musician and instrument maker of the Steelpan. But most notably, he was a pioneer and visionary leader of the steelband movement in Trinidad and Tobago....
|
| Triple Guitar |
Baritone |
Joshua Francis |
| Cello |
Baritone |
Joshua Francis |
| Six Pan |
Baritone |
Joshua Francis |
| Tenor Bass |
Bass |
Nadia Ramlochan and the Faheezy Band |
| Six Bass |
Bass |
Joshua Francis |
| Nine Bass |
Bass |
Rudolph Charles |
| Twelve Bass |
Bass |
Rudolph Charles |
Music and competitions
The repertoire of the steelband is extensive. Steelbands in Trinidad have a tradition of re-interpreting the current year's
calypsoCalypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
s for Carnival performance; rarely will a calypso from a previous year be heard at Carnival or Panorama. Bands that perform all year round (both in Trinidad and in the so-called 'pan diaspora') have long prided themselves on being able to perform many types of music, particularly Latin and jazz numbers, film music and other popular tunes. Pan-men also have a tradition of performing classical music on pan which dates back to 1946, both in calypso tempo (known as "The Bomb") and straight (generally in concert or music festival contexts). In these contexts, accuracy and faithfulness to the original are highly prized. While many American and British audiences demand to hear
Harry BelafonteHarold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...
songs on pan, these are generally inauthentic to the Trinidadian tradition.
For many years now there have been attempts to use the steelpan in various contexts other than those with which it is stereotypically associated. The first known use of steelband in a theatrical performance (outside of Trinidad and Tobago) was in Harold Arlen's 1954 Broadway musical
The House of Flowers, in which Enid Mosier's Trinidad Steel Band performed in several songs. British composer
Daphne OramDaphne Oram was a British composer and electronic musician. She was the creator of the "Oramics" technique for creating electronic sounds....
was the first composer to electronically manipulate the sound of the steelpan after recording a band (probably
Russell HendersonRussell Henderson is a jazz musician on the piano and the steelpan. He is most widely known for one of the founding figures of the Notting Hill Carnival in London, United Kingdom.-Biography:...
's Steelband) in 1960. The first use of pan in a commercial pop record was by
The HolliesThe Hollies are an English pop and rock group, formed in Manchester in the early 1960s, though most of the band members are from throughout East Lancashire. Known for their distinctive vocal harmony style, they became one of the leading British groups of the 1960s and 1970s...
in 1967 with "
Carrie Anne"Carrie Anne" is a song written by Allan Clarke, Graham Nash, Tony Hicks and released by British pop rock group The Hollies. The song was recorded on 1 May 1967 and was released as a single in the same month by Parlophone Records in the United Kingdom and Epic Records in the United States. It...
".
An international festival, the World Steelband Music Festival, has been held intermittently in Trinidad since 1964, where steelbands perform in a concert-style ambiance a test piece (sometimes specially composed, or a selected calypso) a piece of choice (very often a "classic" or European art-music work) and calypso of choice.
PanoramaPanorama is an annual music competition of Steelbands from Trinidad and Tobago.It is usually held around Carnival time.-History:Panorama was first held during Carnival celebrations in 1963. A popular Calypso is arranged into a piece with introductions and variations over the theme.-Past...
, the largest steelband contest in the world, occurs during Carnival celebrations in Trinidad.
Steelpans were introduced to the genre of
Jazz FusionJazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
by players such as
Dave SamuelsDave Samuels is an American vibraphone player who has worked with various jazz and fusion artists, such as Spyro Gyra. Currently, he plays in an ensemble called The Caribbean Jazz Project, a Grammy-winning jazz-Latin music group...
and
Othello MolineauxOthello Molineaux is an acclaimed jazz steelpan player who spent much of his earlier career backing bass guitarist Jaco Pastorius. Additionally, Molineaux has worked with other musicians such as Monty Alexander, Chicago, and David Johansen.-References:...
in the 1980's, and
Jonathan ScalesJonathan Scales is an American steel pannist and composer. He has recorded and produced three albums, the most recent being Character Farm and Other Short Stories, released in April 2011. Since 2007, Scales has recorded and performed with Roy "Future Man" Wooten, Jeff Coffin, Jeff Sipe, Casey...
in the 2000's. The sound of the steelpans adds a pleasant and accessible sound to an otherwise complex musical style. They are featured in the early fusion album
Morning DanceMorning Dance is Spyro Gyra's most commercially successful album, released in the summer of 1979. The title cut became a major hit also in the summer of 1979.-Track listing and personnel:...
by
Spyro GyraSpyro Gyra is an American jazz fusion band that was originally formed in the mid-1970s in Buffalo, New York, USA. With over 25 albums released and 10 million copies sold, they are among the most prolific as well as commercially successful groups of the genre...
.
Selected publications and further reading
- Aho, William R. "Steel Band Music in Trinidad and Tobago: The Creation of a People's Music", Latin American Music Review 8 (1): 26-56, 1987.
- Blake, Felix I. R. The Trinidad and Tobago Steel Pan: History and Evolution. ISBN 0-952-55280-9
- Dudley, Shannon K. "Judging 'By the beat': Calypso versus soca", Ethnomusicology 40 (2): 269-98, 1996.
- Dudley, Shannon K. Making music for the Nation: Competing identities and Esthetics in Trinidad and Tobago's Panorama Steelband Competition. PhD dissertation; University of California Berkley, 353pp., 1997.
- Dudley, Shannon K. "Dropping the Bomb: Steelband Performance and Meaning in 1960's Trinidad", Ethnomusicology 46 (1): 135-64, 2002.
- Grant, Cy. Ring of Steel - Pan Sound and Symbol. Macmillan Education, London, 1999. ISBN 0-333-66128-1
- Helmlinger, Aurélie. "La compétition des steelbands de Trinidad Musique et jeu du tenor". Mémoire de maîtrise, Paris X Nanterre, 86 pp., 1999.
- Helmlinger, Aurélie. "Geste individuel, mémoire collective: Le jeu du pan dans les steelbands de Trinidad et Tobago", Cahiers de musiques traditionnelles 14 : 181-202, 2001.
- Helmlinger, Aurélie. Mémoire et jeu d’ensemble ; La mémorisation du répertoire dans les steelbands de Trinidad et Tobago. PhD dissertation; Université Paris X Nanterre, Paris, 2005.
- Helmlinger, Aurélie. "The influence of the group for the memorization of repertoire in Trinidad and Tobago steelbands". 9th International Conference on Musical Perception and Cognition proceedings, ed. by M. Baroni, A.R. Addessi, R. Caterina, M. Costa, Bologna, 2006.
- Kronman, Ulf. Steel Pan Tuning - a Handbook for Steel Pan Making and Tuning. Part of the series, Musikmuseets skrifter, 1992. ISSN 0282-8952
- Manuel, Peter. Caribbean Currents: Caribbean Music from Rumba to Reggae, 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2006. ISBN 1-59213-463-7
- Seeger, P. Steel drums - how to play them and make them, Oak. Publ. New York, 1964.
- Stuempfle, Stephen. The steelband movement. The forging of a national art in Trinidad and Tobago, University of Pennsylvania Press, 287 pp., 1995.
- Thomas, Jeffrey. Forty Years of Steel: An Annotated Discography of Steelband and Pan Recordings, 1951-1991. Connecticut, USA: Greenwood Press, 1992.
External links
in French:
iPhone Apps.