lavway

The music of Trinidad and Tobago is best known for its calypso music, soca music, chutney music, and steelpan. Calypso's internationally noted performances in the 1950s from native artists such as Lord Melody, Lord Kitchener and Mighty Sparrow. The art form was most popularised at that time by Harry Belafonte. Along with folk songs and African- and Indian-based classical forms, cross-cultural interactions have produced other indigenous forms of music including soca, rapso, parang, chutney, and other derivative and fusion styles. There are also local communities which practice and experiment with international classical and pop music, often fusing them with local steelpan instruments.

MusicTT was established in 2014 to facilitate the business development and export activity of the music industry in Trinidad and Tobago.

History

The Cedula of Population of 1783 laid the foundation and growth of the population of Trinidad. The island's Spanish possessors contributed little towards advancements, with El Dorado the focus; Trinidad's geographical location made it the center of that focus. Following the Cedula, French planters (accompanied by their slaves, free coloreds and mulattos) from the French Antilles of Martinique, Grenada, Guadeloupe and Dominica migrated to the Trinidad. This exodus was encouraged due to the French Revolution. The Spanish also gave many incentives to lure settlers to the island, including exemption from taxes for 10 years and land grants in accordance to the terms set out in the Cedula. These new immigrants established local communities of Blanchisseuse, Champs Fleurs, Paramin, Cascade, Carenage and Laventille. Trinidad's population jumped from less than 1,400 in 1777, to over 15,000 by the end of 1789. In 1797, Trinidad became a British crown colony, with a French-speaking population.

Carnival had arrived with the French. Indentured laborers and slaves, who could not take part in Carnival, formed their own, parallel celebration, canboulay, which became the precursor for the Trinidad & Tobago Carnival, and has played an important role in the development of Trinidad's culture.

Official and elite unease over carnival revelry (which was considered violent and unruly) grew during the next few decades, and in 1883 drumming was banned in an attempt to clean up Carnival. This injunction came after a serious disturbance during the 1881 Carnival, known as the Canboulay Riots. Canboulays were processions during carnival that commemorated the harvesting of burnt cane fields during slavery, a process so labor-intensive that it had often involved forced marches of slaves from neighboring plantations to more efficiently harvest the cane (once the field is burned, the cane requires immediate harvesting, or it spoils). These canboulay processions were popular, and often incorporated kalenda. The government's attempt to ban the processions in 1881 resulted in open riots between Afro-Creole revelers and police, a turn of events that, not surprisingly, caused deep resentment within Trinidadian society toward the government's use of power. The open resistance of Afro-Creole revelers, of course, redoubled concerns among government officials over this potential threat to public order and led to an alternative strategy—the banning of drumming—in 1883. To make sure that the point got across, stick-fighting itself was banned in 1884. An ingenious substitute for the drums and sticks, called tamboo bamboo, was introduced in the 1890s.

Tamboo-bamboo bands consist of three different instruments (each cut from bamboo): boom, foulé, and cutter. The boom serves as the bass instrument, is usually about five feet long, and is played by stamping it on the ground. The foulé, a higher-pitched instrument, consists of two pieces of bamboo, each about a foot long, and is played by striking these pieces end to end. The cutter, the highest-pitched instrument in the ensemble, is made from a thinner piece of bamboo (of varying length) and is struck with a stick. These three types of instruments combined to beat out rhythms that accompanied the chantwells and were a staple of carnival celebrations for many years. They were gradually rendered obsolete by the steel band.

The 1930s saw contests between tents become a standard part of Carnival, and in 1939, Growling Tiger was crowned the first calypso monarch of Trinidad (for his song, "The Labor Situation in Trinidad"). Carnival festivities split into two kinds of venues during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, occupying both the street and more performance-oriented calypso tents. Both of these spaces, however, were the preserve of the lower class and of Afro-Creoles. Calypsonians were considered potentially dangerous by elites and government officials because they commanded large followings and could sway public opinion with their songs. The streets were also carefully monitored, setting up an atmosphere within which calypso and Carnival were embraced by the lower class and kept at a distance by elites. The Afro-Creole middle class, moreover, working toward upward social mobility and thus concerned with aligning itself with the elite, also attempted to distance itself from Carnival and calypso.

Beginning in 1845, major influxes of indentured immigrants from India and other parts of the world dramatically changed the ethnic composition of the islands. These indentured servants brought their own folk music, primarily from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, to the creole mix, resulting in chutney music. In addition to Indians, Syrians, Portuguese, Chinese and Africans came to the islands in waves between 1845 and 1917, and even after.

Folk traditions

Recorded in the hills of Trinidad, here is a fascinating juxtaposition of three music and music / dance practices of non-urban dwellers derived from African roots. Bamboo-Tamboo evolved out of the ban which European colonizers imposed on drumming: dry, hollow bamboo poles were cut to varying lengths to produce different pitches when thumped theground. These bamboo instruments are used to accompany or speak about calinda (stick fighting). Belair (bélé) is a dance of older women accompanied by drums and shakers

Bélé

In the late 18th century when the French plantation owners and their Creole slaves came to Trinidad and Tobago, they brought with them a life style of "joie de vivre" to their plantations. At that time, the French held many balls at the Great Houses where they enjoyed doing many of the courtly dances of Europe.

The house slaves, in their moments of leisure, took the dance to the field slaves and mimicked the dance of their masters. The slaves who worked in or around these houses quickly copied the style and dress. They showed off by doing ceremonious bows, making grand entrances, sweeping movements, graceful and gentle gliding steps which imitated the elegance of the French. The rhythmic quality of the bélé drums added spicy and yet subtle sensuality to the movements. There are more than 14 types of bélé dances including the Grand bélé and Congo bélé, with each performed to its own rhythms and chants.

Tamboo-Bamboo

Stick fighting and African percussion music were banned in 1881 from Trinidad Carnival, in response to the Canboulay Riots. They were replaced by bamboo sticks "Tamboo-Bamboo" (originally Tambour Bamboo) beaten together, which were themselves banned in turn. Tamboo-Bamboo evolved out of the ban which European colonizers imposed on drumming: dry, hollow bamboo poles were cut to varying lengths to produce different pitches when thumped against the ground. In 1937 they reappeared, transformed as an orchestra of frying pans, dustbin lids and oil drums. These steelpans or pans are now a major part of the Trinidadian music.

The first instruments developed in the evolution of steelpan were Tamboo-Bamboos, tunable sticks made of bamboo wood. 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.

Kaiso

Kaiso is a type of music popular in Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Barbados, St. Lucia and Dominica. It originated from West African call and response songs, and later evolved into calypso music.

Kaiso music has its origins in West African call and response songs (particularly in present-day Nigeria) which were brought over by the slaves who (in the early history of the art form) used them to sing about their masters and ways to gain their freedom. The people would also gather in "kaiso" tents where a griot or lead singer would lead them in song. Many early kaisos were sung in French Creole by a "chantwell". Kaiso songs are generally narrative in form and often have a cleverly concealed political subtext.

After Emancipation of slavery, the chantwell would sing call-and-response chants called ''lavways'', lionizing and cheering on champion stickfighters. This form of music gradually evolved into the modern day calypso.

Calypso

Calypso music grew together with Carnival. The music drew upon the West African Kaiso and French/European influences, and arose as a means of communication among the enslaved Africans. ''Kaiso'' is still used today as a synonym for ''calypso'' in Trinidad and some other islands, often by traditionalists, and is also used as a cry of encouragement for a performer, similar to ''bravo'' or ''olé''. Highly rhythmic and harmonic vocals characterized the music, which was most often sung in a French Creole and led by a griot. As calypso developed, the role of the griot (originally a similar traveling musician in West Africa) became known as a ''chantuelle'', and eventually, ''calypsonian

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