By Kimberly Ramkhalawan
July 25, 2023
Trinidad and Tobago have achieved another milestone before the United Nations in under one year.
This as the United Nations General Assembly has declared World Steelpan Day as August 11th, following a draft resolution was adopted on Monday, which will be annually observed on the UN’s Calendar. Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts, Randall Mitchell, delivered a statement at the 77th General Assembly sitting in New York, introducing the resolution, while the draft resolution received co-sponsorship from 84 member states of the General Assembly.
It comes just months after longstanding career diplomat Ambassador Dennis Francis, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago to the United Nations, was voted as President of the Seventy-Eighth Session of the United Nations General Assembly (September 2023 to September 2024).
The observance day also comes as steelpan governing body in Trinidad and Tobago, Pan Trinbago, gets set to celebrate Pan Month in August.
Making the case before the United Nations, Minister Mitchell shared that importance of the steelpan holding true to its roots in Trinidad and Tobago, where it was first born, spoke to being “emblematic of artistic excellence, community empowerment, endurance, self-determination, community, culture, heritage and identity and not least of all national pride,” he said, noting that the instrument was replicated and adopted throughout the Caribbean.
Mitchell added that not too long ago in 2019, Port of Spain was designated as a UNESCO Creative City of Music for its creativity through the steelpan as a strategic component for sustainable urban development.
He went on to remark on how the instrument has gained recognition around the globe with “Some universities in Europe, Canada and the United States have academic programmes dedicated solely to steelpan music. In the province of Ontario, Canada, the steelpan has long been used as a teaching aide in the country’s multiculturalism programme which supports the integration of Caribbean and other immigrant youth into the Canadian school system and into the wider community, helping to build tolerance and understanding among and between communities.”
He added how much it has also added to the musical sphere and genres, providing “considerable tonal versatility and is used equally effectively to play local cultural compositions of soca, calypso, rapso, reggae and jazz as well as more complex compositions such as classical music in the genre of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and others. Such renditions have brought adoring audiences to their feet as much in the local Steelpan yards or “Panyards” as they are called in Trinidad and Tobago, as at some of the most prestigious Concert Halls 5 the world over, including at Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, the Royal Albert Hall, the Kennedy Centre and others”.
According to the Business Research Company, the steelpan market is a subset of the global music products sales market, which estimated in 2021 to be valued at US$13 billion.
Apart from ensuring the instrument’s importance is acknowledge, the document which was submitted stated that, “In this context, the draft resolution was formally submitted to the secretariat for processing…Due to its historical significance, the steelpan has created and cemented linkages to the arts, tourism, culture, education, as well as science, technology and engineering sectors.
“It has become a musical instrument with substantive cross border recognition throughout the world contributing to sustainable development as the playing of the steelpan can positively impact on gender equality, mental health and wellbeing, youth empowerment, socio-economic development and sustainability.”
The steel pan is the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the only musical instrument invented in the twentieth century. Created in the 1930’s, the steel pan’s beginning stems to the carnival festival celebrated by the emancipated Africans who brought cultural self-expression toward the drumming of instruments during the Canboulay, (burning canes festival) in 1834. Through this Carnival was birthed. But by 1937, the instrument began to take form in Laventille, under Winston Spree Simon, who is credited with the invention of the Ping Pong steelpan instrument and the pioneer of the steel pan.
With the US Navy establishing a presence on the island in 1941, naval officers helped to popularize steelpan music among the soldiers, which led to its international popularisation.
However, back at home, association with the instrument was given a reputation of a bad rap, and was now associated with encouraging violence and a derelict crowd, creating a stigma for those who played the instrument. In 1939, the first band was formed, Alexander’s Ragtime Band, emerged and by 1940 it had become the preferred carnival accompaniment of young underprivileged men, which also saw the Ellie Mannette join in as a youngster in the band. He would later be called the “father of the modern steel drum”.
By 1947, the 55-gallon oil drum was used to make steelpans, with “Spree” Simon working closely with Anthony Williams, who later invented the fourth and fifth soprano pan. Also in this year, Mannette was formally offered a scholarship to study music in London which he turned down in order to be able to build more steel pans. However, after visiting the United States in the beginning of the 1960s to build up the US Navy Steel Band, he was invited to New York City to build instruments for an inner-city youth program. This invitation had been carried out by Murray Narell, a New York social worker and father, Andy Narell, whom Mannette took under his wing to train and teach the pan.
Simon also gave Bertie Marshall significant impulses for his work in developing harmonical tuning. Simon also was part of TASPO, the Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra and visited Great Britain in 1951.
Today, a national competition is held every Carnival season, called Panorama, and dates back to 1963, bringing spectators and music lovers to hear compositions and melodies played on varieties of the instrument in differing sized bands. Panorama, is a mainstay multi-event during the Carnival season, with bands prepping from as early as September and qualifier rounds commencing by October-November prior to the season usually observed February to March.
August was declared the international month of the pan, following an International Conference on Pan (ICP) held back in August 2015, when Trinidad hosted the two-day International Panorama Competition, bringing participants from over 38 steelband-playing countries from around the world to compete against each other for the title of ICP Champions 2015, marking the international recognition of the instrument.