BIRTH OF PAN

Trinbago:

I thank you for letting me live, for setting me free from life as a slave. They fill me with oil for one single use, they call me a barrel, I was hardly amused. A barrel, eh! sometimes a drum. I'm told that I was re-incarnated in the Laventille Slums. I remembered that day, I though it was hell; they pounded me with a hammer, in fire I fell, then, all of a sudden, I fell in a trance.

I heard a man humming, he started to dance, then he pounded me again, again, and again. I was under real pressure, don't talk about pain, as day turned to night, and night into day, I sank on my knees and started to pray, then slouched in a vision, I arrived on a stage with people around me, they stared amazed, some stared confused, some mesmerized, some said, "Great invention" and sounded surprised: A tiny little nation unknown on the map, making an oil drum sound like a harp.

Now I'm re-incarnated, immortal I stand my contribution to music and to man. Now I am immortal, a true instrument of musical expression, I live to give vent, long live Trinbago, long live steel pan, my contribution to music and to man.

The Steel Band was invented around the time of World War II. Its home is Trinidad and its roots are from Africa. When the British colonial authorities banned African drumming, the people made music from bamboos which they thumped on the ground and created "Tamboo Bamboo Bands". The Steel Drum, or Pan, is a unique instrument, and one of the most recently invented. It is a skillfully hammered 55-gallon oil drum which has been carefully tuned to produce tones. The Steel Drum carries the full chromatic range of notes, and can produce just about any type of music you can think of! There are several different types of pans which, when used together, can reproduce a symphonic sound. These instruments, together as a band, will form a full orchestra. The steel drum is the only non-electronic musical instrument invented this century.