Steel Pan History free essay sample

From the palm tree laden beaches of the Caribbean a comes an iconic instrument whose distinctive tune has for decades been characteristic of the British West Indies, the afro-Caribbean culture and the island way of life. Though its unique melody can be found throughout the islands, many westerners may be surprised to know that this instrument does not come from the popular islands of the Bahamas, Jamaica nor Barbados but from the small island of Trinidad Tobago. Though this instrument is relatively new on the global music scene, appearing as recent as the 1940’s it is no doubt that in its short life it has made a notable impact in Trinidad, the Caribbean and the world. Unlike many instruments the term â€Å"steel pan† has multiple meanings and may refer to a single instrument, orchestral arrangement or family of instruments. The steel pan’s culture and tradition is like that of any other instrument in that the world’s perspective of it is based on a combination of its history, artists, repertoire, and performance context. We will write a custom essay sample on Steel Pan History or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Trinidad Tobago are a pair of twin islands in the southern Caribbean Sea. Though they are geographically considered part of the Americas, due to their proximity to South America and Venezuela in particular, of which they are 6. 8 miles away (at their closest point), Trinidad has shared and absorbed much of its culture from its indigenous inhabitants, colonial history, and the people who came to work on the plantations. Trinidad was discovered in 1492 by the Spanish explorer Columbus, on his first voyage to the Americas. Like many of its neighbours, though it originated as a Spanish colony through wars, acquisitions, treaties and varied emigration it has changed hands many times resulting in immense cultural diversity. This long line of colonial masters began with Spain, who in 1532 appointed its first governor to oversee its new acquisition. Very soon after its role as a labour colony was solidified, its primary source of labour, the indigenous population quickly eradicated through hard labour, disease and displacement. In order to resolve this labour deficit and increase population the Spanish government invited the French to settle in Trinidad and they came with their slaves, property and traditions of their own. They saw the opportunity to migrate to Trinidad as a blessing. †(â€Å"Emancipation Day†, 7), as planters in Martinique, Guadeloupe and other French territories feared that the revolt in Haiti could happen in the other French islands, and so they became afraid. â€Å"In February 1797, during the wars of the French Revolution, Trinidad capitulated to a British force, and in 1802, following the Treaty of Amiens; it was formally ceded to Great Britain. (â€Å"Colonial rule, 1). It was Britian’s rule that lead to: the freedom of the slaves in 1853. Trinidad becoming a liberated part of the Commonwealth in 1962 and a sovereign Republic in 1976. Though the British shaped the political, economic and social aspect of Trinidad, it was the French influence that brought Trinida d one of its most iconic pseudo-religious celebrations, Mardi-Gras or Carnival. This celebration would play a major role in the cultural development of the nation and the emergence of the steel pan. When the freed slaves (slavery was abolished in the West Indies in 1834) joined in the festivities, they could not afford the conventional instruments, so they used African drums, the instruments of their ancestors, then created percussion bands made up of bamboo joints cut from the bamboo plant. † (Pan a short history,1) Due to the fact that many of the plantation owner were absentee, it was these (former) slaves from the â€Å"Yoruba, Hausa, Congo, Ibo, Rada, Mandingo, Kromanti (Koromantyn) and Temne† (â€Å"Emancipation Day†, 7) traditions that became the founders of this nation and the innovators of this new instrument. To an ethnomusicologist the origins of the steel pan, as a percussion instrument will come as no surprise as bells rattles and drums have been used in African societies for communication, entertainment and worship from as early as â€Å"6000 B. C In Trinidad and Tobago African drums were used in churches, orchestras, dances and festivals. There are different types of drums such as the bougarabou, djembe, dun dun and talking drum. † (â€Å"Emancipation Day†, 8) In 1884 the beating of skin drums was prohibited in Trinidad as it was used as a method of accurate communication amongst slaves. This, simply forced the slaves to become more creative in there methods of communication, eventually leading to the beating of hollow bamboo stick and the tamboo-bamboo. The tamboo-bamboo are large hollow pieces of bamboo of varying sizes that are used to create tunes of varying sounds. After the emancipation of the slaves, the tamboo-bamboo progressed from a necessary method of communication to an alternative form of entertainment with accompanying, songs, dancing and celebrations. It was this step to multi-tonal percussion that was one of the largest progressions towards the steel pan as it is known today. Tamboo-bamboo bands were often accompanied by â€Å"non-traditional instruments like as scrap metal, metal containers, graters and dustbins† (Pan a short history,1). By the 1930’s these became the dominant component of Tamboo-bamboo bands. As metal became more readily available it gradually replaced bamboo. Metal playing musicians in these bands realised that raised sections of the instrument tended to make different sounds than flat sections of the instrument. During the World War II years there was a growing demand for oil and due to Trinidad’s large oil reserves, excess and discarded oil and chemical drums were plentiful. Through experimentation, luck and persistence by the unemployed and underprivileged youth came â€Å"the birth of steel pan, the only musical invention of the twentieth century. †( Pan a short history,1). It was discovered that by striking sections of the pan that had been warped by heat and mallet that one could achieve a variety of tones. According to tradition, a young man from Laventille, one of the most poverty stricken areas was the first to do this. Pan however; as an item was not invented by any person. It evolved and there are a number of people, including myself, who advanced it through certain stages of that evolution. (Elliott, 200) Some of these artists include ‘â€Å"Winston ‘Spree’ Simon is credited with creating the first ‘melody pan’†¦ Ellie Mannette is credited with being the first to wrap the playing sticks with rubber which softened the attack and produced a more refined tone (now called the hammer) Anthony Williams is credited with inventing the ‘spider web pan’ which was designed in a cycle of fourths and fifths. )† ( Pan a short history,2)â€Å"Today they are made using empty oil drums that are cut to varying depths depending on their role in the orchestra (bass, cello, guitar, ping-pong). The surface is then sunk about two inches and delicately seamed with a punch and hammer. A struck section will resound relative to its size and depth. The drum face is then exposed briefly to fire and doused with water or oil, which has the effect of retempering the steel and further insulating the notes. † (Sewell,1) In modern times, steel pan does not refer to a single instrument but rather a family of instruments that when played together in harmonies are referred to as â€Å"steel band†. Steel pan musicians are called pannists. The voices that compose the steel band are high tenor which ranges from D4 to F#6, low tenor which ranges from C4 to E6, double second pan uses two pans and ranges from F3 to B5, quadraphonic pan uses 4 pans and has an extensive pitch range, from B2 one octave below middle C to Bb5, guitar pan which ranges from one octave below middle C, to F#5 one octave above middle C, cello pan which uses a combination of 3 pans. One pan therefore contains the notes C, Eb, Gb and A; another pan contains C#, E, G and Bb; the third pan contains B, D, F and Ab, and the four pan bass which range is from G2, two octaves and a 4th below middle C, to D4 above middle C. The engine room as it has come to be known is a miscellaneous compilation of various non-traditional percussion instruments. Though its roots are as a method of communication for the slaves, the art of musical percussion in Trinidad has gradually become one of the most central and important aspect of the entertainment and cultural scene on the island. Panorama and Carnival are the greatest examples of the context of steel pan performance in the West Indies. â€Å"In 1963, the government of Trinidad and Tobago in conjunction with the National Association of Trinidad and Tobago Steel bandsmen (NATTS) launched a new steel band competition called Panorama. ’ (Steel band competition,1) Panorama is an annual steel band competition which consists of hundreds of bands and thousands of musicians. Though the compositions of the bands may change with regards to the musicians that participate the style, form and presentations of the band does not. People will often follow a particular band from year to year and round to round similar to the way people may support a team during the world cup. The competition consists of three rounds preliminary, semi-final and finals. Some world famous steel bands are the desperadoes, North Stars and the Harmonites. Each band plays a total of a 6 minuet recital, this performance is judged on arrangement, tone, rhythm and overall performance, four aspect controlled primarily by the arranger. Steel pan arrangers are among the most revered and beloved within the island musical community. Music is seldom written specifically for the steel drum. Though the steel drum can technically play any form of music, it’s repertoire comes primarily from the music in the popular culture. The most common form of music found in pan yards today is a popular form of music in Trinidad today called soca, some examples of soca played by the steel band include David Rudder’s The hammer, Marshall Montano’s Vibes cyah done and many more. Depending on the arranger the same song has the capacity to sound totally unique. The steel pan, being primarily a folk instrument does not share the bourgeois class statement that tradition musical instruments have. As a result transmission musical knowledge occurs in a much less formal setting than conventional western music. Some may seek lessons and theory books, but knowledge of the steel pan is most commonly acquired through friends, relatives or miscellaneous others. In conclusion the steel pan and steel pan culture have revolutionaries the way the world views the Caribbean. â€Å"indeed, over the past four decades, the steelpan has come a long way, moving from the panyards of the most depressed areas of a society to some of the most prestigious concert halls around the world. The Desperadoes, for instance, have performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Carnegie Hall, the Apollo and Lincoln Theaters in New York, the United Nations building, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D. C. Other bands like Renegades, All Stars, Phase Two, Exodus have wooed audiences from London to Paris to Japan, mesmerizing them with their renditions of some of the most complex works of the classic composers such as Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Sibelius, Rossini, Borodin. †( Pan a short history,1) It has given the West Indies a sound of it own, drawing thousands annually to its sweet sound and characteristic tone. Though it is just as much a part of the history of Trinidad and Tobago as the island itself the fact is that it is slowly disappearing. The steel pan has become a symbol of the islands’ peaceful past, as the average age of the musicians grow and the participation rate among youth gradually shrinks so two does it’s relevance in the modern world. The decline in the popularity of the steel pan has been related to rising gang violence, immoral behaviour and crime.

Abortion Essay Samples - How to Find the Best Ones

Abortion Essay Samples - How to Find the Best OnesAbortion essay samples are many, but not all are good. Many of them are very vague and even if they are for a 'real' situation they could even be misleading. It is very important to make sure that you choose an essay sample that is based on a real life situation.Here are some tips to help you determine the quality of an abortion essay sample:Choose a published source for your abortion essay. If you find something that is published by a well known author or a medical journal, there is a much better chance that it is a valid essay sample. Any sample will be biased in one way or another, but as long as it has been published in a credible publication it should be fine. A publically published article from the New England Journal of Medicine is by far the best known and most reliable source of information.Another great place to find a good source of material is on the internet. Google will show you all the resources, and many of them are fr om real medical journals.In terms of when the abortion essay can be used, this is where most people get confused. The legal advice you get should come from a doctor or other qualified professional. Your doctor can give you the legal advice about when you can have an abortion under certain circumstances.It is very important to take care with any advice you receive and follow it carefully. You should ask yourself some important questions about what the doctor told you. Does it seem possible?Writing an abortion essay has many different steps. If you have never written anything like this before, you may want to have someone help you write your essay. The essay you write should be as close to 'pure truth' as possible. This means that the essay should not be opinionated but should reflect some sort of facts that you know.While abortion articles are quite common, they are not all good articles. You should be careful to choose a good source of material before you begin writing and always fo llow the advice you receive.

How to Become a Writer Essay

How to Become a Writer Essay How to Become a Writer Essay Peter Gendreau â€Å"It’s never too late† 1/29/13 Journal entry 1 Beginning college can have multiple meanings and overwhelming feelings for a freshman student. As young adults most students begin the preparation to soon become a college student. As seniors in high school, students are eagerly completing any task sent their way in order to graduate on time. With the idea of college, friends, parties, and leaving home and heading off to the adult world has never sounded so good. Unfortunately, college is not mandatory and not every student has the immediate option to attend. I will always remember the day I came home from school and asked my father â€Å"why didn’t you go to college†? The response my father gave me was a direct response to my question, however hearing the response â€Å"because I had to work† never rang very clear to me. While walking to the bus stop the next day, I turned to my older sister who was a junior in high school at the time and asked her what she thought of college. Her response was â€Å"smart people go to college, so you probably shouldn’t go†. Being the annoying little brother, I was used to hearing her not so pleasant attitude so early in the morning. By the age of 14 I had a weekend job at the local burger king, by Starting work so early I could â€Å"buy the car I wanted† instead of getting the old truck my father used as a farm hand. At the age of 14 you are legally authorized to work less than thirty hours a week as long as it didn’t conflict with your school schedule. Fridays never came quick enough; I was hooked on making money. Eventually my grades began to slip, and my interest in school wasn’t what it should have been either. I continued to work throughout my high school years and eventually made the decision to withdraw myself from my senior year of high school. My excuse was â€Å"I had to work† and that excuse was easy for me to swallow because I had

MINI PROJECT 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

MINI PROJECT 2 - Essay Example They frequently fantasize about having stable, close and long-term relationship with their children and the mother of their children even without marriage. Although most of them view marriage issues positively at the time when children are born, they are also informed that the marriage entails sacrifice and restraint. A married man has to shoulder financial responsibility and at the same time relinquish sexual freedom. Without marriage unmarried men find it challenging to maintain a relationship with their mother. Fathers more often have little contact with their children and are more likely to reach their 30s with complicated lives. Most unmarried women always seek independence and think they can’t find it in marriage. They don’t want to be controlled and may end up getting children out of wedlock and raise them as single parents. Conservative lawmakers tend to establish strong values and norms that encourage and support young men to get married. They view unmarried men as irresponsible and confused. They feel that men are supposed to get married early and take care of their families. Liberal lawmakers on the other hand view marriage from a different perspective. They believe marriage is a choice and being unmarried is

Finance Effects Economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Finance Effects Economy - Essay Example A finance student studies a bachelor degree in business administration with a major in finance. The purpose of this paper is to discuss and describe the history of finance, how it affects the economy, and areas of specialization in finance. The field of finance as we know it today began in the 1950’s. When finance education started it was often part of the curriculum of economics or a part of business administration. Today the focus of the finance major is integrated as part of a business administration education. The majority of undergraduate finance degrees in the U.S. are part of a business curriculum, but at the graduate level finance is often taught based on the economic approach (Miller). One of the primary focuses of a finance education is to teach students how to make better decisions. Finance professionals are supposed to be able to maximize shareholders wealth (Besley & Brigham). The finance field is often referred to as the cousin of accounting due to the fact that a lot of the concepts and data used in finance come from accounting information. Many small companies integrate the accounting and finance departments. Two extremely important financial concepts in finance, risk and return, were first introduced to the general public by Harry Markowitz in 1952 in his publication Portfolio Selection published in the Journal of Finance. The work finance people perform in an organization is very important. For instance once the accountant completes the accounting cycle and prepares the financial statements the finance people can analyze the information to determine the financial performance of the company. The four major financial statements are the income statement, balance sheet, statement of retained earnings, and statement of cash flow. The income statement measures the profitability of a company, while the balance sheet illustrates the financial condition of a company at a specific point in time. The statement of cash flow is composed of three sec tions: operating, financing, and investments. The financial statements for the entire fiscal year are included within the contents of the annual report. Public companies also release quarterly financial statements to comply with the regulations of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC). Three financial analysis the can be used to analyze the financial statements are ratio analysis, vertical analysis, and horizontal analysis. Ratio analysis is a tool that is often used by finance professionals. The five categories of ratio analysis are liquidity, solvency, profitability, activity, and coverage ratios (AccountingExplained). Horizontal analysis can be used to compare the different items or elements of the financial statements against the performance of the previous accounting period. The objective of vertical analysis is to report each amount or item in the financial statement as a percentage of another item. When performing vertical analysis on an income statement all the items of the statement are typically compared against the sales total of the company. The discipline of finance can also be used for other analytical purposes. Financial managers often have to evaluate the firm’s valuation and the valuation of other companies that the firm might invest in. A financial model to evaluate the risk of a

Pediatric Echocardiography Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Pediatric Echocardiography - Research Paper Example The researcher states that due to the complexity in the mechanics, anatomy, and physiology of the heart, exact diagnosis of the cardiac condition is critical for management of cardiac disease. In the pediatric age group, the spectra of cardiac diseases are wide and also complex and hence arises the need for the reliable investigating tool. Further advances in this technology a couple of decades ago have led to more reliable and accurate forms of echocardiography, the 3D imaging, Doppler echocardiography, and tissue Doppler. These advances have posed a challenge to echocardiographers who need to be on their tiptoes in acquiring knowledge and also maintaining their skills by keeping abreast with the latest technology and changes. In this article, pediatric echocardiography will be discussed with references to its uses, limitations, impact on the professionals, impact on the patients, feasibility, and accessibility. Creating images of the heart using ultrasonic waves is known as echocar diography. The images of the heart are created using 2-dimensional, 3-dimensional or Doppler ultrasound. The test is routinely used in a clinical set up for screening, diagnosis, and management of various diseases of the heart. In the current medical era, echocardiography has become the primary imaging tool for the evaluation, diagnosis, assessment, and management of congenital and acquired cardiac disease in newborns, infants, children, and adolescents. The most ideal tool for assessment of cardiac problems is transthoracic echocardiography. The procedure is portable, efficacious and noninvasive and provides the detailed overview of the various anatomical, physiologic, and hemodynamic information of the heart. The various types of echocardiogram currently used are 2D echocardiogram, pediatric transesophageal echocardiogram, fetal echocardiogram, stress echocardiogram and intraoperative transesophageal echocardiogram. Pediatric echocardiography is unique when compared to adult echoc ardiography. There is a wide spectrum of diseases. Many of the cardiac conditions encountered are congenital.

Richard Wrights The Man Who Was Almost a Man Essay -- Richard Wright

Richard Wright's The Man Who Was Almost a Man The Man Who Was Almost a Man is a fictitious short story about an uneducated black boy's quest to become a man. Growing up in the early 1900's was a very hard task for most black people. The lack of education was one of the hardest hills they had to overcome to make it in a world dominated by whites. The story centers upon one 17-year boy who has very low self-esteem caused by his peers. He believes that owning a gun will gain him respect with others and thus make him a man. The title of this short story has several different ways of being interpreted because the time and atmosphere in which it was written. The short story was written in first person narrative, which gives a graphic account of the personality of the character Dave. The short story is also written in a dialect of an uneducated black boy which gives the reader the feel of what is was like to be that young man back in the early 1900's. The stories title The Man Who Was Almost a Man holds many different meanings to how Dave must have felt back in those times. Dave's struggle was man versus society in an era where his skin color meant more than his actions. He was unable to interact with the white society and was outcast by his peers because of his age. He believed at this time in his life that being a man was the more important than life itself. Buying a gun and learning to shoot was his solution to becoming a man. This was not the case though. The first time he fired the gun it numbed his hands and fell to the ground. He also shot Mr. Hawkin's mule, which he was unable to cover up. Now everyone would know what he had done which would give his peers a bad impression of him. He would not gain their respect, nor... ... a man. Life was hard back then and being accepted played a big role in all blacks searching for that one thing that would make them accepted within their society. Works Cited Blau, Eleanor. "The Works of Richard Wright, This Time Published as Written." The New York Times 28 Aug. 1991, final ed., sec. B: 1-2. Brignano, Russell Carl. An Introduction to the Man and His Works. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1970. Fabre, Michel. The World of Richard Wright. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1985. Hannon, Charles. "Teaching the conflicts as a temporary Instructor." College Literature 6 (1997): 126-141. Joyce, Joyce Ann. Richard Wright's Art of Tragedy. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1986. Walker, Margaret. Richard Wright, Daemonic Genius: A Portrait of the Man, a Critical Look at His Work. New York: Warner Books, 1988.