Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 23/Feb 09:09

Pan after pan: the next move

What a long road our national instrument has travelled! The early experience of pan must have been underwhelming, if you discount the marvel of discarded oil drums being able to produce any kind of musical sound. That could not be said about the sheer pleasure to be derived from today’s steel orchestras. With the enormous versatility of the modern pan instrument it has found its way into classical orchestras, and the dexterity of today’s pannists allows them to play from the simplest of melodies to the most complex arrangements found in orchestration. It is slightly less true now, but we only saw and heard pan at Carnival time when I was a child. Then, there were comparatively small bands of pannists and pan quality was dubious. The single, shallow pan around the neck lacked resonance and sounded very trebly and metallic compared today’s tenor pans. And they looked nothing like the smart, shiny instruments of the 33 steel orchestras that competed in the Savannah last weekend for a semifinal place to get to Saturday's Panorama finals. The road to the present huge popularity of pan among TT citizens and worldwide is potholed. The clashes at Carnival, immortalised in calypso, and the bad, poor-boy culture are legend. The journey to pan's becoming our national instrument was not without its own squabbles, but finally our unique national instrument is on our coat of arms, although that too involved TT-style bacchanal. Soon the updated coat of arms will be on our national currency, which has not always been widely available for pan’s development. The resurgence in pan is down to many factors, financial investment being the most important. Corporate sponsorship has shaped pan’s fortunes – take BP’s continued support for Renegades. Going into Panorama 2025, most competing bands have devoted sponsors, a notable exception for a long time being Phase II, led by legendary Len “Boogsie” Sharpe, until they formed a partnership with Hadco. Managing a steel orchestra and competing in Panorama must be a very expensive business requiring sustained support. The performances demand outfitting the players, onstage production, transport of the pans and their tuning, among other costs. Without private-sector backing, pan would not have moved into the international realm either, from Boscoe Holder first dancing to a steelband on BBC TV in 1950 onwards. Pan’s growth from accompanying masqueraders to being a phenomenon of its own has involved many people over decades. The present leadership of Pan Trinbago has streamlined Panorama and made it a more thrilling Carnival-time experience, although work remains to be done there, and also to achieve the transformation of this splendid embryonic pan industry into a fully fledged one that can offer year-round employment, providing a career path for the multitude of talented young players. Playing sophisticated eight-minute arrangements by rote is amazing, but playing by mere observation offers limited prospects. Without proper musical education, pan will remain a hobby, and without more strategic planning progress will elude us. A value chain exists in every industry, and we might have missed the opportunity to control each part of the pan's. TT should have a monopoly on the production of the steelpan, for a start. One can buy sets of pans with full accessories to start a pan side in the UK, manufactured in the UK. Since we have no patent, those manufacturers and tuners probably operate independently, when they should be operating under licence. Similarly in the US, and possibly in Japan and elsewhere. We should have one institution comprising all the different aspects of pan, from the making and tuning to composition and playing – the fountainhead of all that is pan globally. There are many humps on the before us road, however, the non-standardisation of pan being critical; without it we cannot control the development of the industry. There is nothing to stop the US standardising tuning, for example, which would sideline us completely. The world’s most played instruments once had similar standardisation challenges, but arrived at a tuning compromise that allowed them to be played universally, in any key while remaining reasonably in tune. If we, TT, could agree on a standard to govern global pan tuning, we could retain ownership of the pan while allowing it to become more widely played and versatile. This is particularly important since we mostly play by rote. I was surprised to learn that an Exodus pannist, say, cannot readily play a Phase II pan, say, because the notes are in different positions. We also must conserve intellectual and creative content. Our arrangers have left us an aural treasure trove, but if most of it is unscored, we will lose valuable assets, impoverish our archives and weaken our legacy. And it may be unpalatable but what sustains the arts and entertainment are sound business models. Financial and business management skills are compulsory in any industry. It all adds up to much infrastructure being needed to guarantee the future of pan. In the meantime, let’s enjoy its pleasures. The post Pan after pan: the next move appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.