page_title: Steelpan
section_title: Music and competitions
hierarchical_section_title: Steelpan / Music and competitions
caption_attribution_description: English: A steelpan player on High Street in Trinidad and Tobago Français&#160;: Un joueur de steel-drum sur High Street en Trinité-et-Tobago
context_page_description: Steelpans is a musical instrument originating from Trinidad and Tobago. Steelpan musicians are called pannists.
  The modern pan is a chromatically pitched percussion instrument made from 55 gallon industrial drums.
  Drum refers to the steel drum containers from which the pans are made; the steel drum is more correctly called a steel pan or pan as it falls into the idiophone family of instruments, and so is not a drum. Steelpans are the only instruments made to play in the Pythagorean musical cycle of fourths and fifths.
  The pan is struck using a pair of straight sticks tipped with rubber; the size and type of rubber tip varies according to the class of pan being played. Some musicians use four pansticks, holding two in each hand. This skill and performance have been conclusively shown to have grown out of Trinidad and Tobago's early 20th-century Carnival percussion groups known as Tamboo bamboo. The pan is the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago.
context_section_description: The repertoire of the steelband is extensive. Steelbands in Trinidad have a tradition of re-interpreting the current year's calypsos for carnival performance; rarely will a calypso from a previous year be heard at carnival or the Panorama music competition.  Bands that perform all year round (both in Trinidad and in the so-called 'pan diaspora') have long prided themselves on being able to perform many types of music, particularly Latin and jazz numbers, film music and other popular tunes. Pannists also have a tradition of performing classical music which dates back to 1946, both in calypso tempo (known as "The Bomb") and straight (generally in concert or music festival contexts). In these contexts, accuracy and faithfulness to the original are highly prized. While many American and British audiences demand to hear Harry Belafonte songs on pan, these are generally inauthentic to the Trinidadian tradition.
  For many years now there have been attempts to use the steelpan in various contexts other than those with which it is stereotypically associated.  The first known use of steelband in a theatrical performance (outside of Trinidad and Tobago) was in Harold Arlen's 1954 Broadway musical House of Flowers, in which Enid Mosier's Trinidad Steel Band performed in several songs. British composer Daphne Oram was the first composer to electronically manipulate the sound of the steelpan after recording a band (probably Russell Henderson's Steelband) in 1960. The first use of pan in a commercial pop record was by The Hollies in 1967 with "Carrie Anne". Loggins and Messina feature steel drums on the song "Vahevala" from their 1971 album Sittin' In.
  An international festival, the World Steelband Music Festival, has been held intermittently in Trinidad since 1964, where steelbands perform a test piece (sometimes specially composed, or a selected calypso); a piece of choice (very often a "classic" or European art-music work); and calypso of choice, in a concert-style venue. Panorama, the largest steelband contest in the world, occurs during Carnival celebrations in Trinidad.
  Steelpans were introduced to the genre of Jazz Fusion by players such as Dave Samuels and Othello Molineaux in the 1980s, and Jonathan Scales in the 2000s. The sound of the steelpans adds a pleasant and accessible sound to an otherwise complex musical style.  They are featured in the early fusion album Morning Dance by Spyro Gyra.
  Nick Jonas' 2016 single "Close" features the steelpan as the musical instrument.
caption: A musician playing the double tenor steelpan
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