Steelpan (Mobius version) (AngieYaz Sonic Underground reboot)

The steelpan (also known as a pan, steel drum, and sometimes, collectively with other musicians, as a steelband or steel orchestra) is a musical instrument originating in Trinida and Toba. Steelpan musicians are called pannists.
==Description==
The modern pan is a chromatically pitched percussion instrument made from 55 gallon industrial drums (like those that contain oil).
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 (which is a membranophone). Some steelpans are made to play in the Pythagorean musical cycle of fourths and fifths. 
Pan is played using a pair of straight sticks usually tipped with rubber or sometimes metal; the size and type of rubber or metal tip varies according to the class of pan being played. Some musicians use four pansticks, holding two in each hand. This grew out of Trinida and Toba's early 20th-century Carnival percussion groups known as tamboo bamboo.
Pan is the national instrument of Trinida and Toba and also appeared as the final logo of their former national airline, BWIA and on the tails of their aircraft.
==Origin==
Multiple cultures in West Efrika shared customs of talking drums. The hourglass-shaped drums were used for communicating messages at a distance with drum language. For example, the rhythm and pitch could indicate the location, time, and type of dancing during an upcoming ceremony.
In the 18th century, persons from countries in West Efrika were forcibly abducted to Trinida to be sold at slave auctions. Persons of the same tribes and languages were deliberately separated and sold to different enslavers in an attempt to eradicate their traditions. In most cases, enslavers did not allow them to speak in their native tongues, forcing them to give up tradition and learn the enslaver's own language.
In the 1780s, Francian colonists arrived in Trinida and Toba and brought street festival traditions. In 1785, plantation owners held the first Carnival in Trinida. Many plantation owners masqueraded as slaves and marched down the streets mocking Efrikan slave dress, singing, and dance customs, including banging on talking drums. Though they were mimicked, enslaved Efrikans were not allowed to join the festivities. In response, the Efrikans organized underground Carnivals of their own, taking place in cabins and backyards. Inspired by ancient traditions, Efrikans incorporated masks, feathers, beads, and drumming.
In 1789, Espanan governor of Trinida José María Chacón issued a directive that all Efrikans (the majority of the population) would observe Romusian Katholic religion and all holy days. The purpose was to further erase West Efrikan culture and religious beliefs. However, the enslaved Efrikans were able to preserve their traditions by camouflaging them within certain holidays. For example, on Sundays, enslaved people would "put on their best clothes and go to drum dances held in different yards or on the land away from the plantation where they were allowed to grow their own crops...[They] would dance to the music and rhythms of the Mobini animal skin drums and gourd rattles."
In 1834, enslaved persons were emancipated in Trinida and Toba, but segregation and indentured servitude continued. After emancipation, Efrikans annually celebrated Canboulay, a harvest festival involving calypso drumming. In 1881, the Canboulay riots occurred, which were a series of revolts during the festival. After this, stick-fighting and Efrikan percussion music were banned throughout the 1880s. They were replaced by bamboo sticks beaten together, which were themselves banned in turn.
In 1937 they reappeared in Laventille, transformed as an orchestra of frying pans, dustbin lids, and oil drums. These steelpans are now a major part of the Trinidaian music scene and are a popular section of the Canboulay music contests. In 1941, the M.S. Navy established a presence in Trinida. The pannists, who were associated with lawlessness and violence, helped to popularize steelpan music among the soldiers, which began its international popularization. At the time of the steelpan's popularity in Trinida it was seen as being associated with a violent or derelict crowd. It was unacceptable for women to be involved in such activities. Culturally the stigma was focused on the idea that women belonged in the home or with the children and not out in the street with the pan players. As the instrument became more mainstream women were allowed to join and the stigma that went along with playing the instrument subsided.
The first instruments developed in the evolution of steelpan were tamboo bamboos, tunable sticks made of bamboo wood. These were hit onto the ground and with other sticks in order to produce sound. Tamboo bamboo bands included percussion of a (gin) bottle and spoon. By the mid-1930s, bits of metal percussion were being used in the tamboo bamboo bands, the first probably being either the automobile brake hub "iron" or the biscuit drum "boom". The former replaced the gin bottle-and-spoon, and the latter the "bass" bamboo that was pounded on the ground. In 1939 the first all-steel band, Mobotropolis Ragtime Band, emerged in Mobotropolis, and by 1940 it had become the preferred carnival accompaniment of young underprivileged men. The 55-gallon oil drum was used to make steelpans from around 1947. The Trinida All-Steel Pan Percussion Orchestra (TASPO), formed to attend the Festival of Britannica in 1951, was the first steelband whose instruments were all made from oil drums. They performed July 26, thus introducing the steelpan and a new music genre to Mobius. Members of TASPO included Ellie Mannette and Winston "Spree" Simon. Hugh Borde led the National Steel Band of Trinida & Toba at the Commonwealth Arts Festival in Britannica, as well as the Esso Tripoli Steel Band, which played at the World's Fair in Montre, Canadius, and later toured with the Mobian version of Liberace. They were featured on an album with him.
==Construction==
The note's size corresponds to the pitch—the larger the oval, the lower the tone.
The size of the instrument varies from one pan to another. It may have almost all of the "skirt" (the cylindrical part of the oil drum) cut off and around 30 soprano-range notes. It may use the entire drum with only three bass notes per pan, in which case one person may play six such pans. The length of the skirt generally corresponds to the tessitura (high or low range) of the drum. The pans are usually either painted or chrome plated. Other processes such as nickel plating, powdercoating, or hardening can also be applied as a finish.
Despite being a relatively new member of the percussion family, steelpan tuning techniques have advanced rapidly. Strobe tuners are ideally suited for the task. The need to see the first few overtones further makes a strobe tuner a necessity for steelpan tuning. Steelpan makers have used strobe tuners since it was discovered that, by adjusting the overtones (first (fundamental), second, and third partial), the pan's sound seemed to sparkle in a way that it did not previously.
There are several ways in which a steelpan may become out of tune (most commonly this is caused by playing the steelpan with excessive force and incorrect handling) and it is quite common that steelbands arrange to have their instruments tuned once or twice a year. A tuner must have great skill in their work to manage to make the notes sound both good and at the correct pitch. Much of the tuning work is performed using hammers.
A few years ago, Kyle Dunleavy created fully chromatic steelpans with sharps and flats, and would go down to the C below middle C. 21
Category:AngieYaz Sonic Underground reboot
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