Published on Aug 5, 2015
A standard of a glossary of terms related to the steelpan was declared by the Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards in early July, in time for the current International Conference and Panorama (ICP) that concludes on Sunday. The 2015 standard revises and replaces the standard of 1992 and differs from the previous version in that additional terms are included with more precise definitions.
A major outcome of the ICP is to establish in Trinidad and Tobago the Centre of Authority of the Steelpan and the world headquarters of an international federation of steelpan organisations through a memorandum of understanding.
The need for this terminology standard arose from the inconsistent and varied use of terms, and the need for the harmonisation of local terminology to reduce ambiguity and foster greater understanding and improved application within the steelpan industry. We made it so we name it.
Some of the terms in the standard are unique to the steelpan industry, such as the very word “steelpan” spelt as one word, to distinguish it from “steel pan” which can mean simply a pan, such as a cooking utensil, made of steel. Similarly “steelband”, as one word, refers to a musical ensemble or orchestra, not to be mistaken for a steel band used in packaging, to wrap a crate for example.
In some parts of the world, particularly in North America, the instruments are referred as steel drums. The standard is voluntary so we advise the use of the term “steelpan” or simply “pan” to refer to the finished product as drums are really the raw materials which are transformed into the musical instruments. In any case musically the instruments are not drums. While a lot of steelpans are still made from used drums or barrels (that contained oil and other materials), many instruments are made from new (unused) ones that are specifically made for steelpan manufacture. Some manufacturers today don’t even use drums as such, employing forms in the basic shape of the particular type of pan and/or using sheet metal to make the instruments from scratch, as it were.
As in many fields, including technology, certain terms used in the steelpan industry may be deemed misnomers but they have a historical logic to them. For example the modern tenor pan is in the soprano range but the first lead steelpan, from which the modern instrument developed, was in the tenor range and the name has stuck. This apparent linguistic dichotomy relates to other pans as well. This is not dissimilar to the use of the word “tin” (in Britain and elsewhere) to describe containers originally made of tin plate. Large biscuit tins were used in the early days of the steelband movement. However, today many of the smaller tins are made of aluminium. The Americans have no such dilemma as they use the word “can” for such containers.
Many systems of musical instrument classification have been used over the years. Instruments can be classified by their effective range, their material composition, or the mechanism of creating the sound. One classification speaks of brass instruments, percussion instruments, string instruments and woodwind instruments (in alphabetical order).
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/20150805/editorial/when-is-a-soprano-a-tenor
Replies
If I am not mistaken, all these years we always call it a Tenor which in fact should have been a Soprano, I also think that what we call a Cello should be called a Tenor (not sure) but the Pan tuners will know, Allyuh ask Leslie Jordan or Gerard Clarke, they will know.
odw if the modern Tenor pan is in the Soprano range, when are they going to start back tuning Tenors in the Tenor range? just asking.
Cecil, I should also mention that I don't think it's possible to tune a Tenor in the Tenor range without using at least two pans. Even then, the Pans would have to be like a low "C" double guitar since the range for a Tenor is C3 to A4, this also means the high notes in the middle of a Tenor Pan would be lost...notes from A5 to F#6 would be gone.
Finally, since the Tenor range is already covered by existing pans, it would be better simply to change the name to "Soprano Pan" , who's range is C4 to A5 or higher....this is the exact range of an existing "C" Lead Pan and the "D" Lead fits inside that range also just without the middle "C" note.
GospelPan, Thanks for the explanation.
Somebody just said at ICP that it was originally a TENOR (Made by Tony Williams). Good discussion going on at the conference. Next session starting in about 5 minutes.
The modern Tenor pan should be renamed to "Soprano Pan" in my opinion, Clive Bradley spoke to Pan Trinbago about this unsuccessfully.
Good question, while this editorial is about the standardizing of terminology…you question has more to do with the standardizing of the Tenor Pan, with all the experiments taking place at UWI and other corners of the World with Pan there should be some evidence its happening. I’m clueless in that arena.
Cecil and Bertel: Allyuh doh like Americans calling the instrument "STEEL DRUMS" because allyuh say it ain't ah drum when allyuh done tune it. So allyuh on this GLOBAL CRUSADE to sell the label ''STEELPAN" (and without the space now) but it stop being ah "PAN" long before it even start to be ah STEEL DRUM.
Allyuh need to go have ah next GLOBAL CONFERENCE and come up with a new name that have wider global appeal.
If Trini say it's a STEELPAN then the rest of the world should call it STEELPAN and it's played with STICKS not MALLETS. No disrespect.
I may be wrong about this, but to my knowledge, Ellie was the first to put rubber tips on sticks and he now calls them mallets.