Videos

Canboulay (2016-17): concerto for steel pan and chamber orchestra, performed by Dan Edwards and the Illinois Modern Ensemble, Steve Taylor conducting, 15 February 2017. “Canboulay (from the French cannes brulées, meaning “burned cane”) was a re-enactment of the forced marches that slaves endured when a cane field burned and had to be harvested instantly with the help of slaves from neighboring plantations. After emancipation this kind of torchlight procession was resignified as a way for Afro-Trinidadians to claim public spaces and attention, and it became a regular (and somewhat volatile) feature of carnival” (Shannon Dudley, Carnival Music in Trinidad). So volatile in fact that the British police on the island banned the carnival procession and the musical instruments associated with it. The necessity of filling the musical vacuum caused by the ban led to the invention of the steelpan. The steelpan then symbolizes the history of racial tension which gave birth to it. While we rightly celebrate heroes of civil rights of the past century, movements like Black Lives Matter remind us that such tensions are not just history―they are still with us today. This piece places the steelpan on the stage with an orchestra―perhaps the historical European musical ensemble par excellence. The odd couple wallows in harmonic tension at times, revels in carnival rhythms at others, and ends in optimistic euphony: a plea that racial tension too will someday dissolve on this planet, and that all humans will recognize the moral worth of all humans. (Sidenote: the piece also includes a lullaby in part because it is one of the most basic of all musical functions―transcending race and culture much like our institutional paradigms and societal attitudes ought to―and in part to celebrate Dan’s becoming a father in November. Congratulations friend!)