Today’s date was March 3, in other words, it was the spectacular annual festival called Carnival. This grand event displayed a terrific venue of local music and art styles including calypso, steel-band, and masquerades. Calyspo bands were playing ballad-like, folk music with various instruments including the shak-shak, guitar, cuatro (string instrument), and the tamboo-bamboo (a bamboo reed instrument). These calyspo songs were often satirical and quite humorous. The steel-bands were ensembles comprised of musicians playing steel idiophones. These instruments were crafter originally by the poor population of the nation because they wanted to participate in the festivities of Carnival as well. The instruments were crafted from the steel bottoms of barrels, and I was given the oppurtunity to play one of these instruments. It denoted a smooth, bell-like sound. Lastly, the masquerades of Trinidad & Tobago’s Carnival are fairly unique as they display different themes or stories. Trinidadian masquerades vary from images of mockery or irony to the devil. Another common type of Trinidadian masquerade at these festivals displayed the story of the slaves liberation back in the 1800s. The Baptistes proudly wore their masquerades that echoed this theme, so in honor of them, I did too! Overall, my Carnival experience was quite exotic, and I learned a lot about this nation’s culture solely through one event.
 |
| Carnival Atmosphere |
 |
A Trinidad & Tobago Steel-Band
|
No comments:
Post a Comment