Steelpans developed in the early to mid 1900s, but with roots going back much earlier, including the
talking drums of
West African cultures which were used for ceremonies and
communicating messages at a distance. As a result of the
transatlantic slave trade, African slaves were brought to the Americas, including
Trinidad. In the 1780s, French colonists arrived in Trinidad and Tobago and brought
street festival traditions. In 1785, plantation owners held the first
Carnival in Trinidad. Many white plantation owners masqueraded as slaves and marched down the streets mocking African slave dress, singing, and dance customs, including banging on
talking drums. 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 1937, percussionists reappeared in
Laventille, transformed as an orchestra of
frying pans,
dustbin lids, and
oil drums. In 1941, the
U.S. Navy established a presence in Trinidad. The pannists helped to popularise steelpan music among the soldiers, which began its international popularisation. At the time of the steelpan's popularity in Trinidad 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. In 1939 the first all-steel band,
Alexander's Ragtime Band, emerged, 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
Trinidad All-Steel Pan Percussion Orchestra (TASPO), formed to attend the Festival of Britain in 1951, was the first steelband whose instruments were all made from oil drums. They performed 26 July, thus introducing the steelpan and a new music genre to the world. Members of TASPO included
Ellie Mannette and
Winston "Spree" Simon. Hugh Borde led the National Steel Band of Trinidad & Tobago at the Commonwealth Arts Festival in England, as well as the
Esso Tripoli Steel Band, which played at the
World's Fair in Montreal, Canada, and later toured with
Liberace. They were featured on an album with him. Three steel pans were used onstage in the 1954 Broadway musical
House of Flowers. When Trinidadian-born dancer
Geoffrey Holder was hired for its cast, he suggested the incorporation of three drummers from his dance company, Michael Alexander (who made the instruments), Roderick Clavery, and Alphonso Marshall; the three doubled as dancers in the show.
Evolution and developments Anthony Williams designed the "fourths and fifths" arrangement of notes, known as the
circle of fifths. This has become the standard form of note placement for lead pans. Other important developments include the tuning of harmonic overtones in individual notes, developed simultaneously and independently by
Bertie Marshall and Alan Gervais. In the United States, steelpan instruments were marketed as early as 1961. The Caribbean Research Institute CARIRI investigated possibilities to mass-produce raw forms with the use of pressing machines in the 1970s. Much of this project took place in
Sweden in collaboration with the
Saab Company. Although first results were promising, the project has been abandoned due to lack of finances and support by local pan tuners in Trinidad. Another method of shaping the pan was attempted: by spinning. The pan was spun on a
lathe-like device, and a roller on the end of a bar was used to sink the pan. While this did create pre-sunk pans, a problem was that there would often be scratches and grooves in the steel. A Swiss steelpan manufacturer (PANArt) researched the field of fine-grain sheet steel and developed a deep-drawn raw form which was additionally hardened by
nitriding. This process, and the new instruments they called
pang, were presented at the International Conference of Steel pan and Science in
Port-of-Spain in 2000. Electronic steelpans have also been developed. One such version is the E-Pan, invented by Salmon Cupid, who holds utility patents for it. Another is the Percussive Harmonic Instrument (PHI). ==Construction==