Trinidad and Tobago Steel Drum Stamps

This post features the a set of Trinidad and Tobago steel drum stamps from 1994. A moment of personal privilege. When I was a music major at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, I was a member of the steel drum ensemble. For several years, I played the bass pans, six large steel drums that each were able to play a couple of bass pitches. Together, the six large drums could hold down pretty successfully a bass line for a larger ensemble.

Regular readers of this blog know that stamps featuring musical instruments are fairly common around the world. I think that there are many reasons for this. First, I want to remember that stamps are primarily official documents within a country. They carry some kind of political meaning, whether that overt, like picturing a president, or a celebration of culture. Pictures of instruments become symbols of music and a wider culture. They can instill pride and good feelings about the country.

Certain types of instruments are common within regions, so it is also interesting, for example, to look at all of the various African countries that make thumb piano, or mbira stamps. Steel drums are common throughout the Caribbean and therefore you can find them on stamps from several countries. For example, you can also read on this blog an article about a set of stamps featuring steel drums from Antigua.

Most people think of steel drums (or steel pans) with light-hearted fun. They are the soundtrack of a Caribbean cruise, to having drinks with umbrellas, and to good times. While all of this is true, steel pans have a remarkably interesting history.

Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago are the southernmost islands in the Caribbean chain, and are located off the northeast coat of Venezuela. Christopher Columbus, on his third voyage to the new world, visited Trinidad in 1498. It was only in the 1530s, when Antonio de Sedeño, returned to conquer the island. This set off a decades-long war with the native population. Native leaders gave Spain a portion of the island in 1592 and withdrew to another part. The Spanish didn’t attempt to colonize the island full scale, though continued warfare and disease eventually all but wiped out the native population.

European powers began trying to subjugate Tobago in the early seventeenth century, with attempts by both Holland and England. The island continued to be fought over for the next several centuries, and by 1814 the island had changed control more than thirty times.

In the midst of all this jockeying for control, French planters arrived in Trinidad from the island of Martinique in 1789. Although the English would take over permanent control in 1797, these planters and their west African slaves did establish permanent plantations. The English abolished slavery throughout their colonies in 1833.

Music in Trinidad

The French also brought their holiday of carnivale to the island, though they did not let their slaves join in the festivities. Instead, the slaves created their own parallel celebrations known as canboulay. It is the activities of this holiday that now form the basis for the carnival celebrations in the islands.

During the nineteenth century, a tradition of wild celebrations developed including a form of stick-fighting between differing groups on the islands. The celebrations were often accompanied by drumming and the use of other small percussion instruments. In the 1880s, the British colonial government cracked down on these traditions, going so far as to outlawing the use of drums.

People will always try to find a way to make music. Deprived of their drums, the free blacks created a new music that centered around the use of lengths of bamboo that were hit on the ground and hit with a stick. Combined with other small found objects, such as hitting a spoon on a bottle, or banging pots and pans, the genre of tamboo bamboo was born. Tamboo bamboo was itself outlawed for a time as the pieces of bamboo were thought to be useful as weapons. Today, you can hear tamboo bamboo groups on the islands of Trinidad and Tobago.

Steel Pans

Trinidad and Tobago are home to a great supply of oil. In World War II, this oil became vital to the allied cause and the industry on the island took off. The American navy even set up bases there to protect the vital production of oil.

Musicians began to make music by banging on oil drums, discovering that by manipulating the metal, different pitches could be created. This developed over many years as players perfected how to get beautiful pitches from the instrument.

In 1953, Anthony Williams created his so-called “Spider Web” soprano pan. His design laid pitches out in a circle according to the musical circle-of-fifths. His design revolutionized steel drums and would become the basis of design for steel drums of all sizes.

In addition to the soprano pan, other larger pans provide alto, tenor, and bass voices. Lower pitches require greater surface area for the note, so a player needs more pans to play all the notes. In a steel drum band, some players have two, three, or more pans when they play. The barrel of the drum serves as a resonator, with lower notes needing a long resonating chamber. Bass pans need the entire drum shell, while higher pitched drums are shallower.

The Stamps

The set of four steel drum stamps from Trinidad and Tobago in 1994 features four different types of steel drums. Most unusual are a type of pan known as the Rocket Pan, which is on the $2.50 stamp. This type of instrument was invented by Rudolph Charles who was trying to create a different type of tonal quality. The unique shape of the resonators, which are added to the pans after they are made, give the drums a “bark” or an extra rough resonance after the initial tone. They are not widely used, but they are certainly cool looking!

Make sure to look farther than the typical steel drum tunes. The ensemble has a really rich repertoire and can play almost anything. Here is a video from Pamorama that is just good fun! Enjoy.