Origins of Calypso Music:

Instruments and Details

• Calypso originated as only words and vocalizations but has overtime implemented many original and typical instruments and sounds.
• One of the most uncommon instruments is a jawbone (mule) that makes a humming noise.
• Steal pans, bamboo sticks, claves, and spoons were also very common.
• Many more familiar instruments are also very common such as the violin, guitar, trumpet, saxophone, and bass.
• Today the songs are very satirical and witty
• They are usually in the form of a ballad (four line refrain followed by 8 lined stanzas), like poetry.
• It commonly incorporates Spanish and English and occasional African/Creole

Origins of Calypso Music:

Slavery in the Caribean

Day-O (Banana Boat)

Calypso Today

Sung by: Harry Belafonte

• The origins of this song are unclear
• Belafonte's version used lyrics from Edric Conner who recorded the song in 1952.
• About the workers in Jamaica
• Loading bananas on the docks all night and waiting for the tally man who takes inventory when day break comes and the workers may go home and sleep.

• Today Calypso music is much lighter and more colorful since the turn of the 20th century.
• As the island became more accepting of free Africans, the music they sang was less about the harshness of slavery so they could forget how traumatizing it was.
• Today the islands take pride in their music and use Calypso to welcome people to their island and to celebrate at their famous carnivals and celebrations.

Slavery

• By 1800, Over 18,000 slaves inhabited Trinidad alone.
• Work was tough and dangerous
• Sugar cane was the crop of choice
• Trinidad had thick forests with mosquito and caiman infested swamps
• Slaves had to clear and drain the swamps and forests and fire fields
• Slaves planted by hand, weeded and placed manure constantly. Then came processing the crops. Slaves put cane into mills to crush the crop, usually resulting in amputations, followed by boiling the crop in small hot shacks for days at a time until all crops were processed.

Trinidad

The Birth of Calypso

• Columbus discovered Trinidad in 1498
• The Spanish: Cedula of 1783 invited French farmers to inhabit island for free land and no tax. The first slaves came from Africa to work the French plantations.
• In 1797 the Spanish surrendered the island to the British
• The British quickly colonized and brought thousands of slaves

• The plantation masters did not allow slaves to communicate, so slaves would begin singing and communicate through improvised songs, the birth of Calypso
• The island was inhabited by the French, Spanish, and British, their culture and music controlled the island, by singing their songs the slaves created a sense of community and their own culture.
• In 1834 slavery was abolished, but the previous slaves were still harshly censored, and had no voice
• Calypso evolved into a way to spread news around the island about politics and so on.

References