Parang (genre)

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Parang

Development phase: circa 19th century
Place of origin: Trinidad and Tobago
Instruments typical of the genre
Cuatro , box bass, maracas , claves
Stylistic successor
Soca Parang

Parang is a music genre native to Trinidad and Tobago that uses Venezuelan , Spanish and West African influences. Parang music, although played all year round, is primarily associated with the Christmas season.

definition

The minimal line-up of a parang group consists of a singing voice, a cuatro as a melody instrument and box bass , maracas and claves as a rhythm section. The cuatro is a four-string guitar from Venezuela, maracas and claves are simple rhythm instruments. The box bass is an archaic plucked instrument endemic to Trinidad, which consists of a box, a stick and a string and is played while standing; the box converts the vibration of the string into a bass tone, the height of which is varied by changing the position of the rod holding the string. Larger groups have several singers and basic instruments and, depending on availability, also use bandolas , bandolins , cajas (hand drums), guitars, mandolins , marimbulas , steelpans , tambourines and, if necessary, other instruments. The texts of the Parang are almost exclusively in Spanish, although there are almost no Spanish language islands in English-speaking Trinidad (any more); Most parang musicians also don't speak Spanish and just memorize the lyrics. The texts mainly deal with the Christian Christmas feast, in particular the birth of the Savior in Christian mythology, Jesus of Nazareth .

Parang is essentially based on two rhythms. The "parang-beat" is a polyrhythm in 6/8 and 3/4 time with a tempo between 132 and 144 bpm . The "Castellan" or "Waltz" is a waltz in 3/4 time, which has a tempo between 155 and 195 bpm and usually only includes instrumental pieces, while the "parang beat" is sung.

history

The term "parang" comes from Spanish; a "parranda" is a band, in Venezuela the term also means "party" or "pub crawl". By grinding off the final syllable (a linguistic peculiarity of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, but which can also be observed in the Canary Islands) the word changed to "parran"; under the influence of the English language it eventually became "parrang". The etymological origin is possibly the Spanish verb "parar", which u. a. "stop" or "pause" means. There are essentially two different theories about the origin of the genre. Either the genre dates back to the time of the Spanish colonial rulers, i.e. from before 1797, or it was created by modifying the music of Venezuelan day laborers who, after the end of slavery in 1834, looked for work in the vicinity of the nearby Trinidadian plantations. The historian Michael Anthony sees the roots of music in the Spanish Trinidad and a concrete elaboration of the genre in its present form by Venezuelan migrant workers during the 19th century. The ethnomusicologist Klaus Näumann attributes the genre to the Spanish-speaking minority of Trinidad at the beginning of the 20th century, which would have retained its cultural independence in the rural areas in the north and southwest of the otherwise multi-ethnic Trinidad. Näumann also sees the influences of Venezuela, albeit much weaker than the proponents of the Venezuela theory; In this context, it must also be taken into account that Trinidad and Venezuela were neighboring Spanish colonies until 1797, with Trinidad, in contrast to the mainland, having significant French cultural influences. Näumann leads to the substantiation of his thesis u. a. suggests that the accordion , a central instrument of Venezuelan music at that time, never played a role in the development of the parang. Other authors such as the musicologist Daphne Pawan-Taylor and the Spanish lecturer Silvia Moodie-Kubalsingh positioned themselves with regard to one of the two theories. The Swede Krister Malm, today professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Gothenburg and at the time deputy director of the Trinidad and Tobago National Folklore Archive, sees Parang as a product of the Afro-Spanish Trinidadians who came from Venezuela in the 18th and 19th centuries as slaves on cocoa plantations of Trinidadians of Spanish origin worked and combined Venezuelan guitar music with West African rhythm instruments. The Trinidad Guardian journalist John Cupid also cited West African influences in the form of a softer timbre of the singing and the rhythm section. There is agreement about the development from around the middle of the 19th century: Parang was the music and tradition of the Spanish-speaking residents of Trinidad, a heterogeneous group consisting of Spaniards, Spanish-speaking former slaves and Venezuelans, which in the further course of Trinidad's history lost its importance and ultimately marginalized and for whom the parang became an important feature of cultural independence. Until the middle of the 20th century, Parang was just a phenomenon of the Spanish-Christian villages of northern Trinidad along the Northern Range and in the extreme southwest and south of the southwest Trinidadian region of Siparia . Neither area benefited from the oil and natural gas boom that hit Trinidad from the 1910s, and so retained a rural character.

In the first half of the 20th century, Parang gained fame in the cities of the island as part of the urbanization of Trinidad due to Spanish-speaking Trinidadians who had moved there and, from the 1910s, influenced the further development of calypso , which is also endemic to Trinidad . Both styles of music were seen as obscure rural phenomena; the townspeople and especially the upper class oriented themselves to the music and Christmas traditions of the colonial power Great Britain. With the beginning of the US military presence as part of the destroyer-for-bases agreement , music and Christmas traditions of the USA were added.

Parang experienced its first appreciation from 1948 by the Trinidadian dancer Beryl McBurnie , who performed choreographies to Trinidadian folk music including the Parang in the Little Carib Theater , which she founded , and by the oldest radio station in Trinidad, Radio Trinidad, which, in addition to American and English music, performed In 1950 he played a modest number of paranians. The genre experienced a leap in popularity from 1962 onwards. With the independence of Trinidad, the cultural sector was also looking for features that create identity and ways of distinguishing itself from the former colonial power. In addition to the carnival, which has always been suspicious of the colonial authorities, and the calypso music that is endemic in the country, Parang was presented to the public as a cultural "own development" of Trinidad and was positively accepted by them. The State 610 Radio and TTT TV Station included Parang in their music programs. The first Parang competition was held in 1967, and in 1969 the first national competition with several regional preliminary rounds, broadcast live by 610 radio. From around 1970, the popularity of the genre led to somewhat unusual excesses from a European perspective, for example individual bands were sponsored by companies and named themselves after these sponsors, such as the Agfa Serenaders, the Readymix Parang Group or the Old Oak Serenaders. As early as 1970 the nationwide Parang Competition was sponsored by a company ( PepsiCo ). Despite the commitment of the economy, the musicians themselves hardly received any money. In November 1971, nine leading parang groups founded the National Parang Association of Trinidad and Tobago (NPATT) to represent the interests of musicians. After consultation with the National Cultural Council, the NPATT took over the organization of the nationwide competition from 1972. The organization is still the leading group of the Parranderos today and is subsidized by the state.

With nationwide popularity, the genre changed radically from the 1970s onwards. Trinidadian people of all ethnic and religious origins crowded the groups. As a result, not only did the average age drop rapidly (1962: 45–60 years; 1975: 20–30 years), the proportion of Spanish-speaking Parranderos also decreased rapidly, so that texts were memorized and new texts were written in poor Spanish and partly in English. The proportion of women rose sharply; the majority of the icons of the "neo-traditional" (term coined by Malm) Parang are now female. The speed of the music increased overall as faster pieces had better odds in the competitions. The genre also spread outside of Trinidad, with Parang competitions taking place regularly in Grenada . Folk songs of Colombian and Cuban origins have also been included in the repertoire of Trinidadian parang groups since the 2000s.

Performance practice

House Parang group

House Parang

Traditionally, small parang groups of four to eight musicians move from house to house and play for those present, for which they receive food and (mostly alcoholic) drinks. This performance practice was originally just called "Parang"; It was only with the emergence of the larger competition groups from the 1960s that the term "house parang" was coined for traditional presentation. It has historically been the practice that all-male music bands would visit the homes of Spanish-speaking relatives, friends and neighbors and go on long walks to other villages. Over time, some elements of the custom have been watered down, for example, English-speaking group members sing in Spanish for an English-speaking clientele and women have been in the groups since the 1920s. Since there are no longer long hikes that were originally only undertaken by men, they are just as common today as men. This dilution was of great importance for the nationwide acceptance of the genre, since from now on house parangs were also completed with neighbors who did not belong to the Spanish-speaking minorities, so that other population groups (with the exception of self-sufficient Hindu communities in the sugar cane belt of central Trinidad) also came into contact with Parang came.

If the hosts are not informed about the arrival of the group, the musicians usually tune their instruments at some distance from the house and perform a first song in front of it, the so-called "Entrada", in which they introduce themselves and ask for admission. The songs performed in the house are initially of a religious nature and are called "aguinaldos". There is a pause during which the hosts offer food and drink. Common dishes that are offered in buffet form are pastels , manioc bread, pelau , roast pork and ham; Rum, beer and soft drinks are drunk. Secular songs are also played after the break, and hosts are free to dance to the music. The conclusion is formed by a song with ideally improvised lyrics, the "Despedida", in which the hosts, their hospitality and their house are praised. This sequence is not rigid and can be varied or reduced, but entrada and despedida are an integral part of a house parang. The improvised texts that were tailored to the respective host used to be of greater importance, but as the musicians' knowledge of Spanish decreased over time, this was lost.

Competition groups

Endemic music generally has a competitive character in Trinidad. As early as the 1720s in Trinidad's Kalinda , slaves competed against each other in a stick fight to percussion music, song and dance. The first music competition of the Trinidadian carnival ( Carnival Road March ) took place in 1930, the first national calypso competition ( Calypso Monarch ) in 1939. Parang has always been competitive within a certain framework, for example musicians used to compete in textual improvisations to portray a the greatest possible biblical stability.

Modern parang groups often have more than 20 members and compete against each other in the NPATT competitions, which take place in the two weeks before Christmas and lead to a final in the Arima Velodrome . In addition to the annual NPATT Parang Competition, in which almost 100 bands take part and in which, among other things, prizes are awarded to the best instrumentalists, the "Junior Parang Festival" has been held since 1978 and has been organized by the NPATT since 1990. The parang competitions have always been the same since 1968: a moderator announces the groups and conducts short interviews with them on stage, while the jurors sit in front of the stage, usually celebrities from the cultural and political scene, and the performance of the individual groups. Since the jurors usually have little or no background knowledge of the traditions and musical structure of Parang, they do not form an expert jury, but rather judge according to layman's standards.

For competitions, the songs played are divided into classes that reflect the original functions or contents of historical performance practice:

class literal translation
from Spanish 		description
Aguinaldo (also: Serenal) Christmas carol Unspecific Christmas carol .
Anunciacion Annunciation The spirit being Gabriel announces to Mary of Nazareth that she will give birth to the son of the deity of Christianity .
Despedida adoption Farewell song; expresses gratitude towards the hosts.
Estribillo refrain Call and response song.
Gaita Gaita drum Secular medium-tempo song in which the rhythm is given by a "gaita drum" (a drum).
Gallery Gallery Medium-tempo song to which texts of a religious or secular nature are improvised in Spanish.
Guarap Sugar cane juice Secular song, often about the consumption of alcohol.
Joropo Joropo Waltz based on the Venezuelan Jaropo.
Levanta Lineup Request for admission and announcement of the announcement of the birth of Jesus Christ. Standard format of the "Entrada".
Manzanares Manzanares Waltz , which allegorically thematizes the crossing of the Río Manzanares in the Venezuelan province of Cumaná .
Nacimiento Birth of christ Birth of the Son of the Deity of Christianity.
Vals waltz Slow waltz with secular lyrics.

Game types and related styles

Both Näumann and Malm cite historical differences between the Parang styles in North and South Trinidad. The set of instruments differed somewhat in the statistical mean, the bands were larger in the south and women and children were more frequently represented. Malm attributes this to the different dominant population groups in the respective regions as well as the closer contact to the Venezuelan-Spanish culture in the southwest of Trinidad. Since the 1980s, regional differences have not been identifiable, not least due to the development of new hybrid forms of parang.

The combination of Parang and modern Soca rhythms is called Soca Parang or Parang Soca - both terms are used synonymously. The lyrics in the Soca Parang are in English and often contain ambiguities, while Parang lyrics contain no sexual implications. The year the genre was created is 1979, the first Parang Soca song Maria des Calypsonians Crazy from the same year. Since 1994, the subgenre has had its own annual competition, the Parang Soca Monarch. It is considered to be commercially more successful than Parang itself. The combination of Parang and rhythm and other elements of the Chutney is called Chutney Parang and enriches the mostly English texts with Hindi phrases.

reception

The ethnomusicologist Krister Malm describes Parang as a "national symbol" of Trinidad with regard to the identification of the population with the musical style. In an article about Parang and Soca Parang, the Trinidad Newsday points out that one reason for the acceptance of the genres in Trinidad is the fact that with Parang, Trinidadians have created an alternative to the US Christmas music that dominates the Caribbean and that makes the Trinidadian way of life much better reflect and thus serve the identification. Michael Anthony describes the genre as a "surviving relic" of the Spanish colonial era, which nowadays represents a large part of Trinidadian Christmas traditions.

Famous artist

Solo artist

  • Alicia Jaggasar
  • Clarita Rivas
  • Daisy Voisin
  • Gloria Alcazar
  • Paul Castillo
  • Paul Hernandez
  • Scrunter

groups

Historical groups

  • La Divina Pastora
  • Lara Brothers
  • Old Oak Serenaders
  • San Jose Serenaders
  • Sharp Los Palitos

Contemporary groups

  • Los Alumnos de San Juan
  • Los Amigos Cantadores
  • Los Paranderos de UWI

literature

  • Malm, Krister: The parang of Trinidad - a case of transformation through exploitation . In: Antropologiska Studier . No. 25-26, 1978, ISSN  0345-0902 , pp. 42-49.
  • Näumann, Klaus: Parang music in Trinidad: A Hispanic tradition in an Anglophone country . LIT Verlag, Münster 2005, ISBN 978-3-8258-8775-9 .
  • Pawan-Taylor, Daphne: Parang of Trinidad . National Cultural Council of Trinidad and Tobago, Port of Spain 1977.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Näumann, p. 119
  2. ↑ a b Essiba Small: Parang soca ... good, dirty fun . In: Trinidad Guardian . November 20, 2004.
  3. ↑ Näumann, p. 109
  4. ↑ RaceandHistory.com: About Parang. Retrieved October 8, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Malm, p. 42
  6. ↑ Michael Anthony: Historical Dictionary of Trinidad and Tobago . Scarecrow Press, London 1997, ISBN 0-8108-3173-2 , pp. 419 .
  7. ↑ Näumann, p. 1
  8. ↑ Malm, p. 42
  9. ↑ a b TriniView.com: Origins and Nature of Parang Music. Retrieved October 8, 2017 .
  10. ↑ Malm, p. 44
  11. ↑ Jocelyne Guilbault: Governing Sound: The Cultural Politics of Trinidad's Carnival Musics . University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2007, ISBN 978-0-226-31060-2 , pp. 292 .
  12. ^ Helen Myers: Music of Hindu Trinidad: Songs from the India Diaspora . University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1998, ISBN 978-0-226-55453-2 , pp. 67 .
  13. ↑ Näumann, p. 69
  14. ^ Rebecca S. Miller: Carriacou String Band Serenade: Performing Identity in the Eastern Caribbean . Wesleyan University Press, Middletown 2007, ISBN 978-0-8195-6858-8 , pp. 163 .
  15. ↑ TriniView.com: Parang: Trinidad with a Hispanic flavor. Retrieved October 8, 2017 .
  16. ↑ Näumann, p. 34
  17. ↑ Malm, p. 44
  18. ↑ Näumann, p. 47
  19. ↑ Michael Anthony: Historical Dictionary of Trinidad and Tobago . Scarecrow Press, London 1997, ISBN 0-8108-3173-2 , pp. 324 .
  20. ↑ Näumann, p. 50
  21. ↑ LargeUp.com: Trini Christmas, 101: Parang Season, When Trinidad “Goes Spanish”. Retrieved October 8, 2017 .
  22. ↑ Joanne Briggs: Clarita Rivas ... A voice of parang past . In: Trinidad Guardian . November 24, 2005.
  23. ↑ Malm, p. 45
  24. ↑ NALIS.gov.tt: Categories for Parang Song. Retrieved October 8, 2017 .
  25. ↑ Näumann, p. 50
  26. ↑ Malm, p. 43
  27. ↑ Mark Fraser: A Trini Christmas brew . In: Trinidad Express . December 11, 2014.
  28. ↑ Malm, p. 47
  29. ↑ Trinidad Newsday of December 25, 2011: Is ah Trini thing. Retrieved October 8, 2017 .
  30. ↑ Michael Anthony: Historical Dictionary of Trinidad and Tobago . Scarecrow Press, London 1997, ISBN 0-8108-3173-2 , pp. 421 .