Swiss steelpan history
While the steel pan , a musical instrument, gained a foothold outside the Caribbean mainly through emigrated Trinidadians in foreign cultures, Switzerland can look back on a largely independent development of the pan scene. This article sheds light on the history of the steel pan and steelbands in Switzerland.
Beginnings
It is almost certain that an Englishman named Steve Berg was the first person to build a steel pan in Switzerland (see picture). After a trip to the carnival in Trinidad in 1962, he settled in Freiburg in the Üechtland in 1964 . After a steel band performed at the Comptoir Suisse in Lausanne in 1972, Berg began to build some instruments with the help of the book Steel drums, how to play them and make them ( Pete Seeger , New York 1964). It is interesting that Berg independently came up with the idea of placing the tone fields in the circle of fifths arrangement, only to learn decades later that the circle of fifths is a standard in the world of the steel pan.
The steel pan was largely unknown in Switzerland until the end of the 1970s. Steelbands appeared sporadically in renowned hotels, mostly small pieces of information made up of musicians from England. Larger orchestras were rarely heard at festivals or city festivals (Bernfest 1976).
In the years 76/77, however, the Steel Pan quickly gained a foothold. In Zurich this happened through the carnival culture, the initiator from the very beginning is Sterling Betancourt , a Trinidadian who came to England in the early 1950s and often played in Zurich hotels. In Bern , the “pan virus” spread to some locals during a concert by a Trinidad steel band at the Bern Festival in 1976. Alex Santschi and Felix Rohner in particular went (literally) into the forest and dared to try to build steel pans themselves. In Basel the inserted traveled to Switzerland Trinidadian Mike Cazaubon founded the Steelband Steel Harmonites, the now oldest active band of the Swiss Panszene in 1978th
The steel pan is spreading
In the 1980s, the steel pan began to enjoy increasing popularity. In 1983, 17 then well-known steel bands founded an interest group with the aim of ensuring the exchange of information in the growing pan scene. While Felix Rohner was constantly advancing his pan building skills in Bern, Matthias Kauer founded a specialist shop for steel pans in Zurich in 1984, the first of its kind in Europe. Ralph Richardson from Trinidad settled in Zurich in 1986 and founded the steel band Evolution, which musically was unrivaled for a long time. Panplayers said goodbye to their "mother bands" and again founded panorama orchestras. At this point we should mention Samuel Graf, who left the Berner Oelgesellschaft to found a music company in Lyss in the Bernese Seeland, which is still one of the largest steel bands in Switzerland today.
1985 saw the birth of the first children's steel band “Nägeligass”, which produced some well-known musicians (Claudio Pini; Pans, Samuel Baur; drums, Gawan Seiler; reggae singers, as well as the musical instrument maker Sabina Schärer). In the course of the 80s, around 70 steel bands were formed in German-speaking Switzerland .
In 1987 the first national steel band festival was held in the old town of Bern. 27 steel bands from 46 well-known groups from all over Switzerland took part. Dr. Peter Zünd, initiator of these festivals, wrote in his foreword by the festival guide: “... it is one of the very few non-commercial major cultural events in Switzerland .” The festival's motto was “Thank you Trinidad”. Finally the Swiss steel bands began to look beyond the borders of little Switzerland. In 1986 the Caribbean enthusiasts gave concerts in Denmark while the Steel Harmonites visited the USA. Steelbands from abroad were later invited to visit Switzerland (Latchmere Youth from London, Steel Tempo from Manchester, Trinidad Casablanca Orchestra from Port-of-Spain).
development
The number of steelbands doubled again in the 1990s, as a wide variety of instruments could be obtained from local manufacturers and importers. Steelbands took part in the panorama competition in Trinidad (Berner Oelgesellschaft '92), and traveled to Barbados (Pan Network '92). Restaurant businesses held regular concerts (Bagages '94). In 1996 a band traveled to Trinidad for the first time to take part in the Pan is Beautiful competition (SNSO, '96). Steelbands appeared on Swiss television (Benissimo), or traveled all over Europe as part of their own projects.
Panbau in Switzerland
There were few pan-builders in Switzerland who made steel pans for their own orchestra (Graf; Lyss, Cazaubon; Basel, Gränicher; Langenthal). However, the pioneering role of Swiss pan construction belongs to Felix Rohner from Bern. He has been manufacturing steel pans since 1976, and since 1985 he has been a full-time pantuner. At this time he founded the steelpan manufacture in Bern. From 1985 to 1993 he supplied several dozen steel bands with his instruments in German-speaking Switzerland. He also offered his skills as a tuner. The founding of more than 40 school and youth steel bands is thanks to Felix Rohner.
Through his studies of master instruments from America, namely by Elliot "Ellie" Mannette and Trinidad, as well as through the exchange of experiences with befriended European pan builders, Rohner self-taught himself the art of pan building. He recognized the need for a high-quality raw material early on, as success and failure through the use of used steel containers was a matter of chance. So he dealt increasingly with the research of suitable materials.
Since research on sheet metal required an orderly business structure and a lot of money, PANArt Steelpanmanufaktur AG Bern was founded in 1993 under the leadership of Felix Rohner together with members of the Berner Oelgesellschaft . Werner Egger was one of the founding members of PANArt, who trained as a pan builder in this company and then went into business for himself.
During these years, PANArt carried out intensive research on a wide variety of materials (deep-drawing steel; DP steel; fine-grain steel). PANArt also dived into acoustics , had sound spectral analyzes carried out and the phenomenon of the non-linear sheet metal sound examined by acousticians. This research was carried out in collaboration with the German steel industry (Hoesch) and the ETH Zurich , as well as acousticians and physicists from America. Decisive for the success was the development of a specific hardening process for the steel of sheet metal instruments, for which a patent was applied for in 1998: A sheet metal with two harder outer layers and a softer core is created by gas nitriding at high temperature in an ammonia atmosphere . A tool also developed by PANArt made it possible to deep- draw the raw forms for pan construction. The instrument family built according to this process was called PANArt Pang.
In 2000 the company developed a new type of musical instrument, the Hang . It represents the preliminary climax of Felix Rohner's work on sheet metal. The research work was honored in 2000 with the award of the Bavarian State Prize for Innovative Crafts. Due to the overwhelming worldwide demand for Hanghang (plural), PANArt stopped building Steel Pans and changed the company name to PANArt Hangbau AG.
Two Panbauer builders are currently working full-time in Switzerland: Werner Egger mentioned above and Esa Tervala, a native of Finland who has lived in Switzerland since 1994.
Importers and distributors
Parallel to the Swiss production, there were and are dealers who import and sell steel pans from England or Trinidad . Mention should be made of Matthias Kauer (Panorama Steeldrums; Zurich), Walter Streuli (Birmensdorf), and Martin Grah (Happydrums, in Winterthur). Ralph Richardson (Richardson Steeldrums; Zurich) originally made steel pans himself, but as he got older, he switched to imports from his home country Trinidad. These dealers fly in Pantuner at regular intervals to ensure that the instruments sold are looked after.
The past decade
Compared to earlier times, the Pan and thus also the Steelband as such have lost their exotic bonus. Where it used to be enough to convey the “palm beach feeling”, quality is now increasingly in demand.
In 2000 two steel bands took part in the first European steel band festival in Paris. One of these groups (PANCH 2000) achieved 4th place in the musical competition and thus qualified for participation in the World Steelband Festival in Trinidad. In line with the cliché of Swiss quality, the Pan-Jumbie information portal was created , which has been providing daily information about what is happening in the Panworld and Caribbean culture since 2001. Pan-Jumbie is meanwhile (regarding Steel Pan) the most visited platform on the Internet worldwide. This fact is based on the fact that this portal provides top performance in terms of comprehensive information.
In 2004 the umbrella organization PANCH (Swiss Steelband Association) was founded by several Swiss steelbands . PANCH aims to promote exchange among local steelbands, to support the Swiss pan culture in general and to ensure contact with other international associations. In 2018 the first Swiss Steelpan Festival took place on the Münsingen Castle Estate , co-organizer was Pit Zünd.
literature
- Matthias Kauer: Some history of the Swiss steel band scene
- Panyard; the independent newspaper for Pankultur ; 1993, 1994
- Steelband Festival 1987, festival guide
Web links
- Interest group of Swiss steel bands
- Information portal for Steel Pan worldwide , with online archive
- Swiss Steelband Association
- PANArt: Research on sheet metal
Individual evidence
- ↑ First Pan ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Harmonites
- ↑ Bands 1987
- ↑ Thank you Trinidad
- ↑ Panbau ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Research
- ↑ Pang ( Memento of the original from January 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ State Prize (PDF; 2.9 MB)
- ↑ Markus Dütschler: “I needed years of experience before I could really do the craft” . In: Der Bund from January 16, 2017.
- ↑ Johannes Reichen: Caribbean sounds against wanderlust . In: Berner Zeitung of August 3, 2018.
