We found an excellent place to start. Discover Trinidad & Tobago has an excellent article, titled "Trinidad Carnival: the birth and evolution". From that article we found a start point. We have an excerpt of that article from which we will be posting "key elements of Trinidad and Tobago's carnival.
As mentioned above, we have a
Trinidad Carnival: the key elements:
- Calypso: indigenous Trinidadian music with roots in West African songs of praise and mockery, strongly influenced by calinda (Stick-fighting) chants and Lavways that Chantuelles sang to lead Carnival bands. Originally sung in Patois (a local French derivative)
- Kambule or Canboulay Riots: significant uprising in 1881 against the British governor who attempted to ban the Carnival festivities
- Limbo: sacred folk dance indigenous to Trinidad, once performed at wakes in African communities; the lower the dancer could go, the higher the spirit of the dead could ascend
- Ole mas: traditional Carnival characters like the ominous Midnight Robber, talkative Pierrot Granade, and gender-bending Dames Lorraines; best viewed at traditional character parades and Viey La Cou (two Sundays before Carnival)
- Playing mas: masquerading, usually in costume with a band. Some bands sell out from September, but returns can be grabbed last minute. Of course, you can make your own costume (or band) – and don’t need a costume to band-hop
- Pretty mas: mass-produced costumes, usually skimpy bikinis, feathers, and beads
- Road March: song played most often by bands at judging points.
- Soca: fast-paced, high-energy offspring of calypso, pioneered by Ras Shorty I (Garfield Blackman) in the 70s, fusing African and Indian sounds. Trinidad’s pop music, it has absorbed R&B, dancehall, hip-hop, reggaeton, house music and other influences.
- Steelpan: developed in Laventille communities in the 1930s, the only non-electrical instrument invented in the 20th century. Began as single “ping pongs” hung around the neck playing just a few notes, now covering full western scale in bands topping 100 players.
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