Exploring Musical Traditions of NEA National Heritage Fellows
We’re all surrounded by music: in shopping malls, on television, and on our own electronic devices. If you’re 10 years old now, chances are you’ve already heard more music than your great-grandmother would have heard in her entire life. Much of the music you hear sounds quite familiar: pop, rock, rap, R&B, jazz, and classical. If you dig a little bit deeper into your school, community, town, and country, you’ll be amazed at how many ways there are to learn, create, and enjoy music.
The NEA National Heritage Fellows reflect he musical diversity found across the United States today. Here are a few examples.
1. Oil drums ringing
Elliott “Ellie” Mannette’s steel pans
The steel pan, with its rich, bell-like tone, was developed by Afro-Trinidadians as a part of Carnival celebrations in Trinidad and Tobago, an island nation in the Caribbean Sea. The ping pong, an early version of the steel pan made from cookie tins or metal garbage cans, could play only a few notes. After World War II, creative musicians like NEA National Heritage Fellow Ellie Mannette used huge leftover oil drums to create the modern steel pan by hammering out circular indentations that produce crisp, clear tones when they are hit with a rubber mallet.
If you stand nearby when they play, you can feel the bass notes vibrate in your chest.
Steel bands can be small or can have up to 130 players. Ellie Mannette helped found a steel band at West Virginia University, far from Trinidad.
2. Bamboo organ
Bounxeung Synanonh’s khaen
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Esta historia es de la edición July/August 2017 de Faces - The Magazine of People, Places and Cultures for Kids.
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