Follow
this link to the Antigua Carnival Site
 It
is a ten-day festival of colorful costumes, beauty pageants, talent
shows, and especially good music. The festivities, which
celebrate emancipation,
are exciting and extensive, ranging from the Party Monarch and
Calypso Monarch competitions of Calypsonians, the Panorama steel
band competition, and the spectacular Parade of Bands to the Miss
Antigua Pageant and the Caribbean Queen's Competition. In addition
to these major events, the nonstop revelry of this eleven-day carnival
includes innumerable smaller festivities, including local concerts,
food fairs, parades, and cultural shows. The
annual Carnival, the
Caribbean's greatest summer festival!
Antiguan Music
There are several different musical
forms featured during Carnival. Calypso, the oldest, has its
roots in slavery; a common explanation of its origins is that
it began as a way for slaves, who were forbidden to speak in
the fields, to communicate with each other. It is a polyglot,
improvisational form that depends largely upon the skill of
a soloist, (the calypsonian) who weaves the sounds of many cultures
into a lyrical whole. Calypso competitions have long been a
highlight
of Carnival.
Steel drum music was created when
the bamboo percussion instruments traditionally used to back
up calypso were replaced by hammered steel pans cut from oil
drums. Whereas there is no dispute that the steel pan was developed
in Trinidad, the indigenous development of the steel band in
Antigua and Barbuda was an outgrowth of the iron bands which
were prominent at Christmas time. Steel drum music has
been an important part of Carnival since that time, and Antigua
is home to many of the Caribbean's finest steel bands. Soca
is a musical form that grafts the slower beat of American soul
music
to the upbeat tempos of calypso. Soca began in the 1970s, and
by the middle of the 1980s it had become an integral feature
of Carnival. Another musical form popular on Antigua is reggae.
Although it originated in Jamaica, reggae has been incorporated
into the Antiguan music scene for many years. |
