By John G. Cupid

Trinidad Guardian

December 26th 1971

Page 17

The new popularity which Parang is creating for a Trinidad - Style Christmas is urging the question in the inquiring mind. "Where and when it all started and what place it has in an independent Trinidad and Tobago?"

The beginning is steeped in history; the history of the coming of the European to the Western Hemisphere after Columbus.

The researchers are finding on examination of historical documents and papal bulls that not only the sword but music was used to displace or subjugate (you have a choice of words) the way of life of the people whom they met here. The Conquistadors were supported by Catholic Priest Musicians.

One of the necessary qualifications for pastoral assignment to the New World was that the Priests be masters of music.

The second force which created an essential feature of parang, that is, its Spanish and French influence, was brought by the European planters.

The books, with many different songs and parts of the pageant of Christmas, can still be found in Trinidad, written in both Spanish and French. Mary, Joseph and the Christ Child were given important roles.

A TRADITION

The identical features of the Parang in Paramin and Bonasse on the one hand, and Las Cuevas and Brasso Venado, to name a few places, provide living testimony of the evolution of today's Parang.

There was adoration, singing, eating, drinking, making of music and giving of fellowship. The period lasted several weeks from late November to Epiphany in January.

Sometimes six days non-stop. Parang came as part of a literary tradition but there were many people, (the majority), workers in the estates in Trinidad who could not read the language in which the Christmas rituals were written. They, therefore, developed an oral tradition.

Musicologists do not hesitate to credit the contribution to Parang made by West Africa through their descendants in Trinidad. The "tense nasal Spanish singing style was modified by the relaxed West African voice timbre with its varied intonation."

The instruments used were mainly string - violin, bando, mandolin, quatro and guitars - to which was added the box drum or box bass which is a variation of the African (zanza mbira).

New information reveals, among other things, the villagers who did Parang in French style (creche) also used instruments including trumpets.

The meaning of the word Parang has origins in the Venezuelan Spanish words "parrandear" to fete or go to parties and "parar" to stop or to put up.

They move from house to house with aguinaldo or serenal, one singer taking over from the other carrying the Story of the Nativity along and sometimes extemporising. Joropo, galeron, paseo, estrebio all precede the final despedida.

One jazzman who recently experienced Parang stated that the rhythm will "swing the pendulum of a clock." He moved from one instrument to the other counting on his fingers to try to find out what was going on. "The violin and the flute were playing melodies and counter melodies completely antipodal to everything else that was going on. The total effect was breathtaking, unconstrained and inevitable." Add to this, accent, nuance and oral tradition.

You begin to feel the thing man!

It is interesting to note that an "expert" in February 1956, wrote that in the Caribbean, the string band is a sort of country music, but it is well along on its way out. Reason: "other readily available dance music via radio, records and small jazzbands."

A special invitation should be sent to this "expert" to come back to Trinidad next Christmas. He would be amazed.

This Christmas, Parang Bands met other music bands on common grounds at Christmas parties and very often got requests for more, more. Thus one finds that in more recent times several interesting things are happening in Parang.

SIX VIOLINS

On the wave of the Annual Parang Festival held by Radio 610 over the past six Christmases (the Festival built on the work of such diehards as paul Castillo, Holly, Mikey and the Henderson Brothers) the young people are becoming involved. Women, young and old, are taking the role of lead singers.

There are six violins in San Fernando Music School Parang Band. The urban folks want in. Parang is coming into Christmas dinners, cocktail parties and back to the Church.

At Christmas time one realizes that something Trinidadian which was written off by the "experts" as dead, is very much alive and with it. "Santa take a big man from St James and tie him like a Cow in Morvant" and the Jamaican Reggae "You better take warning" have been given a special parang treatment this year".

There are many features in the Trinidad Parang which should prevent it from being confused with that of Santo Domingo or Venezuela. This is important. To spend (taste is perhaps the better word) a night of Parang in Papa Guhn's tapia house with Sotero and Domingo Gomez or in Rancho Quemado is to experience, the essence of Parang. It is a life-style.

Of course they work. The village of Lopinot in its present form was created by the Parang people themselves. They were moved from Caura to make way for the building of the dam.

High woods or forest was cleared, the Church was reconstructed with bricks brought over from Caura. They produced some of the best cocoa and christophene and the best pigs for a Christmas Feast. They work hard. They parang hard.

SIGNAL HONOUR

In Montreal (1967), a group of businessmen and world newsmen encountered this Parang music thing and paid it, what many observers called a signal honour - a standing ovation. Twenty-four (24) musicians and singers had sung one (1) hour of songs from the hills and valleys of Santa Cruz, Blanchisseuse, Lopinot, Paramin, Brasso Seco, Cedros and Rio Claro.

One man rushed over and shouted, "It is Czech!" that melody is definitely Czechoslovachian. So there you have it. The advocacy is not for insularity or parocialism. There is in Trinidad Parang much that is Spanish, French, African, English, Patois and if you could believe the man in Monotreal, Czech. The point is: Parang music is universal.

By such deliberate acts and successes as the preservation of Parang, will the Independence of the Caribbean be created.

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