This document is directed toward those who have little knowledge about Trinidad, its people, the Carnival activities, and the Panorama competition. This research work should help summarize the evolution of steel drums while providing a transcription of a Panorama score for further scholarly study. The first part of this lecture document includes a brief history and evolution of Trinidad, its people, and musical developments through Carnival. The second portion reports and discusses field research with the Trintoc Invaders in preparation for the 1989 and 1990 Panorama competitions. The third part is a detailed analysis of Ray Holman's Panorama arrangement of "Life's Too Short" for the Trintoc Invaders using theme and variation as the formal structure. Information for this lecture recital document was gathered from written sources in Trinidadian libraries and field work in the Trintoc Invader's pan yard. The source materials: newspaper articles, magazine articles, and books were gathered from the University of the West Indies in St. Augustine and from the West Indian Collection of the Central Library in Belmont. In addition to these materials, interviews were conducted with some older panmen who participated in the very first steel bands. Documents, such as lists of steel bands in Trinidad and Tobago, Panorama results, and judging procedures were obtained from the Pan Trinbago headquarters in Port-of-Spain. Musical information was gathered by rehearsing and playing tenor pan with the Invaders Steel Band Orchestra located in Woodbrook and working closely with their arranger and composer, Ray Holman. Permission was granted to notate his arrangement for analysis and all rights are reserved.

This study examines how gender influences the performance practice of calypso, soca, steel band music, and other related musical genres in contemporary Trinidad. I address the history of these musical genres in this nation, and how they developed into their present form. My study of women in contemporary Trinidadian music examines how popular musicians bring together personal opinion, public persona, and musical structure, to create commentaries upon the contemporary moment (instrumental political agency) as well as emotional bonds with their intended audiences and show that an alternate way of organizing gender representations and inter-gender relations is possible (constitutive political agency). I use a performance based approach to studying various aspects of musical practice within Trinidad, and how this enhances women's agency within the public sphere of popular music, creating new kinds of cultural capital for previously underrepresented members of the population. Many different aspects of Trinidad’s expressive culture are discussed and related to the musical genres discussed therein. Trinidad Carnival, its history and aesthetics, receives particular attention. Performance practice within the musical genres of calypso and soca and the music of the steel orchestra are discussed in detail. Within Trinidad, expressive culture, including popular music, is a strong forum for communicating possible inter-personal and inter-gender relations. Thus, music in the Trinidadian context takes an important place alongside larger political projects and concerns. / text