Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

<i>Governing Sound: The Cultural Politics of Trinidad’s Carnival Musics</i>, and: <i>Bacchanalian Sentiments: Musical Experiences and Political Counterpoints in Trinidad</i>, and: <i>Music from Behind the Bridge: Steelband Spirit and Politics in Trinidad and Tobago</i> (review)

2010; University of Texas Press; Volume: 31; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/lat.2010.0019

1536-0199

Hope Munro Smith,

Caribbean history, culture, and politics

Reviewed by: Governing Sound: The Cultural Politics of Trinidad's Carnival Musics, and: Bacchanalian Sentiments: Musical Experiences and Political Counterpoints in Trinidad, and: Music from Behind the Bridge: Steelband Spirit and Politics in Trinidad and Tobago Hope Munro Smith Jocelyne Guilbault . Governing Sound: The Cultural Politics of Trinidad's Carnival Musics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007. Plates, illustrations. xii + 343 pp. Kevin K. Birth . Bacchanalian Sentiments: Musical Experiences and Political Counterpoints in Trinidad. Durham: Duke University Press, 2008. Illustrations. xiv + 280 pp. Shannon Dudley . Music from Behind the Bridge: Steelband Spirit and Politics in Trinidad and Tobago. Oxford University Press, 2008. xiv + 311 pp. Illustrations, maps, musical examples. The three titles under discussion in this essay are welcome additions to the growing library of books that address the musical culture of Trinidad and Tobago. Two decades ago, it would have been difficult to find such sources readily available outside of the Caribbean. Today, there are a plethora of materials available to scholars, teachers, students and casual readers interested in Trinidadian culture. Although the primary focus of the titles reviewed here is on Trinidadian carnival music, several of the authors touch upon musical styles and performance contexts that are not associated with carnival, hence documenting the diversity of contemporary music in Trinidad and Tobago. Governing Sound is the densest and most challenging of the three texts discussed here. Guilbault constructs her analysis of Trinidad's carnival musics around a Foucauldian theoretical framework, and states that she is interested countering the various "arts of governing" that have created canonical musical practices (in this case, calypso as the nation's music) with various aspects of "musical entrepreneurship" in new carnival music that perform what calypso does not (7). Guilbault is not the first scholar to use cultural politics as a lens for viewing Trinidadian carnival. Her work here is clearly influenced by that of anthropologists Robin Balliger, Philip Scher, and Garth Green, all of who have written extensively on the neo-liberal and transnational aspects of the various expressive traditions associated with Carnival in Trinidad and in the Caribbean Diaspora. Governing Sound is based on an impressive amount of fieldwork, conducted since 1993 during annual trips to Trinidad for carnival. The author also observed calypso competitions in Barbados and Antigua, as well as West Indian communities in Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal. Guilbault seems to have interviewed every possible performer and producer involved with calypso and its musical offshoots, and has closely observed the agency of audiences in critiquing carnival performances. Governing Sound is organized into two sections, "Calypso" and "Calypso's Musical Off shoots." Although the introduction seems to indicate that the primary focus of the study will be new carnival music, more than half the book is devoted [End Page 279] to the historical aspects of calypso, carnival competitions, profiles of "Calypsonians Onstage," and the innovations of particular composers and arrangers whose careers span 40 years. Part I includes biographical narratives of calypsonians Black Stalin, Calypso Rose, Denyse Plummer, Crazy, and De Mighty Trini. The selection of these artists is meant to demonstrate the ethnic diversity of the contemporary calypso scene, as well as show how Calypso Rose and Denyse Plummer have challenged male hegemony in calypso. The final chapter in this section is a lengthy analysis of the arranging styles of Frankie Francis and Art de Coteau, both of whom shaped the sound of calypso music during the 1960s and 1970s. This portion of the book is ground breaking research, as the role of the arranger in calypso music receives little attention in other sources. Part II: Calypso's Musical Offshoots begins by surveying the various "Origin Stories of the New Music Styles," which Guilbault defines as soca, ragga soca, rapso, and chutney soca. She then focuses on the work of soca artist Machel Montano and chutney soca artist Rikki Jai. What I find disappointing about this section is that Montano and his band Xtatik are represented as the most "transgressive," "innovative," "authentic" and "original" of today's soca musicians. I know many Trinidadians who would disagree with this assessment, as do I, although most would admit that Montano is one of the most commercially successful soca artists of...