- _____________________________________________________________________
- What is
Parang?
|
A brief introductory essay courtesy of the Website
of
Los
Ninos del Mundo Trinidad Parang Band of Calvary Hill, Arima
Prepared by Maximilian C. Forte using documents
from
The
National Parang Association of Trinidad and Tobago (NPATT)
interviews with Arima parranderos, and the written
works of
Jacqueline Khan, Daphne Pawan and
Sylvia Moodie-Kublalsingh.
A. The word "Parang" comes
from the Spanish word "parranda," which amongst other things means "spree,"
i.e., to go on a spree is "ir de parranda" or to spree, "parrandear." In
Trinidad it refers to a particular type of music, now folkloric, of Hispanic
American origins. Not everywhere in Latin America or the Spanish Caribbean will
people understand "parranda" to be a type of music; in the Dominican Republic
for instance they refer to this music simply as "Aguinaldos," that is, just one
of the types of songs sung in Trinidad Parang.
* *
*B.
Traditional Parang bands often consisted of four to six singers accompanied by
guitar, cuatro, mandolin, box base, and maracas. They would move from house to
house during festive seasons, singing in the homes of families, greeted with
drinks and food, and there were specific steps or rituals that accompanied the
entry to a home, the dedication of songs to a host, the eating and drinking, and
the departure. Today, many bands have been "professionalized," with corporate
sponsorship, consisting of sometimes as many as 25 musicians, and often taking
part in annual competitions that are televised and/or broadcast on
radio.
* *
*C. As
the National Parang Association sees it, the events of Parang are centred on the
birth of Christ (i.e., the aguinaldos, and songs such as "La anunciacion" and
"El nacimiento"). However, there are other songs that refer also to the death
and resurrection of Christ and other episodes in Christ's life. Hence, we may
find a more limited version of Parang festivities, in very few places today, at
Easter time. Yet, Parang is not just religious music: there are many common and
traditional songs that have nothing to do with the Holy Bible (i.e., "Rio
Manzanare," or Los Ninos del Mundo's "Se vera la conia"), and sometimes are
explicitly about alcoholic drinks (i.e., "Guarapo" a drink made from fermented
can juice known amongst post-Colonial Amerindians as "Warap"). This variety in
the music raises some definitional problems: not all religious music sung in
Spanish is Parang (such as the prayer songs sung during a Velorio de la Cruz,
i.e., a family's annual private devotion to a particular saint which involves
singing through the night amongst other things); not all music sung in Spanish,
religious or not, is Parang; moreover, now there is even Parang that is not sung
in Spanish at all, and this is not counting the hybrid offshoots in Trinidad
such as Soca Parang and Chutney Parang.
* *
*D. In
the religious Parang music of the Christmas season, there are some basic song
themes that are upheld: 1. the apparition of the Angel Gabriel to Mary, 2.
Mary's visit to her cousin Elizabeth, 3. the flight of the Holy Family from
Nazareth to Bethlehem, 4. the Alegrias when Christ was born in a manger, 5. the
Nacimiento - twelve days of celebration during Christmas, 6. Los Reyes (or Les
Rois, what Trinidadians sometimes pronounce and even spell as "lewah") when the
three wise men brought gifts to the Infant Jesus.
* *
*E.
There are two theories concerning the emergence and development of Parang in
Trinidad. One is that Parang emerged from the process of catechization of
Amerindians performed by the Franciscan Capuchins in the Indian Missions in
Trinidad from roughly the 1680s to almost a century later. One problem is that
this does not account for songs that make reference to specific features of the
geography of Venezuela. The second theory is that Trinidad Parang is
comparatively more modern, suggesting that it is primarily a nineteenth-century
phenomenon stemming from the massive importation of Venezuelan peons to work on
the Cocoa estates during the Cocoa boom of the 1870-1920 period. While one may
ponder whether to choose one theory and reject the other, or try to reconcile
both theories, or reject both, and so on, there is one basic assumption that
underlies this debate, the key position on which the theories rest. Whichever
theory we choose will depend on whether or not we accept a theory of
Hispanicized Amerindian continuity in Trinidad. If we do, we adopt the first
theory, and maybe adopt parts of the second theory as an after-thought. If we do
not, then we can only embrace the Venezuelan theory. What most Parang scholars
can agree on, however, is that this music form did not come, as it is today,
straight from Spain and remain unmodified. Hence, the consensus is that it is a
hybrid, Spanish American creole cultural form.
* *
*F.
Instruments commonly featured in Parang music are: the guitar, banjo, mandolin,
box base, cuatro violin, wood flute, tambourine, clapper, toc-toc, maracas, and
the scratcher. It is rare to find the full range of instruments listed being
played simulatenously by one band in one song.
* *
*G.
Parang season usually lasted from mid-October until January 6. Recently, the
National Parang Festival has started from as early as September 26. The onset of
Carnival, which many Trinidadians assume must immediately follow Christmas Day
without hesitation, has somewhat cramped the space for Parang. The growth of
Soca Parang, a Carnivalized version of Parang, also crowds the space for actual
Parang music.
* *
*H.
Parranderos, especially those with roots in the cocoa industry, emerge from
places such as Arima, San Raphael, Mausica, Lopinot, Santa Cruz, St. Joseph,
Caura, St. Anns, Maraval, Rancho Quemado, Erin and Palo Seco.
* *
*I.
Parang is not now the exclusive reserve of people of Spanish American descent.
In fact, it is hard to find one community in multi-ethnic Trinidad that is not
represented to a significant degree, which may be truer of Parang than of any
other festival art form in Trinidad and Tobago.
* *
*
