About Us

    We are a group of Elementary School Teachers who have come together to work on this project as part of a Music Education assignment. We focused on "Parang", a musical artform indigenous to Trinidad & Tobago, with the hope of creating interest and sustainability in keeping the traditional form alive. We have also examined the influence of technology and other innovations on this genre of music. The research conducted clarified that the preferences varied among those who liked traditional only and those who liked the contemporary forms. Traditional parranderos, while they appreciate the shift to soca parang and chutney parang and so on, recognize the need to hold on jealously to what is Parang's true heritage.

    We have done research, collected data and conducted interviews with key people in our area of study. This website contains all aspects of this research and we hope the user finds the information educational, useful and worthwhile. Our aim remains one of developing an awareness and appreciation of Parang Music in its traditional form. While technology has its role in accurately recording and documenting music, even enhancing clarity in some parts, we believe that it cannot be compared with nor can it ever replace authentic, traditional, live parang music.  

                                                                                                                     Kent, Elizabeth & Suzette

                                                                                                                    (14th November, 2010)

Where did Parang originate?

Parang's root is basically Spanish with French and African influences. Our history as recorded, shows that in 1498 Christopher Columbus came to Trinidad. The Spanish settlers did not arrive until 1592, almost 200 years later.

    As part of colonizing the island, the Spanish invited the French and other Europeans to settle and help to develop it. Many of these settlers came with their slaves as well as about 4000 free African slaves. They established cocoa and coffee plantations where many native Amerindians were slaves too. Within a short time the Amerindian population dwindled to a few hundred. 

    In this "New world" as the Spanish saw it, they sent many Catholic Priests who were in charge of various parts of the island where missions were set up to teach the natives Christianity. A criterion for placement was that the priest had to be a master of music and so taught many songs about the Bible in Spanish; the birth of Jesus being one. This influenced what is now known as parang music since the music is primarily about the birth of Jesus. The songs are about the nativity and are usually sung at Christmas time.

Another belief is that when the Venezuelans came to Trinidad to work on the cocoa plantations they also brought with them their culture of music and song. These workers called cocoa panyols entertained themselves with parang music as there was neither radio nor electricity.

African influence is attributed mainly to the zanza mbira drum which looks like the box bass drum.  This drum along with other instruments we saw in the museum at Lopinot influenced the rhythm as we know it. In addition the singing voice added a peculiar timbre that is distinctly parang.  

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