| The music created during Trinidad and Tobago's Carnival, like the festival itself, is instrumental in reconstructing and retaining cultural tradition, building community, and recording history. The steelband, a community institution that produces music for Carnival on the national instrument, the steelpan, has been instrumental in effecting this. In this thesis I examine how this is done by looking at the specific example of the Desperadoes Steel Orchestra in the Laventille community in Port-of-Spain Trinidad, and the music arranged for the band by Clive Bradley. I analyze how Bradley uses the text of the calypsos, and the experiences of the members of Desperadoes, to create musical arrangements that serve as an historical reference of relationships and events for the community and the members of the band. I use the musical example of his arrangement of the calypso "In my House" to investigate the process of creating, preparing and performing a piece that is easily accessed as a vessel for individual and communal memory. |
