Ellie Mannette

Elliot " Ellie " Mannette ( born November 5, 1926 in Sans Souci, Trinidad ) is an instrument maker and musicians on the steel pan. He is also referred to as the "father of the modern steel pan ".

Life

Mannette developed a passion for metal and tools for metal working and focused on the development of the discovered phenomenon at the time of the sounding sheet. From the mid- 1930s, competition between urban neighborhoods and their percussion orchestras took place in Port of Spain. The legend tells that Mannette was the first person who used a 216- liter oil drum for producing a steel pan.

1951 traveled the TASPO (Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra ) to England to present the new musical instrument of the queen. Mannette was a member of this orchestra, which was made up of leaders of various steel bands of Trinidad. During this visit to England Mannette was offered a scholarship to study music in London. He did not accept the offer and traveled to continue to devote themselves to the construction of steel pans back home. After he had built the steel band of the U.S. Navy in the early 1960s, he was invited in 1967 to New York to create steel pans for youth projects in the city. This invitation was made by Murray Narell, a New York social worker and father of Jeff and Andy Narell Panspieler. Since Mannette his instruments agreed only with the help of his hearing since the beginning, he was made aware by those skilled in the need to concert pitch (A, 440 Hz). Since 1967 Mannette built in the U.S. to approximately three hundred steel bands, mainly in educational institutions. In 1991 he was invited to the University of West Virginia to there closer to the students the art form steel pan. From a guest semester - as was initially planned - was the University Tuning Project, under which Mannette his knowledge began to pass on to students.

One of his quotes is: " When I look back more than half a century - to my humble beginnings - nobody could have guessed what would make rapid development of the steel pan. As I drove forward my skills in Panbau constant, my focus has always been geared to share my knowledge with others in order to ensure the progress of this instrument. "

Works

Mannette be attributed to several innovations that proved to be essential for the development of the steel pan. He was the first who used an oil barrel instead of biscuit tins, or the like, to build a steel pan. Moreover, it was Mannette which work by means of blowing the surface of the drum gave a concave shape. This allowed a better autonomy of the various sounds. A Panbauer now had more space to einzuformen the sounds on the court. Mannette developed several instruments of the Pan family. Especially his use of the whole tone scale at Steel Pans with two resonators is used to this day.

Mannette developed over the years his personal style. As part of the University Tuning Project at the University of West Virginia in Morgantown, USA, he gives his system of Panbaus and Pantuning on to his students, thereby ensuring that future generations will remain his knowledge. His instruments can be seen in many museums and galleries, including the Smithsonian Institute, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Contemporary Art Gallery.

In 1969 Mannette the Hummingbird Medal Silver of Trinidad and Tobago for its innovations in Panbau. 1999 Mannette was awarded the White House of the National Endowment for the Arts Award. In 2000 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of the West Indies was awarded in Trinidad, also in the same year he received the Silver Medal Chaconia his home country for his work. 2003 Mannette was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Percussive Arts Society of the United States.