TY - CPAPER
KW - Cultural heritages
KW - Intangible cultural heritages
KW - Sound synthesis models
KW - Sound-synthesis
KW - Steel drums
KW - Steelpans
KW - Synthesised
KW - Trinidad
KW - twentieth century
AU - Randall Ali
AU - Bryan Khan
AB - The steelpan is a percussive idiophone whose sound is generated by striking an arrangement of dome-shaped notes within the sunken top of a steel drum (open on the other end) with a mallet. The instrument originated in Trinidad and has its roots in the early twentieth century that can be traced back to post-emancipation traditions. As the steelpan has permeated the wider cultural space of the Caribbean in complex ways, it is important, within Caribbean cultural heritage, that it is safeguarded and its associated traditions are appropriately documented. In particular, tuning techniques of pioneer steelpan tuners from the early to mid-twentieth century are being lost to time as the majority of these tuners are already (or soon to be) deceased. This paper discusses a mathematical model of the steelpan that can be discretized and digitally synthesized, highlighting the role that sound synthesis models can play within the domain of cultural heritage. It is shown how the model can be used to understand the timbres of various steelpans and also demonstrates its potential as a point of reference for defining the object of the steelpan as a form of intangible cultural heritage.
C2 - European Signal Processing Conference
N1 - Type: Conference paper
N2 - The steelpan is a percussive idiophone whose sound is generated by striking an arrangement of dome-shaped notes within the sunken top of a steel drum (open on the other end) with a mallet. The instrument originated in Trinidad and has its roots in the early twentieth century that can be traced back to post-emancipation traditions. As the steelpan has permeated the wider cultural space of the Caribbean in complex ways, it is important, within Caribbean cultural heritage, that it is safeguarded and its associated traditions are appropriately documented. In particular, tuning techniques of pioneer steelpan tuners from the early to mid-twentieth century are being lost to time as the majority of these tuners are already (or soon to be) deceased. This paper discusses a mathematical model of the steelpan that can be discretized and digitally synthesized, highlighting the role that sound synthesis models can play within the domain of cultural heritage. It is shown how the model can be used to understand the timbres of various steelpans and also demonstrates its potential as a point of reference for defining the object of the steelpan as a form of intangible cultural heritage.
SP - 1002
EP - 1006
TI - Steelpan Synthesis and Intangible Cultural Heritage
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85208416915&partnerID=40&md5=9dffe129d874a29fa2433f9923d77516
ER -