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Laurier Nappert Interview
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June 7, 2005
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Myriad : Hello, Mr Nappert , you
won the 13th Contest with your piece
"Trinidadité" what
have been the progress of your composition?
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I wanted to write a very sunny tune. We don't often see the
steel
drums in any composition, so I thought this was a great
opportunity
to show it off. What we generally hear is a steel band made up
of
only this instrument or along with percussions and a bass. At
least,
that is what I saw and heard on my trips to the Islands. So I
based
my tune on what we see most often: a bass, percussions and
steel
drums to which I added 2 trumpets to get a brighter sound.
As for the writing itself, I started off with a basic drum pattern.
I
had a vague idea for the melody. I wrote it down and worked it
out
with lots of off-beats. Then I did a very mobile bass using the
same
rythm pattern used for the melody. The trumpets came last. And
to
finish it off, I arranged it as to have the steel drums playing
solo
as well as the trumpets, and then have these instruments play as in
a
dialog, always making sure the steel drums was the star. The
pattern
used for the percussion may sound the same throughtout the tune
but
it does have several variations nevertheless. It was important to
me
to respect the traditions of the steel bands and to make sure
the
steel drums was the star of the tune, even though the trumpets
do
play a very important role. Steel bands' traditions also make use
of
a lot of thirds and sixths, and this is what I also tried to do.
And
this is the reciepe I used to cook that tune.
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