The Tobago House of Assembly has officially declared the tambrin as the musical instrument of Tobago and the fiddle and tambrin ensemble as the island’s official sound.
The declaration came through a motion passed in the Assembly on Tuesday, recognising a longstanding part of Tobago’s cultural heritage, heard most prominently during the Tobago Heritage Festival, particularly in portrayals of the Ole Time Wedding.
THA Secretary of Tourism, Antiquities and Creative Industries, Zorisha Hackett, moved the motion on Tuesday.
“Generations of Tobagonians had already given the tambrin a space and place of importance within their communities. They made it, they played it, they danced to it, and they passed on the knowledge required to sustain it.”
The tambrin is a handheld drum made from goatskin and resembles a tambourine. It originated during slavery, when enslaved people were forbidden from playing drums.
Secretary Hackett noted that there are three types of tambrin.
“There is the base, sometimes referred to as the boom; there is the roller, also called the fuller, and there is the cutter. These are not simply three identical instruments being played together, no. Each has a particular musical role.”
Together with the fiddle, the tambrin ensemble is being declared Tobago’s official sound.
“The fiddle contributes melody. The iron or triangle provides additional rhythmic accompaniment at times. And the interaction among these instruments, Mr Presiding Officer, is what produces the distinctive musical expression associated with Tobago’s traditional reel and jig.”
Secretary Hackett explained that the tambrin is an important symbol of Tobago’s resilience, cultural adaptation and the resourcefulness of its people.
For Chief Secretary Farley Augustine, the declaration is also about ensuring Tobago’s identity is equally recognised within the unitary state of Trinidad and Tobago.
“And then I am forced to ask myself if all we get as part of the national identity is a Cocrico on the Coat of Arms.”
Mr Augustine clarified that it is not about criticising Trinidad’s culture but about ensuring Tobago’s culture receives equal recognition in the country.
He also challenged Tobagonians to embrace these musical traditions in the same way they embrace steelpan.
“If the tambrin and fiddle sound has to become the official sound of Tobago, if the tambrin has to be the official instrument of Tobago, it has to go beyond us passing this Motion, and it has to result in how we incorporate it into daily life.”
The THA also outlined several plans to incorporate the tambrin and fiddle and tambrin ensemble into schools and community programmes.