The Aubrapan: Revival of a lost invention

The First Aubrapan

S. E. Maloney', C. A. C. Imbert2, A. G. Bryan3

Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, CP2 1PZ, England,

Abstract

The Aubrapan is a new design of the melody (or soprano) pan developed in 1978 by Guyanese pan maker and papist Aubrey Bryan in the United Kingdom. In the Aubrapan the higher frequency notes are placed nearest to the rim of the pan in contrast to the center of the pan where most high notes are generally located. The lower octaves are placed directly opposite each other in order to facilitate a pendulum-like action of the arms — these ascend in whole tones. This concept facilitates easier and rapid playing of the chromatic scale in single and double note form. In this paper we describe the development of the Aubrapan and attempt to discover why the Aubrapan has not yet found a place among the steelpan family. To answer this and other questions, the experiences of the Aubrapan's inventor will be noted and a comparison of the Aubrapan will be made with the conventional Trinidad and Tobago 4^th's and 5^th's soprano pan.

Introduction

The Aubrapan was created in 1978 and named after its inventor Aubrey Bryan who spent a year experimenting with various note layouts before finally choosing the layout in Figure 1. During the late 1970's to middle 1980's the Aubrapan was exhibited to several Heads of Music Departments in London schools. The pan has been played by leading panists Roy "Pele" Geddes and Godfrey Roberts and both thought highly of the invention. Frank Rollock, a former arranger of the London All Stars Steel Orchestra played the Aubrapan and was very excited about the invention, whilst a group of German panists from the Berlin Tin-Pan Alley Steel Orchestra played the instrument and had nothing but praise for it. The Aubrapan was also played by master pan-tuner Roland Harrygin and his assistants during a tour of the United Kingdom by the Casablanca Steel Orchestra. They were fascinated by this pan and praised Aubrey for his original work. Moreover, Aubrey was invited by the Crafts Council of England to exhibit his Aubrapan from June to August 1986.

The Aubrapan, in spite of receiving much accolade, was never promoted as an alternative design or a complement to the soprano family of steelpans. The only record of this instrument can be found in Bryan [1] and Grant [2]. There are two questions of interest. The first is why did the Aubrapan not find its place in the steelpan family and was the design of the Aubrapan flawed thus disqualifying it as an alternative. The first question will be answered in part by noting the experiences of the Aubrapan's inventor whilst an attempt to answer the second question will be made by comparing the Aubrapan to the traditional 4^th's and 5^th's Trinidad Tenor pan. However, before answering these questions a brief introduction on the steelpan is essential.

Figure 1: The Aubrapan note pattern

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