Paper short abstract:

The very rapid spread of steelbands, since their invention has motivated a large scale organological study. Which instruments, are adopted? A study of the variety of the original settings of the musical scale has been undertaken, aiming to an adaptation of phylogenetic approach to organology.

Paper long abstract:

A remarquable aspect of naturalistic an cognitive paradigm in anthropology is probably its potential in terms of causal understanding of the culture, in place of taking the culture as explanation (Atran 2003: 137). Beyond an access to local mental representations, anthropology can, through a cognitive and naturalistic approach allow to build explanations of the observations (Sperber 1996, Boyer 2001, Atran 2004, Morin 2011).

In ethnomusicology, such an approach can be fruitfully applied to the study of performance. Trinidad and Tobago steelbands, for instance, have been well studied in terms of social and political history. But their very rapid spread −they hit around 50 countries since since their invention in the 1940s− needs a serious analysis. I've shown that their organological particularities advantanges the player's memory (Helmlinger 2012), and can probably explain their success.

But this spread is also raising other co-related questions: which steelpans, the steelbands's main instruments, are adopted? One of the most interesting aspects of steelpans is their very original and rich ergonomy: they are a whole family of instruments, only partially standardized. Acoustical constraints, combined with the concave shape of the playing surfaces and the number of oil drums used for one instrument (from 1 to 12), creates a large variety of very original note layout settings. They create therefore a variety of "public representations" of the musical scale on 2 to 3 dimensions patterns.

A large scale study of the spread of the steelpan has been undertaken, aiming to an adaptation of phylogenetic approach to organology.