Tracks for Projects Holiday Calypso

Calypso is a style of Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago in the 19th century, becoming popular with audiences all over the world from the late 1930s. It is characterised by lively, syncopated rhythms, witty (sometimes satirical) lyrics, and the use of a range of percussion instruments, in particular the steelpans. Holiday Calypso is structured over a repeating four-bar bass line, which sets up and maintains the groove and provides the harmonic framework for the song. The third chord (D minor) has an alternate version (the supertonic major), which at particular points in the song indicates a micro-modulation to the dominant.

Holiday Calypso has an added structural twist: it is written as a canon for two voices an octave apart. The lower voice enters first:

Just one day to go
And so it’s nearly time to pack our cases,
Now our work is done.
Just look at all our smiling faces.

At this juncture the higher voice enters with these words, while the lower voice continues:

We’re going on holiday,
Tickets bought and passports ready,
We’re going far away,
Sun, sand and sea.
Just one day to go,
Now’s your chance to be
Saying cheerio
Then we’ll be free!

The vocal overlapping continues untll the last line of the second verse, when both voices sing:

We are going on holiday.

In the recording (see Track 1 below), there follow three 16-bar improvised sections featuring solos on guitar, steelpans and bass guitar. Finally, the voices reappear, entering in reverse order.

There are 24 tracks available to support learning and performances of Holiday Calypso: