Calypso is a musical genre that was born in Trinidad and Tobago.
Calypso is a musical genre originating from the Caribbean region. It is estimated that it was created by African slaves who worked in the sugar crops of Trinidad and Tobago .
After the transfer of the slave families to Venezuelan territory, calypso spread throughout different regions of the American continent. This music , with songs developed in English, French and Spanish, became popular especially in Panama , Colombia and various Caribbean islands.
Characteristics of calypso
Calypso has different characteristics depending on the country, although certain features usually appear in the various variants. One of them is the use of steel drums , also known by the English expression steel drums , which are typical of Trinidad and Tobago .
Without instruments at their disposal, slaves and their descendants began using oil barrels for percussion. Thus, little by little, metal drums emerged.
The Spanish guitar , trumpet , saxophone , bass , trombone , maracas and bongos are other instruments used by calypsonians (or, in English, calypsonians ), as the composers and performers of this genre are known. .
With a cheerful rhythm, calypso was born as a tool of communication between slaves and as a vehicle of denunciation. Their original songs revolved around the traditions and living conditions of African Americans.
As its popularity grew, calypso received influences from Jamaican reggae , Puerto Rican salsa , and Cuban son , for example. Among the variants that were developed we can name the Venezuelan calypso , the San Andres calypso ( Colombia ) and the Limonense calypso ( Costa Rica ).
An artificial satellite launched by CNES and NASA is called CALIPSO.
The concept in mythology
According to Greek mythology, Calypso is the name of a daughter of the titan Atlas . With the defeat of the Titans in the so-called Titanomachy , the gods of Olympus sent Calypso to the island of Ogygia as punishment.
On this island, says the Odyssey , Calypso met Ulysses (or Odysseus ), who arrived after the shipwreck of his ship . Calypso provided shelter to Odysseus and they both had two children: Nausinous and Nausítoos .
Although Calypso wanted Ulysses to start a new life with her, the hero wanted to return to his wife Penelope . Faced with this reality, Zeus and Athena intervened to let him go and thus Calypso ended up helping Ulysses on his return.
On the other hand, according to different stories , Calypso is the name of a Nereid (daughter of Doris and Nereus ) and an Oceanid (daughter of Thetis and Oceanus ). A daughter of Helios and Perseis is also called Calypso .
Calypso in astronomy
Calypso , on the other hand, is a satellite of Saturn that was discovered in 1980 . It should be remembered that satellites are celestial bodies that orbit around a planet.
At first , this satellite was named 1980 S 25 . He was then renamed Calypso after the aforementioned mythological figure, although he is also usually referred to as Saturn XIV .
CALIPSO , finally, is an artificial satellite that, in 2006 , was launched by the French organization CNES and the American agency NASA . In this case, CALIPSO is the acronym for Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations .