Why play anthem on pan app?

Maestro must have turned in his grave when the video started with a young man playing, with his fingers, TT ’s national anthem on a pan app via what looked like an iPhone.

To add insult to injury, neatly stacked in the background were our national instruments from the Exodus Steelband.

Even though Exodus joined in the musical tribute, I was dismayed by the national anthem — supposedly a solemn patriotic song — being played on a pan app at the start of this soca/calypso musical tribute.

TT is one of the few countries in the world that has a national instrument.

Reproducing the sound of pan or any other instrument via electronics and technology, ingenious as this may be, should not take precedence over a country’s national instrument in the rendition of its national anthem.

For the record, the entire national anthem, via the same pan app, was aired on television during the country’s 2016 independence celebrations.

The pan app cannot be faulted for its convenience and being able to introduce the world to the sound of pan.

One can only hope that pan, the only percussion musical instrument invented in the 20th century, will not become a museum piece in the near future.

TT has to pay particular attention to its greatness.

Unfortunately, the late Dr Eric Williams, the father of the nation, was not nationally remembered on the 36th anniversary of his passing.

In the case of pan, will TT allow technology/electronics to erode the memory of pan’s role in the country or will it ensure its longevity for patriotic reasons and prove that a semblance of nationhood still exists? John Henry