The Pacific Ocean covers a third of the earth's surface and contains the deepest waters in the world. It is also a region with deep musical traditions, too, buffeted by the regular currents of colonists and explorers and now undergoing dramatic changes. You can hear music ranging from ancestral navigational chants and glorious polyphonic singing to laments about nuclear testing. The ethnic cultures of the Pacific can be divided into three main areas - Melanesia, lying mostly south of the equator, Micronesia, north of the equator above it, and Polynesia, spread over a huge area to the east.
MelanesiaThe people of Melanesia (from the Greek word melas - black, and nesos - island), which includes Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji, are very dark skinned with Afro hair and are thought to have migrated by canoe from East Africa across the Indian Ocean by way of Indonesia.
Our knowledge of Melanesian music stems primarily from a few early twentieth-century German studies in the Caroline Islands plus isolated German and American efforts before and after World War 2. These materials reveal a predominantly vocal tradition which emphasizes the heightened speech or the litany chant styles. Many of the Melanesian dances are sitting dances - people perform sitting down with much of the movement emanating from the upper body. The island choreography is principally the movement of the arms, which is very different from Africa which is movement of the feet - you rarely see a sitting-down dance here. The ancestral relationship between East Africa and Melanesia is manifest in the fact that much of the music in Papua New Guinea is performed standing, not sitting.
When it happens, harmony may be based on any interval, though movement in parallel fourths or the use of a drone are the most common. Most singing is integrated with gesture, whether the music be a lament, an invocation, or a serenade. A great deal of the music is used to accompany dance.
Melanesia has the widest diversity of instruments in the region - all types of drums, slit-log gongs, a great variety of flutes and pipes - but no stringed instruments apart from the guitar and ukelele brought in by the Europeans.
MicronesiaMicronesia (from mikros - small) is a group of small islands - including Yap, Truk, the Marshall and Gilbert islands (Kiribati) - east of the Philippines and north of Melanesia. The indigenous people are thought to be south-east Asian descent who may share some music elements with that region. The music is very voice oriented with chanting, stamping and body percussion. Their songs tell of legendary histories, genealogies and navigational tales of the islands.
The musical instruments of Micronesia are few. The shell trumpet and nose flute are the most common, though standard flutes and jews harps are also found. A common idiophone in Micronesia is a stick that is carried by men in certain dances. The performers strike each others sticks in the course of the choreography. Membranophones are not very common, though the hourglass single-headed drum like those played in Papua New Guinea is found as far north as the Marshall Islands. In keeping with the ecology of atoll life, the skins of these drums are made from a shark's belly or parts of the sting ray. Many atolls of the Micronesian Pacific are without any indigenous musical instruments whatsoever.
PolynesiaPolynesia comes from the Greek Poly - many; and stretches in a huge triangle from New Zealand in the south-west to Easter Island 8,000 kilometres away in the south-east and as far again to Hawaii at its northern apex. The Polynesians are generally taller, lighter skinned and - it is believed - originated in South-East Asia, migrated to Fiji and then fanning out over a vast territory from there.
As you head east into Polynesia from Melanesia, the Melanesian flutes disappear and the instruments become more sparse, but the passion of the music becomes greater - particular the harmonic content which comes straight from the heart. The "gospel choirs" of Tahiti are particularly astonishing. Music is a reflection of topography and people reflect the landscape they are living in. It is must be remembered that these people came to these islands by canoe and only carried what they needed to make the voyage. When they arrived at their destination, there often were no wood or material to make instruments. The canoes were considered sacred, so no effort was made to break them up to make a musical instrument.
Broadly speaking, the highland people have more instruments because they have
more wood and other raw materials to access; the atoll people have shells and
coconut trees to make instruments; and the island people have traditionally
few instruments because they didn't carry them in their canoes.
| Classification | Instrument | Country |
|---|---|---|
| Idiophones | Slit drums |
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| Sounding boards (pulotu) |
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| Stamping tubes |
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| Jew's harp (utete) |
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| Fala |
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Miscellaneous
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| Aerophones | Conch trumpet | Most locations in Polynesia use the conch shell as a signalling device rather than as a musical instrument; however they are sometimes used whenever a group feel high, like at a wedding, a successful hunt or upon the arrival of important visitors. The shells used for a trumpet include the conch and triton. |
| Nose flute |
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| Pan pipes |
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