Conventional geographic and cultural division of the North Pacific Ocean comprising c2500 islands. With Melanesia and Polynesia they make up the Pacific Islands.
III. Kiribati (Gilbert Islands)
BARBARA B. SMITH (I, 1–2, II, 1–3, 5), ADRIENNE L. KAEPPLER (I, 3), OSAMU YAMAGUTI (II, 4), JUNKO KONISHI (II, 6), MARY E. LAWSON BURKE (III, V, VI), MICHAEL CLEMENT (IV, 1), CYNTHIA B. SAJNOVSKY (IV, 2)
Micronesia (Gk. mikro: ‘small’; nēsos: ‘island’) is the name given by Europeans in the 1830s to the islands that lie east of island South-east Asia, north of Melanesia (and mostly north of the equator) and west of northern Polynesia (for map see Polynesia, fig.1). It comprises more than 2000 small islands with a total land area of about 2800 km2 dispersed in an ocean area of about 7·7 million km2. Topographically, the islands are classified as ‘high’ islands (mostly of volcanic origin) or ‘low’ islands (mostly coral atolls). Geographically, Micronesia includes the Caroline Islands (in a broad east–west arc that spans more than 3500 km); the Mariana Islands (Guam and the smaller islands north of it that lie north of the Carolines); the Marshall Islands (two parallel north-west to south-east chains east of the Carolines); the Gilbert Islands (south-east of the Marshalls); and Nauru and Banaba (separate islands south of the Marshalls). ‘Micronesia’ is incorporated into the name chosen by the peoples of a large part of the Caroline Islands as the name of their country: the Federated States of Micronesia (abbreviated both as FSM and as the single word Micronesia). In this introduction, ‘Micronesia’ refers to the whole geographic region; in the entries on the Caroline Islands below, it refers to the country.
Beginning more than 3000 years ago, ancestors of the peoples of the western rim of Micronesia moved north from some islands of what are now known as the Philippines and Indonesia and began to settle on the high islands of Palau and Yap (in the western Carolines) and Guam. Beginning more than 2000 years ago, ancestors of the peoples of central and eastern Micronesia moved north from some islands of Melanesia in what is now known as Vanuatu and began to settle the high islands of Kosrae, Pohnpei and Chuuk (in the eastern Carolines) and some low islands in the Marshalls and Gilberts. Later, people from (or passing through) Chuuk moved westwards and settled on coral atolls of the central Carolines. Following another route, Polynesians settled on Kapingamarangi and Nukuoro atolls in the south-eastern Carolines (see Polynesia, §1, 1).
At the time of first European contact, the people of individual high islands (or high-island clusters) who were supported by land and near-shore marine resources differed significantly from other high-island populations in social organization, lifestyle, music and and dance. In contrast, the people of the low islands, who had to rely on lagoons and on long, open-ocean canoe voyages for resources unavailable on the tiny lands, and for shelter assistance when drought or typhoon devastated the islands, shared more aspects of life with peoples of even distant atolls. The Micronesian peoples speak 12 (or, as sometimes listed, 15) languages and many dialects. In addition, they use English as the lingua franca and on some islands both English and Japanese for international communication.
From the mid-17th century, various parts of Micronesia were claimed by foreign powers: by Spain, Germany, England, Japan and the USA (for the United Nations). Not all of their administrative boundaries conformed to those of the indigenous cultures. The Mariana Islands (home of the Chamorro people) were divided into Guam and the Northern Marianas, which until after World War II were administered by different foreign powers. The Gilbert Islands (now part of Kiribati), inhabited by Micronesians, were adminstered jointly with the Ellice Islands (now Tuvalu; see Polynesia, §III, 5), inhabited by Polynesians, and for several decades also with Nauru and Banaba. The low-island peoples of the Carolines were administered from district centres on high islands with whose people they had less in common culturally than with those of low islands in other districts. Effects of these administrative areas is apparent in the post-contact music and dance of these peoples.
The end of colonial rule in Micronesia began in 1968 with independence for Nauru, followed by that for Kiribati (which encompasses the Gilbert Islands, Banaba and the geographically Polynesian Phoenix and Line Islands). As of the turn of the 21st century, the Northern Marianas were a commonwealth and Guam a territory; the Federated States of Micronesia and the republics of the Marshall Islands and Palau were self-governing in free association with the USA.
Several large population relocations are significant to the regional distribution of Micronesian music and dance. In early historic times, peoples from typhoon devastated low islands of the Carolines were permitted to settle permanently on Saipan in the Northern Marianas. In the 20th century, almost the entire population of Banaba was resettled on Rabi Island in Fiji (see Melanesia, §VII). Some Gilbertese relocated to the the Line Islands and others to an enclave on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. From the late 1980s many young people from the Carolines and Marshalls moved to Guam, Hawaii and the continental United States for educational and economic advancement. In their new homes these people have maintained their identity in part through their traditional music and dance.
The earliest information about Micronesia comes mostly from the observations of explorers, missionaries and, beginning in the early 20th century, ethnological studies, a few of which included sound recordings. Some Micronesian musics have been the focus of comprehensive ethnomusicological study, but others, including those of Chuuk and Nauru, have not. No comprehensive study of a Micronesian musical tradition has yet been published by an indigenous scholar; however, a few are now learning and studying the repertory of their own heritage through both indigenous and Western approaches. Principal collections of music of the Pacific Islands, including Micronesia, are the Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu, and the Archive of Maori and Pacific Music, University of Auckland (includes a territorial survey of Oceanic music).
Traditional Micronesian musics are predominantly vocal and are heterogeneous in voice production and musical traits. Singing was both solo and group, the latter in both unison and parts (the presumption that part-singing did not exist before the introduction of Western music is false). Much traditional music was and still is intrinsically associated with dance: in many societies, the same participants simultaneously perform the vocal component (chant or song), rhythmic accompaniment (body percussion or stick beating) and dance movements. Even where the early Protestant missionaries strictly forbade dancing by their converts, dance or dance-like movements are performed in church, for example in Kosrae in the Christmas mas processional and in the Marshalls in the biit.
Indigenous Micronesian musical and other sound-producing instruments were mostly aerophones and idiophones. The conch-shell trumpet was widely used for signalling and is still used for that purpose in some small remote islands. It is also used in some programmes prepared for local and international audiences. The several kinds of indigenous flutes are no longer played, but the rolled-leaf oboe that most Micronesians now consider a toy is still made and blown by children, especially in the outlying coral islands. Sticks (some bamboo, some wood) for certain dance forms were the principal idiophone and continue in widespread use; the bamboo jew’s harp may still be played for self-entertainment by a few islanders. The indigenous drum, found only in eastern Micronesia and banned by missionaries, is no longer played: however, in the Marshalls, a modified drum has been made to replace it in performance of the jobwa. Among the foreign instruments introduced in the 19th and early 20th centuries, including guitar, ukulele, mandolin, harmonica, accordion and a few reed organs, the guitar remains in widespread use to accompany songs of the late 19th and early 20th centuries as well as contemporary songs in popular idioms. Western drums are used by some groups playing popular music. Of recently introduced instruments, the electronic keyboard is widely used, especially in urban areas, in both the Mormon churches and among young performers of popular secular musics such as rock and roll, country and western, reggae and later styles.
In post-colonial Micronesia, young islanders use imported cassette tape recordings to learn the latest foreign popular ‘hit’ songs and cassette tape recorders to record and disseminate their own new songs in contemporary idioms, whether informally to friends and family (including between those living at home and abroad) or commercially. Many of these newly created songs take as their subject love – of a person, a group or an island – or concern for the land or the future. There is also a renewed interest in indigenous dances and in creating new dances in traditional styles to perform in modern contexts, especially at official local and national events and abroad at international events such as the Festival of Pacific Arts (see Pacific Arts, Festival of).
The entries below are organized geographically. Two additional entries present information on the music and dance of the Chamorro people and of Ifalik, a representative Carolinian atoll.
Systematic study of even satisfactory description of dance in Micronesia has been woefully neglected, despite its significance in the social relations of Micronesian people. With the exception of a few studies, such as those conducted in Pohnpei, Kiribati and the Marshalls, research on dance and its functions in many areas of Micronesia remains to be carried out. Nevertheless, a number of recent articles by anthropologists have focussed on the importance of dance in politics and for ethnic/cultural identity.
Micronesian dance is often a visual enhancement of sung poetry. Although based on poetic phrases, the movements do not necessarily interpret or allude to the texts. Instead, movements enhance the texts with a performance in which the dancers are well dressed, well rehearsed and synchronized. In the Yap ‘empire’, where dances were given as tribute by Ulithi, Woleai and other islands to acknowledge the overlordship of Yap, the texts were in languages unintelligible to the Yapese dancers, and the movements served as visual decoration. Even in such islands as Ifalik, where texts were in the indigenous language, movements were not illustrative but abstractly decorative. Traditionally dance was associated with tattooing, seafaring and fertility; many movement motifs were and still are linked mimetically with frigate birds. Often the importance of the sea is reflected in the use of dance paddles, head ornaments inspired by canoe parts, performances on platforms of canoes, and in the imagery of the texts; and some dances are said to concern the fertility of the land and sea.
Dances are the property of the composer, and the right to perform them can be bought and sold. Hand and arm movements are the most important, but some significance is given to movements of the head and legs. Choreography often consists of a series of poses in which rehearsed execution of group movement is emphasized, and dancers are arranged according to rank. Dances using sticks as sound and visual design components are common. In sitting or standing positions, group singing is associated with rhythmic striking of the body, ground, concussion sticks, or boards held on the lap and tapped with small sticks. Traditionally, long songs with dance accompaniment recounted origin stories, rituals for the gods and histories of encounters with Europeans, such as the Pohnpei rebellion against the Germans in 1910. Although still known and performed in the traditional manner, these songs are also rechoreographed in contemporary forms. Traditionally, dances took place on raised platforms in front of feast houses, on canoe flotillas or in other traditional performing spaces such as roads on Yap lined with shell money for ritual and yearly events or for competitions. Today, dances are performed at events emphasizing ethnic and cultural identity for important outside visitors such as UNESCO officials and during local, regional and international festivals.
Kiribati (Gilbert Islands) dance was praised by Robert Louis Stevenson as the best of the South Seas: it ‘leads on the mind; it thrills, rouses, subjugates; it has the essence of all art, an unexplored imminent significance’. Traditional Kiribati performances consist of one or more principal dancers of the same sex and similar age, located at the front of a chorus that sings and claps. Precisely choreographed movement sequences are performed by the principal dancers, while the chorus’s singing, clapping, foot-stamping and body percussion are also choreographed. Movement and sound must be exactly coordinated. The most traditional dance is ruoia, a series of sung texts performed standing or sitting by men or women. The principal dancers enhance the texts with a series of poses with slow movements or abrupt arm, head and hand movements. Besides singing, the chorus executes clapped percussion patterns and for some sections performs dance movements in parallel with the principal dancers. Newer traditional dance forms are based on Polynesian prototypes: for example, the batere combines old and new movements with more ‘Polynesian’ sounds and the percussion box drum struck with the palm imported from Tuvalu.
On Ifalik everyone is expected to sing and dance to please Tilitr and other kindly gods. Ur, a dance to entertain the gods, is usually performed standing; gapengapeng, an invocation to Tilitr, is performed by two lines of seated dancers facing his altar. Gestures are said to have no specific meaning. A solo bwarux is composed, sung and danced by a woman for her lover in private; a dance of this kind can be performed in public for visiting chiefs from another island, but no man from Ifalik would attend. The arms are held high to make three circling beckoning gestures, then brought forward and dropped, while the hips make four side-to-side movements. On the fifth beat the knees are bent and the loins thrust forward.
Stick dances are common in much of Micronesia, where they have spread from island to island (fig.1). The Ifalik stick dance laūra, performed by all the men of a district as entertainment for the gods, is said to have come from Aurupik but is no longer performed there. The Marshallese stick dance (jobwa) is considered a national treasure. In fact, stick dances have become ‘Micronesian’ dances and are invariably performed when Micronesians from different islands combine in United Nations Day programmes or International Night Concerts. Other acculturated dances, such as those based on German and Japanese military marches, have replaced many of the indigenous dances that were objectionable to Christian missionaries. Introduced forms of music and dance have long been part of Micronesian performing traditions, transforming marching into dance, incorporating waltzing and rock and roll, constructing old forms out of introductions from colonial regimes and Polynesian counterparts. Having their roots in the past, these dances are performed in a variety of contexts that reveal cultural and ethnic identity as Micronesians, as one group among many within a political jurisdiction, or as specific villagers. Through these dances people tell their stories of the past while situating themselves within the modern world. These new dances capture traditional vigour and creativity to serve new economic and political ends, providing entertainment and opportunities for interaction between islands and satisfying national aspirations.
The Republic of Palau (in the west) and the four states of the Federated States of Micronesia (proceeding eastwards: Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae) are part of the 963 Caroline Islands. The indigenous people and culture of the individual high islands (or high-island clusters) in each of these, where the national and state government centres are located, are distinctively different from one another and from the populations of the widely scattered low coral islands and atolls that lie around and between them. In contrast, the people and culture of the low islands, especially those lying between Chuuk and Yap that traditionally were part of the Yap ‘empire’, have much in common and, collectively, are referred to as ‘Carolinian’. The Carolinians are famous for their traditional navigational knowledge and skill, sailing extensively throughout and beyond the Carolines. Navigation is related to both the content of songs and the performing style. In Ulithi atoll, for example, the same text can be sung in different locations and circumstances (e.g. while sitting on a beach, paddling a canoe or under sail) but must be performed with the specifically designated tempo, rhythmic pulse, melodic contour and vocal production appropriate to the situation.
Micronesia, §II: Caroline Islands
Ifalik (formerly Ifaluk), a Carolinian atoll, lies east of Yap island in Yap State. It is a typical small atoll of three small islets with a total land area of 1·5 km2 rising from a coral reef that forms a lagoon of 2·5 km2. As a member of the Yap ‘empire’, Ifalik traditionally recognized the overlordship of Yap, and people from Ifalik voyaged there and gave chants and dances to a Yapese chief as ‘tribute’ in the customary periodic ceremonial exchange. An important ethnomusicological study by Burrows was made on Ifalik in the early 1950s, when the population totalled 260: only one family had adopted Christianity, and the people had little exposure to non-Micronesian musics. Since then, the population has grown to over 600, everyone belongs to the Catholic Church, and radio and cassette recordings have brought other musics, especially American musics, to the atoll. Nevertheless, much of the traditional heritage retains its vitality.
The chants, songs and dances of Ifalik are similar to those of neighbouring atolls and are important both in ceremonies and as entertainment during the day or evening. Typically, young men gather in the canoe house in the evening and among other activities sing bwarux (a traditional type of love song with text composed by a woman in praise of the man she loves), with or without stylized body movements, and modern love songs (including popular American love songs with texts translated into the vernacular) with guitar and/or electronic keyboard accompaniment. Women also sing and dance bwarux, but men and women do not perform them together – in fact, traditionally, neither should even use the word bwarux in the presence of the other. Arūerū are laments sung to a dying person, after the death, and still later in remembrance. Arūerū may also be sung in praise of a good chief or fisherman, for a construction project, and for other purposes. ln the 1950s, the dance type gapengapeng, in which singers swing trimmed half-leaves of the coconut tree, was performed as an invocation to the god Tilitr, and the formal ceremonial dance ur (‘play’) aimed to entertain the gods; since conversion to Christianity they are performed in secular contexts. The laūra, a stick dance performed to a song, is easily recognizable as a characteristically Carolinian dance.
Traditional Ifalik song, and songs of the Carolinian style in general, are characterized by a very small number of pitches (often only two or three), a narrow range (a 2nd, at most a 3rd), many phrases ending in a terminal glide that spans about an octave, and strict, marked rhythm. Several types of song and chant have certain melodic contours specifically associated with them. Multi-part singing is mostly in parallel movement, with the voices at any of several intervals but most characteristically at 4ths. On Ifalik, as elsewhere in the Caroline Islands, heavy pulling or hauling is performed to a leader–chorus chant, with the group doing the strenuous work during its response. During Catholic services, the music is sung by the whole congregation rather than a separate choir.
Indigenous sound-producing instruments include the conch-shell trumpet for signalling and a rolled-leaf oboe, made from a wound strip of coconut leaf, blown informally by both adults and children. By the 1950s a police whistle with a sound similar to the trilled whistle required at some phrase endings of indigenous songs had been adopted; in the 1990s, the guitar and electronic keyboard were the predominant Western instruments. The cassette tape recorder is used not only to play imported music but also as a means for young people to learn traditional chants recorded for them by their elders.
Micronesia, §II: Caroline Islands
Formerly Truk, Chuuk is a cluster of high islands with a land area of about 118 km2 in a huge lagoon encircled by a great reef. It is also a state that includes these high islands and groups of low islands with a total population of about 55,000. The peoples of these island groups have their own repertory; there are many different names for the same or similar song types, so only those widely recognized are used here. The people of the high islands of the lagoon and of certain low islands (especially the Mortlocks, which lie about 300 km to the south-east) are credited by other Micronesians with being very musical, their songs being noted for flowing tunefulness and their choral singing for vitality.
In the early 20th century, dance festivals preceded by months of rehearsal were among the most important occasions of the year. Both gesture dances (decried by Christian missionaries for their exhibitionist qualities) and stick dances were reported, as were chants for canoe-building, hauling and food-carrying, and children's songs and lullabies. In analysing music recorded in the Caroline Islands in 1908–10, George Herzog (1936) differentiated a western and an eastern Carolinian style, both present in the recordings from Chuuk. The western Carolinian style, essentially chant (see §1 above), continues in Chuukese stick-dance chants; the more tuneful eastern Carolinian style survives in songs in a special language sung by itang (a prestigious class of traditional leaders with knowledge of ancient lore).
In the last decade of the 20th century, with different content and in different contexts, performing as a group remained highly valued. Singing by large groups, Catholic, Protestant and civic, is predominantly a cappella in indigenized four-part hymn-tune style. Kolun fen/kolun fal are songs of the Christian church that are sung in the vernacular (both translations of introduced hymns and locally composed hymns); all songs in Latin are called kirie. Kolun fonu/kolun fenu (‘island songs’) commemorate communal and other major events. They too are usually sung a cappella by a large group, but they may also be sung solo or by a small group and may be accompanied by guitar. In urban centres, both kolun fen and kolun fonu are sometimes sung with electronic keyboard or recorded accompaniment.
Love songs, a song type with many names (including kolun setan, ‘songs of Satan’), often use foreign (Japanese, American or other Micronesian, especially Palauan) melodies. They are usually sung solo or by a group of three or four youths accompanied by guitar or, where available, electronic keyboard. In the traditional practice of itanipwin, a young man expresses his love for a young woman by serenading her at night with a song composed especially for her, singing it solo or with a small group of friends and guitar accompaniment. Another prominent song type, usually sung solo, expresses sadness, whether on departure of a loved one to a distant point, homesickness or unfulfilled hopes or desires.
Of the indigenous sound-producing instruments, only dance sticks for the dukia/tokia (war dances), originally wood and later bamboo, retain their former prominence. Use of the other instruments – conch-shell trumpet for signalling by chiefs, rolled-leaf oboe, a mouth flute and a nose flute (made from an aerial root of mangrove, used primarily for courting; see fig.2) – have been discontinued. The harmonica replaced the nose flute and is prominently used in music for the maas (a marching dance incorporating a variety of introduced elements). The guitar (and, to a lesser extent, the ukulele) is used primarily to accompany singing and in the 1990s was often joined – and sometimes replaced – by the electronic keyboard and Western drums. Radio broadcasts and cassette recordings (both imported commercial pre-recorded and locally privately recorded tapes) also help to fill Chuukese youths' desire for music to permeate their lives.
Micronesia, §II: Caroline Islands
Kosrae is a high volcanic island that lies towards the eastern end of the Caroline Islands archipelago. With a land area of 117 km2 and a population of approximately 7500 (mid-1990s), Kosrae is the smallest state in the Federated States of Micronesia.
Indigenous chant/song called on included tafon (love songs), tan mas (dirges), specialized work chants (e.g. bas for canoe-making) and chants with dance. For dance festivals, usok, a long, solemn, one-pitch chant accompanied by arm and hand movements, was followed by mulmul, a ‘melodious’ two- or three-pitch chant with hand-clapping and graceful arm movements, and ra, a vigorous men’s gesture dance. Other dances include alol, in which men danced to women’s choral chanting; manot, performed by men and women dancing together; salsal, performed by titular chiefs to the accompaniment of women drummers; and on in sak, a men’s stick dance. Indigenous instruments included ukuk, a shell trumpet, asis, a drum introduced from the Marshall Islands, a stone gong, and perhaps an aerophone (Sarfert, 1920, 487–518).
European contact began in the 1820s, and thereafter foreign traders, pirates and whalers introduced alcohol and diseases that disrupted the islanders’ lifestyle. They also brought with them the chantey, hornpipe, jew’s harp and harmonica. Protestant missionaries sent by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions arrived in 1852. They competed with the sailors for influence on the tokosra (later referred to as ‘king’), as they sought to convert him and his people to their faith and to replace both indigenous and recently acquired Western secular music and dance with their hymns. After strong initial resistance, Kosraeans accepted Christianity, abandoned their indigenous music traditions and developed a vibrant tradition of hymn and gospel singing.
In the 1990s the predominant musical activity was a cappella choral singing in an indigenized hymn and gospel style that reinforced the contemporary democratic society’s emphasis on group participation while retaining pre-contact hierarchical society’s emphasis on perfect synchronization and competition. The island radio station records the periodic choral competitions among the four kumi (social/work units) of each village and repeatedly broadcasts the best performances to the entire island. The people of each village celebrate Christmas together at the village church in a long programme devoted largely to the singing of the children in the Sunday School classes and the kumi. Once every four years the people of the whole island, groups of overseas Kosraeans (e.g. from Pohnpei, Guam, Hawaii and Nauru) who return home to celebrate Christmas, and often a group of Marshallese with ties to the mission school formerly located on Kosrae gather together at the head church to sing for each other in an all-day celebration. For this occasion, each village and overseas group has a member compose or arrange new on (songs) and a mas (march), and commits several evenings a week for about two months to learning and practising them. The special feature is the march in which several long lines of singers process and interweave to form figures such as a star and an X. Characteristically, both the songs sung standing in rows and those sung while marching feature gospel-style response and are sung loudly and enthusiastically with intense voice production at a high overall pitch level, with an obbligato by one or two women soaring high above the choral soprano part.
Popular songs, including American country and western, pan-Micronesian and original compositions, mostly sung in Kosraean and accompanied by guitar and/or electronic keyboard, are performed and enjoyed by Kosraean youths; some are recorded for radio broadcast. Stimulated by political self-determination (implemented in 1986), oceanic-style dance-with-chant/song has been recreated for performance at local and national civic events and in international contexts.
Micronesia, §II: Caroline Islands
Palau, called Belau by the people themselves, comprises a cluster of high islands in the south-western Caroline Islands, including Koror (the district centre), Babelthuap, Peleliu and Angaur, as well as the Kayangel atoll and over 300 mostly uninhabited rock islets. Some small atolls to the south, with closer cultural affinity to the central Carolines than to Palau, also belong to the Republic of Palau, which became independent in 1994 while remaining still in free association with the USA. Of the foreign administrations since 1886, strong influence has come from Japan and increasingly from North America. Christian missionaries have had less influence than in northern and eastern Micronesia.
There are two major musical styles in Palau: traditional and modern. The classical tradition was flourishing at the end of the 19th century, when foreign influences began to disrupt the traditional social structure and values. In the traditional milieu, music and dance had political and economic importance, as well as personally communicative, psychological and perhaps other functions. Contemporary genres are used principally for entertainment, school activities and religious services.
Two forms current during the heyday of the classical tradition, klou chesols (devout song in ensemble) and derebesbes, were sung by groups of older men in connection with council activities in and around the bai (community house). Derebesbes, a solo sung either entirely by one person or a verse at a time by each member of a council (in either case with yells between strophes by the whole group), includes a variety of song forms: ulengokl chesols (heroic song), damalasoi chesols (communicative song with a text ascribed to the fictitious character Damalasoi) and rederad ra chesols (miscellaneous songs). At funerals kelloi and eldolem (dirges) were sung by women. During festivals, usually held in clan-affiliated villages, both ruk (men’s dances) and ngloik (women’s dances) were performed; these consisted of introductory, standing, sitting, stick and stamping dances. Men also performed war dances on a triumphal return from battle. Children sang their own festival songs, visiting every house in the vicinity.
Most types of song were performed by both sexes, but except in alall (mock quarrel song exchanged between pubescent male and female groups), performance was differentiated. Other group songs included keredekill (occasional and topical song), derebesiil (sincere love-song) and kerekord (harmonious song, in which the singers lean towards each other, slightly covering their ears with their hands). Other solo songs included rebetii (a love-song referring to well-known historical events) and kesekes (a lullaby in epic style recounting the deeds of a legendary or historical hero of the village). Genres employing speech-song styles included ongurs (for work), klaiskurs (for racing), dalang (sarcastic recitation) and ollai (incantation). Children accompanied their games with songs and recitations.
Each genre of classical Palauan music has its own characteristic tonal and rhythmic configuration, with prescribed phrases for different musical functions varying in length, melodic contour, rhythmic figure, dynamic design and sometimes agogic change (e.g. an introductory phrase characterized by a sustained note; a penultimate phrase introducing the highest note; a final phrase with a terminal crescendo). Strophic form predominates, but sequences of phrases are also used. There are usually between three and seven notes, adjacent notes being from 50 to 300 cents apart; the melodic range is narrow, usually no more than a 5th (400 to 700 cents), and the tessitura varies according to the requirements of the genre or sometimes personal preference. Melodies commonly move conjunctly. In polyphonic ensembles the roles were differentiated: mesuchokl (textual prompter), mengiidr (starter), meliikes (chorus leader), mengesbch (second soloist using falsetto and head tone) and rokui (chorus). The polyphonic progressions were both parallel and oblique.
Indigenous instruments (generally called tumtum) were the ngaok (reed or bamboo fipple flute with four finger-holes) played as a solo instrument and to accompany derebesiil; tumtum ra lild (bamboo jew’s harp); debusch (conch-shell trumpet) for signalling; and dance sticks. These instruments are no longer appreciated by the majority of the population. Foreign instruments – primarily the guitar, ukulele and harmonica, and to some extent the mandolin and accordion – have become popular, especially with the younger generation.
Although the classical repertory is performed infrequently, some traditional stylistic elements survive through incorporation into new songs. For example, some aspects of the structure of classical keredekill are perpetuated in boid, beches keredekill, and even in kesekes ra Modekngei (a song for the modern local religion Modekngei). Some modern dances also use traditional stylistic elements. Other contemporary pieces are composed in essentially foreign styles – both other Micronesian styles and Japanese, European, American and Hawaiian idioms. Both the text and music of beches chelitakl (new song) show the influence of kayōkyoku (Japanese popular song) and American popular music. Matmatong (marching music and dance) reveals a more complex mixture of traditional Palauan, other Micronesian and foreign elements: it consists of a series of line-dances in which boys and girls dance together and incorporates harmonica music, songs with foreign influence, yells by the leader, and stamping and body-slapping. It is often performed for tourists and outside Palau as representative of Palauan culture. Christian church music, apart from its voice production technique, is essentially European in style.
Beginning in the 1970s, two major trends emerged, particularly from the late 1980s. The first is a new popular song tradition, usually referred to as chelitakl ra Belau (Palauan songs), with accompaniment from guitar and electronic keyboard instruments, distributed commercially on cassette. The second is the explicit revival of the classical style, including its use in new compositions, particularly in connection with museum activities and participation in the Festival of Pacific Arts (see Pacific Arts, Festival of).
Micronesia, §II: Caroline Islands
Pohnpei (from pohn, ‘on top of’; pei, ‘stone altar’), formerly Ponape, is a high volcanic island in the eastern Caroline Islands with a land area of 345 km2 and population of over 33,000. It is also a state of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and includes Pohnpei Island, several atolls with cultural affinity to the central Carolines, and two atolls (Kapingamarangi and Nukuoro) that are culturally Polynesian. For many years, people from these outer islands and from Kosrae and Chuuk have travelled and settled on Pohnpei Island, some in enclaves that have perpetuated their own traditions. Now, with the capital of the FSM located there, the resident population of the urban centre is increasingly cosmopolitan.
European discovery of Pohnpei occurred in the 16th century, but the island remained relatively isolated until 1852, when American Protestant missionary schools were established, resulting in a great and continuing influence on Pohnpeian music. The following discussion concerns only specifically Pohnpeian music and dance.
The Pohnpeian word for song or singing is koul. That for sound production (playing musical instruments, radios and tape recorders, and beating sakau) is keseng. Pohnpeians distinguish broadly between two styles: koulin kawa, the older traditional style, and koulin sarawi, a later style resulting from incorporation of elements of Western hymn singing. More precisely, they distinguish four categories of song types and use: koulin kawa (‘song of long ago’), pre-European contact chants/songs not associated with dance; koulin kahlek (‘dance songs’), chants/songs for traditional and traditional-evolved dance; koulin sarawi (‘sacred songs’), songs of respect for authorities (including traditional, Christian and government authorities); and koulin sampah (‘world songs’), secular songs of many types, including foreign popular music. Few of the dance-songs, love songs, feast songs, children’s songs and lullabies in the old traditional style are still known, though fragments of old chants for the sakau ceremony, ngihs sakau, and chanted oral history, koulin poadoapoad, with highly metaphorical language and archaic words, are an important link with the past. However, evolved forms and styles have contributed greatly to the post-colonial resurgence of expression of social and cultural identity through the performing arts.
Songs in the traditional style have a limited number of pitches, often only two or three, and are characterized by a conjunct melodic movement. The rhythm of most songs is complex because the metre of the text does not correspond with the underlying metre of the music (ex.1). Part-singing, usually in two parts and sometimes in three, is common; polyphonic intervals approximating to the 2nds and 3rds of Western music predominate.
Instruments associated with music in the traditional style are mostly obsolete, but the sewi (shell trumpet) is still occasionally used. The reed-grass or bamboo nose flute and the side-blown arrowroot mouth flute were formerly popular instruments; no one on the island can now play or even remember them. The aip, an hourglass drum covered with the bladder or skin of a fish, was played during festive occasions for signalling and reportedly in connection with dancing. It resembled that used in the Marshalls, but on Pohnpei it was beaten both with a hibiscus stick and with the hand; only a few islanders remember it. Pohnpeians also had a type of jew’s harp, but the instrument now played is imported from Pingelap atoll (see fig.3).
On Pohnpei the flat basalt slabs used for preparing the ceremonial beverage sakau (kava) are specially selected for their metallic sounds. Squatting in front of them, men pound the roots of the Piper methysticum with smaller stones. At frequent intervals they take turns to produce, on the edge of the slabs, specific rhythms that indicate stages in the preparation of the beverage (ex.2) and then unite in a special rhythm when it is finished. It was formerly common for certain women to dance during the final stage of preparation.
On special occasions (e.g. after a feast and ceremonial sakau, during governmental functions for Pohnpei State and FSM, to represent Pohnpei overseas and for tourists), four Pohnpeian traditional dances are sometimes performed simultaneously on tiered platforms, to one koulin kahlek (rather than each to a text originally associated with that dance). This practice is known to have existed at least as early as the period of Japanese control, between the World Wars. The wehn, which involves hand and leg movements, is performed by a row of young men standing on the top tier. The kepir, which incorporates stylized paddle movements, is performed by a row of young men standing on the second tier from the top. The dokia is performed by a row of young women seated on the tier below. Each woman holds two short sticks, one in each hand, which she strikes together, against her neighbours’, and on a long board laid across the women’s laps, always in prescribed rhythms. The sapei, in which hand and head movements are important, is performed by a row of young women seated on the lowest tier. The dancers sing while performing the dance movements; each dance may also be performed separately.
Lehp (the Pohnpeian pronunciation of ‘left’) is an adaptation of a Western military drill that incorporates some traditional dance movements; the accompanying music is a Pohnpeian adaptation of late 19th- and early 20th-century Western music.
Group singing of hymns (koulin sarawi) in four-part harmony, both translations of Western hymns and new hymns composed by Pohnpeians, has been widely practised for more than a century on both religious and secular occasions, often to the accompaniment of the guitar or ukulele and recently to the electronic keyboard. However, various forms of other Micronesian, pan-Pacific, rock and roll, and other popular music and dance styles from the USA are increasingly important in stimulating creativity among young Pohnpeians, while a resurgence of activity in evolved indigenous styles is strengthening their sense of social and cultural identity ranging from the local level as villagers to the international as Pacific islanders.
Micronesia, §II: Caroline Islands
Yap comprises four main islands covering about 100 km2 and 13 coral atolls; the total population is around 12,000. Chant and dance were traditionally a central feature of village life in Yap. Churuq, usually translated as ‘dance’, also refers to the text and chanting. Traditionally churuq are performed by men or women, but not both together. Three genres of churuq, saak'iy (standing gesture dances), puul nga buut' (sitting gesture dances) and gamel' (bamboo-stick dances), were performed at village ceremonies, mitmiit (inter-village ceremonial feasts) and guywol (dance contests). Since the Federated States of Micronesia was established (1986), the most important occasions for dance are guywol at the celebration of Yap Day (1 March) and festivities associated with formal events of both State and Federation governments. Dance is no longer performed at funerals; however, some special events of the Catholic Church include dance with traditional-style chant and movements set to biblical or honorific texts.
The chants of churuq are performed by the dancers. They are strophic and have a narrow range, with several notes distributed around a central tone. The performance usually begins with an introductory solo call followed by strophes of chant, and ends with a shout by all the dancers. The dancers’ vocalization and their movements should be perfectly synchronized. The most highly valued churuq are said by the Yapese to be in the language of Ulithi (a neighbouring atoll); however, many of them probably originated in atolls further east (e.g. Woleai, Ifalik) and were taken to Ulithi in a previous step of the chain of obligations within the Yap ‘empire’. Most churuq concern mythological or historical events. There are three significant steps to the performance of a traditional churuq: nga ni peqning e churuq (‘bringing-down ceremony’), figuratively from the rafters of the community house where all the valuables are stored, after which it is practised for several months; public performance at an event; and matal churuq nga laang (‘hanging-up ceremony’) wearing full attire in the village. The tayöer (‘request’ dance) was another highly regarded genre for a mitmiit.
The maas (marching dance) is a modern churuq that has become popular since the late 1930s. The accompanying music is a series of teempraa utaa (see below). Both the maas and, probably after World War II, also the gamel', is frequently performed by students, sometimes with both genders participating. ‘Discotheque dance’ developed in the early 1970s.
Vocal music is referred to as taang. Traditional recitation genres included faleech (transmitting recitation); machib (initiating recitation), t'aay (slandering recitation) and kaan (recitation to spirits). Traditional chant genres included dafeal' (council chant by a group of men and a concubine of a men’s community house by turns), taangiin ea gamar (love chant), taang ko unum (drinking chant), sibibi (lullaby) and gireeng (work chant for hauling and canoe-lashing). Each genre had a basic, mainly five-note melismatic melody in strophic or phrase-sequence form. Taangiin ea gamar could be chanted only in limited places and on occasions such as a secret meeting with one’s lover, or in the men’s or women’s community house. Most traditional taang had died out by World War II.
Teempraa utaa (Japanese-influenced popular songs) began to be composed in the late 1930s. From the 1960s, popular music incorporated elements of American and pan-Pacific pop. Foreign music heard in Yap is predominantly American and Palauan pop. Both radio (since 1964) and television (since 1979) broadcast Yapese dance and popular songs as well as foreign music.
Traditional Yapese instruments included the ngal (bamboo flute; fig.4), the same type as the ngaok in Palau (see §4 above), yabul (conch-shell trumpet), uchif (rolled-leaf oboe) and gamel' (bamboo sticks for dances, the same as the genre name), which was the only indigenous instrument used in the 1990s.
The 16 low coral islands (many are atolls) of the Gilbert archipelago lie in south-east Micronesia. Together with the Line and Phoenix Islands and Banaba, the Gilberts became independent in 1979 as the Republic of Kiribati. The total land area of 686 km2, spread over more than 2·5 million km2 of ocean, supports a population of about 76,000.
Music in Kiribati is primarily vocal, performed in ensemble and, especially for communal and festive occasions, associated with dance. Important to the indigenous culture are the traditional dances and associated dance songs collectively known as ruoia. A ruoia performance typically begins with an ensemble dance such as the kawawa, performed by a small group of men and women already in the maneaba (assembly house) to summon others to participate. Other introductory dances include the arira or katika ni bee (song for the tying on of clothing mats), and often the wanibanga and wantarawa. Following these are the main dances, which are performed by one to six dancers located in front of the ensemble. These include the kamei, considered the ‘real ruoia’, which can be danced by men or women; the female hip-shaking dance, the kabuti; and the seated bino. More rare are the kamaototo and the tarae; and the tie, buka, buata, katio and boua, are possibly obsolete. Ruoia genres are marked by slow arm, hand and head movements interrupted by pauses, and (except for the bino) small steps forward and backward. A standing chorus of singers (seated for the bino), provides rhythmic hand-clapping and body percussion accompaniment. For initial segments they mirror the arm movements of the dancers. Special dance suites (nantekei, ietoa) celebrate local historical events in the stratified societies of the two most northern islands.
The musical style of the ruoia dance-songs such as the kawawa belongs to pre-European Kiribati tradition. Song texts are through-composed and recited syllabically using scales of one to five pitches. Men and women sing in parallel octaves, marked by a few heterophonic deviations. Many songs consist of two to three (sometimes four) sections of related text and music, which may be immediately repeated in performance. For each, after the akeia, a solo introductory call that sets the pitch, a song leader sings the first line of text and is joined by the chorus at a designated point. The slow, rhythmically free recitation characterizing initial portions of these sections becomes more strict in the final segments, which are accompanied by choral hand-clapping and body percussion. Phrase endings employ characteristic melodic and rhythmic cadences, and main sections end with a motika (climactic cadential pattern) in both the music and dance. Dance-song genres are differentiated by melodic contour, rhythmic organization, musical form and the number of scale degrees.
Traditional ruoia are no longer generally composed; most of those still known and danced appear to have been composed before 1950. According to old custom, kainikamaen (performance knowledge), including rituals for song composition, training of composers and inspiration of performers, existed in numerous versions that were the heritage of different kin groups. The most knowledgeable practitioner was the tia-kanikamaen, a highly trained priest who was believed to compose songs with supernatural aid. While in a trance, the tia-kainikamaen received the words from the anti (spirits) and dictated them to assistants at the nikawewe (composer’s place), after which the composer returned to full consciousness. With the assistants’ aid he then combined them into a song text, for which he instantly ‘knew’ (i.e. spontaneously composed) the melody. In practice, however, new texts could be created for old melodies and vice versa.
The education of a tia-kainikamaen spanned years, often from infancy to the mid-20s. Training rituals and incantations took place at special locations such as the ocean, beach or smoky fires built in the bush. Ritual objects included symbols of power such as the rising sun or the first coconut to emerge from the spathe. After the initial stages, a trainee was considered a tia-ototo, one knowledgeable in song composing. Later training imparted the remainder of the vast knowledge relating to performing practice and inspiration.
Large ruoia, especially those for the emotionally infused kainikamaen competitions between kin groups known as kaunikai, were usually conceived at the nikawewe. A good composer could compose a small love ruoia at his own home for a paying customer, and katake (traditional solo songs, composed on a variety of topics) originated solely at home. Songs were allowed to be copied by other family groups without restriction; indeed, the composer was proud if his songs were imitated.
In the kaunikai, song texts were simultaneously offensive and defensive; they contained imagery and allusion intended to cause harm or death to rivals, as well as protective words and phrases for one’s own group. Attractive and powerful songs were an indication of the power and superiority of a kin group’s kainikamaen heritage, and, by extension, of their ritual knowledge and spiritual influence in extra-musical realms such as warfare. Spiritual contact was evident when a dancer attained a heightened emotional state marked by short screams, a fixed stare and trembling, among other things. Both song texts and dance choreography were consciously structured to facilitate the attainment of this condition.
In addition to the kaunikai, music and dance performance was appropriate for life-cycle ceremonies such as first menstruation, male coming-of-age, weddings, funerals, construction of maneba (meeting houses) and royal events (in the northern islands), as well as village entertainnents marking the lunar month, hospitality for visitors and preparation for warfare.
Vocal types not associated with dance included religious chants, toddy-cutting songs (‘toddy’ being the sap of coconut palm trees), and katake. Singing also accompanied traditional games such as the karanga (standing stick dance using one dance staff), tirere (seated stick dance using two small sticks) and kabure (seated chant with body percussion), which today are often incorporated into dance performances.
By the early 20th century, new forms of music and dance had developed in response to government and missionary censure of traditional performance and the introduction of hymn singing. The music incorporated Western scales and harmonies, but the movements were based on those of ruoia dances. New standing dances included the kateitei, kakibanako, buki and kaimatoa. They retained the sectional structure of music and text but were distinguished from ruoia by a different starting cue (nako we, ‘let’s go’) and a seated chorus providing vocal and hand-clapping accompaniment only. The kakibanako has sections in both traditional and modern musical style, and the contemporary bino may be partially or totally new music. Kainimeang are unique dances from the northern two islands that feature different movement styles. Missionaries, who first arrived in 1857, also introduced new Samoan-type dances, most notably the taubati, with loose, swinging movements considered more appropriate for Christians.
I-Kiribati have enjoyed learning other Pacific dances and creating new styles. Joint British colonial adminstration with Tuvalu (the Ellice Islands) from 1872 to 1975 resulted in the adoption of the Tuvaluan fatele (batere) dance as light entertainment (see Polynesia, §III, 5). The fatele’s accompanying rhythmic instrument, a flat wooden box (baoki), is also used for the kaimatoa and buki. Eastern Polynesian dances are admired and performed at events such as wedding parties. The Gilbert Islands originally had no musical instruments, and even now ruoia dances are performed without instrumental accompaniment. However, wooden slit-drums, marching band drums and large cracker tins may accompany other borrowed or newly invented dances. Today the words maie and batere are the most common terms for performance, especially when syncretic dances are included.
The use of composing rituals and shrines has declined during the 20th century, largely due to missionary and government restrictions on indigenous religious practices. Although the power of kainikamaen is generally recognized, many present-day composers have been trained using abbreviated versions of rituals; others attribute their compositions to the Christian God. Some continue to use incantations and other ritual activities, but composition has largely become a private rather than communal matter. A song is still judged by its ability to inspire a heightened emotional state in performers and onlookers.
Kainikamaen practice appears to be enjoying a revival in a relatively new vocal genre, the kuaea (choir). This musical style is marked by guitar and ukulele (sometimes electronic keyboard) accompaniment, Western musical traits and melodies employing series of repeated pitches and typical phrase endings. Other post-contact forms include church kairi (hymns), love songs, anene (contemporary songs sung in a relaxed fashion) and music provided by dance bands who play foreign pop and country tunes as well as local songs. Communal music and dance performance is often part of the proceedings of a social gathering called botaki, held for church, school, civic or maneaba festivities, welcome and farewell parties, weddings and first birthday celebrations. On urban Tarawa atoll special social groups have formed, centring on kuaea or dance performance. More private songs are sung casually by individuals or small groups when working or relaxing. Katake are still remembered by some older individuals, and toddy-cutting songs are heard daily throughout the islands.
Stretching northwards from Guam for about 560 km, the Mariana Archipelago of 16 mountainous islands lies c2400 km east of the Philippines on the western border of Micronesia. Total land area is around 1000 km2, and the population in 1990 was about 176,000. The southernmost island, Guam, has been US territory since 1898. The rest of the islands make up the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, freely associated and in political union with the USA since 1976.
Artefacts that have been radiocarbon dated to c1500 bce establish the indigenous Chamorros, named after their chiefs, the Chamurri, as the earliest known inhabitants of Micronesia. Language and betelnut chewing link their culture with Palau, Yap, Sulawesi (Celebes) and the Philippines. Ethnicity reflects Negrito, Malay, Filipino and Chinese ancestry, with Spanish and Mexican influence after 1700. The Chamorros were skilled sailors and used the sagman outrigger canoe for travel in the Marianas. From about 850 to 1700 they quarried limestone monoliths called lattes, which supported house structures and were regarded as sacred ancestral abodes.
In 1521 Magellan discovered the Marianas and the Philippines for Spain. Between 1565 and 1815 the Acapulco–Manila galleons averaged bi-annual stops in Guam. A Franciscan, Fray Juan Pobre de Zamora, launched a nine-month effort to christianize the Chamorros in 1601. The first official effort began in 1668 with the Jesuit Padre Diego Luis de Sanvitores, who constructed the first church and school and introduced the teaching of plainsong chant.
Resistance to christianization, led by Chamorro chiefs and makanas (shamans), was overcome by the Jesuits aided by Spanish militia. By 1710 religious war and epidemic had reduced the population from 40,000 to 2700, mostly women and children on Guam. Ancient chant associated with the power of ancestor cults was extinguished. In 1676 the Indio Apuro agreed to stop teaching mari, the ancient Chamorro poetic debate based on extemporized couplets (Driver, 1993, p.18). Missionaries adapted this competitive poetic chant technique to the teaching of church doctrine, thus perpetuating this key feature of Chamorro oral and musical tradition. Musical expression that was acceptable to the missionaries survived in the 1700s through the ‘magiganga, a public festivity with slap-stick humour’ (Expediente formado, 1987), and miracle plays.
Christianization was protested in religious processions by urritao (bachelor) song societies bearing ornate carved wooden tinas (phallic standards) to counteract the Christian plainsong chanted by students of the collegio. The urritao also chanted love songs in an allegorical language, fino gualafon. Notation of one chant in the ancient Chamorro language is based on a four-note scale (ex.3).
Makanas invoked the manganiti (souls of dead ancestors) by chanting to the ancestors’ skulls, to cast spells on those who did not show respect for the skulls, to cure one who was ‘possessed’ or to appeal to the skulls to make rain (maran-anuchan). In the 1990s the intonation of the rosary and the novena by traditional prayer leaders called techas (from the Spanish endecha) closely resembled the ancient chants, as did the amaga chants (magas meaning head, chief) that were intoned in courtship ritual. Jesuit efforts to change Chamorro religion established a psychologically important Chamorro counter-culture of survival through song.
In order to indoctrinate the Chamorros to Christianity, the Jesuits matched pre-Christian elements of European May festivals in honour of Mary, such as the Maypole Dance and the canario, with pagan Chamorro song and dance and the Dance of Montezuma from Mexico. This metaphorical dance of religious conquest incorporates masked dances similar to Cristianos y Moros and the moresca.
In the mid-19th century Chamorro historical song commentary developed in reaction to the visits of American and British whaling ships and traders. Mari, the Chamorro song poetry, readily absorbed similar Filipino song style and technique to produce the chamorrita, an extemporaneous song debate between two poets, expert in Chamorro legend, lore and language, who competed and were judged at village fiestas. They rhymed quatrains of two octosyllabic couplets.
The chamorrita also occurred as a dialogue song while fishing, planting, harvesting, roof thatching, tapping the coconut tree for sap to make tuba (a fermented beverage) and between a young man and woman during courtship. Dialogue song was sung from house to house until the 1950s, when air-conditioning extinguished that practice. Today it still provides a socially acceptable way for Chamorros to confront one another at a fiesta. Electric guitar accompaniment, country and western style and traditional batsu rhythm turned the chamorrita into popular song. The term is now generic for all songs in the Chamorro language.
In one ancient Chamorro dance, several women dance in a circle around a male hostage, prevent him from breaking out, then crown him and regale him with gifts. This hostage theme is encountered in various village activities such as hodgon songsong (the work party) as a vehicle for women to demonstrate superiority over men. This hostage dance appears to resemble that of the Negritos of Pampanga in the Philippines. LeGobien describes an animation of the Chamorro matrilineal creation myth as another dance in which ‘12 or 13 women stand upright in a circle without stirring, singing verses of their poets, shell castanets in their hands, animating their songs with lively action and gestures.’ This is similar to the Moro dancing of Mindanao, which consists chiefly of body contortions above the waist and movements of the arms, wrists and hands; the feet are used comparatively little. In the late 19th century the Spanish fandango became the traditional wedding dance. In 1898 Spain sold the islands to Germany, which in turn lost them to Japan during World War I. The schottische (men’s round dance) was popular in the early 20th century and shows the German ‘polka’ influence. Chamorros danced the kanaka in the early 1900s, parodying the men’s dances of the Carolinians. The Mexican batsu is celebrated today as the traditional Chamorro dance.
The belembao (musical bow), an icon of Chamorro music culture, may have come from Africa via South America or South-east Asia (fig.5). It is an arc-shaped monochord about five feet long with a calabash resonator. Strings were made of balibago (pineapple) fibre and struck with a stick. Chamorros resonate the half-gourd on their belly and call it the belembao tuyan (shaking belly), but its use is dying out. Belembao patchot designated first the jew’s harp and later the harmonica. Chamorros are known to have had two kinds of bamboo flutes, and their use is known to have existed up to 1760. The conch-shell was used as a signal and ceremonial instrument.
Indigenous Chamorro music culture has its roots throughout island South-east Asia, but it does not overly identify with any one particular area and hardly at all with other Micronesian cultures. Its identifying characteristics are song, gesture, humour and the circle dance. Traditional music after 1850 bears Filipino and Mexican influence, and the popular Chamolinian ballads mix Chamorro and Carolinian words. American song and dance styles have had a profound influence in the 20th century.
In the late 1990s modern Guamanian music was flourishing locally and experiencing exportation. Primarily vocal, it is a synthesis of Chamorro, Filipino, Latin American and other genres adopted and adapted through nearly 400 years of cultural contact and colonization. Most song texts are in Chamorro, some are in English. The accompaniment is played sometimes on a single guitar, but electronically amplified keyboards, plucked string instruments and percussion are commonly used. In some instances a saxophone or other wind instrument from the jazz band tradition is added. Pre-European contact forms of music and dance have not survived, but efforts to recreate traditional performing arts are being made through the creative interpretation of historical accounts. The use of the triton as a signal horn has been revived in some local performances. The traditional music of the belembautuyan was promoted by the last master of the instrument, Jesus Meno Crisostomo (1914–96).
Within the populace of nearly 150,000, each resident cultural group enjoys its own music and dance at social events, festive celebrations and in religious observations. For the rapidly expanding tourist industry and the commercial entertainment of residents, hotels provide pan-Polynesian and pan-Micronesian shows. Hotels and private enterprises import performing artists for special productions and help promote local musicians and groups. The Guam Council on the Arts and Humanities administers National Endowment for the Arts grants in the performing arts to individuals and community-based musical ensembles, and it regularly sponsors a delegation of musicians to the Festival of Pacific Arts (see Pacific Arts, Festival of) and other regional cultural events.
Community organizations include amateur stage bands, choral and orchestral ensembles. Radio and television media increasingly offer programmes and advertising using locally produced Chamorro music. Music taught in schools is essentially Western, with some inclusion of local and regional music and dance. The University of Guam, established in 1968, instituted in 1993 a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Arts with a focus on Western music studies. The Micronesian Area Research Center at the University of Guam holds a major collection of research materials about Guam and the region.
The Marshall Islands lie in two parallel chains called Ratak and Ralik (usually referred to as the sunrise and sunset chains) about 1280 km long in north-eastern Micronesia. Together they comprise 20 atolls with more than 1000 islets and 5 raised coral islands. The total land area is about 180 km2, with a population of approximately 45,000.
The first European discovery was made by Spanish navigators in 1526; the archipelago was named after the British Captain John Marshal, who sailed in company with Captain Gilbert along the Ratak chain in 1788. Germany took administrative control of the islands in 1888, followed by Japan after World War I. The Marshalls were under United Nations trusteeship from 1947 until attaining full self-government in 1986 as the Republic of the Marshall Islands, with a Compact of Free Association with the USA.
The most revealing information about pre-missionary music and dance lies in journals from two Russian expeditions led by Otto von Kotzebue between 1815 and 1826. Journal entries mention navigation and singing as the Ratak Islanders’ principal pastimes and their favourite possessions as the boat and drum. Crew members enjoyed being entertained by songs and dances: detailed passages describe commemorative songs composed in their honour, martial dances and eb, dramatic presentations described as pantomime with songs, accompanied by singing and drumming. Evenings of dancing and singing served to perpetuate both history and tradition.
Later accounts of traditional performance report sitting dances performed by either men or women, including solo dances by chiefs and women’s stick dances. Also described are men’s and women’s standing dances, including men’s stick dances, and tattooing rituals accompanied by singing and drumming. Dances were accompanied by a chorus of women singers, several of whom beat aje (hourglass drums). Demeanour was described as frenzied and unrestrained, with trembling of the hands and arms, upper body contortions, eye-rolling and ‘wild’ singing. However, musical changes were already obvious to these same witnesses. Traditional dances were said to be hard to find, and the aje drum, prevalent several decades earlier, was being replaced by tin cans. Church-influenced melodies were becoming customary, and newer dance styles were performed in a measured, tranquil manner.
Of all the foreign contacts, including explorers, traders, whalers, administrators and missionaries, the missionaries had the greatest impact on Marshallese music and dance. Missionaries (including some recently converted Hawaiians) of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions began establishing missions in 1857. As elsewhere, they sought to replace chants and dances associated with traditional beliefs with hymn tunes. Christian texts were translated into Marshallese, and new ones were written in the vernacular; in both cases musical phrases were extended to accommodate the textual sense, and the musical style of adapted hymn tunes with characteristic phrase endings is today used for both religious and secular songs.
In the 20th century the most important surviving indigenous vocal genres included navigation chants (alin meto, alin jerakrōk), eb, and chants for tattooing (alin eo) and imparting strength or courage (roro, alin mur). Lullabies (alin kakiki), juggling songs (alin lejoÃjoÃ), historical songs (alin bwebwenato), chants for harvesting, food preparation, canoe-making and fishing, and prayers for a safe voyage and good weather, were still performed in the early 1960s, but tattoo chants and perhaps some of the others are becoming extinct. In the late 1980s many traditional chants were said to be known only by older Marshallese.
The dance chant believed to exhibit the oldest musical style and text is the jebwa, a performance said to have been learnt from legendary beings called ņoonniep on Ebeju in the Ujae atoll. Although parts of the text are untranslatable (being in the noonniep language), Marshallese opinions about the chant’s origin, meaning and performing practice are remarkably consistent, as are versions of the lengthy text collected at various times during the 20th century. Traditionally, the text was chanted by a group of women (du, accompanied by one or more drums), while men of high rank performed the energetic dancing with sticks (fig.6) and shouted responses. In 1988 jebwa was sung by a single male chanter, a modified form of the traditional drum was played, and the dancers were young men, including schoolboys. Although the length both of textual lines and of musical phrases is irregular, form is readily apparent through the repetition and recurrence of textual and melodic contours, cadential formulae and sectional divisions. The range is narrow, the melodic progression is mostly stepwise (and often sliding), the relationships between principal tones are microtonal, and the rhythm is simple but has no fixed pattern. Jebwa is highly valued for maintaining cultural identity and is often chosen for performance to distinguished visitors and for cultural festivals in the Marshalls and overseas.
Other surviving indigenous dances indude the jiku (men’s standing stick dance from Majuro, today often performed by women), lemade (‘using the spear’, men’s standing stick dance), jimōkmōk (women’s seated stick dance from Likiep, using two short sticks), joran and keton (men’s standing stick dances), ebjijet (men’s and women’s sitting dances) and bwijbwij (standing dance with foot-stamping from Mejit). Like the jebwa, several of these dances were obtained from supernatural sources, often during dreams. Although most historical sources indicate a traditional separation of the sexes during dances, in the late 20th century men and women may perform certain genres together.
20th-century secular song forms feature Western scales, melodic contours, metric structures and part-singing derived from hymn tunes. These songs are often composed for specific occasions and remain in the repertory of a village or social group. Types include alin kamōļo (song for the kamōļo, a festive occasion usually associated with a child’s first birthday party), alin būromōj (sad song), alin karawanene (welcome song), alin wa (song for launching a new canoe/boat), alin lokonwa (sad song of departure), alin mej (song for a dead person), alin maina (love song, incorporating sexual metaphor), alin emļok (song of remembrance) and alin kaubowe (cowboy song). Overwhelming grief can inspire the composition of alin kāļok (song of flying away), stemming from the belief that extreme sadness causes one’s soul to separate from the body and take flight. Some of these song genres existed with traditional music prior to the influence of missionaries.
A variety of contemporary dance forms exists, some specifically named. Standing dances are known generally as eb/leep (i.e. dance in Ralik/Ratak dialects) and taidik (folk dance). These dances are performed in columns, with hopping, shuffling, foot-stamping and arm movements, often miming an activity such as fishing or canoe-paddling. Sitting dances (ebjijet) feature arm movements that may be abstract, such as the deelel (fan dance) or enactments of specific tasks, such as extracting pandanus juice. The jurbak (jitterbug) is performed by columns of young boys. This is regarded as a new version of the bwijbwij, enhanced by dance steps learnt from North American servicemen during World War II. Vocal accompaniment is provided by a separate group of singers, a pre-recorded tape or the dancers themselves.
Christmas is an important musical occasion. In the Protestant Church, members from all the islets of an atoll gather for the whole day, and groups (jebta) sing both old and newly composed Christmas songs. Informal competition among groups fosters excellence both in performance and song composition. Groups enter and exit the church by dancing in a style called piit, marked by simple footwork, arm movements and body turns. Favourite Christmas and Easter songs are performed not only according to the church calendar but on any occasion for singing. Hymn-tune style singing is usually in four parts, but doubling of any or all parts is common. Marshallese choir conductors, as in some other Pacific islands, often move in an almost dance-like manner that incorporates the Western conductor’s standard arm movements. Welcome and farewell parties, a child’s first birthday, school and youth group functions, events of religious and civic importance, cultural festivals and casual social occasions are all considered appropriate for music and dance.
There were few instruments at the time of European contact. The hourglass aje drum was introduced from Melanesia, perhaps via Pohnpei, where the aip resembles it in structure (see §II, 5 above). It was single-headed and was held on the lap or under the arm. Finger- and hand-strokes and centre and rim positions were differentiated. One, two or three aje (apparently different numbers on different islands or atolls) were played by women to accompany chanting or singing, sometimes with dance or pantomime. The aje was also beaten by women to signal and encourage warriors from behind battle lines. It was not played after the early 20th century (as a result of Christian missionary work), and there is only one extant specimen in the Marshalls, in the Alele Museum on Majuro.
The jilil (shell trumpet) was primarily a signalling instrument: there are numerous accounts of its being sounded during battles by the highest-ranking man in a canoe and to sound an alarm or call people together. It was also played during dance activities: at the beginning of an event or major section of a dance-pantomime, extensively during a vigorous men’s dance and with the aje to accompany a vocal duet. There is also a report of its being blown at the water’s edge during a chant intended to calm high waves endangering a low coral islet. The jilel is still used, especially in outlying atolls. Dance sticks were of two types: short wooden sticks (jimōkmōk) for a women’s sitting dance and long wooden sticks or spears (made), some with decorative plaiting, for men’s standing dances. Bamboo, which was introduced subsequent to the keeping of written records, has also been used for men’s dance sticks. The guitar, ukulele and harmonica are now considered by the Marshallese to be their principal kōjaÃjaà (musical instruments), and electronic keyboards are gaining popularity with bands that entertain at island functions and night clubs.
Nauru is a single, raised coral island of about 21 km2 located near the equator in the western Pacific. The Nauruan people constitute 58% of an estimated population of 10,000 (1994) and comprise 12 matrilineal clans descended from the original inhabitants, castaways from the Solomons, Carolines, Gilberts and Marshalls. Other Pacific Islanders, Asians and Europeans, mainly employed by the phosphate industry, make up the remaining population. The Republic of Nauru has been independent since 1968, following several foreign administrations since German colonial times (1888–1914).
Pre-European Nauruan life permitted an abundance of activities incorporating music, many recreational and often competitive. Teams of young people enjoyed weeks touring the island singing, dancing and exchanging gifts while being entertained in return, a custom that continued into post-contact times. The pandanus harvest festival occasioned dances and distinctive songs. Ball games, wrestling competitions and the annual contests for catching frigate birds required special incantations, and victory parties for these events were marked by feasts, song and dance. Incantations were also used for kindling fires and for curing and causing illness in others. During the seclusion that marked first menstruation, young women were taught songs by their elders. Girls from prominent families were additionally honoured with communal singing, dancing (including special women’s dances), feasting and games. Casual musical activity included topical song composition, dance improvisation and children’s game songs. Men sang while fishing, building canoes and ‘cutting toddy’ (toddy being the sap of coconut palms, fermented to make a sweet beverage). Commemorative and other chants were often illustrated by string figures. Paul Hambruch, ethnographer for the South-Sea Expedition (1908–10), described Nauruan melodies as centring on the first pitch of the phrase, dropping and then rising in pitch level at the end of the line. He reported choral singing as strident, with rhythmic accompaniment. Until the 1880s, an important venue for musical activities was the village meeting house.
Musical instruments included a sharkskin-head hand drum made of a hollow pandanus log (extinct by 1910), played by seated men and women to accompany dances. Dance sticks, including single dance staves (approximately 1 to 1½ metres long) and pairs of rhythm sticks (approximately 20 cm long), provided rhythmic accompaniment for certain dances, and ‘toy trumpets’ were fashioned from pandanus leaves. The conch-shell trumpet (side-blown triton) was used for signalling, during battles and in religious ceremonies.
Written accounts of traditional dances from the early 20th century describe a war dance, seated dances (including a stick dance), a women’s dance accompanied by the men and a dance performed by a man and woman in front of a seated chorus. A standing stick dance and dances based on birds such as the white sea swallow, black sea swallow and frigate bird also existed. Dance movements included marching with stamping, turning and body percussion, while seated dances employed bodily-swaying and unison arm movement. Prior to an event, weeks of effort were devoted to dance rehearsals and costume construction. Short fibre skirts for women and dance mats for men were enhanced by accessories, including headpieces, sashes and girdles that were considered heirlooms. Songs, dances, legends and painted facial decorations were also regarded as family possessions.
Beginnning in the 1830s beachcombers and whaler ships initiated changes in Nauruan society, which accelerated after 1880 with the establishment of missions, a German administration and, in 1907, the phosphate industry. The missions exerted the most direct effect on music. The Revd Delaporte of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions arrived in 1899; by 1901 he had established a school that included Western singing in the curriculum, and by 1907 a Nauruan hymn book had been produced. Traditional life-cycle ceremonies and dancing were discouraged, and within several years many purely Nauruan dances had been supplanted by Kiribati forms. Despite the mission’s attitude, annual dance festivals on the Kaiser’s birthday were encouraged by the German administration. By 1910, Nauruans were playing European instruments; Hambruch (1914–15) saw harmonicas and a 13-piece brass band during his visit.
In the late 20th century Nauruans made a distinction between iruwo (chant) traditional musical style and iriang (song) music employing Western scales and harmony. Iruwo includes old dance and narrative chants as well as honorific, string figure, traditional children's chants and some lullabies. These melodies and associated dances have been revived to entertain visiting dignitaries and for celebrations such as the Festival of Pacific Arts (see Pacific Arts, Festival of), which has featured music ranging from monotonic speech-like chants that rise in pitch at phrase endings to more melodic tunes based on three to four pitches. The music is rhythmic, with characteristic shouted phrase endings, intermittent vocal ejaculations and a narrow pitch range.
Iriang includes secular songs, hymns and imported children’s songs. Accompanied by guitar and ukulele, modern Nauruan songs are sung for enjoyment. Many express love or patriotism, e.g. the national anthem, Nauru Ubwema (Nauru, Our Homeland), while others celebrate victories in competitions and sports. Contemporary North American and Hawaiian music are also popular, as are electronic keyboards, synthesizers and modern sound playback systems. Christmas is the most important musical event, celebrated with concerts and carol singing. In addition to choral singing during services, churches also sponsor singing and song composition competitions. Among non-Nauruans, I-Kiribati and Tuvaluan contract workers maintain their music and dance traditions in their communities.
GEWM, ix
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