Panpipes Across the Ocean: A Production of Popular Tunes from the South Pacific Islands (review)

Contemporary musicians in the Pacific, as in many other parts of the world, are often exploring ways of combining elements of their traditional musics with those of the West. Whether as an attempt to express the complex cultural mixtures of contemporary life or as a marketing ploy to tap into the seemingly lucrative world music scene, such experiments encourage new approaches to musical expression. In the compact disc under review here, a traditional instrument —panpipes—is used to perform a type of popular music found throughout the Pacific.

As observed in the brief notes accompanying this recording, panpipes have quite a wide distribution in the Pacific. They are or were found throughout most of Melanesia, but also in Polynesia, in Tonga and Sämoa.Everywhere,these instruments consist of a number of bamboos or other tubular plants put together to form a single instrument. Depending on the area, the pipes may be bound together in a raft form or ina bundle. If in raft form, there may be one or two rows of pipes. The distal ends of the pipes may be closed or open. Panpipes may be played solo or in combination with other panpipes or different instruments; singing and dancing may or may not also be included.

Beginning in the 1970 s, Swiss ethnomusicologist Hugo Zemp's numerous releases of Solomon Islands panpipes introduced many listeners to these important traditional instruments, particularly as expertly played in ensembles by 'Are'are musicians of Malaita. Here, we were exposed to distinctive tunings and polyphonies, coupled with a fascinating indigenous theory of music. Many listeners, including this reviewer, were spellbound.

Islanders have also been adept at modifying traditional instruments to meet new musical demands. According to some accounts, the "bamboo band" developed on Ranongga Island in the Solomons, from bamboo tubes originally struck on the ground. People tuned the bamboos to a diatonic western scale, bound them together, and struck them with a thong, sometimes with panpipes accompaniment as well as singing and dancing, creating a vibrant new sound, now associated with parts of Melanesia.

Throughout the Pacific, new songs have emerged following contact with western cultures, especially during colonization. Thus, in addition to traditional musical forms, the repertoire of Pacific groups includes songs accompanied by guitar, ukulele, or both, in local languages, and often based on the harmonies and melodic patterns of western music. Although sometimes referred to as "pan-Pacific pop," such music displays considerable stylistic variation throughout the region. A knowledgeable listener can readily identify the provenance of a particular band by focusing on such features as the language used, melodic contour, vocal timbre and harmonies, guitar or ukulele playing style, meter, and so on.

The Solomon Islands students of the University of the South Pacific in Suva use their panpipes on this recording in a distinctive way. The tuning of the traditional single raft-form instrument has been modified to a western scale, so as to play arrangements of Pacific pop songs. Traditional polyphonic organization is lacking; instead, the arrangements invariably highlight the panpipes with the melody, in a slow or moderate tempo. Except for tracks 2 and 9, which have intermittent vocals, these performances are instrumental only, with the panpipes backed up by an array of keyboards, guitars, and percussion instruments.

Two of the ten tracks are from the Solomons, and two from Fiji. Single tracks represent Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Sämoa, and Tonga. Yet, unless one is familiar with the original songs, the type of arrangements used here masks any identification of origins. Godffrey Rahari's playing of the panpipes seems less related to a traditional Solomons sound than, perhaps, to Gheorghe Zamfir, who made Romanian panpipes world famous.

Two tracks are particularly well known in Papua New Guinea. Track 1, the Solomons Pijin classic "Wakabauti long Chaena Taon," is probably...