Songs from the Second Float: Music from the Island of Takū (review)

Richard Moyle has a long-standing relationship with Takū, an atoll in the far reaches of Papua New Guinea, over two hundred kilometers northeast of Bougainville. In the last decade, Moyle has produced a number of publications from his work on this atoll, including the collection of oral literature Nā Kkai Takū: Takū's Musical Fables, published by the Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies in 2003, and the monograph Songs from the Second Float: A Musical Ethnography of Takū Atoll, Papua New Guinea, published by the University of Hawai'i Press in 2007. This CD of music recordings, released prior to the monograph, is a companion to it.

Featuring twelve tracks that span a range of song genres, the CD is an example of what Moyle calls "actuality recordings" (p. 1)—recordings conducted in situ and including the sounds of community life on the atoll such as the crowing of roosters and bottles clinking. (Unfortunately, however, information on the recording equipment used is not provided.) The accompanying ten-page CD booklet is testimony to Moyle's comprehensive knowledge of Takū life and culture and in particular his interest in aspects of Takū language (at the time of writing, Moyle was completing a dictionary project for the language). Each song has been carefully documented in the language in which it is sung, with a line-by-line translation in English and an introductory paragraph describing the genre and often the significance of the text. Moyle also shows where certain song lines are repeated or revisited by numbering each song line and then repeating the relevant line number in brackets at the end of lines where it reappears. This allows the listener to follow along with the recording, though the meaning of this numbering is not explained in the booklet and may be initially perplexing to the reader. Where a translation is not possible due to the age of a song, Moyle marks it so, which in itself is valuable, drawing attention to the ongoing change in Takū musical life and language.

The high level of detail provided in Moyle's booklet reveals the complexity of Takū's social history. Although isolated in some sense, Takū has always been very much a part of the broader Pacific network, its cultural life incorporating influences from interaction with other Polynesian Outliers, parts of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, Australia, and the United States and reflecting trade relationships, colonial histories, plantation labor, and migrant experiences. Much of this outside influence is captured in the songs presented here. This is evident in the language used: Moyle explains that the lyrics "contain a mix of contemporary and archaic expressions, the odd English or Pidgin word, and the occasional phrase in deliberate imitation of the language of neighbouring atolls" (p. 1). External cultural influence can also be heard in introduced musical elements; the contemporary song form lani featured on track 8 is a good example of this, as it incorporates a vocal drone with its melodic line.

The notes are very informative for those wanting to understand the musical forms more closely, with significant detail (considering the CD booklet's limited space) on the performance context for the recording, dance, and vocal styles. On the first page of the booklet, Moyle explains a very distinct feature of Takū vocal accentuation that features prominently on the CD, where syllables are pronounced with varying degrees of stress, first softly and then ending louder. This vocal style can be quite disorienting for the unattuned listener, so it is helpful to have this information on which to hang one's aural experience of the tracks.

As is the case with most Pacific Island cultures, song and dance are inextricably intertwined on Takū. Moyle goes to considerable effort to document dance movements when describing the genres profiled on this CD, and he includes five different photographs (most in color) in the booklet and inside the tray card...