ICTM Study Group on Musics of OceaniaCircular No. 20 &Updated Membership/Address List

31 January 1991

Study Group activities at 31st ICTM Conference in Hong Kong, 3-9 July 1991

The Proposal for a session "The Chinese and Their Musics in the Pacific" has beenaccepted by the Programme Committee at their meeting this month (not Mid-Decemberas I had erroneously reported in Circular No. 19). This information was receivedby telephone (in advance of formal written notification to allow adequate time tofinalize certain aspects of its organization). For purposes of this session, "thePacific" will include "Oceania" (as applied in ICTM--but desirably all of Australiarather than just the Aboriginal population) and Island Southeast Asia. Thereforesome of the panelists--who will be asked to prepare short statements about Chineseand Chinese music in specific islands or island groups--will be members of theStudy Group and some will be ICTM members who are specialists in Southeast Asia butnot necessarily members of our Study Group. In design, the intent of the sessionis to allow plenty of time for all in attendance to comment on relevant informationthey have gathered as well as to ask questions of the panelists. So all members ofthe Study Group who attend the Hong Kong conference are urged to attend thissession and participate in the discussion. It is hoped that sharing informationand ideas from observations in the larger area will stimulate documentation andstudy in islands where, to date, this component of musical activity has beenneglected.

Thanks are due to all members who have returned the Questionnaire distributed withCircular No. 19 or otherwise responded to it: Barwick, Burke, Crowe, Christensen,Ellis, Feltz, Kartomi, Keali'inohomoku, Kelsey, Laade, Lawrence, Messner, Moulin,Nero, Niles, Rossen, Sajnovsky, Saumaiwai, Spearritt, Stillman, Trimillos,Yamaguti. Members who have not yet responded are urged to do so to help provide abroader-based geocultural distribution (to date, no information has been receivedabout certain areas within the special expertise of our members). Please rememberthat even an indication of 'no residents of Chinese ancestry' or 'no Chinese musicactivity' may be helpful.

News of Other Forthcoming Conferences and Festivals

Some papers in a session(s) on oral tradition (convenor: Crowe) for the forthcoming6ICAL (see Circular No. 18) are to be presented by members of our Study Group.Titles, etc. will be reported in a future Circular.

Some papers in a session(s) "Challenging Communications: Pacific Islands' Dance andMusic" (co-convenors Nero and Smith) in the Pacific Science Congress (See CircularNo. 18) are to be presented by members of our Study Group. Titles, etc. will bereported in a future Circular. The Pacific Arts Association (Moulin on the ProgramCommittee) will be held simultanously with the PSC.

The next meeting of the Asia Pacific Dance Alliance will be in Manila, 15-20 July1991. The conference and festival will meet simultaneously during this period.

According to a usually reliable source, the dates for the next Festival of PacificArts--to be held in Rarotonga--will be 16-27 October 1992.

News of a Recent Conference

The Pacific History Association met in Guam (4-7 December 1990) with the theme"Micronesia: Intellectual Images and Historical Discourses." Nero chaired asession "Island Historiography: Alternate Media" with presentations by islanders ontheir traditions: Vilsoni Hereniko on Rotuman clowning, 'Okusitino Mahina on TonganFaiva, Carmen Chigiy on Yapese dance, and Jonathan Osorio on Hawaiian songs. Inanother session, Faustina Rehuher discussed authenticating Palauan performing arts.

Publications by Members

The World of Music XXXII/I, devoted to Oceania, is guest edited by R. Moyle. Itcontains articles by: McLean "Dance and Music Learning in Oceania," R. Moyle "ThePolynesian Nose Flute," Messner "The Shark-Calling Ceremony in Parua, New Ireland,Papua New GUinea," and Crowe "Dancing Backwards?"

Barwick's "Central Australian Women's Ritual Music: knowing through analysis versusknowing through performance" will appear in the Yearbook for Traditional Music 22.

Ellis, Barwick, and Morais' "Overlapping Time Structures in a Central AustralianWomen's Ceremony appears in In Language and Culture: Essays in Honour of LuiseHercus (eds. Aushn et al), Canberra: Pacific Linguistics Press, 1990.

Moulin's "The Cutting Edge of Tradition" in Pacific Arts, although primarily aboutstone sculpture, has numerous references to Marquesan dance and music.

R. Moyle's Polynesian Sound-producing Instruments has been published by ShirePublications (Cromwell House, Church Street, Princes Risborough, Bucks. HP17 9AJ,England). The price is L 3.50.

Retirements of Members--congratulations to all of them!

Kennedy, who contributed to knowledge of the musics of Guam and Pohnpei (as well asto jazz), retired from the City University of New York in December 1990.

Laade is now retired. His report on his Archive will appear in the next Circular.

McLean has announced that he will retire from the University of Auckland in Janaury1992 to devote full time to writing up his research on musics of Oceania.

Other News of Members

At the East-West Center, Kohl is currently a Research Intern and Moulin a Fellow.

Barwick's paper "Partial Records: The Problematics of Loss and Change in HistoricalEthnomusicology" should have been listed in the report on SIMS in Circular No. 19.

Messner is engaged in research on magico-religious performance in Melanesia.

Other News of Potential Interest to Members

Regis N. Stella's Forms and Styles of Traditional Banoni Music, the first volume inApwitihire: Studies in Papua New Guinea Musics (Don Niles, Editor), is published bythe Cultural Studies Division of The National Research Institute. It is availablefrom the bookshop of the Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies for K 3.25.

Isla: A Journal of Micronesian Studies, is a new multidisciplinary refereedpublication. Individual subscriptions are US$15.00; institutional 25.00. Forinformation on manuscript submission, write Isla Editorial Office, Graduate Schooland Research, University of Guam, UOG Station, Mangilao, Guam 96923.

Death

Yoko Mitani, who had begun to study Pacific Islands musics after contributingsignificantly to knowledge of Chinese and Japanese zithers, died after a longillness. Most of her studies are published in Japanese.

For Next Circular--please send information to Barbara B. Smith, Music Department,University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96826, USA.

MEMBERS OF ICTH STUDY GROUP OH HUSICS OF OCEAIIIA (1 January 1991)

Suaaer BANNER Joann W. KEALl'IIIOHOHOKU

Linda BARifiCK John R. KELSEY

Lioa Lavson BURKE Rayaond KEIIIIEDI

Ka 1ala CARHACK Randall C. KOHL

Dieter CHRISTENSEN Wolfgang LAADE

Filip LAHASISI-IAIII Peter CROW!

Profeaaor c. ELLIS Helen Reeves LAWREIICE

C. A. FALK Jacob Wa1nwr1Rht LOVE

Steven FELD Hervyn HCLEAII

Dr . Florian MESSNER Williaa FELTZ

Dr . David John GOLDSWORTHY Jane MOULIN

Alice HOILE Dr. Mantle HOOD

Richard MOYLE Adrienne KAEPPLER

Doug HIERS Dr . Hargaret KARTOMI

Karen HERO Allan THOMAS

Don MILES Ricardo D. TRIHILLOS

Helen PAYNE

Cu,y TUIISTILL

Carol ROBERTSON

Hichael IIEBB Jnne Mink ROSSEN

Stephen WILD

Cyntbia B. SAJIIOVSKI . Pb. D.

IAHADA Ioicbi

Chris SAUHAIVAI

YAHAGUTI Oeuu Ko.lena SILVA

Prof . Dr. Artur SIHON

Barbara B. SMITH

Gordon SPEARRITT

Aay K. STIJ.J..'IAN

Dr. J1ll STUBIHGTON

Elhabetb TATAR