Melanesian music refers to the various musical traditions found across the vast region of

Melanesia Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from New Guinea in the west to the Fiji Islands in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea. The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Vanu ...

. Vocal music is very common across Melanesia; Hand gestures are an important part of many songs, and most traditional music is

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance musi ...

. left, Wax cylinder recording from German New Guinea on August 23, 1904, recorded by German anthropologist Rudolf Pöch. Folk instruments include various kinds of

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

and slit-log

gong A gongFrom Indonesian language, Indonesian and ; ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ; ; ; ; is a percussion instrument originating from Southeast Asia, and used widely in Southeast Asian and East Asian musical traditions. Gongs are made of metal and ...

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

panpipes A pan flute (also known as panpipes or syrinx) is a musical instrument based on the principle of the closed tube, consisting of multiple pipes of gradually increasing length (and occasionally girth). Multiple varieties of pan flutes have been ...

, stamping tubes, rattles, among others. Occasionally, European

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

s and

ukulele The ukulele ( ; ); also called a uke (informally), is a member of the lute (ancient guitar) family of instruments. The ukulele is of Portuguese origin and was popularized in Hawaii. The tone and volume of the instrument vary with size and con ...

s are also used.See also Stern (2000).

Notes

References

* Ammann, Raymond. 2012. ''Sounds of Secrets: Field Notes on Ritual Music and Musical Instruments on the Islands of Vanuatu''. KlangKulturStudien – SoundCultureStudies, 7. Berlin: LIT Verlag. * Crowe, Peter. 1994. ''Vanuatu (Nouvelles Hébrides): Singsing-Danis Kastom–Musiques Coutumières''. AIMP XXXIV, CD-796. Genève: VDE-GALLO. *. * Huffman, Kirk. 1996. Single bamboo flutes. In Joël Bonnemaison; Kirk Huffman; Christian Kaufmann, & Darrell Tryon (eds), ''Arts of Vanuatu''. Bathurst: Crawford House Press. pp. 150–153. * Stern, Monika. 2000. La permanence du changement ou les métissages musicaux au Vanuatu. ''Cahiers de Musiques Traditionnelles'' n°13 "Métissages". Genève: Georg/ADEM, 179–202. * Zemp, Hugo. 1979. Aspects of ’Are’are Musical Theory. ''Ethnomusicology'' 23 (1): 5-48. * Zemp, Hugo. 1994. ''’Are’are Panpipe Ensembles''. Paris: Le Chant du Monde.