French Polynesia - Music

Music

French Polynesia came to the forefront of the world music scene in 1992, with the release of The Tahitian Choir's recordings of unaccompanied vocal Christian music called himene tārava, recorded by French musicologist Pascal Nabet-Meyer. This form of singing is common in French Polynesia and the Cook Islands, and is distinguished by a unique drop in pitch at the end of the phrases, which is a characteristic formed by several different voices; it is also accompanied by steady grunting of staccato, nonsensical syllables.

Read more about this topic:  French Polynesia

Famous quotes containing the word music:

    “The further jazz moves away from the stark blue continuum and the collective realities of Afro-American and American life, the more it moves into academic concert-hall lifelessness, which can be replicated by any middle class showing off its music lessons.”
    —Imamu Amiri Baraka (b. 1934)

    “But the dark changed to red, and torches shone,
    And deafening music shook the leaves; a troop
    Shouldered a litter with a wounded man,
    Or smote upon the string and to the sound
    Sang of the beast that gave the fatal wound.”
    —William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    “Orpheus with his lute made trees
    And the mountain tops that freeze
    Bow themselves when he did sing.
    To his music plants and flowers
    Ever sprung, as sun and showers
    There had made a lasting spring.”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)