Study Guide 'Are'are Music and Shaping Bamboo by Hugo Zemp With a supplement of 2013 to the original booklet published in 1993 and included in the VHS cassette package distributed as the Society for Ethnomusicology Audiovisual Series no. 1. Contents ‘ARE’ARE MUSIC The Filmmaking Process 5 Structure and Contents 9 Prelude THE FEAST 9 Part I: ’au, Music for Bamboo Instruments 10 PANIPE ENSEMBLES 10 SOLO BLOWN BAMBOOS 17 BEATEN BAMBOOS 19 Interlude WATER GAME 21 Part II: ’o’o, Slit Drum Music 21 Part III: nuuha, Songs 23 WOMEN’S SONGS 23 MEN’S SONGS 25 FINAL CREDITS 29 SHAPING BAMBOO The Film Making Process 31 STRUCTURE AND CONTENTS 32 LOOKING FOR BAMBOO 33 MAKING ’AU TAHANA PANPIPES 34 MAKING ’AU PAINA PANPIPES 36 NOTES 39 REFERENCES 39 FINAL CREDITS 39 2011 Supplement 41 Introduction 1 specialists and can be consulted at the film films which I consider more successful from a Introduction library of the CNRS Audiovisuel. technical, conceptual and aesthetic viewpoint. For a filmmaker, whether he is making films of Planning to return for further fieldwork in the fiction, documentaries or scientific films, the last During my first fieldwork in the Solomon Solomon Islands in 1974, I decided to use film in a work he has done is often the one he prefers. Islands in 1969–70, I worked for the first few more appropriate way. Not having had the chance months with anthropologist Daniel de Coppet, to take a course in a film school, or of gaining who introduced me to many aspects of ’Are’are any formal training in film-making, I hired a culture. Using a Beaulieu 16mm camera we shot 16mm camera in Paris (at that time light-weight the film ’Are’are Maasina, in which I collaborated camcorders were not available), and with help as sound recordist. At the end of his fieldwork and advice from the ethnologist and filmmaker, in September 1969, Daniel de Coppet left me the Dominique Lajoux and some practical exercises 16mm camera and some rolls of unused film. I which I carried out under his critical guidance, took advantage of these to shoot the rushes for I learned the rudiments of cinematographic two short films. One of them, Danses polynésiennes technique. I was thereby able to film ’Are’are traditionelles d’Ontong Java, shot during a brief Music and Shaping Bamboo during my field trips in two-week stay in the atoll which is part of what 1974–75 and 1976–77. anthropologists call the Polynesian Outliers, shows a number of songs and dances. The other, Seventeen years after the beginning of the Bambous soufflés, bambous frappés, shot with the shooting and thirteen years after the completion ’Are’are, includes a short sequence on the making of the editing of these two films, it can hardly of a large set of panpipes for the ensemble ’au be said that the writing and publication of this paina, the playing of this ensemble and the solo study guide has been quick. But better late playing of stamping tubes by ’Irisipau (who was than never! If I was not keen to undertake this to be the principal protagonist of the two films task earlier, it was essentially for two reasons. presented here). Firstly, the very limited distribution of the films (usually arranged by myself for my university Having this camera on the spot without being teaching) hardly encouraged spending much able earlier to learn properly how to use it—and time and effort on producing an accompanying with only some knowledge of the notions of booklet. And secondly, unlike the distributors still photography to help me in the evaluation of ethnographic films in the United States, the of the framing, of light and depth of field— producer and distributor for these films, the the resulting rushes showed all the faults of a Audiovisual Service of the Centre National de beginner, including over-use of the zoom lens. la Recherche Scientifique in France, made no Work with a professional editor used to dealing provision for the publication of study guides to with ethnographic films subsequently allowed accompany each film. It was necessary for me me to discover the principles of cinematographic to wait for the establishment of the Audiovisual editing. Series of the Society for Ethnomusicology to offer the possibility of this publication. These two short nine-minute films were not distributed. Bambous soufflés, bambous frappés Writing a study guide for films made so many was replaced by the two films presented here years ago is not an easy task. The recollection of which have much greater depth and which are some details concerning production and post- better filmed. Despite all its cinematographic production may be blurred or modified, and even faults, Danses polynésiennes traditionelles d’Ontong more important, my cinematographic procedures Java remains an interesting document for dance have since evolved, and I have made other Research with the 'Are'are 2 The traditional religious practice was the ancestor Research with the cult. During my first stay in the country between 1969 and 1970, at least 90% of the population were Are are Christian, about half of them belonging to the ' ' South-Sea Evangelical Church, a fundamentalist The ’Are’are people live in the southern part of church with Baptist allegiance, and the other half Malaita in the Solomon Islands (in Melanesia). divided between followers of the Catholic Church During the 1970s the population numbered and the Melanesian Church (of Anglican origin). between 8,000 and 9,000. In earlier times the The followers of the Catholic and Melanesian majority of the people inhabited small hamlets in Churches continued to perform traditional the mountainous interior of the island, and some music. They participated in the traditional lived on the edge of the lagoons of the south-west funeral festivities and panpipe ensembles and of the Mara Masika Passage, the strait which could be heard at the inauguration of a church, a separates Small Malaita from the main island. dispensary or a school. Attempts were also made Since colonial times, many villages have been to introduce selected elements of traditional established on the coast. music into church service. On the other hand, the members of the SSEC, following the directives The traditional economy consists essentially of the expatriate missionaries and Melanesian of the shifting cultivation of tubers (taro, yams pastors, condemned all traditional music as Playing with a ‘au tahana panpipe ensemble at the festival in and sweet potatoes), the breeding of pigs for “devil music,” the spirits of the ancestors being honor of ‘Are’are Paramount Chief Ariki Nono’ohimae Eerehau, ceremonial festivities and fishing on the coast. described by them as “devils.” As a result, for all at Kiu village. Photo BSI (British Solomon Islands) News Sheet, Colonization introduced the production of copra their music the followers of the SSEC had only no. 21, 1974. for export and the breeding, on a small scale, of Protestant hymns of American origin and the cattle. songs which some ethnomusicologists have called “Panpacific Pop,” of neo-Polynesian inspiration, During the 1970s, when these two films were Culturally homogenous, the country of the accompanied by guitar and ukulele. shot, the music enjoyed by the majority and ’Are’are can be systematically divided into two widely distributed through the radio, consisted principal zones whose traditional political This popular music, which the young ‘Are’are of the cowboy songs of Australia, a local variant organization diverges: the south where the sang, usually in pidgin English (the lingua of the Country and Western style. In the request hereditary chiefs come from, and the north, franca of the Solomons) but also occasionally programs on local radio, which satisfied the where “big men” emerge through their actions, in the ’Are’are language, was widely spread wishes of those who knew how to write in English, gathering around them friends and relatives, through the radio. From a musical viewpoint the Beatles were also frequently heard. In 1969 and increasing their prestige by giving funeral these compositions had no features that were the Solomon Islands radio station only devoted a feasts in which food, shell money and music are specifically ’Are’are or characteristic of the quarter of an hour a week to traditional music and exchanged. The “big men” from the north and Solomon Islands. The ‘Are’are were very conscious oral literature. from the south are referred to by the same term, that the musical style of the religious hymns and aaraha. of these secular songs was imported, and called If during my work in the Solomon Islands, and them nuuha ni haka or ’au ni haka, “song of the in my two films, I devoted myself exclusively to This two-fold division is also reflected in the whites” or “music of the whites.” On the other traditional music, it was for reasons of urgency distribution of musical types: in the north, hand, the different types of traditional music, and solidarity with the traditional musicians. there is only one type of vocal music for men each with its own name, were generally described (divination song), while in the south there are collectively by the expressions “music of custom” The former British Solomon Islands Protectorate three others (paddling song, pounding song, song or “songs of custom” (‘au or nuuha ni tootoraha), includes six main islands and about 100 smaller with beaten bamboos). Among the four types of or even more simply as “music of the land (of the ones. The total population is relatively small (less panpipe ensembles found, one (’au keto) is only ancestors),” ’au ni hanua.