New Caledonia, 1914

Music

There are three forms of music, the Ururua, or house-songs, the Daro, or dance-songs, and the instrumental music upon on the Hndor, or curved bamboo flute.

It is curious to find that all the songs are duets, for two men or two women; I have heard of no instance of choral or solo singing, and several of the natives stated positively that there was none. There are set words to the songs, in which the two singers often answer one another; some are quite melodious, and a remarkable feature is a very definite and quite elaborate counter-point.

The Ururua, or house-songs, are sung to some extent by anybody, but there were professional singers who travelled long distances, and were paid large sums of [indecipherable] to sing on festal occasions. The two singers sit down side by side, and sing to the accompaniment of soft tapping upon the cocaunut [sic] leaf-bases, and the sh-sh sound by the whole audience. They seem to find difficulty in singing without this.

The ururua are the most melodious; they are sung with great emotion, and singers and audience are often reduced to tears. The usually begin in a soft falsetto, and gradually work up.

The themes of these songs are excessively simple, though to translate them word for word and keep the sense and atmosphere seems to be almost impossible, and I have nobody who could do it, – even those well acquainted with the language. Some idea of one of these songs (Gramaphone [sic] Records 4-5) may be gleaned from the following. It calls to mind all the localities in the district where wood, leaves, and creepers for various purposes may be gathered. In the actual words the men are wandering about from place to place, gathering specimens for no apparent reason, until arriving at the sea shore they throw the whole bunch into the water, and the song thus ends.

It begins “We are sitting down breaking wood. I divide a creeper with my feet, and break a branch across [sic] the soles of my feet. Now we gather some leaves to wrap up shells, and another kind, which we tear into strips to mend a basket. At Aou we find a certain tree, of which we cut branches, and we now go to Me’ wa’ for the trees that grow there. We find fine wood at N’ da Bourra and we gather the growing creepers at Newaira ….etc.” The song thus continues for ten minutes or so, until they come to the beach and throw the bunch they have collected into the sea.

The Daro, or dance songs, are archaic, and the words not generally understood. I am informed by M. Leenhardt²Maurice Leenhardt (1878-1954) was a French Protestant missionary based in the Houaïlou valley from 1902 to 1926 with his wife Jeanne (Adams 2021:111; Clifford 1980:3). Montague spent time with him in 1914 (Adams 2021:115). Leenhardt was interested in the arts, culture and language of the Kanak people, and he went on to become a keen ethnographer (Clifford 1980:3). that they are in a language approximating to the Poya dialect, and that there is a great similarity in these songs from all over the island, the language being almost the same in all. This is a possible indication that a language approaching that of Poya Houaïlou was formerly very widely spread, and has since disappeared from the extremities of the island owing to immigrations of other races. The conjecture is supported by the fact that there are practically no articles found in the centre of the island that are not found in the N, but there are many things found in the N. – the bow & arrow, the stone drill, jade necklace and ‘Hwainangi’ which are quite unknown in the Houaïlou, Poya and Bounail valleys.

These songs were sung only by professional singers, of whom there were few, and they were well paid. There were both men and women who sang in the various dances. Like the ururua, they are duets, but the airs are much more rugged and less melodious and of a wilder nature. They are thought, never-the-less, to be superior to the House-songs.

The singers sit down, and the dancers form a circle about them, and follow each other round and round with the usual step, – knees and toes bent out and elbows away from the sides, snapping a finger rhythmically, and carrying over their shoulders ornamented lances or hatchets, decorated specially for the occasion.

The Hndor is a bamboo flute, usually but not always bent nearly into a semi-circle.³Ammann noted that the “flute was much more than a musical instrument, it was an outward and visible sign of prestige…it seems that the flute was reserved for an élite, for chefs and others of considerable prestige.” It is made of a species of slender bamboo called by the natives Undovi. A piece suitably curved in chosen, – not bent subsequently by the application of heat. The septa are burned or broken through with a flexible stick, and the open ends plugged with hjaouli-bark. A mouth-hole is burned though three or four inches from the thicker end. It is rather elongated, and on the inside of the curve. A smaller hole is burned though on the outer curve of the bamboo. This is the fingering hole, and is covered or uncovered with the index finger of the right hand. The nodes of the bamboo are often covered with a black waxy substance called O-ro, obtained from a Banyan.

This instrument is not, as often stated, played with the nose. It is sounded by gently blowing though the nearly closed lips, and by means of harmonics a scale of 6 notes is easily obtained. There is no definite pitch or scale for this instrument. The bamboo is simply cut “the length of a mans [sic] arm”, and as the bore varies the pitch varies accordingly. Some give a scale almost of whole tones, whereas others give less than semi-tones. Some are very much higher than others. Four of these instruments are shown on Plate …

While performing, the player hums a deep base*, usually in simple harmonies, apparently fifths and octaves, but owing to resultant overtones, and on account also of the extreme dissimilarity of the sounds, analysis is very difficult. The natives have a keen appreciation of their own harmonies. The writer, though easily mastering the flute part, was unable to put in the correct base, which judging from the grimaces of the onlookers, was to them extremely painful.

The Hndor was played in the Quie⁴Ammann noted that Montague explained the Quie as a ceremony. Ammann suggested that it is probably koe, an ancient Ajië term used in relation to dances and ceremonies, from Leenhardt 1935 (1997:43)., both as a solo instrument and in dances. The sound has the magical property of making the young yams grow quickly, so it was employed extensively for this purpose at the season of planting.

It is interesting to note that the name for this instrument both in the centre and north of the island is Hndor, which in the Houaïlou language means also a shell. The name is applied to the conch-shell trumpet, from which the name of the bamboo instrument is evidently derived. Though the name for ‘shell’ differs in various localities, the nearly universal name of this flute is clearly Houaïlou word.

*This practice may have given rise to the idea that the instrument is played with the nose, for it might seem as though the man were blowing with his nose while he sang with his mouth.