Tracking Flutes on Nineteenth-Century Pohnpei: Queries about Instruments and their Movements in the Colonial Pacific

This article explores flutes on the island of Pohnpei in the Caroline Islands of Micronesia across the nineteenth century and into the first decade of the twentieth century. During this time Pohnpei became a prominent port for ships in the northwest Pacific, and together with the subsequent colonial...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Galpin Society journal 2018-03, Vol.71, p.207-159
Main Author: DIETTRICH, BRIAN
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
18th century
19th century
Colonialism
Cultural heritage
Cultural history
Culture
History
Islands
Museums
Musical instruments
Wind instruments
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Summary:This article explores flutes on the island of Pohnpei in the Caroline Islands of Micronesia across the nineteenth century and into the first decade of the twentieth century. During this time Pohnpei became a prominent port for ships in the northwest Pacific, and together with the subsequent colonial administrations by Spain and Germany, the musical and material transformations on the island are demonstrated by the influx of new musical instruments. This article focuses on the documentation of flutes, of which a variety of types have been reported for the island, as well as a relatively unknown reed aerophone. In providing a close and comparative reading of the historical documentation of instruments, I track the types of flutes on Pohnpei and examine the existing uncertainties and queries about these instruments. I also compare the few existing visual representations of Pohnpeian flutes, and I analyze in detail one ornately decorated Pohnpeian nose flute collected in 1880 and now held in Vienna. This study aims to better understand the types of flutes played on Pohnpei in the nineteenth century, and it is the first detailed examination of aerophones undertaken for this area of Oceania.
ISSN:0072-0127
2397-5369