Himene Tarava

Himene tarava is the traditional polyphonic choral singing of French Polynesia, a Christian hymn tradition in which massed village choirs build dense, heterophonic textures over a sustained harmonic base. Its marks are unmistakable: phrases that end in a sudden drop of pitch and volume, staccato grunted syllables, the ha'umene, and an ecstatic, driving intensity maintained by choirs of a hundred or more singers. The tradition's landmark documents are the recordings of the *Tahitian Choir* of the island of Rapa Iti, 126 singers recorded by *Pascal Nabet-Meyer* in 1991.