Melanesian Music

Melanesian music is the umbrella term for the musics of Melanesia — Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and New Caledonia — spanning indigenous ceremonial traditions and the guitar-based popular styles that grew from them. Its documented repertory includes garamut slit-gong ensembles, bamboo panpipe and stamping-tube bands, singsing chant and the harmony-singing string bands built on acoustic guitars and ukuleles introduced through missions. Papua New Guinea's *George Telek* carried the string-band sound to an international audience, while the Solomon Islands panpipers *Narasirato* did the same for the bamboo band.