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The fakaseasea is a tradition dance song of Tuvalu. Dancing songs are the most common type of the traditional Tuvaluan songs, with other tradition dance styles including fakanau and fatele . [1]
Dancing songs are the most common type of traditional Tuvaluan songs. Older style dancing songs were known to be performed while sitting, kneeling or standing. The two primary traditional dances of Tuvalu are the fakanau (for men) and oga (for women) and the fakaseasea. The modern fatele involves the women on their feet, dancing in lines; with the men facing the dancers, sitting on the floor beating the time with their hands on the mats or on wooden boxes, such as tea chests. [2] [3]
The fakaseasea was mainly performed by women, who were on their feet, dancing and moving their arms, hand and upper body; while men and women would sing and beat the time. [4] It is a slower song with very loose rules on how to dance to it, with variations on different islands with different names. The fakaseasea tradition continues in the present day although performed mainly by elders.
Vienna has been an important center of musical innovation. 18th- and 19th-century composers were drawn to the city due to the patronage of the Habsburgs, and made Vienna the European capital of classical music. Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert and Johann Strauss II, among others, were associated with the city, with Schubert being born in Vienna. During the Baroque period, Slavic and Hungarian folk forms influenced Austrian music. Vienna's status began its rise as a cultural center in the early 16th century, and was focused on instruments including the lute.
Tajik music is closely related to other Central Asian forms of music. The classical music is shashmaqam, which is also distinctive in Uzbekistan. Southern Tajikistan has a distinctive form of folk music called falak, which is played at celebrations for weddings, circumcisions and other occasions.
The music of Polynesia is a diverse set of musical traditions from islands within a large area of the central and southern Pacific Ocean, approximately a triangle with New Zealand, Hawaii and Easter Island forming its corners. Traditional Polynesian music is largely an inseparable part of a broader performance art form, incorporating dance and recital of oral traditions; most literature considers Polynesian music and dance together. Polynesian music expanded with colonial European contact and incorporated instruments and styles introduced through a process of acculturation that continues to the present day. Although the European tradition of hymn-singing brought by Christian missionaries was probably the most important influence, others are evident; Hawaii's influential kī hōʻalu music incorporated the Spanish guitar introduced in the late 19th century, and later introduced the steel guitar to country music. Hip hop and R&B influences have created a contemporary Urban Pasifika music genre with a strong Polynesian identity and supported by the annual Pacific Music Awards in New Zealand.
The music of the Cook Islands is diverse. Christian music is extremely popular. Imene tuki is a form of unaccompanied vocal music known for a uniquely Polynesian drop in pitch at the end of the phrases, as well as staccato rhythmic outbursts of nonsensical syllables (tuki). The word 'imene' is derived from the English word 'hymn'. Likewise the harmonies and tune characteristics / 'strophe patterns' of much of the music of Polynesia is western in style and derived originally from missionary influence via hymns and other church music. One unique quality of Polynesian music is the use of the sustained 6th chord in vocal music, though typically the 6th chord is not used in religious music. Traditional songs and hymns are referred to as imene metua.
The music of French Polynesia came to the forefront of the world music scene in 1992, with the release of The Tahitian Choir's recordings of unaccompanied vocal Christian music called himene tārava, recorded by French musicologist Pascal Nabet-Meyer. This form of singing is common in French Polynesia and the Cook Islands, and is distinguished by a unique drop in pitch at the end of the phrases, which is a characteristic formed by several different voices; it is also accompanied by steady grunting of staccato, nonsensical syllables.
The traditional music of Tuvalu consists of dances, including fatele, fakanau and fakaseasea. The influence of the Samoan missionaries sent to Tuvalu by the London Missionary Society from the 1860s resulted in the suppression of songs about the traditional religions or magic and many songs were lost. As the influence of the missionaries diminished in the 20th century the traditional dances were revived and the siva dance tradition from Samoa also became popular.
Lagani Rabukawaqa is a pop musician from Fiji who achieved fame in Oceania in the 1980s.
From the American Revolutionary War to the start of the American Civil War, American music underwent many changes. The folk vernacular traditions diversified and spread across the nation, while a number of prominent composers of European art music also arose.
The latter part of the 19th century saw the increased popularization of African American music and the growth and maturity of folk styles like the blues.
Songo-salsa is a style of music that blends Spanish rapping and hip hop beats with salsa music and songo. Well-known exponents include Bamboleo and Charanga Habanera.
Ritmo Kombina is a style of popular Dutch Antillean music, influenced by zouk and soca music. The lyrics of combined rhythm are generally in the local Papiamento language.
Canboulay is a precursor to Trinidad and Tobago Carnival. The festival is also where calypso music has its roots. It was originally a harvest festival, at which drums, singing, dancing and chanting were an integral part. After Emancipation (1834), it developed into an outlet and a festival for former indentured laborers and freed slaves who were banned from participating in the masquerade carnival events – derived from European Christian traditions – of the colonial elite, and whose drums and religious observances were also outlawed in the late 19th century. Consequently, Canboulay has played an important role in the development of the music of Trinidad and Tobago, for it was the banning of percussion instruments in the 1880s that led to the surreptitious innovations that gave birth to steelpan music. It is re-enacted in Port of Spain each Carnival Friday in Trinidad.
Happy Peanuts is a well known band from the island of Curaçao. Their styles include local tumba and combined rhythm, as well as Dominican merengue. One of the driving forces of modern tumba and combined rhythm, Happy Peanuts blends driving congas and timbales with synthesizer and electric guitar. Also unique to Happy Peanuts is their style of merengue. Because there is no güira player, the pattern is instead played on the hi-hat by the drumset player.
Goombay is a form of Bahamian music and a drum used to create it. The drum is a membranophone made with goat skin and played with the hands. The term Goombay has also symbolized an event in the Bahamas, for a summer festival with short parades known as ‘Junkanoo’.
A fakanau is a traditional Tuvaluan male dance, accompanied by singing and rhythmic clapping.
Women have been a vital part of history and culture in the geographic area known as Oceania today. Women in Oceania have diverse cultural identities which relate to the geography of the continent and the social structures of the people living there. Their evolution, culture and history coincide with the history of Oceania itself.
Women in Tuvalu continue to maintain a traditional Polynesian culture within a predominantly Christian society. Tuvaluan cultural identity is sustained through an individual's connection to their home island. In the traditional community system in Tuvalu, each family has its own task, or salanga, to perform for the community. The skills of a family are passed on from parents to children. The women of Tuvalu participate in the traditional music of Tuvalu and in the creation of the art of Tuvalu including using cowrie and other shells in traditional handicrafts. There are opportunities of further education and paid employment with non-government organisations (NGOs) and government enterprises, education and health agencies being the primary opportunities for Tuvaluan women.
Gerd Koch was a German cultural anthropologist best known for his studies on the material culture of Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Santa Cruz Islands in the Pacific. He was associated with the Ethnological Museum of Berlin. His field work was directed to researching and recording the use of artefacts in their indigenous context, to begin to understand these societies.
The fatele or faatele is a traditional dance song of Tuvalu. Dancing songs are the most common type of traditional Tuvaluan song, with other traditional dance styles including fakanau and fakaseasea.
The Art of Tuvalu has traditionally been expressed in the design of clothing and traditional handicrafts such as the decoration of mats and fans. Tuvaluan clothing was traditionally made from Fala leaves.
