Polynesian musical instruments

Abstract

Polynesian music is too vast a subject to be dealt with adequately in a thesis or essay of moderate length. I have therefore chosen to make a general survey of musical instruments in all areas, with relevant information on their musical and social importance.

Up to comparatively recent times, little accurate information has been available, owing to the fact that many writers had insufficient understanding of the esoteric implications of a primitive music so far removed from conscious European art. Fortunately the situation has altered with the advent of responsible ethnologists and ethnomusicologists such as Sir Peter Buck (Te Rangi Hiroa) and Edwin Burrows, who have been equipped to deal thoroughly with certain areas of this colourful and complex group of islands.