Pacific Islands Radio (Island Music) Newsletter

Jane's Pacific Islands Radio Newsletter (Island Music)
Vol. 1, Edition No.9, February 2005
http://www.pacificislandsradio.com/

I N T H I S I S S U E ____________________________

Objectives
News and Views
Pacific Islands Radio
Feature Artist
Notice Board
Suppliers
Links
Letters

Welcome everybody to our February 2005
edition of Jane's Pacific Islands Radio
Newsletter (Island Music). I do hope that
the New Year will bring with it greater
peace, harmony and prosperity to people
worldwide.

I would like to extend a very warm and sincere
Pacific Island welcome to all our many new
members who have chosen to join us since our
last Newsletter. Welcome on board, please
make yourselves feel at home, relax and enjoy
the enchanting, vibrant, exciting yet soothing,
melodious and magical sounds of the Pacific
Islands!

OBJECTIVES

This Newsletter is a listening guide to
the many listeners of our Internet Pacific
Islands Radio Stations. These comprise
the two Pacific Islands Radio Stations
as well as Pacific Music Radio (mp3PRO
FM Stereo) as well as Micronesia Music
Radio.

The information in the guide will also
embrace some of the exciting changes
taking place in the Internet Radio
Revolution as well as updated information
on our Pacific Island Artists, as well as
Programming and Playlists.

NEWS AND VIEWS

Throughout the huge area that comprises
Oceania, there exists an amazing
diversity of cultures and languages
throughout Melanesia, Micronesia and
Polynesia. The traditional music of the
region was very fundamental and was
accompanied by various forms of drums or,
in many cases, by a multitude of hands
beating on a wooden box.

The colonial era brought with it a number
of influences and instruments that impacted
upon the traditional music. The ukulele and
guitar were readily utilised by many island
people who often developed their own
techniques for playing them, such as the
slack-key guitar technique, developed by
the Hawaians. Modern Tahitian music
often shows a French influence including
French lyrics, while many experts contend
that modern Fijian music often reflects the
influence of Fiji's large Indian community.

It is pleasing to see the extent that the
modern musicians of Oceania have
successfully integrated the traditional
music passed down to them, into a
modern musical context. In this respect,
much of the music of the South Pacific
still retains a traditional feel, despite
the adaptation of outside instruments, and
the number of distinct island societies
spread across a large geographic area,
has produced a great diversity of unique,
interesting and absorbing musical styles.

Because colonialism, in many cases,
pre-dated modern recording technology,
very few examples of pre-colonial music
from the South Pacific exist. In this
respect, the smallness of the islands
also has meant that few islanders escaped
contact with European traders and
colonists, leading to a higher level of
cultural exchange and a greater
absorption of European musical forms.

Pacific Islands Radio is presently
putting in place the necessary technology
to convert traditional music recorded on
outdated mediums to a modern medium
so that they can be made available on
Internet radio for the enjoyment of
people world wide.

MUSIC OF THE PACIFIC ISLAND NATIONS

GENERAL

The Pacific Ocean covers a third of the earth's
surface and contains the deepest waters in the
world. It is also a region with deep musical
traditions, too, buffeted by the regular currents
of colonists and explorers and now undergoing
dramatic changes. You can hear music ranging
from ancestral navigational chants and glorious
polyphonic singing to laments about nuclear
testing. The ethnic cultures of the Pacific can
be divided into three main areas - Melanesia,
lying mostly south of the equator, Micronesia,
north of the equator above it, and Polynesia,
spread over a huge area to the east.

MELANESIA

The people of Melanesia (from the Greek
word melas - black, and nesos - island),
which includes Papua New Guinea, the
Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji, are very
dark skinned with Afro hair and are thought
to have migrated by canoe from East Africa
across the Indian Ocean by way of Indonesia.
Our knowledge of Melanesian music stems
primarily from a few early twentieth-century
German studies in the Caroline Islands plus
isolated German and American efforts before
and after World War 2. These materials
reveal a predominantly vocal tradition which
emphasizes the heightened speech or the
litany chant styles. Many of the Melanesian
dances are sitting dances - people perform
sitting down with much of the movement
emanating from the upper body. The island
choreography is principally the movement
of the arms, which is very different from
Africa which is movement of the feet - you
rarely see a sitting-down dance here. The
ancestral relationship between East Africa
and Melanesia is manifest in the fact that
much of the music in Papua New Guinea
is performed standing, not sitting.

When it happens, harmony may be based
on any interval, though movement in parallel
fourths or the use of a drone are the most
common. Most singing is integrated with
gesture, whether the music be a lament, an
invocation, or a serenade. A great deal of
the music is used to accompany dance.
Melanesia has the widest diversity of
instruments in the region - all types of
drums, slit-log gongs, a great variety
of flutes and pipes - but no stringed
instruments apart from the guitar and
ukulele brought in by the Europeans.

MICRONESIA

Micronesia (from mikros - small) is a
group of small islands - including Yap,
Truk (Chuuk), Kosrae, Ponape (Pohnpei),
Palau, Guam and Saipan along with the
Republic of the Marshall Islands and
Gilbert Islands (Republic of Kiribati) -
east/south-east of the Philippines and
north/north-east of Melanesia.

The indigenous people are thought to be
south-east Asian descent who may share
some music elements with that region. The
music is very voice oriented with chanting,
stamping and body percussion. Their songs
tell of legendary histories, genealogies and
navigational tales of the islands.

The musical instruments of Micronesia are
few. The shell trumpet and nose flute are
the most common, though standard flutes
and jews harps are also found. A common
idiophone in Micronesia is a stick that is
carried by men in certain dances. The
performers strike each other's sticks in the
course of the choreography.

Membranophones are not very common,
though the hourglass single-headed drum
like those played in Papua New Guinea is
found as far north as the Marshall Islands.
In keeping with the ecology of atoll life, the
skins of these drums are made from a
shark's belly or parts of the sting ray. Many
atolls of the Micronesian Pacific are
without any indigenous musical instruments
whatsoever.

POLYNESIA

Polynesia comes from the Greek Poly -
many; and stretches in a huge triangle
from New Zealand in the south-west to
Easter Island 8,000 kilometres away in the
south-east and as far again to Hawaii at
its northern apex. The Polynesians are
generally taller, lighter skinned and - it
is believed - originated in South-East Asia,
migrated to Fiji and then fanning out over
a vast territory from there.

As you head east into Polynesia from
Melanesia, the Melanesian flutes disappear
and the instruments become more sparse,
but the passion of the music becomes greater -
in particular the harmonic content which
comes straight from the heart. The "gospel
choirs" of Tahiti are particularly astonishing.
Music is a reflection of topography and
people reflect the landscape in which they
are living.

It must be remembered that these people
came to these islands by canoe and only
carried what they needed to make the
voyage. When they arrived at their
destination, there often were no wood or
material to make instruments. The canoes
were considered sacred, so no effort was
made to break them up to make a
musical instrument.

INSTRUMENTS OF
THE PACIFIC NATIONS

Broadly speaking, the highland people
have more instruments because they
have more wood and other raw
materials to access; the atoll people
have shells and coconut trees to make
instruments; and the island people have
traditionally few instruments because
they didn't carry them in their canoes.

For further information on Music of
the Pacific Island Nations as well as
Instruments of the Pacific Nations, a
visit to the following Web site is
highly recommended:
http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/arts/music/musicarchive/PacificInfo.html

TONGAN MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

Although Tongan Music is predominantly
vocal, several types of musical instruments
do exist.
http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/arts/music/musicarchive/TonganInstruments.html

PACIFIC ISLANDS RADIO

Pacific Islands Radio continues to offer a range
of broadcasting formats in order to allow a wide
range of listeners to enjoy our beautiful island
music. These formats, in terms of Connection
Speed and Sound Quality are basically as
follows:

STATIONS

Pacific Music Radio with a connection speed of
32 kbps is FM Stereo - FM mp3PRO;

Pacific Islands Radio 33K and Micronesia Music
Radio 33K with connection speeds of 24 kbps are
AM Quality; and

Pacific Islands Radio 28K with a connection speed
of 16 kbps is AM Quality.

Perhaps I should mention also that the previous
practice of specifying a minimum connection
speed has now been upgraded. Now, instead
of specifying a bitrate, our broadcast formats
are specified in terms of a combination of
bitrate, sampling rate, stereo mode and codec.

These changes have allowed the introduction
of Pacific Music Radio (FM mp3PRO Stereo)
broadcasting in high fidelity FM stereo as well
as allowing an upgrade in the fidelity of Pacific
Islands Radio 33K and Micronesia Music Radio
33K while still broadcasting at the same bitrate
(24 kbps).

Also, in the longer term, 33K will be referred
to as 24kbps and 28K will become 16 kbps -
please keep an eye out for these changes.

As usual, Pacific Islands Radio is always keen
to promote our talented island musicians
worldwide in order to satisfy the continuing
demand for our beautiful and distinctive Pacific
Island music! In this respect, should you know
of any island artists whose talents you would
like to see promoted, please contact me on:
jane@pacificislandsradio.com

Our four Pacific Islands Radio Stations play the
enchanting music of the Pacific Islands 24 hours
daily.
www.pacificislandsradio.com
http://www.pacificislandsradio.com/index.htm
http://www.janeresture.com/radio/index.htm

Pacific Music Radio (mp3PRO)
http://www.live365.com/stations/drjaneresture
Pacific Islands Radio 33K (24 kbps)
http://www.live365.com/stations/janeresture
Pacific Islands Radio 28K (16 kbps)
http://www.live365.com/stations/janeres
Micronesia Music Radio 33K (24 kbps)
http://www.live365.com/stations/jane_resture

FEATURE ARTIST

ISRAEL KAMAKAWIWO'OLE

Following his death in 1997 at the young
age of 38, the body of Israel
Kamakawiwo'ole lay in state in the state
capitol, only the second person to receive
such an honour. Kamakawiwo'ole's appeal
lies in his love for prestatehood,
precondominium Hawaii. Iz sings with
great passion about a Hawai'i of earlier
times, before being overrun by mainland
developers and Japanese tourists and,
indeed, the regret of native Hawaiians
over losing their sovereignty... The voice
is supple, ethereal, with only a ukulele
accompaniment and the expressiveness
of his gently passionate voice can float
through higher registers with ease, and
can melt the hardest heart.

One of Hawaii's most beloved singers,
Israel Kamakawiwo'ole made an
impression on Hawaiian culture that will
never be forgotten. His untimely death in
1997 was a national day of mourning,
and rightly so. His work, not just in
Hawaiian music, but also in keeping the
Hawaiian heritage and culture alive,
gives inspiration to all, and this
collection of songs gives a great window
into a truly legendary performer. Israel
"IZ" Kamawiwo'ole, the man, may be gone,
but his music has made him immortal.
Even if you have never visited Hawaii
or listened to Hawaiian music before,
buy a copy this CD and it will
immediately become one of the premier
discs in your collection.

NOTICE BOARD

It is very pleasing to be able to advise
that Vanessa Quai's new album
PROMISE, a joint project with Soul
Harmony of Papua New Guinea, was
released on 24th December 2004. This
album will shortly be included in our
Pacific Islands Radio Playlists and it
promises to be an exciting album and
a change in musical direction for
Vanessa.

Vanessa has decided to donate 10%
sales of each CD toward the "Asia
Tsunami disaster relief fund" through
the Red Cross Society. Copies of the
album can be obtained from the
following e-mail address:
vquai@hotmail.com

Our very sincere congratulations go
out to Vanessa on the release of her
new album. We wish her all the very
best as well as every success in all
her future endeavours!

Vanessa is also booked to appear on
the main stage at the Australian Gospel
Music Festival (AGMF) to be held in
Toowoomba, Australia, on March 25-27.
This is an ideal and excellent opportunity
for many of Vanessa's fans and
supporters to see her performing LIVE!
Please join with me in wishing Vanessa
all the very best on this special occasion.

For further information please contact:
Craig Ross at: designeraudio@optusnet.com.au
or/and Vanessa's manager/father, Nigel
Quai at: vquai@hotmail.com

MICRONESIA MUSIC ANTHOLOGY

An anthology of traditional Micronesian Music
is available on Micronesia Music Radio:
http://www.live365.com/stations/jane_resture

The anthology can be accessed by clicking on the
Broadcast Schedule after logging in to Micronesia
Music Radio. This should allow you (and our other
listeners worldwide) to determine when the
anthology is available in your beautiful part of
the world. For example, on the Australian Gold Coast,
the anthology is available from 12 noon to 1.30 pm
each Saturday (AEST), and Kiribati from 2 pm to
3.30 pm each Saturday afternoon.

The Broadcast Schedule can also be accessed at
the following URL:
http://www.live365.com/broadcast/scheduler/?stationname=jane_resture

The supporting Web site to the anthology
is as follows:
http://www.janesoceania.com/micronesia_music_anthology/index.htm

GOSPEL MUSIC

Pacific Islands Radio is very pleased to be able
to advise that a collection of some of the most
exciting and absorbing gospel music from the
Pacific Islands is now being featured on Pacific
Music Radio (FM mp3PRO Stereo), Pacific
Islands Radio 33K (24 kbps) as well as Pacific
Islands Radio 28K (16 kbps)

With an extended running time of three hours,
the gospel collection has proved to be extremely
popular and features the music of a number of
extremely talented artists and groups such as
Vanessa Quai (Vanuatu), Bata Teinamati,
Betania Gospel Singers and Emmaus Family
Singers (Republic of Kiribati), Lia Osborne
(Fiji), Aoloau Youth Choir (Samoa), and The
Auckland Pacific Gospel Choir (New Zealand).

Please monitor the Broadcast Schedule of the
above three Pacific Islands Radio stations for
the availability and time for the Gospel Music
collection. At present this exciting collection
is available every Sunday from 12 midday to
3 pm Australian eastern standard time.

Our four Pacific Islands Radio Stations play the
enchanting music of the Pacific Islands 24 hours
daily.
http://www.pacificislandsradio.com/index.htm

SUPPLIERS

The following are some of the main specialist
suppliers of our music from the Pacific
Islands, which are now being used and are
highly recommended by Pacific Islands Radio.

KINGMUSIC -
AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND

Kingmusic offers a wide selection of Pacific
Island music which is available on the Internet.
Their mail order service is very responsive
with orders generally being dispatched on or
about the same day! I would highly recommend
a visit to their extensive and excellent Web
site:
http://www.kingmusic.co.nz/

ISLANDMELODY.COM

Pacific Islands Radio would like to
recommend Islandmelody.com for a
selection of traditional and contemporary
music with an emphasis on Micronesian
music.
http://www.islandmelody.com

BWANARAOI MUSIC SHOP -
TARAWA, REPUBLIC OF KIRIBATI

For Kiribati music, along with music from
other Pacific Islands and elsewhere, you
are invited to contact the following
exclusive distributor:

Bwanaraoi Music Shop
C/- Angirota Enterprises
P.O. Box 299
Te Ununiki
Bikenibeu, Tarawa
Republic of Kiribati
Phone/Fax (686) 28236
E-mail: angirota@tskl.net.ki

LINKS

THE COOK ISLANDS;
ART AND CULTURE

INDIVIDUALITY between islands is
the hallmark of the culture of the Cook
Islands and reflects their varied sources of
ancient migration as well as the vast
distances between 15 tiny islands scattered
over a section of the central South Pacific
Ocean as big as the Indian sub-continent.
However, there are some common threads.
All the islands employed a chiefly system
based on traditional legends of migration
and settlement. These stories enshrined the
power of the chiefs as inheritors of what
might be termed an "heroic" culture.
http://www.ck/culture.htm

PACIFIC MAGAZINE

TAKING THE PACIFIC MUSIC
TO THE WORLD
How Alain Lecante's helping local musicians

By Rowena Singh

With the world trend now shifting more
towards the Pacific in its choice of arts,
design, and fashion, never has there been
an opportune time to launch Pacific music
in the world market. Mangrove
Productions Editions, a recording studio
based in Noumea, New Caledonia, is
doing just that. With producer/engineer/
director, Alain Lecante leading a four-man
team, Mangrove Productions is helping
local musicians break into the international
arena.
http://www.pacificmagazine.cc/pm22002/pmdefault.php?urlarticleid=0027
************************

LETTERS

The following are extracts from a few
of the interesting and most welcome
letters that I have recently received
about our four Pacific Islands Radio
Stations. I would very much like to
share them with you as I find many
of these letters to be most gratifying,
motivating and touching. Please join
with me in thanking these wonderful
people for sharing their thoughts with
us all.
************
Hello Jane,
I'm dropping you a line for several reasons.
The first is that Pacific Island Radio is my
favourite station on Live365. It gives me a
strong sense of family. Never been to the
Pacific Islands myself, I live near Grand
Junction, Colorado. I started a graphic
design firm about twenty years ago
called "Graphic Island" - meaning one-guy
operation. I am now the manager of a
small paper, but a big part of my job is still
artwork.

I recently acquired the rights to
http://www.graphicisland.com, but because
I don't have a full-time firm at the moment,
I wasn't really sure what to do with it.
After talking with a friend whom I used to
do design work for, we thought perhaps we
would open up a line of beach and sportswear.
In an effort to draw people to the site before
we started producing products, we thought
we would begin to draw people to the site.
In an effort to do this, I started a station on
live 365 called Graphic Island Radio. It is
primarily an Old Time Radio station with
music in between. Because of the name, it
almost demands island music and the station
ID has a Jack de Mello song in it. I intend to
mix all kinds of music into it, primarily songs
that tend to relate to the story lines of the
OTR shows, but it will always have a healthy
dose of island music mixed into it. I listened
to several stations that play music that would
work, but the stuff you play is my favourite. I
imagine I will be listening to you quite often.

I'm still a little lost as to where this whole
thing is going, but I thought I'd dive right in
and just let it happen. I really just wanted to
introduce myself and let you know what I
was doing so that if you were listening to
different stations and ran into mine, you
would already be aware of it. I've been
learning from you.

Keep up the good work, I really do love
listening! It is work, isn't it. Fun work,
but work none the less. Happy New Year!
http://www.pacificislandsradio.com/index.htm

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
to you Dr.Jane Resture.My name is ---
from the island of Chuuk in the Federated
States of Micronesia presently living in
southern New England U.S.A. I had
visited your homepage and listen to the
musics you play on Micronesian Music
Radio web site lots of times. Being far
away from home, the musics makes feel
good and relaxed at times when I get
homesick.I'm also a subscriber of your
Oceania News Letter.

Recently, I have created a private website
as a communication center for my family
members all around the globe to stay in
contact with each other. May kindly ask
for your permission to link my website to
your homepage and the Micronesia Music
Radio site?I want my members of my site
to hear island musics, if permission granted,
while we're in our private chatroom and I
find your homepage very informative on
pacific islands histories. I know the stories/
histories on your homepage will be very
interesting to members of my website too.
Your permission on this matter will be very
greatly appreciated. Respectfully yours

Hello Jane,

Greetings from Vanuatu

I have been looking at your website and
am encouraged by the effort put in to
promote our pacific music. Well done,
and keep up the good work.

I work for a non-government organisation
called Further Arts. Further Arts is based
in Vanuatu is non-profitable and works
actively to promote and develop Vanuatu
music and arts. Our website www.furtherarts.org
will be the most extensive on Vanuatu music as
we are about to undertake research on bands
and will have in place by May an online shop
promoting albums from the country. Though the
site is still under construction, we already have
a lot of content (over 24 pages). Please take a
look. You will find it interesting.

I am writing Jane to ask if you could include
the site as a link on yours should anyone wish
for more info on Vanuatu music, and of course
we would only be too happy to post a link to
www.pacificislandsradio.com on our website
as well.

Please let me know how you feel about this.
And do not hesitate to query if you need
more info on Further Arts (there is a section
on projects on the site).

Kind regards
David Nalo
Project Manager
Further Arts
************
COMMENTS AND CONTRIBUTIONS

These are always most welcome and can be
e-mailed to me at:
jane@pacificislandsradio.com

As usual, it has been my great pleasure to
be able to share with you, this edition of
our Pacific Islands Radio Newsletter
(Island Music).

Let us all hope for continuing peace and
harmony for the people of the Pacific Islands
and everywhere.

On this occasion, please join with me in
saying a prayer for the many thousands of
people, along with their dear families and
friends, who have been the victims of the
recent disastrous Asian tsunami. They are
all in our thoughts and prayers. In whatever
way we can, let us all try and make our
contribution.

Also, I would like to take this opportunity
of thanking you all for your continual support
and encouragement. I would also like to
thank our many members for generously
contributing to our Pacific Islands Radio
Newsletters and Web sites in the form of
CDs, news, stories and, among other
things, many beautiful and relevant pictures.
I greatly appreciate your kind support,
thoughts and generosity - thank you so
very much.

Take care and Best Wishes, and I look
forward to the pleasure of your company
next month!

May our God bless us and protect us all!

Jane Resture