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Singing and survival : the music of Easter Island / Dan Bendrups.

by Bendrups, Dan, author.

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New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2019]

Rapanui (Easter Island people) -- Music -- History and criticism.

Music -- Easter Island -- History and criticism.

Rapanui (Easter Island people) -- Social life and customs.

9780190297039 (hardcover) :

0190297034 (hardcover) :

9780190297046 (paperback)

0190297042 (paperback)

xxii, 195 pages : illustrations, music ; 21 cm

List of figures -- Preface and acknowledgments: representing Rapa Nui -- Typographic conventions and style. Introduction: Rapanui music in context : Rapanui history in context -- Music and sustainability -- Perspectives on Rapanui music. 1 Singing and survival : Traditional performance contexts -- Traditional ensemble organization -- Traditional instruments -- Other performance accompaniments : Ceremonial objects -- Kai kai -- Costume and body decoration -- Traditional chants and songs -- RItual chants, lineage chants, and Patautau : Patautau -- Patautau performance -- Ancient songs and singing -- Laments -- Songs of celebration and gratitude -- Songs of insult or ridicule -- Performing Riu : Riu Tuai -- Singing, surviving. 2 Religion and renewal : The Rapa Nui mission -- Indigenizing the church : Angata the prophetess -- Weddings and related celebrations -- Disease and distance -- Missionary music and instruments -- Reverend Father Sebastian Englert -- Rapanui sacred songs -- The changing role of the church in Rapanui society. 3 Chilean culture : The Chilean annexation of Rapa Nui -- Company life in the 1920s and 1930s -- Early Latin American musical influences -- Tango Rapanui -- Connecting with Chile -- The folklorization of Rapanui music -- The fiftieth anniversary of Chilean annexation -- Consolidating Rapanui folklore -- The Rapanui Conjunto -- Tapati Rapa Nui -- Rapanui folklore in contemporary Chile -- Chile, folklore, and sustainability. 4 Polynesian pathways : The localization of Tahitian Ute : Ute performance -- The Sau Sau -- Tahitian popular music on record -- Cultural renaissance: Mata Tu'u Hotu Iti -- Contemporary Pacific festivals -- Performing the Pacific. 5 Commercial connections: Midcentury American influences -- The Rapanui singer-songwriter -- 1970s rock and pop -- Film, television, and sound recording -- Matato'a -- Mito and fusión Rapa Nui -- A local recording industry -- Rapanui music in the twenty-first century -- Varua -- Topatangi -- Conclusion: Rapanui music futures. Epilogue. Glossary of Rapanui musical terms and cultural references -- References -- Index.

An exemplary investigation into music and sustainability, Singing and Survival tells the story of how music helped the Rapanui people of Easter Island to preserve their unique cultural heritage. Easter Island (or Rapanui), known for the iconic headstones (moai) that dot the island landscape, has a remarkable and enduring presence in global popular culture where it has been portrayed as a place of mystery and fascination, and as a case study in societal collapse. These portrayals often overlook the remarkable survival of the Rapanui people who rebounded from a critically diminished population of just 110 people in the late nineteenth century to what is now a vibrant community where indigenous language and cultural practices have been preserved for future generations. This cultural revival has drawn on a diversity of historical and contemporary influences: indigenous heritage, colonial and missionary influences from South America, and cultural imports from other Polynesian islands, as well as from tourism and global popular culture. The impact of these influences can be perceived in the island's contemporary music culture. This book provides a comprehensive overview of Easter Island music, with individual chapters devoted to the various streams of cultural influence from which the Rapanui people have drawn to rebuild and reinforce their music, their performances, their language and their presence in the world. In doing so, it provides a counterpoint to deficit discourses of collapse, destruction and disappearance to which the Rapanui people have historically been subjected.

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