MUSIC OF SAVAGES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 183, 4 August 1932, Page 19

MUSIC OF SAVAGES.

PRIMITIVE INSTRUMENTS. . NOVEL ' DEMONSTRATION^ Weird and wonderful sounds were heard at the meeting of the Anthropology and Maori race section of the Auckland Institute and Museum last night, when Mr. V.' F. Fisher, of the Museum star!', described many forms of primitive music with the aid of instruments from the Museum, which were operated by boys belonging to the Ethnology Club—Arthur Gray, P. Bartley, D. Pratt, R. Jackson, A. McLennan, Robert Cray, D. Hawkins and A. .Robson.

Mr. Alexander Geddes, chairman of the section, said there was something romantic about the fact that those ancient instruments were being relayed for the first tiine after lying in the museum for so many years. The display w r as an instance of the efforts of the staff to make the Museum a living thing. The old idea of a museum as a depository for dead and dusty things was quite exploded.

The instruments explained by Mr. Fisher included the Fijian lali, or wooden boatshaped gong or drum, the boom of which can be heard for miles, and created a deep impression on the audience, when demonstrated; a New Guinea drum shaped like an alligator; a drum-rattle from Northern Nigeria; rattles from the Congo, and from the Solomon Islands; shell trumpets from New Zealand, the New Hebrides, New Guinea and Fiji; Pan-pipes from the Solomons; piano-like affair from Ashanti; and percussion instruments of bamboo - from Java. •'•.■'•

Mr. Fisher's young helpers-derived great satisfaction from demonittrating each instrument separately, but their greatest pleasure was when as a finale all the instruments were played simultaneously, the result being nearly as formidable as a Chinese orchestra.