AUSTRALIA, HAWAII, AND THE PACIFIC (WORLD OF MUSIC)
Heinemann, 2007
ISBN
978-0-431-11780-5 (hc)
Click to purchase
Heinemann, 2007
ISBN
978-0-431-11780-5 (hc)
Click to purchase
Part of Heinemann's World of Music series, this
book explores the music and instruments of Oceania.
Australian songlines, New Zealand haka,
and Hawaiian mele are just a few of the
fascinating musical forms covered in the book.
Writing this book was a real education. It was hard
for an outsider like me to fully understand the
significance of music in other cultures. One near
misstep: I told a musicologist that I wanted to
include a picture of a specific instrument from
Papua New Guinea. Alarmed, she informed me that the
instrument was only supposed to be seen by
initiated males--including it in a book for
children would have been considered a huge insult.
I'm glad she set me straight, but from then on it
felt like I was tiptoeing through a cultural
minefield!
