Finding The Right Samoan Hymn Book

By Karen Barnes


Music from this country traditionally made use of instruments such as the fala. This particular device for making beautiful music provides great accompaniment for most any hymns in a Samoan hymn book. It resembles a mat that has been rolled up, and the players use sticks to beat on it to make the music.

If you have in your possession or know somebody who has a soundingboard, you might see if that can be used in your choral arrangement. This is a musical instrument that a lot of people use to accompany particularly people who are reciting poetry as a solo. This can add a lot to the feel of what is being read.

When it is time to signal something like a sacred time or moment or the arrival of a significant person, a conch shell is often called for. A lot of people already know what a conch is because of how it depicted a lot in movies and books. It is interesting to learn that these shells have also been used for a long time as instruments.

Some instruments that are popular in one culture translate well into others, and are thus used in both a lot. You might be surprised to hear that a lot of people in this culture use the nose flute, jaw harp, and panpipe in this kind of music. These are not very expensive and add a lot.

It is good to add some rhythm to the group, no matter what the size of it may be, especially if you have some members of it who have a hard time finding the beat. There are various drums out there to help with that. One of these is the pate, a type of a slit drum, and it is very commonly seen nowadays.

The fala has nowadays fallen out of use as the drum of choice for these type of choral ensembles. Although the pate is much more popular for people now, it by no means diminishes the value of this type of percussion instrument. For a traditional sound, you can include this instead by employing the same rhythm other drums use.

It was way back in 1830 when LMS missionaries first came to the islands of Samoa and started influencing their music. Both the popular music and the hymnodic music came into their culture this way. This had lead to countless songs filling up numerous books that are out there right now today just waiting for the right group of singers to pick it up and start singing them.

One of the big changes that occurred in the many decades that followed Christianity being brought to these islands was that many of the traditional instruments became neglected. This was because people started to favor singing in choirs instead. Nowadays, you can have the best of both worlds by adding a little bit of cultural percussion to any choral arrangement.




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