Art

Sounding the Pacific: Musical Instruments of Oceania

  • Dp218816_large

The Metropolitan Museum of Art says:

The exhibition Sounding the Pacific: Musical Instruments of Oceania, on view at the Met through September 6, 2010, is the first in an art museum to be devoted exclusively to Oceanic musical instruments. Featuring more than 50 incredible works, the exhibition explores not only the diverse forms of Oceanic musical instruments but also the many different roles they play, or played, in Pacific cultures, from announcing the onset of war to embodying the voices of supernatural beings or softly enticing a lover. Drawn entirely from the Met’s collection, the exhibition showcases the objects that were created and used from the early 19th to the late 20th century in all five regions of Oceania: Melanesia, Polynesia, Micronesia, Australia, and Island Southeast Asia. The works on view include many instruments whose forms are unique to the Pacific, ranging from small flutes and whistles used for private entertainment or courtship, to massive slit gongs played in performances heard by entire communities, where the thundering beats can carry for miles.

 

Image: Flute Stopper. Papua New Guinea, Lower Sepik region, Biwat people. Late 19th - early 20th century. The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Purchase, Nelson A. Rockefeller Gift, 1968.

350 Characters Remaining
Join