Category Archives: Instruments

Adidil er a Klechibelau, 2nd Edition

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I am pleased to release the Second Edition of Adidil er a Klechibelau — Songs of Palau, 1915-1970 as a downloadable PDF book. To download the book, click on the “Continue Reading” link below, and then find the download button.

This songbook tells the story of the development of a new musical form in 20th-century Palau and provides the lyrics, translation and musical transcription for many of these songs:

In about 1915, the people of the island nation of Palau in the Western Pacific Ocean began to create a body of songs set to melodies that they heard from their non-Palauan co-workers and neighbors and the popular music of their Japanese and American occupiers/colonists. These songs express in the Palauan language the heartbreak of past love affairs, praise and thanks to neighboring villages and the beauty of the singer’s home village. These are Palauan poetry. Adidil er a Klechibelau is a collection of the lyrics and music for 151 songs composed from 1915 to 1970 in the Palauan language, a history of that musical development, and an analysis of the themes and musical structures of those songs.

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Adidil er a Klechibelau

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I am pleased to announce the publication of Adidil er a Klechibelau — Songs of Palau, 1915-1970. This songbook tells the story of the development of a new musical form in 20th-century Palau and provides the lyrics, translation and musical transcription for many of these songs:

In about 1915, the people of the island nation of Palau in the Western Pacific Ocean began to create a body of songs set to melodies that they heard from their non-Palauan co-workers and neighbors and the popular music of their Japanese and American occupiers/colonists. These songs express in the Palauan language the heartbreak of past love affairs, praise and thanks to neighboring villages and the beauty of the singer’s home village. These are Palauan poetry. Adidil er a Klechibelau is a collection of the lyrics and music for 151 songs composed from 1915 to 1970 in the Palauan language, a history of that musical development, and an analysis of the themes and musical structures of those songs.

The 422-page book will be available for purchase at the Belau National Museum starting in November, 2022, or, for readers in the US, by ordering from ngirchoureng@gmail.com. I will be selling the book for $30.00 each, to cover printing and shipping costs.

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The source recordings and image-snips of the Palauan lyrics can be found by clicking on this link. It has been my privilege to be able to explore these wonderful songs and to share with others this bridge into the lives of the people of Palau.

The Mandolin Players of Palau

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Palauan mandolin players, 1930-38

I recently received some old photographs from Birgit Abels that she found in the Liebenzell mission archives in Germany.  These photos depict protestant missionaries with groups of young Palauans with guitars and mandolins.  I have cropped these photos to just focus on the mandolin players, as I am curious to know who they might have been.  The first photo was taken sometime in the period of 1930 – 38, based on the presence in the photo of a missionary who was in Palau during that period.  These boys look to me to be about 12 to 15 years old, which would put their birth years in the early 1920s, about the same age as Ymesei Ezekiel, who was born in 1921.  I was told by his niece, Krete Williams, that Ymesei could play many instruments, including the mandolin, and so maybe one of these boys is a young Ymesei Ezekiel.  The boy in the center has been identified by Yoichi Rengiil as his uncle, Tatsuo Adachi (1920 – 1980), who would later become the first principal of Koror Elementary School [1] and a statistical clerk in the TT government.

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Mandolin Players in Ngiwal, 1939

The next photo was taken in 1939 in Ngiwal and shows two mandolin players.  To my eyes, the two boys in 1939 are different from the three boys in the earlier photo.  Again, these boys look to me to be of high-school age, which might put their birth year in the mid-1920s.

The Ngerel Belau radio tapes, recorded in the 1960s, included the playing of several different mandolin players.  As I currently understand it, the musicians playing mandolin on those recordings included Neterio Henry, Hosei Faustino and Kyoshi Ngirangol (Angaur), Yaoch Iechad (Airai, but also recorded with the Paradise Club in Kayangel), Tadao Tadong (Kayangel), Tem Obakerbau and Jose (Aimeliik), and Ngirasob (from Ngermid).

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The Mighty Melodica

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When I was a kid, my father played any instrument with a keyboard on it, and we had a few in the house.  He learned how to play the accordion as a teenager in the early 1930s, and then his sister taught him to play the piano in a style that I always thought was unique to my father.  I remember my father telling me that when he was in high school, he always had his accordion in the back of the car in case he and his friends needed music at a party.  Somewhere along the way, he picked up a melodica, even more portable than an accordion, and he’d bring it with him when he was traveling.

A Hohner Melodica. Source: Wikipedia

A Hohner Melodica. Source: Wikipedia

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Palau High School Band

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I was surprised to find out that there had been a brass band at Palau High School in the 1960s.  I never heard anything like that while I lived there in the early 1980s.  However, several brass bands have existed in Palau over the years. Birgit Abels describes and has a picture of [5] a brass band at Emmaus High School in Koror:

After World War II, … Sr. Hildegard Thiem received a donation of brass instruments, which she brought to Palau. … the brass band consisted of three trombonists, one euphonium player, five trumpet players and a drummer. … The band was started by pastor Fey in 1953.  When Fey left Palau two years later, the brass band ceased to exist.  As the instruments were no longer used, they were handed over to Palau High School, where music classes were held at that time.  Here, too, the music classes were taken from the curriculum after a while for want of teachers with an expertise in that area.

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Nagano Clock and Musical Instrument Company

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In the 1960s, and possibly earlier, the mandolin and guitar were a popular combination used to back up Palauan music.  For example, the Angaur Boys Club (also known as the ABC band) was backed up by Kyosi Ngirangol on acoustic rhythm guitar and Ngeterio Henry playing mandolin.  In Kayangel, the Paradise Club included the mandolin played by either Tadao Tadong or Tadasi Tadong (brothers).  But where did these instruments come from?  Who first brought the mandolin and guitar to Palau?  That question was possibly partially answered on my recent visit to the Belau National Museum, where I saw photos of the Nagano Clock and Musical Instrument Company, a store in downtown Koror during Japanese time.  These photos below are undated, but show a display case containing guitars, violins and mandolins (both round backed and flat backed varieties) on one side and Japanese shamisens on the other side.

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Instruments in Modern Palauan Music

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Palauan Flute (ngaok)

Palauan Flute (ngaok)

I was asked the other day about the instrumentation in Palauan music.  As I discussed in an earlier post, older Palauan music consists of chants, and the “instruments” used are voice and body rhythm (hand claps, body slaps, etc.).  In old times, the ngaok, a recorder or flute-like instrument, was used to accompany chants. It is no longer in use in modern or old Palauan music.  To the right is a photo of a ngaok (on the right) collected by Barbara Smith from Univ. of Hawaii in 1963, and now on exhibit at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix.  The flute on the left is a similar instrument, collected in Yap.

The harmonica (tumetum) has also been played in Palau since at least 1910.  It is used to accompany a “modern” old dance called the matamatong, a dance which loosely mimics the marching style of (probably) the German soldiers.  Watch the video below where a Palauan mechas [woman] demonstrates the harmonica accompaniment to a matamatong.  Notice how she occasionally moves her hands as would be done as a part of the dance.

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