[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]
506 MALEKULA importance we may judge from the few scattered passages in Deaoon’s notes and letters which are quoted below. " It is characteristic of Malekulan gong-rhythms to break off suddenly in the middle of a bar—or so it sounds to a. European. Considerable artistry is required to get just the effect when there are seven or eight drummers," and again: "A remarkable feature of the music is the way it ends. A passage is abruptly severed in the middle, producing an effect of sudden flight and unreality, as if the music had not ï¬Ånished but had been spirited away and would suddenly return. Sometimes when the perform- ance is thus cut off abruptly, one gong or hand~gong continues after the others have ceased, and beats for a few seconds in a succession of apparently unconnected rhythms, ending un~ expectedly and, as it were arbitrarily, with a great bang." Of a certain professional gong-beater he wrote: " This man was the ï¬Årst crack drummer I saw perform, and certainly did not fall beneath my expectation. The weaving into and out of each other, with each hand, of the most complicated rhythms, and all with the rnost amazing speed and mathematical precision, far surpassed anything of the kind I have ever heard. It almost ceased to be music, becoming a conjuring, a juggling with rhythms, impossible to record without some mechanical device." Again he wrote with reference to the Seniang rhythm retï¬Åt : “ The speed and staccato with which the most complex rhythms were executed, and the precision oi the team work, was astounding. If only we could import Malekulans for the ballet ! â€ù His own response to this art he sums up thus : â€ù I confess to experiencing the most exquisite delight in Malekulan gong-rhythms. There is about them a mathematical beauty, translated somehow into a most intoxicating and exhilarating bodily experience.â€ù Tr-re CEREMONIAL or Enecrmc A New Gone It has already been pointed out that while the gongs cannot themselves be regarded as sacred instruments they have a very deï¬Ånite ritual importance. It is not surprising to ï¬Ånd, there- fore, that there is a special ceremony associated with the carving and setting up of a new gong.‘ 1 We are not told whether this applies to the erection oi a new "mother " gong only or whether it holds good for all the gangs in a village.—O. H. W. 1
