Tahitian Choir - Rapa Iti (CD)
Sound:
C Music: B
A
Frenchman by the name of Pascal Nabet Meyer, inspired by the writings of
Gaugin, traveled to the South Pacific in the early 1980s. While there, he learned of a small community
on the island of Rapa Iti and its' choir.
The Rapa Choir's unique quarter-tonal singing inspired Meyer greatly, so
much that he vowed to one day make recordings of their oldest, most traditional
songs. It would take him nearly ten
years to do so. Nevertheless, it's an
honorable intention: the last previous recordings of the Rapa Iti people dates
back to 1906! Slavery, disease, and the
interference of the British discoverer Vancouver reduced their population from
thousands to little over three hundred.
Any future disaster might wipe out these people for good, so let's leave
proof they existed.
Now
comes the Tahitian Choir Rapa Iti CD
from the Soulitude label. The Rapa
people sing not for career aspirations, but because it brings them joy. And they make quite a racket: "Tarema" is so sprawling in its'
scope, it's difficult to tell if there is any structure to the piece. The performances on Rapa Iti are a triumph of
the human spirit. After all these people
have been through, they still sing proudly, almost defiantly. Unfortunately, not only has their way of life
taken a beating, their language has suffered, too: according to the liner
notes, only 8% of the original Rapa
vocabulary remains. Seven of Rapa Iti's sixteen songs could not be transcribed
into English.
Another
problem, sadly, is going to be with the individual listener. In this day and
age of ever-decreasing attention spans, Rapa Iti is going to wear out its'
welcome fast. It's obvious that Meyer
wants this music to affect us as positively as it did him, and he might
accomplish that in select cases. The
problem is that the material drags on in areas, growing increasingly monotonous
and unchanging as the choir grows increasingly weary from their first (and
only) recording session. Only the first
track, the bonus "Iaorana",
has any sort of musical accompaniment.
The PCM CD Stereo sound was average and a bit of a disappointment
I
suspect that Rapa Iti is good for you, but is it good in the entertainment
sense? And if one grows weary of it too
quickly, does that mean that one is sick of soul? These questions I cannot
answer. I do know that in the
solipsistic times we live in, unable to feel, we should respect those who can
still feel joy and pain and express it, the very timbre of life itself. Those people can be found on a little island
called Rapa, a thousand miles
south of Tahiti.
- Michael J. Farmer
