Birgit Abels

Sounds of Articulating Identity. Tradition and Transition in the Music of Palau, Micronesia Birgit Abels

Sounds of Articulating Identity - Tradition and Transition in the Music of Palau, Micronesia, provides an overview of historical and contemporary music-making practices and their social contexts in the Republic of Palau. The study identifies and analyzes strands of musical development over the course of, roughly, the last century. Its secondary focus is on the conceptualization of the musical transition in Palauan discourse(s) and its interaction with local identity negotiation. As the ethnomusicological exploration of the Palauan world proceeds, the book demonstrates how a study of the music of a small island nation is capable of transcending the boundaries of ethnomusicology as an academic discipline, and it adds rich material to the discourse about globalization and to the field of cultural studies.