“Yamaguti Osamu did his thesis on Palau in the 1960s, documenting the music-making practices of Palau,” said Olympia E. Morei, director of Belau National Museum. “He will be coming this weekend to do a presentation.”
The Museum promotes shows and projects that help increase awareness and understanding of Palauan culture and history.
According to Morei, when Yamaguti was in Palau in the 60s, they used to have a cultural hour every Sunday where they danced and played traditional musical instruments.
“He would be chanting and playing a musical instrument with a local Palauan guy that after a while you wouldn’t be able to tell who is the Japanese and who is the Palauan,” shared Morei.
During the presentation, they will be showing Yamaguti Osamu’s field recordings and silent 8mm movies. At that time, Morei explained, films have no sound. So Yamaguti put together the music and video, synchronizing movement and sound together.
The Museum is also endorsing the Musical Digital Archives Center’s plan to digitize Yamaguti’s recordings.
In Morei’s endorsement letter to National Taiwan Normal University, she said, “Palau is very fortunate to have had Prof. Yamaguti document the music-making practices of Belau in the 1960s.” She added that all the previous recordings of Belau music of similar content in the 1960s were all destroyed when the only government radio station at that time was burned down.
“The MDCA’s digitization of the Yamaguti Osamu collection will not only preserve a very important part of our oral traditions but will be made available to the Palauan people in the promotion and strengthening of our culture,” she added.
The presentation on Tuesday is open to the public.
