Vanuatu (Nouvelles-Hébrides): Musiques Coutumières – Vanuatu (New Hebrides): Custom Music

Vanuatu music encompasses a rich spectrum of kastom (customary) forms—masked-dance drum ensembles, women’s water percussion, panpipe and conch ensembles, and antiphonal vocal traditions—alongside 20th‑century string‑band styles, gospel choirs, and contemporary reggae-influenced pop. Traditional repertoires center on slit‑drum (tam‑tam) orchestras and ritual dances tied to grade‑taking (status) ceremonies, land‑diving seasons, and community festivals. In the 20th century, guitars, ukuleles, and tea‑chest/box basses formed string bands that fused local melodies and languages with influences from hymnody, Hawaiian/country guitar idioms, and later reggae, creating the warm, harmonized Pacific sound now associated with urban and village life alike.