In search of an analytical method for monodic songs from Vanuatu

Abstract

This article summarises the results obtained in the analytical part of my PhD thesis entitled Women, Braids and Music on Pentecost Island: Vanuatu. This part was analytical in nature and aimed at understanding and describing the musical system underlying this music. A corpus was established from the transcriptions of the songs collected and recorded during field research. This article presents the steps that were taken to propose an analytical methodology. After an introductory part which discusses the issues related to the musical analysis of the raw sound material, I present different analytical methods that existed at the time and which inspired me (Brăiloiu, Chenoweth, etc.). I then discuss the adaptations I made in order to find relevant approaches for the corpus under consideration. The analytical results inspired Professor Nicolas Meeùs to create Monika, a melodic analysis software.