Music

Original Lyrics:

Translated Meaning:

There was no prior sign of rice on this land,
They kept looking and looking and eventually traveled to Lanyu where they finally discovered rice.
They took the rice and tried to take it back to the island:
Hid it in with the man but was caught for stealing
Hid it in the mother's stomach but had gotten digested
Hit it with a dog and success had rung!
They brought it west, planted it and watched it grow exponentially,
growing all the way to today.

Original Lyrics:

Translated Meaning:

The first phrase has no significance. Very often in tribal pieces the lyrics are improvised and adjusted to the singers preferences and to the event it is sung at.

The second phrase indicated that this is a very old song passed down from generation to generation, and only elders may sing this song.

The third and final phrase recounts the blessings and happiness that comes along when friends and family gather together to listen to the beautiful song, and to enjoy the beautiful landscape that has come to be.

When this song was originally sung the call and answer was a narration of the travelling of rice, how to grow the rice, and how to harvest it. Nowadays, this call and answer style of music is used for a variety of chores to assemble the final ritual: Elder women will assign men to harvest "Laoteng", a long and continuous vine, so women have time to get fully dressed in tribal uniforms. Then, they will line up from eldest to youngest, grabbing the vine and run together around the village. This ritual fills the entire area with sounds of chants sung at the top of our lungs and bells attached to our hips chiming with each step. These women will run till they reach the sacred destination where they will pray and present offering to ancestors.

For this recording, I simply left the microphone on during a gathering of elders and captured the essence of Puyuma music - unifying the tribe. The lyrics to these songs are not set in stone, and neither is the melody in its entirety. This recording contains numerous different songs that they had mashed together into one on the spot, and the lyrics to these songs can be changed depending on who is singing. The point of these songs, unlike the previous ones, is to bring people together to celebrate their happiness. For that reason, the individual songs in the mashup don't even have their own names. Typically, in a small gathering as such, the title of the song is named after the singer who sings it the most.

This final recording is another example of call and answer. In this sample specifically, the "answer" portion of the song doesn't include lyrics, they are vowels and consonants jumbled together to create sounds. As for the "call" portion of a call and answer song sung in a relaxed gathering, it is determined by the leader.