pentangle.net/blog

From the liner notes to Mudadin Kata by David Darling and The Wulu Bunun:

“Taiwan’s indigenous people became known to the world through the unique eight-part harmonic singing of the Bunun people, which, in 1943 (when Japanese scholar Kurosawa Takatomo presented recordings of the Bunun music in Paris) caught the attention of Western ethnomusicologists. Nine years later, Kurosawa permanently changed musicologists’ ideas about the origins of music when he introduced a traditional Bunun song called ‘Pasibutbut’ (‘Prayer for the Millet Harvest’) to UNESCO. With its complete harmony, the song overturned the scholars’ original theory that music originated in single-note melodies, progressing to two-note harmonics, and then on to more complex arrangements.

‘Pasibutbut’, which has been called the ‘sound of nature’, is said to have been created by a member of the Bunun who was inspired by the sound of humming bees, a rushing waterfall or the sounds made when crossing through a pine or bamboo forest…

This is a prayer for peace, good health, safety and a rich harvest for the family. It must be sung when sowing and harvesting the crops, and during ceremonies only adult males may participate in the singing. For women to sing it is taboo, and Bunun tradition suggests that this would be to the detriment of the harvest. The singing must also be continuous, with no breaks, or it will likweise affect the people’s health and the harvest for the coming year.”