Music of Solomon Islands

Summary

The Solomon Islands musical region encompasses a highly varied archipelago, with stringband and studio pop, reggae, Christian singing and locally specific instrumental and ceremonial traditions. Panpipe music is an especially recognizable international emblem, but the detailed traditions documented in Malaita cannot simply be assigned to every island. Smithsonian recordings of Fataleka and Baegu music and CNRS documentation of ‘Are‘are panpipes identify particular peoples and recording contexts.

Contemporary artists continually make new relationships between these resources. Chris Kamu’ana Rohoimae combines au po’o panpipe practice with voice, guitar and modern production, while Kaumaakonga draws on Avaiki histories of Rennell and Bellona. These contrasting examples reveal that a national recording or festival network can connect music without erasing differences in language, ancestry or compositional authority.

Contemporary and trending

Chris Kamu’ana Rohoimae won ABC Pacific's 2024 Pacific Break competition with “Naratana Manu,” a song whose title refers to birds crying. The broadcaster's account emphasizes his inheritance of panpipe knowledge from his father and his adaptation of it in a newly produced recording. A competition result establishes a particular professional opportunity and recognition; it does not measure the everyday listening preferences of all Solomon Islanders.

Different recent releases appear in ABC Pacific's Best of 2025 editorial selection. Siprian's debut “Run It Up,” produced by Jammin, and Kayler's “Can't Let You Go” with Bibao and “Part Time Lover” show another strand of emerging singer-and-producer collaboration. Charles Maimarosia's label, meanwhile, documents his Hote’ Hote’ album and touring in 2025. His exploration of seafaring and migration connects newly composed song with inherited knowledge rather than treating traditional music as an activity confined to an archive.

History

The archipelago's musical histories must be approached at more than one scale. Older field recordings preserve evidence of local repertoires, instruments and performance settings. The Smithsonian Fataleka and Baegu collection documents Malaita music; Hugo Zemp's CNRS catalogue entry for a 1969 demonstration of Mae’Au panpipe playing identifies a place and practice precisely. These sources are historical records, not a census of what is presently most popular.

Island connections also developed through missionary and institutional movement. Webb and Gagau's history of Rabaul notes Harry Waterhouse's earlier work at Roviana in the Solomon Islands, where he founded a brass band. This is one documented route linking musical teaching across the wider Melanesian sea.

Colonial and religious change could also constrain older practices. Kaumaakonga describes its work, supported by elders, as recovering and rearranging Avaiki chants affected by those changes. The group therefore illustrates a history of selective interruption and renewal, not an unaltered tradition carried automatically into the present.

Genres

Panpipe performance is not a single unchanging sound. ABC's documented Narasirato appearance in March 2007 included “Inamae,” scored for eight panpipes and singer, and “Te’etou,” using two bamboo tubes struck on rocks with a voice. “Naratana Papa” combined panpipes with thongophones, drums and singing. Those programme credits reveal contrasts of breath, struck bamboo and ensemble density within one group's repertoire.

Kaumaakonga's recordings make a different combination: Avaiki chants and stories, percussion, panpipes, guitars and vocal harmonies, with Taoba serving as a recorded introduction. Maimarosia's work connects ‘Are‘are oral knowledge to his own songwriting; the presence of ukulele and handmade panpipes in his musical upbringing helps explain why acoustic song and customary knowledge need not be opposed categories. The region's broader popular field also includes studio-based singers and producers such as Kayler and Jammin. Their releases belong beside these acoustic practices, although the available evidence does not support ranking their respective audience sizes.

Artists

Narasirato is a useful entry into the ensemble approach of Malaita's touring panpipers. The ABC programme identifies performers and composers, including Peter Hauhau and David Maui for “Inamae,” and Donation Manuasi and Willy Aitakare for “Naratana Papa.” Those credits matter: the repertoire includes named creative work as well as inherited material.

Charles Maimarosia, raised in Pipisu on Malaita, has performed internationally while maintaining an explicit relationship to ‘Are‘are knowledge. His 2020 “A’mamiuru” supported communities after a ferry disaster during Cyclone Harold; “Hote’ Hote’” later explored ocean voyaging. Natty Dolaiasi provides another artist-led engagement with the archipelago's traditions, described by his label through his work in customary song and performance. Kaumaakonga widens the view to Mungava and Mungiki, or Rennell and Bellona, while Rohoimae offers a further generation's panpipe-based songwriting. Listening across them makes differences within the national scene audible rather than reducing the country to one emblematic ensemble.

Boundary definition and research

The approved region follows the Solomon Islands national extent, including its dispersed islands. This is useful for discussing a shared public music network, but it encloses different languages and cultural affiliations. In particular, the Avaiki work of Kaumaakonga demonstrates why the label “Melanesian” cannot make every community's repertoire interchangeable. Nor should Malaita's unusually well-documented panpipes become a substitute for Guadalcanal, the western islands or other local histories.

The map is an editorial geographic frame, not a boundary around uniform taste. Historical catalogues, artist accounts and recent broadcaster selections establish repertoire and circulation at different scales. They do not supply a contemporary national listener survey. Further research should extend the balance beyond internationally touring artists and better document everyday church, stringband and urban music activity. The article retains precise attribution where its strongest evidence concerns a particular village, ensemble or recording.