Music of Guam

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Guam is an unincorporated territory of the United States. Its indigenous people, the Chamorro, are of Micronesian descent. Chamorro popular musicians include KACY, Flora Baza Quan, Daniel De Leon Guerrero, singer-songwriter J. D. Crutch, who is on the local Napu Records and who released a best-selling local album with Guinaifen Manglo. The state song of Guam is "Guam Hymn" by Ramon Sablan, adopted in 1919 ^[1]. Flora Baza Quan is especially notable throughout the territory, and is known as the "Queen of Chamorro Music" ^[2].

Modern music from Guam includes elements of American, Spanish, Filipino and Polynesian music. The Spanish and Mexicans contributed a kind of song called serenetas to the culture of Guam.

1 Music venues and institutions
2 Chamorro music
3 References
4 Notes
5 External link

[edit] Music venues and institutions

Music institutions in Guam include the University of Guam's Fine Arts Department, Guam Symphony Society, Guam Choristers and the Gregorian Institute of Guam. The Guam Symphony Society was founded in 1967, and hosts concerts like the Symphony Seaside Concert and the Musikan Famagu'on for children ^[3]. The two major local record labels are Napu Records and Sell Star Records.

[edit] Chamorro music

Traditional Chamorro instruments include the belembaotuyan, a hollow gourd stringed instrument, and the nose flute. Kantan singing is also popular. It is a kind of work song, begun by one person teasing another in verse form, and then continuing through a group one individual in turn.

Chamorro chants and Kantan Chamorrita (Chamorrita singing), a kind of Chamorro poetry, are also important elements of Guamian music. Kantan Chamorrita is a kind of improvised poetry with a call and response format that is documented back to 1602 and remains a vital part of Chamorro culture. In Kantan Chamorrita, individuals and groups trade witty remarks at each other as part of a debate. These songs are "ancient folk songs, arranged in quatrains of two octosyllabic couplets, which, according to some writers, are composed on a single melody, the variations depending on the individual style of performance. The distinctive features are spontaneous improvisation and a dialogue performance between two or more people, depending on the occasion and function" ^[4].