Lost Tongan musical instrument "Tukipitu" heard in Tonga for first time in 238 years ^Featured

This musical instrument is made from pitu, a species of bamboo, connected with two artforms tufunga ngaohitukipitu (material art of bamboo-tube-making) and faiva tukipitu (performance art of bamboo-tube-stamping or bamboo-tube-playing).

A musical instrument, tukipitu is based on the fa‘ahi laulalo (bass tone), later replaced respectively by nafa lahi (bass drums), selo (Tongan-made cellos) and kitā peesi (bass guitars) for tempo-keeping. It is said that tukipitu were performed accompanying the now extinct ancient and most graceful and beautiful Tongan he‘a dance.

Apart from tukipitu, there were other ancient Tongan musical instruments,  in addition to their European equivalents, used as part of the demonstration and performance by Tāme‘a Fangufangu Mīnoa ‘O Tonga (Minor Sound Nose-Flute Of Tonga Musical).

This was made part of a paper titled “Afo fangufangu, fasi fakatangi, ongo fakafa‘ahikehe: The lost Tongan minor tone” presented by Tu‘ifonualava Kaivelata and Professor Hūfanga Dr ‘Ōkusitino Māhina (where fakatangi as chants accompanying legend-telling and fa‘ahikehe as the world of the dead as opposed to fa‘ahitatau or fa'ahitaha as the world of the living).

Extracts were taken from three ancient Tongan songs “Kolulu Ē,” “‘Ana Lātū” and a lakalaka dance song by Fola‘osi from Kanokupolu, all clearly featuring the uniquely minor-led ogno fakafa‘ahikehe were demonstrated and performed (with the minor tone translated into Tongan as afo mīnoa or afo maina).

The paper presented was based on Creative New Zealand-funded project for the revival of tufunga ngaohifangufangu and faiva tāfangufangu or faiva ififangufangu as dying ancient unique material and performance arts of nose-flute-making and nose-flute-playing led by Tu‘ifonualava and Professor Hūfanga. Like tukipitu, which is made from pitu as a species of bamboo, fangufangu [nose-flute] is made from kofe as another species of bamboo.

Much of the knowledge and skills relating to the revival of both tukipiu and fangufangu have also lost. Their revival is dependent on the fragments of knowledge and skills that are still constituted or composed in culture as a spectacle and transmitted or communicated in language as a vehicle.

Tu'ifonualava Kaivelata perfoming Tukipitu
 
Many of the ancient Tongan musical instruments were taken mainly by European explorers and missionaries, where they ended up in museums and private collections. There are only two tukipitu left in the world, with one at the Bergen University Museum in Bergen, Norway, and the other in a museum in Dublin, Ireland.