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The Elementary Character of the Music hampered the Development of the Dancing Art

(16) But what barred the way to development of this art and those that sprang from it was the elementary character of their music. There was not only no harmony and no possibility of melody, in spite of early travellers speaking occasionally of their singing in parts, but the range of notes was limited to the pentatonic, like that of the Chinese and all barbaric or half-developed civilisations. In an appendix to Grey's "Polynesian Mythology" a London musician, a Mr. James Davies, puts some of the music he heard from a Maori into notation that reveals its inherent monotony. Only here and there is there any departure from the customary range of two or three notes, and then only, in a descent at the close. It is true he shows that there are half and quarter notes increasing the variety within the monotonous range, but he confesses that he might be wrong; the differences seemed too subtle for the European ear. Cook found the Tahitians reject the harmonies of his instrumentalists, whilst delighting in the bagpipes and the drum; the simple notes and short range of these instruments was most like their own music.