STRING BAND MUSIC HISTORICAL AND UNIQUE: DENNIS MARITA
Ben Toloau, the remaining active member of late Fred Maedola’s Band.
Deputy Director of Culture, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Dennis Marita, has described string band music as historical and unique to Solomon Islands.
Mr Marita says string band is the foundation of music in Solomon Islands, adding today’s music has changed because of globalization and in order to communicate with the rest of the world.
Mr Marita made the remark at the ‘Swing to the Strings’ show last Friday- a show which is gaining popularity, hosted every Friday night between 9pm to 10pm by SIBC to revive String band music.
He says he is also very happy to know that the root and foundation of music in Solomon Islands is still alive.
“I am very happy that the music is still alive, and I think the foundation of music in this country is still very much alive. Probably in terms of music we have gone far beyond who we are in terms of Solomon Islands, in terms of what makes us who we are in terms of our music. But I think what we’ve heard tonight is really Solomon Islands.”
Mr Marita also encouraged local musicians to return to string bands music.
“And I’d like to encourage our musicians to come back to our roots. The forward in terms of the music industry in the Solomon Islands is based very much on our foundation, and I think this is the foundation where can build upon to build upon our music industry in this country, and not only music, but in terms of the arts in this country”, he said.