ABSTRACT
The authors argue that hymn-singing from tonic sol-fa notation is an integral part of the musical identity of many Indigenous populations and forms a link to hymn-singing as one aspect of local constructions of race. Indeed, Charles Edward McGuire has argued that the tonic sol-fa method in particular represented a form of "Victorian philanthropy" particularly as it applied to workers and their families in factory and mining towns in industrial Britain and to converts in foreign missionary fields. Whilst at Shangpung, Evans prepared a handbook explaining the tonic sol-fa method in the Khasi language, which was based on previous work by Eleazar Roberts, a pioneer of tonic sol-fa in Wales. As has been demonstrated in South Africa, Mizoram, and the Pacific islands of Tonga and Fiji, part of Christian missionary evangelizing was the use of tonic sol-fa as a medium though which hymn-singing could be promoted and, in turn, religious dogma inculcated in colonial populations.
