ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a conceptual and ethnographic view into the world of this book. It introduces the historical and cultural settings of music-making in Palau. I provide a historically informed perspective on the relationship between the role of Palauan chant traditions and musical structures and textures. Exploring the competing music ontologies and epistemologies that have been formative to current performance practice from both historical and post-colonial perspectives, I draft to what extent the neo-phenomenological concept of meaningfulness might prove helpful to unpack the central role traditionally attributed to music-making in Palau.
