Comments | sierra_le_oli: Guitars and Garden Parties

sierra_le_oli

Guitars and Garden Parties

Aug 20, 2010 12:03

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out and about, london, new zealand, music

Comments 8

bonnie_j August 21 2010, 07:21:07 UTC

As I understand it, most of the familiar Maori songs known to New Zealanders aren't pre-contact traditional - they were written by Maori in the first half of the twentieth century as a cultural renaissance kind of thing. Princess Te Puea and Apirana Ngata etc. Hence the European melodies and harmonies, and instruments. But when you think about it, is the ukulele a pre-contact Hawaiian instrument?

I was surprised to hear one tune I know from waiata being played in a Greek restaurant - I can only assume it was brought home by one of the Maori battalions and given Maori words after WW2.

sierra_le_oli August 21 2010, 12:38:15 UTC

Tikitu (below) sees the influence of hymns, which would seem to make sense. Wonder how religious Te Puea and Apirana Ngata were. And didn't Ngata invent the action song? Ugh, feeling very ignorant now.

How interesting to hear that tune in Greece!

bonnie_j August 22 2010, 07:56:19 UTC

Religion is one dimension - the Ratana church has brass bands. But popular music was an important influence too - half the songs I remember from school had their melodies pinched from hits of the 50s and 60s. Skipping across the Pacific a little, Minoi Minoi has a popular early 20thC sound.

Uninformed opinion ext_179594 August 21 2010, 10:03:34 UTC

I always assumed that "Maori" music as we know it was heavily influenced by hymns and similar. The scales and harmonies and chord progressions are all so very very Western. The stuff Hirini Melbourne and Richard Nunns do (did) on genuinely traditional instruments has a completely different musical foundation (although I guess they were sort of reinventing it too).

Re: Uninformed opinion sierra_le_oli August 21 2010, 12:58:06 UTC

It wouldn't surprise me if you were right. Would be great to have recordings of pre-contact music.

bonnie_j August 22 2010, 07:52:43 UTC

Nga Moteatea recorded the lyrics of old songs in 1853, but I'm not sure if or how the tune or rhythm would have been annotated.

Read the preface, written by Governor Grey, if you want something to really wind you up.

ext_179594 August 22 2010, 09:31:17 UTC

Good golly. Tried to read the preface, couldn't. If you handed it to me without context I would say it was a parody, and rather a clumsy one at that. That is truly awful.

sierra_le_oli August 22 2010, 12:17:57 UTC

The idea that someone sat down and wrote that in all seriousness...