RECORDING MAORI MUSIC.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 103, 3 May 1930, Page 13

RECORDING MAORI MUSIC.

(Published by Arrangement.)

COLUMBIA EXPERTS AT ROTORUA. HOW RECORDS ARE TAKEN. The recording of 50 different Maori folk songs and choruses has just been completed by the Columbia Graphophone Company at Rotoma. The first records of the kind were made by the Columbia Company some S time ago. They proved a tremendous success, especially in America. There- : upon, the company sent a special expedition from. Sydney to Rotorua,, equipped with the last word -in recording instruments and headed by highly skilled experts. The result is a unique set of records of all that is tine in Maori solo, part and chorus singing. "A recording studio was set up in the Tonuhopu meeting houss at Ohinemutu," reports the Rotorua "Chronicle. 5 ' "When a reporter called records were being taken -of songs and choruses by the Maori choir. "Visitors were welcomed by a director of the Columbia Company and introduced to the mechanician, who presides over an operating' room filled with instruments of which the uses to a lay mind are utterly incomprehensible. They look wonderful and expensive—and are, as was shortly demonstrated, mightily efficient. "At the end of the hall the Maori choir, strangely garmented and serious, sit on benches. In the centre the soloist stands, in front of him on a spindlylegged tripod a little box; this is the microphone and it has very sharp and accurate ears. It tells the mechanician in his mechanical lair everything said or sung in the auditorium. The choirmaster stands on a box overlooking his charges. The conductor takes them in hand, and after repeated trials all appears set. A silence that can be felt reigns. A strident little bell on the piano rings, the conductor lifts a warning forefinger. Another ring and he half turns in his seat, holding his right hand poised. A coloured light breaks out from a bulb above the keyboard. Instantaneotisly the uplifted hand drops upon the keys and the choir attacks the introduction with precision and spirit. A gesture, the choir is dumb, and the beautifully modulated voice of the soloist appeals to the audience and to the unseen ears of the silent microphone. The plaintive beauty of a Maori love song loses nothing of its, charm by his rendering. The conductor at the piano watchfully guides the soloist. The last note dies and the swell of the choir part fills the building, strong, resonant and tuneful. The final fades and the conductor turns and expresses a word of approbation. The watchful choirmaster',3 Coriolanus attitude is accentuated. Everybody looks pleased. A few minutes elapse and the shutter of the mechanical lair opens and the singers have their song sung back to them from the recorder. They very rightly applaud their good work. A period of relaxation and everybody not concerned courteously conducted to the door —and shut out. The real business needs no distraction! Outside the same tense smileless stillness reigns; the reputation of the Arawas is at stake and the musical art of the race is being confirmed by records that will survive ' the ages. It is fitting that this work should be done, or much that is of real value will", be irretrievably lost. The Columbia Company and staff deserve public gratitude." Editorially the "Chronicle" remarks that the Columbia Company has recognised the possibilities of the Maori voice, both as a commercial investment and as an advertising medium for NewZealand. It adds: "There is in this great enterprise—outside the commercial motif—an ethnological significance. When years have passed away and fusions of races have obliterated distinctions, the records of the Columbia Company will bear faithful and true witness of the Maori race, of its capacity for song and harmony. The giving to the world of these. records will forge another enduring link in the chain which binds the peoples of the world together. Rotorua has a debt of gratitude to pay to this company of recording artists." No doubt gramophone owners all over New Zealand will look forward' to obtaining these unique Maori records a 3 soon as they are released.