“NOW IS THE HOUR”

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25394, 17 January 1948, Page 6

“NOW IS THE HOUR”

Melody Popular In N.Z. For 30 Years NEW OVERSEAS DEMAND FOR MUSIC A specially chartered aircraft left a London airport for the United States with a cargo of British-made gramopnone records of the singing by Grade Fields of the New Zealand song “Now Is The Hour,” familiar in this country for 30 years, but of recent popularity overseas. The song was arranged by a Maori woman song writer named Erima Maewa Kaihau, whose publications include four other well-known Maori songs. These songs, though not purely Maori —the Maori people had no songs as Europeans Knew them—have some traditional or folk background. When tne - Maori prophet Ratana visited the South Island in 1923, the inhabitants of the village of Rapaki, near Lyttelton, gave him a typical Maori welcome. One -of the songs sung by the Maoris at the welcome was called “Farewell Soldier Boy” and was sung to the tune of “Now Is The Hour.” It came into popularity when the Maori soldiers were going overseas to fight in the 1914-1918 war. Ratana tooK a great liking to the melody and later, with different words, it was used at the conclusion of his religious gatherings and was known as the “Ratana Hymn.” To most New Zealanders the melody was known as “Haere Ra.” The copyright of “Haere Ra” was taken over from A. W. Robertson, Ltd y of Auckland, by Charles Begg and Company, in 1939. Other songs written by Erima Kaihau are “E Moe Te Ra,” which was published in 1918, and “Hine E Hine.” A report in the December issue of “Tempo,” an Australian musical news magazine, says that 600,000 copies of “Now Is The Hour” have been sold in Great Britain during the* last three months, and adds that recordings of the song have been made in the United States by Bing Crosby, Horace Heidt, Kate Smith, Charles Spivak, and the Andrews Sisters.