Maori ‘pounds’ in new work

Press, 29 June 1982, Page 22

Maori ‘pounds’ in new work

A new work by the Christchurch composer Kit Powell, in which traditional Maori poems and vocal music are performed by four choirs with a background of percussive sound, will be featured in a joint concert to be given by the Royal Christchurch Musical Society and the Skelierup Woolston Band in the Town Hall on Saturday. The other items on the programme have been selected to satisfy a wide range of tastes, as might be indicated by the title of the concert: "More - Music for All."

The two organisations filled the Town Hall when they gave their earlier "Music for All" concerts in 1979 and 1980.

New Zealand composers will also be featured in the first part of the programme, which will open with a bracket of compositions and arrangements by Dr Vernon Griffiths, who recently celebrated his eighty-eighth birthday. Under the heading “Homage to Vernon Griffiths,” choir and band will perform “Laudate Dominum" and his arrangements of the Pilgrim’s Chorus, “Turn back. 0 Man." and "Now Thank We all our God." The band will then play Larry Pruden's “The Haast Highway." The remainder of the first part of the programme is entitled “The Russia of Tchaikosky." and consists of three unaccompanied motets. “Angel Hosts," "Hymn to the Trinity” and “How Blessed are they." which will be sung by the choir and the 1812 Overture in. an arrangement for choir and band. The third section of, the programme is “In Lighter Style." After a quick march from the band there will be some “Songs ■ from the Shows,” a selection of the music from “West Side Story,” and the popular "Seventy-six Trombones” from “The Music Man.” There will be a novelty item from the band (“The Carnival of Venice”) and then the twentieth anniversary of the formation of the Beatles will be marked by a medley of Beatles hits including “Michelle” and "Yesterday." The concert will end with “The Battle Hymn of the Republic," to mark the imminence of July 4.

This concert will be the first by the Skellerup Woolston Band since it won the Agrade championship at Dunedin last month.

The percussion players in the Maori work were recruited and trained by Kit Powell, who also rehearsed the choir for his work. The conducting for the rest of the programme will be shared by Robert Field-Dodgson and Mervyn Waters. ART AWARD Entries will close with the secretary of the Canterbury Society of Arts on July 28 for this year’s CSA-Guthrey Travel award, which enables a Canterbury artist to visit and study in Australia. The award pays the travel costs of the successful applicant, who will be required to spend at least three weeks in Australia. The winner will be announced on August 14. ARTHRITIS’ ART Christchurch entries in the 1982 Arthritis Foundation art exhibition will be on display in the Building Centre, in Cashel Street, from July 11 to 16.

The 10 prize-winning entries will also be among the 28 paintings on display. These will include the overall winner, a vivid impressionist painting by 24-year-old Julie Farrant. a Rotorua girl crippled by osteoarthritis. Her entry won her a trip to Treasure Island. Fiji.

POET ON TOUR New Zealand poet, Hone Tuwhare, was invited by the University of Kiel, West Germany to participate in its annual conference on Commonwealth literature which, this year, had modern Commonwealth poetry as its theme. The conference programme will cover poetry from Australia, Canada, Africa, the West Indies, India, and New Zealand and was held at Kiel from June 17 to 20. For the New Zealand session. Tuwhare read his own work, after Dr Nelson Wattie of Cologne University, had given a paper on “New Zea-

land and its Poetry." Afterwards Ingrid Glienke. of Cambridge, gave a paper on "Contemporary Maori poetry." When the conference ended. Tuwhare began a twoweek Study and lecture tour of West Germany, arranged by the Wellington Goethe Institute and the German Embassy. He will give readings in a number of German universities, and will meet personalities from the German literary scene. LATIN FOLK Christchurch concert-goers will have a rare opportunity to hear the sounds of the quena. churango and bombo when Papalote, a group of South American musicians, gives a concert in the Ngaio Marsh Theatre next week.

Papalote plays the music of the “new song.” movement of Latin America — songs played with traditional instruments and rhythms and often including social commentary on life in Latin America todav.

The instruments played by members of the group range from the quena and zampona (flutes of the Andes) to the bongos and maracas of the Caribbean. The music also covers a wide range' of sounds and styles, from the gaucho music of Argentina to the Corridos of Mexico.

Many of Papalone’s songs come from the “new song" movement which began when Latin Americans, dissatisfied with the influence of the juke-box and rock and roll, began to look at their own traditions as a basis for building their own new culture.

The movement's song clubs flourished in the democracy of the early 19705, but after military take-overs in the southern countries of Latin America they were declared subversive, and many were closed. Some folk-singers — such as Victor

Jara of Chile — were tortured and shot, songsheets were burned, and most of the folk-singers were forced to

leave their countries. Today the movement continues in exile. Papalote is based in Sydney, where it helped to establish a pena (club) for Latin American musicians. The group often performs at charity concerts for human-rights and disadvantaged groups. Papaiote’s tour of New Zealand is sponsored by the Latin American Group, and all profits will be handed to CORSO for the support of a youth project in Chile. Its only Christchurch concert will be on July 10. MUSIC FIRSTS Premiere performances of works by two local composers are featured on the programme of a concert to be given by the University Chamber Orchestra and Singers tomorrow evening in the Great Hall of the Christchurch Arts Centre. The concert will also feature the Alard Quartet, from the University of Pennsylvania. The quartet has just begun its "residency" at the University of Canterbury will assume its association with the orchestra and the conductor. John Ritchie.

In addition to eighteenthcentury symphonies by Friedrich Abel and the Sammartini. new works by Chloe Moon and Ritchie will be played.

Miss Moon’s six-movement Nonette. for flutes, oboe, clarinets. bassoon, violins and cello, was completed early this vear. It was written for the music students at the university. John Ritchie's Poem for Flute and Orchestra was also composed for this year's music students. The soloist in tomorrow’s performance will be Pam Keightley. A major work on the programme is Stravinsky’s Requiem Canticles, for soloists, chorus, and large orchestra. The requiem is “late Stravinsky” which flavours true litur-

gieal realism with a dalliance in pointillism and sparse texture. This performance will be conducted by Graham Holiobon. and the soloists will be Judy Bellingham (contralto) and Albert Riseley (bass). RETURN VISIT The Bulgarian violinist. Miha Pogacnik. who toured New Zealand last year, is making a return visit, and will give two recitals and a master-class in Christchurch in the next week. Pogacnik, who refuses to make recordings but travels widely each year to give more than 100 concerts, was born in 1949. and studied in Europe and the United States, where his teacher, Josef Gingold, declared him to be “one of the finest violinists of the younger generation." He plays a Stradivarius violin which was bought for him by a group of American businessmen who had been impressed by his playing. With this Stradivarius violin, Pogacnik will give solo recitals on Sunday evening, in the Great Hall of the Arts Centre, and Monday, in the James Hay Theatre, During the day on Monday he' will hold a master-class on three Mozart violin concerti. and will give a lunch-time concert in the Great Hall of the Arts Centre for young people.

The Saturday concert will

feature Bach's Sonata in G minor and Partita in E major, and Bartok’s Sonata for Solo Violin. Afterwards there will be a fireside supper prepared by the sponsoring organisation, the Rudolf Steiner School.

In his Monday recital in the James Hay Theatre Pogacnik will be joined by the pianist, Phyllis Rappeport, in a programme comprising Brahms’s •Sonata No. 1 in G major, Bartok’s Sonata No. 2 for Piano and Violin, Schubert’s Fantasia in C major, and Ravel’s Tzigane.