PURE MAORI MUSIC

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 77, 14 March 1935, Page 8

PURE MAORI MUSIC

Like Early Church Chants BISHOP BENNETT’S LECTURE Historical Society Gathering The likening of the truly native form of Maori music to the Gregorian chants of the early Christian Church, and an assertion that what is commonly classified as '‘modern Maori music” is p-ally a hybrid of Maori and Polynesian musical forms, were among the more inter esling and enlightening parts of » talk on native music given by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Bennett at a large gathering of the Hastings Historical Society last evening. The comments made by the Bishop were illustrated primarily by Mr Tutawake, of Whakatu, who is tho only Hawke’s Bay Maori now living who knows tho old Maori incantations and traditional songs. One traditional song was sung by the Bishop’s own choir under the conductorship of Miss Bessie Me Hut ch on, and in addition they sang ‘‘Hail, Smiling Morn” and the hymn “How Bright Those Glorious Spirits Shine.” The meeting was held in the Council Chambers, and was probably the most interesting, and certainly the most largely attended, since the society was founded last year. SEVEN HUNDRED YEARS OLD. It was commonly believed, said the Bishop, that there were two distinct forms of Maori music, tho ancient and the modern, but the truth was that what was commonly described as modern Maori music was not really Maori music at all. It was Polynesian or even pakeha music with a Maori method and with Maori phraseology. As long ago as fifty or sixty years tho Maoris had grafted on to their own music much that really belonged to the peoples of the Pacfic Islands. The traditional Maori music, which might be said to date roughly from the arrival of the Maotis in New Zealand in about 1250, was characterised by a drone, almost by a monotone, such as was a feature of the Gregorian chants of the Church. In that music, as in all ancient European music, there was little melody and no harmony. Maori music of the traditional type had no tenor and no bass, and each line of a verse went straight on to the next except that sometimes there would be a pause at the caesura where one voice would go on singing to allow the other voices to rest. It was rather speaking in a musical voice and in musical words than actual singing. THE PURPOSE OF TANGIS. Referring to the first song chanted by Mr Tutawake, the Bishop said that it must be centuries old, for it referred to a tribe of which no living Mao-i had any knowledge even by hearsay, but which probably did exist in the time of the Morioris. The song was a.i incantation sung when the people plan, cd their crops at spring-time, and it called for the moist cast wind to blow so that the crops might prosper. Later in the season, when the harvest was to be gathered, the people would sing an incantation of thanksgiving. The next song was a tangi which wa.< known to have been composed by a Hawke’s Bay Maori, and winch is slid sung to this day. It should not be supposed, said the bishop, that tangis wcio sung only when a body was lying in state in the inarae. It was often sung liy the Maoris when they were brought into bodily or sentimental assoeiatiou with the revered things of the past, la reference to this particular tangi, tnv Bishop remarked that long as it was, there was nevertheless not a single i<’ petition in it. ANCIENT MAORI FLUTE. In an interesting reference to the Maori musical system, the Bishop went oti to explain that there was no harmony, as the modern Maori knows it. in the traditional music, and it made ’><• allowance for multiple parts in singing. Sometimes, however, it included a de vice known ns irirangi, the meaning of which was “hanging in the heavens.’ By that device a voice a fifth or ev r n an octave up would take a second part Producing an ancient Maori flute, an I saying incidentally that he doubted any Maori in Hawke’s Bay to-day c ou- I plav it, the Bishop remarked that il could reproduce exactly the tones o. the traditional Maori music, whereas n,j European instrument, unless perhaps the violin, could do so. Mr Tutawake next sang a whakararu pa, or song that the sentries in tne Maori pas used to sing at the approach of an enemy. At the conclusion of the programme Bishop Bennett said that the items given had enabled the audience to get some idea of the background of Maun music, and it was hoped that at future meetings the subject would be pursued further and in more detail.