Plea For Maori Music

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 886, 1 February 1930, Page 10

Plea For Maori Music

ITS PRESERVATION URGED “May Be Lost For Ever” “ THE Maoris no longer sing their own music. It has been 1 Americanised. They cannot even do their poi dances to Maori music, and their hakas, now jazzed up to meet modern requirements, are only a travesty upon the slow, magnificent rhythms of old. For the benefit of tourists the haka is now a comedy turn.” Mr. Alfred Hill, now of the staff of the New South Wales Conservatorium, and a distinguished New Zealand composer, has returned from a visit to Rotorua sadly disappointed at the rapid degeneration of Maori music. With other New Zealand musicians he agrees that unless steps are soon taken to preserve it, much of it will be lost for ever.

Thirty years ago Mr. Hill was seized with the possibilities of Maori music and his compositions, based on the old native rhythms, have attracted considerable attention to Maori music and also to the Dominion itself. Indeed to New Zealand Mr. Hill’s work has been of incalculable value. Today the demand for Maori music has risen very considerably and, thanks to the interest being displayed by American tourists, is rapidly increasing. Its commercial possibilities are being seized upon and new Maori songs are everywhere appearing', but English tunes set to Maori words do not make Maori music. "In Rotorua,” said Mr. Hill, “I heard English, American and Hawaiian melodies and, occasionally, scraps of opera, but no Maori music. At National Park I even heard the Maoris singing Tongan music.” The Maori was always given to song, and he had a song for every occasion. Mr. Hill is of opinion that in the beginning it was merely a rhythmical shout. Later an inflection was added to the voice and the range, never more than four or five tones, was developed. These songs occupied a big place in Maori life and their numbers were countless. EUROPEAN INFLUENCE Then came the white man: the whalers, the missionary, and then, civilisation. Always an imitative race, the Maoris quickly picked up the songs of the whalers, the missionary hymns, and now, American jazz. Each in its time has influenced Maori music until today, says Mr. Hill, it is a very difficult task to sort out the real Maori. Many of show the influence of the English songs of the colonising period, said Mr. Hill, such tunes as "Little Brown Jug,” “Three Blind Mice” and “Old King Cole,” being apparent in many Maori songs. Although much of the real native music has been lost with the dying out of the old natives and the old cus-

toms, Mr. Hill is of opinion that a great deal of it could still be gleaned from some of the older Maoris in the hack country. On a recent tour of the Urewera Country, Mr. Elsdon Best came across quite a number of old songs, and if they could be recorded their historic and research worth would be of immense value to New Zealand, which must look forward to he time, alas not far distant, when his music will have disappeared forever. “The young people no longer sing the songs,” a tattooed old Maori woman told Mr. Hill. “Tattooing is looked down upon. They powder their faces and want to be English.” It is the lament of q dying race. There is some suggestion that the Government intends to secure a recording plant to assist in the retention of some of this music, but with so much of it influenced through European associations, particularly those of the early Europeans, great care will have to be exercised in its selection. SOON TOO LATE The best of it will have to be coaxed out of the older natives in the hinterland, and the services of an able musician well versed in the Maori folk song would be essential. In that work Mr. Alfred Hill could give New Zealand splendid service, but like many of New Zealand’s distinguished sons his services have been lost to the country. In association with Mr. Elsdon Best, whose years of research work would be extremely valuable, Mr. Hill could accomplish valuable exploration work in this great field of Polynesian music, but it would be necessary, first of all, to obtain the loan of Mr. Hill’s services, which, unfortunately, have been appropriated by another country. If anything is to be done, immediate action is required. Soon it will be too late'. F.I.R.