THE MUSIC OF THE MAORI

Taranaki Daily News, 28 August 1930, Page 14

THE MUSIC OF THE MAORI

RHYTHM AND MELODY. PRIMITIVE ART AND CULTURE. Unknown to many: lovers of Maori music, there exists between the Maoris and the South Russian nationalities a relationship that is strikingly revealed in the primitive example of musical art. This kinship has been observed, says the Auckland Star, by Mr. Charles Moor (Moor Karoly), who spent his early life in Vienna and Budapest, and arrived in Auckland eight years ago. Mr. Moor, who has an extensive knowledge of the style of Hungarian music, says it abounds in minor .keys, like the chants of the Maoris. In the construction of simple songs there is also an obvious resemblance. After a slow and very melodious movement comes a rhythmic dance almost devoid of melody, as in the haka. The Hungarians call it the csardas. A further similarity is the custom by which three or .four lead off a slow dance and others join in. Around Rotorua Maoris may be heard in two "or three-voiced harmonies that are strikingly different from European harmonisation, and are very melancholy. In that respect, too, there is a relationship with South Russian music. Mr. Moor considers the one-voiced melodies a most beautiful feature, in which the flowing and rich tones charm the listeners. No doubt a great deal of the charm belongs to the silvery and artistic voices of the Maoris, which suggest the Hungarian talent for singing and chanting. Both races have a highly-developed musical taste, and the same warmth of the “artistic heart,” and both have similar observances at the festivals for the dead. Maori chants recorded in New Zealand before European influences began to affect Maori musical taste suggest that the primitive chants of the Maoris are strikingly similar to those of many, other primitive races, says Mr. GeorgeGraham, of the Akarana Maori Association. The negro, the North American Indian, and various Asiatic peoples all have simple forms of music, and all pro-duce-chords, and even whole passages,which resemble one another.

The cry of war, the encouragement to battle, the shout of victory, or the lament of the vanquished, the wailing over a dead friend, grief at the departure of a 1 lover, each in its turn nas prefiented or suggested some appropriate chant to the ancient Maori, and to all primitive races. Little wonder the music w r as similar before the races advanced to the higher forms of musical culture assisted by complex instruments which the old-time Maori did not possess. ■ ’> ’ Maori musical instruments were merely the simpler forms of horn, flute, oboe and trumpet. The string instrument was unknown to the Polynesian. The ukulele, for instance, was a modern introduction. Of percussion instruments the Maori had a primitive form of jew’s harp, and for signal purposes only there w r as a kind of gong made of hollowed wood, but that was never used to accompany a song. The flute was the only accompaniment known to the Maori, except that waiatas were occasionally sung to the notes of a. form of oboe.

Modern Maori music, set to versification, is a recent development. It began in the efforts of the early missionaries to adapt the Maori translations of various hymns to the relative European airs. Many of the love ditties are Europeanised in the same way. Many chords and passages that closely resemble the ancient Maori intonations ar> contained in some of the modern airs, notably in the “Waiata Poi,” by Alfred Hill. The New Zealand Government, has done much to record primitive Maori chants and has obtained at important native assemblies and on other suitable occasions pure examples of the primitive musical art. To-day in Maori homes much genuinely primitive music is to be heard and this music, composed many centuries agp with many historical references, is highly appreciated. Of this nature also are the chants sung at funeral . gatherings and public assemblies where, it' is the custom ‘to intersperse the speeches with musical lore. Probably the purest forms of ancient chants are those heard among rhe Ringatu sect, descendants of Te Kooti, at . religious gatherings. To similar chants are sung many of the Psalms. Bassos, tenors and sopranos all blend wonderfully as they chant in their weird primitive intonations. Sir George Grey was the first sys-_ tematic collector of Maori chants, and many hundreds of these are contained in his publications, but they do not include the music, which, in many cases, is now permanently lost. Sir Apirana Ngata has recently collected Maori songs that were unrecorded, but here again the airs are omitted. Another collector was Air. John McGregor, late of Auckland, who was a sergeant in cliarge of Maori prisoners at the time of the Maori war. His collection, an extensive one, also loses much value because the music is not given. The first and probably the only technically correct thesis on the Maori musical art is that embodied, by Sir George Grey in one of his works. The name of the author us not known.