Collections of Recorded Waiata

Te Ao Hou, June 1964, Page 36

Collections of Recorded Waiata There are now two main collections of recorded waiata in New Zealand. One is that of the N.Z.B.C. which now includes all of the material recorded from 1953 onwards by Mr W. T. Ngata for the Maori Purposes Fund Board. From time to time these recordings are broadcast. Anyone with access to a home recorder may then re-record them for this won use. Some of the Maori Purposes Fund Board recordings have also now been issued on gramophone records. The second collection is that made by the present writer, with financial assistance from the University Grants Committee. At the time of writing it includes 619 items from several tribal areas. To allay fears of commercialisation it is not intended to allow these recordings to be broadcast. Instead, arrangements are being made to deposit copies with tribal authorities in each area. Each area will receive only its own songs; the recordings are being given over entirely without charge; and the condition is made that the recordings must be made available to groups within the area wishing to make use of them. Later it is hoped to publish in these pages a complete list of the recordings available, together with the names of the institutions which have accepted custody of them. In the meantime there can be found elsewhere in this issue a discussion of the musical style of Maori chant and beginning with the next issue there will be a series of transcriptions of chants in musical notation. Most of the transcriptions will be of songs which have already spread beyond their tribal boundaries and none will be published unless it has been fully released by the performers. It is hoped that the recordings and the transcriptions will together play some part in the active preservation of a unique form of music which New Zealand can ill afford to lose.