Waiata Aroha

Te Ao Hou, November 1964, Page 46

Waiata Aroha Waiata aroha or love songs are musically indistinguishable from laments, and indeed their whole tone is mournful, since they are invari-

ably concerned with lost or unrequited love. The composers were always women. The remembered, or imagined, delights of love may be mentioned frankly or hidden in obscure sexual symbolism which is still incompletely understood. None of the song types I have mentioned are still composed, though a few laments appear to date from as late as the first world war. At about this time they were replaced by a new dance form, the action song, which is familiar to anyone who has attended a Maori gathering of any kind. The action song owes its actions to the traditional patere, its words to the old laments and lovesongs, and its music to Tinpan Alley. Great numbers of action songs are composed every year. They spread rapidly throughout New Zealand through the Maori residential schools, and through the many gatherings which feature cultural competitions. Whatever reservations one may have about the borrowing of hit tunes, the action song must, I think, be regarded as the only current New Zealand folk art, Maori or Pakeha. The traditional song-types are still sung at ceremonial gatherings, and several thousand have been recorded either textually or on tape. Mervyn McLean, a research student at Otago University, has recorded on tape more than 800 items during the last two years, and is working on a musical analysis of this material. Pei te Hurinui Jones is continuing his work of collecting, annotating and translating song texts, and the third volume of ‘Nga Moteatea’ will be published shortly with a preface by Mervyn McLean. So these two scholars, a Maori and a Pakeha, heed the words of their predecessor who many years ago had urged New Zealanders to preserve this material, saying in his characteristically blunt way, ‘These flowers bloom at your doorsteps, Why don't you pick them?’