YOUTH AND MUSIC

Te Ao Hou, 1970, Page 61

YOUTH AND MUSIC SLC-72 12 in. Stereo/Mono LP 33 ⅓ rpm The suite was commissioned for the Royal youth concert given in the presence of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother on 26 April 1966, and this record is of the actual performance before Her Majesty in the Wellington Town Hall. The choir consists of children from Nelson College for Girls, Cashmere High School, Christchurch Girls' High School, Wellington Girls' College, New Plymouth Girls' High School, Spotswood College, St. Mary's College, Hutt Valley High School and Tawa College. The orchestra is of young players from the NZBC Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Symphonia, Christchurch Civic Orchestra, Dunedin Civic Orchestra and the 1965 National Youth Orchestra under

the baton of Juan Matteucci. The songs in the suite are ‘I Runga I Nga Puke’, ‘Hine e Hine’, ‘Poi Kihikihi’, ‘Tahi Nei Taru Kino’ and ‘Haere ra e Hoa Ma’. The soloists are Donna Awatere and Laurette Gibb. ‘I Runga Nga Puke’ is a joy to listen to. The choir, predominantly of Pakeha children, sings the Maori words with clarity and correct pronunciation. Unfortunately, the first soloist seems to have some difficulty with the words and there is occasional blurring of the pronunciation. In ‘Hine e Hine’ the choir provides a haunting counterpoint to the soloist. Once or twice the orchestra seems to overwhelm the singers but I think that one must accept the acoustic limitations of the Wellington Town Hall and the fact that this is a live recording of a concert performance rather than one made in a studio at a special recording session. ‘Poi Kihikihi’ offers a contrast to the other songs in the suite in that it is cast in a more ancient idiom. Ashley Heenan's arrangement captures with strength and beauty the song of the locust. The soloist effectively evokes the quality of voice used by the kuia of ancient times when singing laments and chants whilst the choir provides a haunting obliggato to make the song a beautiful blend of the ancient and the modern. Ashley Heenan has given ‘Tahi Nei Taru Kino’ one of his rather typical ‘lightly tripping, gaily skipping, arrangements which is suggestive of the coy lover singing about the perils of falling in love. There is a very tuneful duet in this song. ‘Haere Ra e Hoa Ma’ is sung with real poignancy as befits a farewell song. It is marred by the fact that the song, and of course the suite itself, comes to a somewhat inconclusive ending. My main criticisms, and they are muted ones, are that it is a pity for the sake of contrast and interest that there was no male soloist or duettist and that one could wish for more venturesome parts for the choir. Only in the final verse of ‘I Runga I Nga Puke’ is their potential fleetingly exploited. A full choral arrangement of one of the songs — perhaps by a truly Maori choir — would have set the seal on a most attractive contribution to the field of Maori music and indeed New Zealand music. It is to be hoped that this will not be the one and only full-scale performance of Maori Suite. However, even if it is, this splendid recording will bring it to the wider audience which it undoubtedly merits.