mean that the music is “simple”; there is nothing simple about the microtonal intervals (intervals smaller than a semitone) which give a distinctive flavour to Maori chant. Primitive music, then, is the art of peoples, people who have no written language and therefore no formulated theoretical system. It is aurally passed on from one generation to the next. The most important difference between primitive music and art music is to be found in the purpose which music serves in relation to the life of the community. In the Western world, music is a thing apart, something that affects the lives of some people seriously and others, hardly at all. But in a primitive society the case is very different; it concerns the everyday life of each person in the tribe in an intimate way that is quite unknown in more highly developed communities. Reference has already been made to the important role of music in pre-European Maori life. Primitive music is primarily vocal, and instrumental music, where it exists at all, is used to accompany singing. An instrumental song has words associated with it. The words are of prime importance and the tune serves the purpose of the words. A “song without words” is a Western concept of music as is also the idea of listening to music as an end in itself. Elsdon Best explains that when a Maori flute player played a “rangi koauau” he would try to suggest the words associated with that tune by his manner of playing the flute. “It would sometimes happen,” he wrote, “that an adept would so play his flute as to make the sounds resemble the wording of a song; in such a case his playing was much admired by women.” The second point of difference between primitive and art music is, then, that in primitive music the words are of primary importance and in art music, music need not and often does not serve the purpose of the words. In other words, the music can be an end in itself.

SONGS HAD A PURPOSE A third difference lies in the restricted range of melody which is a feature of many primitive styles. No attempt is made to use the full range of sounds the human voice is capable of producing. The average, untrained voice has a range of about a tenth but primitive melodies are often based on patterns consisting of two, three or four notes. And, not only are the patterns limited in range, but they are repeated over and over again, with only slight variations of the pattern. To Western ears, this endless repetition goes beyond the limits of endurance but, for the initiated, there is no feeling of monotony because both those who sing and those who listen are concentrating on the words and the purpose of the song. I have noticed that when a group of Maoris are together and one sings a song or chant the others listen intently to the words and show amusement, indignation or sadness according to the character of the words. They even carry on an animated conversation during and after the performance. The Pakeha who listens judges it solely from the Western idea of music for pleasure and hears only a primitive type of melody which soon becomes tedious. In the matter of tone, primitive singers produce nasal, thin, harsh, fierce or indistinct sounds which seldom conform to Western ideas of beautiful particular type of tone can often be found in the tone. Some clues on the reason for the use of a purpose of the song. The hunter luring the game into his traps will use a different type of tone from the witch doctor who is trying to scare away the demon of sickness from his patient. It will be noticed that each characteristic feature of primitive music refers back to the purpose of the song and its relation to some activity of everyday life in the community.

THE POWER OF SONG Another very important aspect of primitive music, which can only be touched on here, is the association of music and magic. This is an age-old partnership which must have come about through the extraordinary psychological effect which music has on the mind of man. It is a common expression to describe a fine performance of music as “sheer magic'. The medical profession today sometimes prescribes listening to music as a cure for certain types of nervous and mental disorders. This hidden power of music has been felt by men in all ages and in varying stages of cultural development, as the following examples, drawn from widely different sources, will show. When David sang before Saul, the sweet sounds of his singing had the effect of turning aside the king's anger and of making him repent of his evil intention of killing David. Krishna, one of the ancient gods of India, played his flute with such ravishing effect that the normal course of nature was altered. “The rivers stopped flowing, the birds halted in their flight and all inanimate things under the sun grew brighter.” In the old German legend of the “Pied Piper” all the children of the town of Hamelin were lured away from their homes by the magic of the piper's music. “Out came the children running Tripping and skipping, ran merrily after the Wonderful music with skipping and laughter:” The flute, with its extraordinary pure tone, has always been the instrument of magic, even more than the human voice. The Maori of former times was not unaware of the magic that slept in the little carved koauau that hung round the chief's neck. When the young and beautiful chieftainess, Hinemoa, heard the love call played by Tutanekai on his flute: