MAORI MUSIC

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 374, 8 November 1932, Page 7

MAORI MUSIC

ITALIAN PROFESSOR MAKES j INVESTIGATIONS INTO HISTORY. S. WANDO ALDROVANDI. Wellington, Saturday. Apart from his skill as a conductor of grand opera, Signor Wando Aldrovandi, of the Imperial Grand Opera Company, is an indnstrious composer of talent and originality. One of his major works is a symphonic poem, "Hymn to the Sea," for orchestra and chorus, which has been heard in Rome and sevcral other Italian cities, and was also performed during the time Signor Aldrovandi was conducting at the Colon Opera House, Buenos Aires, the finest op'era house in the world. in quite another direction the name of Aldrovandi is well known in Milan. He coneeived the idea of setting to music — j'ianoforte and voice — several of the old traditional nursery rhwmes, of which Italy has many. These are not meant to be sung by children, but are for artists of interpretive ability. They were performed with maxked success originally at the Milan Conservatoire of Music, since when they have been sung in various parts of Italy and also Austria, where the critics were laudatory to the innovation. Knowledge Not Easy. "While I am in New Zealand," said Signor Aldrovandi, 'I am endeavouring to make some research into Maori music. I promised to write an article on the subject for the 'Corriere della Sera," Milan's leading journal. While in Auckland I visited the museum there and was shown specimens of ancient Maori nose flutes, and from these and other evidence, I was able to get I am convinced that the preEuropean Maoris had a tonie scale of their own, a scale which, as exemplified in the ancient chants, involved third and perhaps quarter tones. Much of the alleged Maori music is^ I believe, an adaptation of W estern music, 2'iven rhythms which accord with those of the Maori, but at the back of that my conclusion is that the Natives did have a music of their own, strengthened by the fact that they have a . ready ear for music and a natural love | for rhythmical melody. Perhaps in Wellington I will he able to learn something more of the subject, but absolute knowledge is by no means easy to secure."