MAORI MUSIC.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 342, 25 January 1937, Page 4

MAORI MUSIC.

Church Commission To Work For Development Press Association—Copyright. Wellington, To-day. The Church of England has appointed a commission to consider the development of the musical side of Maori church services and the capturing of the idioms of Maori songs with a view of incorporating them in Maori church music, states a Press Association message from London. Interviewed to-day, Mr Johannes Andersen, director of the Alexander Turnbull Library at Wellington, and an eminent authority on Maori music, said that he thought the idea was an excellent one, provided that the Maori himself should originate the themes. “Music is part of the nature of the Polynesian,” said Mr Andersen. “And if encouraged, the Maori is quite capable of composing his own church music. Any attempt of this sort should certainly be made in New Zealand, with the assistance of the Maoris themselves, and I think that Bishop Bennett, of Aotearoa, should be invited to pl-ay a large part in Yt. Tie would see that any modifications adopted were such that Europeans would not object to them, and the Maoris themselves would like them.”