Maori Song and Music

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 1, 18 July 1930, Page 9

Maori Song and Music

By

Johannes C.

Andersen

T ig not easy to arrive’at an idea of what the Maori thinks of song; nor is this to be wondered at. For one thing, it is a little late in the day to begin questioning. Again, how many Buro- ( peans could give definite or satisfactory replies if questioned on the technique of music or song? Writers like Helmholz, on the analysis of sound, or Plunket Greene, on the analysis of song, came at a late period in the development of musical taste-at a date when there was something settled and definite in men’s ideas of music and their utterance of it. _What can be expected of the Maori, who had’ not yet reached to the evolution of harmony, to say nothing of counterpoint -who had hardly even reached the stage at which our own. enharmonic primitive folk-song evolved? If we can examine an old poem or song that has escaped the modernising touch of a ‘Percy, ‘we shall find the phrases of indefinite lengths. In a modern poem or song the phrases are of fairly definite and equal lengths, the full phrase occupying a full verse of eight or seven beats, usually broken into two lines of four beats, or of four and three-the "long measure" and "fcommon measure" of church hymns. Since music followed the words, the four-bar and eight-bar themes in music have their origin in the four and eight accented lines and verses of poetry.

lx the old poems, most of which were songs, the lines and verses were not so definitely regular-the regularity finally erystallising into the stanza of four or eight lines, or of sixteen or thirty-two bars. In singing, the lines took on the character of Gregorian chants, where there are short melodic phrases separated by conventional breves to which an indefinite number of syllables may be sung. The general trend in singing seems to have been towards the evolution of phrases that could be sung in one breath, or in two breaths. in church music the old and the new live side by side in the Gregorian chants, and the hymns ancient and modern.

ven in church music, however, the melody is modern throughout in its definiteness-in its being confined to steps of tone or semitone; in the folk-songs the melody, as the rhythm, and’ the length of the phrases, was ad lib. throughout. The. introduction of metre and armony resulted in the standardising, more or less, of melody, rhythm and phrase-length. There is evidence of similar evolution, or trends towards similar evolution, in Maori music. There is also a vigorous survival of what is probably a yet older character -a character that has quite disappeared from modern music. In many, if not all the Maori Karakia, usually sung or intoned in a rhythmical monotone, the whole is delivered on one breath. This would, of course, be impossible for one person, so where two take part one sings as long as his breath will earry the sound, the second takes up the words on the same note just before the breath of the first is expended, so that there is an unbroken flow of sound.

When a company of people is singing one of their monotone songs of welcome the break in the general body of sound is ‘quite perceptible when one or other stops to take breath. The one particular voice ceases for a moment or two, then resumes; another ceases, and resumes, and so on, the general murmur never ceasing tjll the close, where there is usually a ‘drop in the hianga through one tone to four or more. The breath may be taken at any place-even in the middle of a word; and, in resuming, the singer may start again in the middle of a word. There seems to have been an aim to make the breath last as long as possible, and there were partciular songs. for practice in holding the breath. Dieffenbach writes ("Travels in New Zealand," vol. 2, p. 82: Lond., 1843): "A very common sport amongst children consists in opening and shutting the fingers, and bending the arm in a certain manner, when the following words are said, the whole of which must be completed in a single breath: ‘Katahi ti ka hara mai tapati tapato re ka rau ua ka rau ua ka noho te kiwi ka pohe wa tautau to pi to pa ka huia mai ka tako te rangi kai ana te wetu kai.ana te marama 0 te Tiu e rere ra runga e tepe ra peke o hua kauere turakina te. arero wiwi wawa ke ke ke te manu 4 > ki

I HE division of a song or kara kia into definite lines, and verses (a definite aggregate of lines), and stanzas (a more or less definite aggregate of verses, usually two or four) is a stage of evolution to which Maori music had not yet attained, but indications of which can clearly be seen. It is a natural evolution to which the poetry and music of all peoples are subject, for the same forms both in poetry and music have evolved independently among the various peoples. ‘ In Maori songs the stanzas are of all manner of lengths, like the old "batches" or "tirades" in songs such as the "Romance of Roland." Among the Ngati Porou these stanzas are known as whiti, the divis-

ions within the stanza, the irregular lines, being each called te upoko: they. are heads. Every song has its principal note, oro the melody rising and falling a little above and below this note. The little drops in fractions of a tone are whatiinga. There are often, especially in laments and love-songs-waiata-tangi and wai-ata-aroha-curious and ‘affecting breaks, noticed more often on the letter h; emotional breaks, introducing a grace-note, This break is called hotu ("a heart-note’’). It is very noticeable in the songs of Caruso, and with its emotional power behind it it always produces a powerful effect. The resting-place, or breathingplace, is called whakataanga, and there is here often a slight drop, an incipient hianga, The act of starting a song is called takitaki or hapai. In a song that is sung on one breath the leader will carry on the dominant part or theme, the tahu, the chorus (Continued on page 45.)

bbe ttt Maori Music (Concluded from page 9.) coming in before his breath is exhaust_ed, If the ‘song lags, the leader urges the singers by adding volume to his voice-that is whakarewa. If a leader or chorus forgets a song, and the tahy is broken, that is ka whati; the break is whati, and is an evil omen. Sometimes. when al] is going well, the leader wiJl raise his pitch and sing a tenor harmony: that is hi. At Whareponga, dn the east coast, 4 company of wonien were singing; the song was going briskly and without restraint, and one of the singers raised her pitch, singing very softly a fifth above the others. This was very effective. There is a word, irirangi, which I first heard at Palmerston North when speaking of music to Dr. Buck (Te Rangi Hiroa). He remarked casually ‘that the pedple often thought they heard a, floating voice, or spirit-voice, singing with them; they called it itirangi. It was a chance rémark, but

I remembered it when, at Wharéponga, I first heard, as it were, a faint voice sounding above the voices of the women singing. I asked the Hon. A. T. Ngata, who was présent, if the faint voice, to which I drew attention, was what they cajled irirangi; he said, Yes; and sdon one of the women, who also must have heard it, raised her: pitch and sang the same note as the faint voice. Speaking to Dr. Buck again later on, he rémarked that the old people would often sing togéther to get the voice, te reo itirangi, and when they héard it, would sing the song over and over, listening to it. In "Williams’s Dictionary," under irirangi, is a quotation, "Mehemea ka ‘wailata tatou ki roto i te whare, a ka -rangona te waha e waiata ana i waho, he waha wairua, he irirangi tena." (If we are singing in the house and 2 voice is heard singing outside, a spiritvoice, that it an irirangi). It was said to be an evil omen; but it certainly . was not always so regarded. The note heard is a harmonic, and may occasionally be heard when singing on an "ng sound. At Te Araroa, Bay of Plenty, a Woman struck in now and again a third above the others, maintaining the soft harmony not only on the principal note, byt also on intricate emhellishments. Incipient harmony is indi.cated, and no doubt all harmony had such simple beginnings; the ear perceives the harmonics before science teaches what they are, and the ear finds them pleasing or.otherwise before science explains why. Probably harmoni¢s are heard more commonly than is réalised; they may be heard occasionally in the notes of birds, and it is no doubt the harmonics that form. thé basis 6f at least sofne Of the morning choruses of the bellbird and ful. A itellow voice Is meant by the expression puwhawhango-a voice that sounds as if slightly muted, with just a trace of the effect of Singitig through a comb-a slightly nasal resdnant quality. The restricted i soynd (ee) is avoided -as muéh 4& possible, as it makes the sound thin; it is madé-e (as in "net") or a if it cannot be avoided,. or is precéded by a to make ‘ae: this is especially observed at the head-ends (liné-ends). The motion of the hands during singing is aroarohaki, oer aroarokapa, There is a saying, Ka kawea e te manamdnahau ka aroarohaki (The singer wis so elated by the song that he -broke jnto the appropriate accompanying gestures). There is an infinite variety of these gestures, and great trouble is taken in perfecting them, certain movements seeming to the ‘Maori to go better with certain types -of music. The hands are moved now ‘here, now there, now bending at the wrists, now trembling with the wri§ts as pivots, now held to the right, now to the left, now close to the body or head, now at arm's length; the knees are bent in rhythmic time, the foot taps, the head is inelined, the shoulders and the hips sway, the eyes are ex-' pressive, the lips-not a portion of the body but enters into the movements. As. different songs are sung, one is. astonished at the variety. of the gestures, and the difference of the gestures, accompanying the different songs, at the unison of the performers. They give whole-hearted expression to their feelings, whatever they may be, and the listener-obsetver is continually tempted te join in, so powerful is the ‘effect of the rhythm and the move. -ménts and the expression of the niusic.