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Wiremu Kerekere presents an episode of the Māori Programme, about traditional Māori music.
- Intro: Mawai Hakona sings "Haere mai".
Unidentified wax cylinder recording of a traditional Māori chant.
- Haare Williams talks about different types of waiata Māori - the traditional and the modern, and academic study of Māori music.
He interviews ethnomusicologist Professor Mervyn McLean of University of Auckland about Māori waiata. The university's archive of Māori music was established in 1970 and recently received a grant from the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council to transcribe, annotate and catalogue the Māori Purposes Fund Board tapes and also the earlier cylinder collection. He talks about the archives work providing copies of recordings to Māori wanting to learn the waiata.
He says agreement was reached that most of the material would be made available at no cost. Some songs have had access restrictions placed on them by the singers, but most are available.
Archival recording of Sir Apirana Ngata leading a haka in the farewell to Sir Peter Buck in 1947. Ngata's work on Māori waiata is continued today by Pei Te Hurinui Jones.
Professor McLean talks about the different styles of Māori music and how they are sung. The technique of chanting without pause is explained. He comments on some well known singers he recorded in the early 1960's: Turau and Marata Te Tomo (Ngāti Tuwharetoa), Kino Hughes (Ngāi Tuhoe), Piri Mokena (Ngāpuhi), Kiri Kahaki (Te Whānau-a-Apanui) and Taita Hune (Whanganui). A recording of Taita reciting the karakia " Ka noho au ki Whanganui" is played.
Prof. McLean talks about how he went about recording Māori singers and his personal approach. He began recording chants in 1958.
Sung chants:
A recording of the waiata "Kahore te mokemoke" sung by Kiri Kakahi (Te Whānau-a-Apanui) and Kino Hughes (Ngāi Tuhoe).
Prof. McLean talks about the history of recording Māori music, starting with the 1919-1923 Dominion Museum expeditions. The university archive has the master tapes taken from the wax cylinders this expedition recorded. There are also the Māori Purposes Fund Board cylinders discovered recently, which were recorded 1926-1934 and are in very good condition, unlike the Dominion Museum cylinders which are often almost unintelligible.
The NZBC Archives has material recorded by its Mobile Recording Unit truck in the 1940s, but this is not publicly available. Then Bill Ngata started recording with an early tape recorder in the 1950s.
An archival recording is played - a cylinder recording recorded in 1923. Although the speaker and the place are unidentifiable, it is thought that the speaker is Reweti Kohere, a contemporary of Sir Apirana Ngata, who welcomes Elsdon Best and Sir Peter Buck onto a Ngāti Porou Marae.
In the second part of the programme, recordings from the 1975 New Zealand Polynesian festival.
- Taniwharau poi chant, "Poia atu taku poi" taken from the 1975 Polynesian Festival.
- Auckland Anglican Māori Club, "Patupatu taku poi", taken from the 1975 Polynesian Festival.