Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T19:34:00.563Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Innovations in Waiata Style

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2019

Mervyn McLean
Mervyn McLean*
Affiliation:
Univ. of Aukland, New Zealand
Get access

Extract

In an earlier paper (McLean 1961)—presented at the IFMC Vienna Conference in 1960—I emphasized what seemed to me to be an extreme conservatism associated with the transmission of traditional Maori singing—or waiata—style. I outlined some of the evidence for this, and indicated ways in which accuracy of transmission was attained in practice. As a sequel, I should like now to examine Maori concepts of accuracy more closely, and go on to consider anomalies presented by such phenomena as traditionally approved reworkings of waiata texts, the undoubted existence of melodic variants of particular songs, and an evident current trend towards accelerated change in waiata singing style itself.

Type
Articles
Information
Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council , Volume 9 , 1977 , pp. 27 - 37
Copyright
Copyright © 1978 By the International Folk Music Council 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Publications Cited

Andersen, Johannes C. 1934 Maori Music with Its Polynesian Background. New Plymouth, N.Z.: Thomas Avery.Google Scholar
Best, Elsdon 1925 Games and Pastimes of the Maori. Wellington, N.Z.: Dominion Museum (Bulletin No. 8).Google Scholar
Best, Elsdon 1959 The Maori School of Learning. Reprint. Wellington, N.Z.: Dominion Museum (Monograph No. 6).Google Scholar
Buck, Peter 1950 The Coming of the Maori. Second edition. Christchurch, N.Z.: Whitcombe and Tombs.Google Scholar
Colenso, William 1880 “Contributions Towards a Better Knowledge of the Maori Race. Part 3: On Their Poetical Genius”, Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, 13:57–84.Google Scholar
Davis, Charles 1855 Maori Momentos. Auckland, N.Z.: Williamson and Wilson.Google Scholar
Firth, Raymond 1959 Economics of the New Zealand Maori. Second revised edition. Wellington, N.Z.: Government Printer.Google Scholar
Grace, John Te H. 1959 Tuwharetoa: The History of the Maori People of the Taupo District. Wellington, N.Z.: A.H. and A.W. Reed.Google Scholar
Greenwood, William 1942 The Upraised Hand, or the Spiritual Significance of the Ringatu Faith. Wellington, N.Z.: Polynesian Society (Memoir No. 21).Google Scholar
Grey, Sir George 1853 Ko Nga Moteatea me Nga Hakirara o Nga Maori. Wellington, N.Z.: Robert Stokes.Google Scholar
Grey, Sir George 1857 Ko Nga Waiata Maori. London: Trubner.Google Scholar
Mair, Gilbert 1900 Letter to Mr. Hamilton about musical instruments of the Maori. Wellington, N.Z.: Alexander Turnbull Library, Best Papers B, 4, 1/4, M.S. 1900).Google Scholar
Mead, S.M. 1969 “Imagery, Symbolism and Social Values in Maori Chants”, Journal of the Polynesian Society, 78(3):378–404.Google Scholar
McLean, Mervyn 1961 “Oral Transmission in Maori Music”. JIFMC, 13:59–62.Google Scholar
McLean, Mervyn 1964 “A Preliminary Analysis of 87 Maori Chants”, Ethnomusicology, 8(1):41–48.Google Scholar
McLean, Mervyn 1965 “Song Loss and Its Social Context amongst the New Zealand Maori”, Ethnomusicology, 9(3):296–304.Google Scholar
McLean, Mervyn 1966 “A New Method of Melodic Interval Analysis as Applied to Maori Chant”, Ethnomusicology, 10(2):174–90.Google Scholar
McLean, Mervyn 1969 “An Analysis of 651 Maori Scales”, YIFMC, 1:123–64.Google Scholar
McLean, Mervyn 1970 “The Music of the Maori Chant”, in A.T. Ngata and Pei Te Hurinui, eds., Nga Moteatea, (Wellington, N.Z.: Polynesian Society), Part 3:xvii–xxviii.Google Scholar
McLean, Mervyn 1977 “Review of Kiwi 12″ LP disc ‘Nga Moteatea Sung by Rangi Te Kura Dewes’ “, Journal of the Polynesian Society, 86(1).Google Scholar
McLean, Mervyn and Orbell, Margaret 1975 Traditional Songs of the Maori. Wellington, N.Z.: A.H. and A.W. Reed.Google Scholar
Salmond, Anne 1975 Hui: A Study of Maori Ceremonial Gatherings. Wellington, N.Z.: A.H. and A.W. Reed.Google Scholar
Smith, S. Percy 1899 “On the Tohunga-Maori”, Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, 32:253–70.Google Scholar
Thomson, Arthur S. 1859 The Story of New Zealand. London: Murray. 2 vols.Google Scholar