Maori Traditional Folk Music: A Case Study
Rebecca Palmer
SID: 999821866
MUS11 SS2
Sarah Messbauer
6 September 2015
Word Count: 2,005
Maori Traditional Folk Music: A Case Study
The Maori peoples settled in New Zealand in 1200 A.D. (The McGraw-Hill Companies). It was not until the late 18th century that any other peoples—the first being Europeans—arrived on New Zealand and interacted with the Maori (The McGraw-Hill Companies). This long period of time in complete isolation allowed the Maoris to develop and fortify their own individual culture before foreigners came into their world. While only 15% of the New Zealand population today constitutes the modern Maori population, they still maintain the traditional folk musical style of their culture in the present day (The McGraw-Hill Companies).
Maori Music: An Introduction
Maori folk music is the traditional music of New Zealand, and was invented and produced by the Maori peoples starting around 1200 A.D. Their musical style, called kapa haka, consists of songs, chants, and dances (The McGraw-Hill Companies).
This form of music is not very well known around the world, but it is well known to many rugby sports fans. The Maori people perform a traditional, native Maori dance, a haka, when the national New Zealand rugby sports team plays (The McGraw Hill-Companies). The haka is a type of dance called a shouted posture dance where 20 men shout, move perfectly in synch, and make different facial expressions. The original purpose for this type of Maori performance was to welcome and entertain people as well as to prepare for battle and establish or even change a tribe’s reputation—fitting for a pre-rugby game performance from the sports team’s native country (The McGraw-Hill Companies).
Maori folk music does not employ many traditional Maori instruments; this musical style consists mostly of vocals and most of the instruments they do use are European, such as the guitar (The McGraw-Hill Companies). Among the handful of Maori instruments that are valuable to this style of music are mostly percussion and aerophones (wind instruments), and include the poi, the putatara, and the pahu (see “Maori Music: The Sound” below).
There are several types of Maori music. There is the vocal music which includes singing and chanting. Sung vocal music is called, waiata-a-ringa, which translates into “action songs.” Most of these types of songs involve movements and dancing, mostly with the arms. This particular form of Maori song was influenced by music from Europe and was developed around 1900 (The McGraw-Hill Companies). The other form of vocal Maori music is chanting music, which has no influence from other cultures or musical styles; it was developed before Europeans voyaged to New Zealand in the late 1700s. There are many forms of chant, each with a different significance, meaning, and corresponding event. Songs have a specific purpose and are sung or chanted at the appropriate, corresponding activity or event (The McGraw-Hill Companies).
Other popular, culturally important performances of the Maori people are the poi and the titi torea. The poi is the name of a traditional Maori instrument—balls attached together by string—and the performance that utilizes this specific instrument. This dance involves both men and women singing while the women dance, twirl, and provide instrumentation with the poi instruments (The McGraw-Hill Companies). Titi torea is another Maori dance performance. During this performance, wooden sticks are hit on the ground, flipped, and passed to other performers to create an instrumental song with a rhythm and pulse. This is a very challenging art form and requires great skill, practice, patience, and discipline (The McGraw-Hill Companies).
While this old, traditional New Zealand musical style has not influenced many other world musics, Maori traditional folk has been influenced by European culture, music, and religion (see “Maori Music: The Cultural Issues” below for more details) and is still very important and significant to the modern Maori peoples and their culture (The McGraw-Hill Companies).
Maori Music: The Sound
The first explorers to travel to the Pacific and encounter the Maori people in the late 18th century wrote about the Maori folk music as strange, “slow and solemn,” and “a dreary monotone.” Their music, before being influenced by the Western culture, correlated with their cultural beliefs about religion, magic, and healing (Newzealandgovt.nz).
The Maori peoples have only few traditional instruments, as they use wooden sticks and their bodies in place of drums to keep the beat and the pulse of their songs (Newzealandgovt.nz). Besides their bodies and the wooden sticks, the collection of Maori instruments consists mainly of flutes and trumpets. The main instruments used for this traditional music are the koauau, nguru, and putorino. These instruments were usually made out of stone, whale ivory, wood, or bone (Newzealandgovt.nz).
The koauau is a Maori flute. It is a small, cylinder-shaped, simple, traditional flute played almost vertically, rather than horizontally like the Western classical flutes of today. The sound is a lower, smooth pitch of a traditional flute (Newzealandgovt.nz). The nguru is another type of Maori small flute, but shaped differently than the koauau. It is also known as the nose flute, possibly because the word nguru translates as moan or snore. The head is wide, and it gets narrower going down to the opposite end of the instrument that is curved upwards. Both flutes are played similarly as well as creating a similar sound. Of all of the Maori flutes, the nguru is the most common (Newzealandgovt.nz).
Koauau demonstration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQOt4t9wGNs
Nguru demonstration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHYd0hdDR8I
The puorino is a traditional, indigenous Moari trumpet. This instrument is an original instrument of the Maori peoples, and contrasts drastically with Western trumpets. It is long and narrow and is wider in the middle with a large hole on the top. It is played similarly to the koauau flute, but produces a higher pitch than the flutes (Newzealandgovt.nz).
Putorino demonstration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xeHyxErPV8
Karakia is a very important form of music to the Maori people. It is a sacred form of monotone chanting. It is usually mostly vocals with no instrumentation and is rhythmic with a steady beat, or pulse, with no break within the chant. This is performed at special occasions to celebrate life (Newzealandgovt.nz). An example of karakia is the chant about fishing. This performance celebrates an important part of life—hunting—and is specific to an activity or event within the Maori culture and society (Newzealandgovt.nz).
Karakia example: http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/video/6799/maui-chants-a-fishing-karakia
Another important type of Maori folk music is the waiata songs. There are many different types of this musical style, but the two main styles are waiata tangi—laments—and waiata aroha—love songs. Waiata songs are very expressive in feelings, and sound like wailing. These songs only have between two and four melodies, and microtonal intervals are employed during these songs. Some of these songs can be a chant, but they are mostly sung (Newzealandgovt.nz). An example of a waiata performance is a song called Homai. There is one lead singer who is singing rather than chanting, and the audience is singing along in the background. The lead singer is also playing a European guitar rather than a traditional Maori instrument (see link below).
Waiata example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceb1iVjSUM4
The Maori peoples’ singing voice is nasally. They sing using the method of tightening their throat muscles, which is difficult for women when singing high notes, so women use another method of singing than the men, known as the chest voice (Newzealandgovt.nz). Women have a rich, deep pitch when singing lower, but, because of this difficulty when singing, they use the chest voice which creates shrill sounds when singing higher notes. Both women and men sing action songs and ritual chants that are slower and “dignified” (Newzealandgovt.nz). Solos are rare in the Maori musical style; a leader of an ensemble leads the group and sings vocables, but it is required that everyone sings altogether. Sometimes, singers complete verses by yelling vocables such as ‘A’ or ‘E,’ which is called hianga (Newzealandgovt.nz).
Maori Music: The Cultural Issues
Maori people, culture, and traditional folk music has been influenced by a class struggle that took place in the late 1960s, and by European peoples in terms of religion starting in the late 18th century.
The Trade Union Movement in the late 1960s involved local Maori peoples protesting low wages and undesirable work conditions (Ahu). This movement influenced the creation of a new subgenre of Maori music, protest songs, as well as songs about the lives of workers. Some topics of these new types of folk songs are farming, the country, and people met at local places, such as pubs (Ahu).
The Europeans significantly influenced the Maori people and their music in a religious context. Not only did the Europeans influence the Maori peoples’ instrumentation, they also influenced the sounds and melodies of Maori music (Buchanan). Guitars and ukuleles began to be used widely in Maori music after being introduced by the Europeans. The voice became very common in Maori folk music after the initial influence of the Europeans, and they veered away from a heavy use of instruments because of the influence of Christianity from the Europeans. The Maori people learned about different harmonies than their traditional style from the European’s religious Victorian hymns, and incorporated this new style in their songs (Buchanan; Christchurch City Libraries). Although they were influenced by Christianity and this Church musical style, Maori religion, culture, and original characteristics has largely survived within their music. They have adopted some aspects of the European style of music—the aforementioned characteristics—but their cultural and religious ideas and views have mostly been maintained through the present day (Darge).
Ethnomusicologists mainly dislike the general pattern of the West influencing other cultures’ musical styles and traditions (Darge). Specifically with the Maori peoples and culture, though, scholars aren’t as worried or upset at this European influence on the traditional folk music. This is because the Maori people have made a comeback or “strong revival” of their traditional music after the immense European influence (Darge). The intensity of the commercialism of the European influence has been lessened due to this Maori music revival—religion and culture has been well-maintained because of this cultural comeback, though European influence is still evident in Maori music, included the guitar (Darge).
The Maori people do not like the idea of westerners studying their culture, tradition, and music in this way, however (Darge). They believe that their modern music, even with the western, European influence, is just as authentic as their old, traditional music, as it is, since all cultures and musics transform over time and a culture’s new music is just as authentic as their old music (Darge).
Maori traditional folk music is a unique and very old musical style. It began around 1200 A.D. after the Maori peoples settled in New Zealand (The McGraw-Hill Companies). The modern Maori folk music is a blend of indigenous sounds and Western—mainly European but also including American—influence (Darge). Their songs are mostly vocals, including singing and chanting. Traditional Maori instruments are mostly aeorophones (wind instruments) and percussion (drums), yet they are few. European instruments such as the guitar are very popular and instruments in general are not very common within the Maori culture and music industry (Newzealandgovt.nz). Class tension and European culture and religion greatly influenced Maori traditional folk music. The class struggles created a new sub-genre within Maori folk music (Darge). European religion influenced the Maori music in regard to sound, instruments, and vocals (Darge). This culture is very old and developed for so long without foreign interactions and influence. However, the Europeans greatly influenced the Maori music and altered many aspects of the style even though their culture had been fortified for so long (The McGraw-Hill Companies). But, since the Maori culture was able to develop for such a long time without outside influence, their music is still fairly close to the original and authentic sound and style to the early Maoris even though the European culture had altered many aspects of the music (The McGraw-Hill Companies). It can be seen as at equilibrium: the traditional style of Maori music has prevailed throughout the centuries, yet the Europeans have contributed to the creation of the modern Maori folk music enough to be noticeable.
Works Cited
Ahu, Te. The Evolution of Contemporary Maori Protest. Accessed 23 August 2015. http://maorinews.com/writings/papers/other/protest.html.
An Encyclopedia of New Zealand, 1966. Maori Music. A. H. McLintock, ed. Accessed 13 August 2015. http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/1966/maori-musicaori_eng.html.
Buchanan, Dorothy and Keri Kaa. Discover Te Kohinga Taonga. Traditional Maori Music. Accessed 23 August 2015. http://digital1.natlib.govt.nz/support/discover/m3essay.htm.
Christchurch City Libraries. Early New Zealand Music. Accessed 23 August 2015. http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Music/New-Zealand/Early/.
Darge, Moniek. Traditional Maori-Music From New-Zealand. Accessed 23 August 2015. http://www.logosfoundation.org/etnische_muziek/m Newzealandgovt.nz.
Newzealandgovt.nz. An Encyclopedia of New Zealand, 1966. Maori Music. A. H. McLintock, ed. Accessed 13 August 2015. http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/1966/maori-music
The McGraw-Hill Companies. Maori Folk Music: Folk and Traditional Styles. Accessed 6 August 2015. http://spotlightonmusic.macmillanmh.com/n/teachers/articles/folk-and- traditional-styles/maori-folk-music