Ethnomusicology: Developments of Māori Music

Ethnomusicology Developments of Mori MusicMusic in Context A EthnomusicologyDiscuss some of the more recent social, cultural and technical developments that have informed studies in ethnomusicologyIntroductionFor this essay I will be focusing on the Mori people of New Zealand, and looking at the changes and developments in both their traditional music and that of their modern popular culture, much of which is adopted from American and European sources. I will include the work of some(prenominal) ethnomusicologists who have experience in the areas of Mori music, modern New Zealand popular culture, and American rap music and its sphere of entrance.The Mori people Have had their protest traditional songs since they first inhabited New Zealand. However, there have been changes to the cultural situation of the music and how it is received by both the white public and Mori youth. In this essay I will focus on three points, the transcendence of Mori traditional music, the changes made as a reaction to this and the influence of other modern genres and styles, specific ally American rap, to discuss these changes and how they have informed ethnomusicology either positively or negatively. In doing so I hope to deliver that a vibrant musical continuum is working in New Zealand youth culture, informed by both their traditions and outside influences, and yet is making original refreshful music because of this.Song loss and researching traditional musicThe Mori have inhabited New Zealand since the 14th century when they arrived from other Pacific islands seeking newfound lands to migrate to and cultivate. It is hard for an ethnomusicologist to find or have found any songs surviving from the earliest parts of Mori history, for several reasons. Firstly, as many Mori songs are to do with traditions and practices, when those traditions or practices become obsolete or go out of use, then the songs will be lost with them.For example, when canoes started to be replaced with s ail ships, all songs about canoeing were either lost, or modified to talk about sail ships instead. Secondly, because of superstitious beliefs, many songs have restricted performances, where only certain members of the tribe or community are allowed to attend and listen or join in. This also limits the subroutine of Mori who will learn theses songs, as they are taught purely by oral tradition.The teaching itself is a point of bet, as traditionally the folk songs of Mori are taught in a very strict sense,as they are not meant to change organically or be re-interpreted, apart from if the community as a whole learns a new version in line with a new meaning, as with the canoe/sail ship example above. In most cases, the songs will be passed down through generations, preserved as accurately as possible, which would in fact make it easy for an ethnomusicologist to discover these antiques of folk song.However, these traditions were cut abruptly short by the intervention of European missio naries. The missionaries were accepted to a degree by Mori curiosity, and arrived decades before the treaty of Waitangi in 1840,which signified the taking of New Zealand by the English under queen Victoria and the authoritative surrender of the Mori as a people (though conflict did continue for years). These missionaries took it upon themselves to educate the seemingly primitive Mori tribes in every aspect of Christian and European ideals. This included their music, as the Europeans found their traditional folk chants idolatrous, indecent and even lascivious.The missionaries set about their task quickly, so much so that by 1830, a letter sent from a missionary to his brother-in-law at home in England readQuietness and good order has succeeded to their native wildness we neer hear anything of their songs or dances.In place of their traditional music, the missionaries taught them hymns and church music. In doing so, they also taught the rudiments of western music theory, which they encouraged the Mori to adopt as their new musical language. This meant that many new Mori songs were created, using traditional words and stories, but with diatonic harmonies that made them listenable and distinguishable to a European ear.Though this was widely ac contendledged and followed through to the Moris own teaching, some traditional songs were kept hidden and secreted in both Mori text collections and those of curious westerners. One much(prenominal) was John McGregor, a guard of captured Mori warriors held in a beached hulk at Auckland harbour. John collected and later published a large number of songs written down by the captives.He could be said to have been one of the first to research and record Mori traditional music, yet this white interest in the music did not start to reappear until the twentieth century.This change occurred on a grand scale over the next century, and to this day Mori music is seen as synonymous with hymns and European-based melodies. This view h as been widely held by the white general public for all of the twentieth century, though many Mori know it not to be entirely accurate. Ethnomusicologist Mervyn Mclean stated that among the public at large, however, such songs are a mostly hidden tradition.A revival of the Mori culture began in the 1960s, dubbed the Mori renaissance,and with it came both the technology and the motivation to record and preserve the traditional songs that were left among the populace. This made the job of collecting and studying Mori music a lot easier for ethnomusicologists, as up until this utilisation of new recording technology, they had been hard pressed to source singers and songs out. Mclean mentions that preparations for fieldwork took an inordinate amount of timein the late 1950s, and mentions that without the huge advantage of merging several willing Mori Elders I would not have had the resources to survive in the field.Changes and modern learningThe traditional Mori song forms, as well as being non-diatonic as previously stated, were in fact completely incompatible with western tonal language. Though the melodies sung could be transcribed into musical notation, they were not in a fixed time signature or particular key as we would understand it. The lack of harmonic movement perplex witnesses to performances in the nineteenth century, as the Mori music relied more on repetition, both rhythmic and harmonic, and different performance approaches by different singers, for the colour and renewal in their music.