NGA MOTEATEA: THE SONGS
Sir Apirana Ngata, Pei Te Hurinui Jones and Hirini Moko Mead
AUP hbk, and 2 CDs, $70
Review by Henry Johnson
Nga Moteatea is the last book in a four-volume series on Maori song.
This particular volume was first published in 1990, the other three volumes appearing in 1959 and in revised edition in 2004.
The book contains the texts of 93 songs, including chants, laments and many other song types. The layout of the book is extremely accessible and useful, with each song text written in Maori and in English.
Before each text, a short explanation of the song is given, which serves as a valuable way of understanding the place and meaning of each piece. For example, one can learn about the source of a specific song, as well as the meaning of key terms in the text.
Several indexes are included, which show song titles, authors and tribes. Moreover, the book comes with two compact disks that provide recordings of the songs and were collected by Mervyn McLean of the Archive of Maori and Pacific Music.
Sir Apirana Ngata (1874-1950) was a leading Maori scholar who collected numerous songs (either the texts or recordings).
The first three volumes included translations by Pei Te Hurinui Jones, but the first edition of volume four did not include English translations. For this new edition, however, Hirini Moko Mead of Ngata Awa provides extremely useful English translations and annotations.
This revised volume completes a series of four very informative books that helps document the recent history of Maori music making, while also providing a better understanding of the contexts and meaning of Maori song.
- Henry Johnson is associate professor of music at Otago University.
