Meanwhile, here in New Zealand
The revival of interest in Folk Music which began in the late 1950's also reached New Zealand.
The revival of interest in Folk Music which began in the late 1950's also reached New Zealand.
In Wellington, Mary Seddon established the Monde Marie. This was one one of several "bohemian" coffee bars which sprung up in Wellington, and other cities, to champion live performances of folk music.
The Monde Marie became known for performance of traditional folk music, and so began the search for traditional songs from earlier times in New Zealand.
Wellingtons Folk Coffee Bars
Looking to collect songs from and about New Zealand's colonial past was Rona Bailey. She, along with Neil Colquhoun collected enough material to create an album titled New Zealand Folk Songs: Song of a Young Country. This was published by Kiwi Pacific Albums in 1971, and followed a year later with a book of songs of the same title, written by Neil Colquhoun and published by AH and AW Reed.
Song of a Young Country
In 2010 this book was updated by Neil Colquhoun and published by Steel-Roberts. Around New Zealand others were collecting and writing songs of New Zealand, often needing to compose tunes to go with snatches of verse; amongst them were Rudy Sunde, Robyn and Mitch Park.
In 1958, Peter Cape recorded the first of his songs about Kiwi life, Perhaps one of his better known titles being Taumaranui on the Main Trunk Line.
Phil Garland was a major contributor in the promotion of New Zealand Folk Songs. He collected as much material as he could find, performed the songs all over New Zealand, recorded numerous albums and wrote books about his collecting and about the songs he discovered.
Mike Harding is also a major contributor in the collection and promotion of New Zealand songs, his book 'When the Pakeha Sings of Home' gathering together references to a large amount of material.
Mike has also recorded albums of the songs, written new songs, and has toured New Zealand extensively over the past forty years.
John Archer became interested in New Zealand Folk songs and how they reflected our culture. He also wrote quite a few himself.
In 1998 John launched the 'New Zealand Folk Song' website, initially to share the music he collected.
This has evolved into a major collection and a valuable resource for anyone interested in finding songs from and about New Zealand.
John Archer's Repository of NZ Folk
More recently, Chris Priestly has been collecting stories of interesting characters from NZ's past and writing songs about these fascinating people. These songs are, collectively, Unsung Heroes (songs and stories from New Zealand's distant past) and Chris has gathered together a group of very talented musicians to help him perform and record these songs.
For more detailed information about these people who have been key figures in the development of traditional style folk music in New Zealand, check our links, which are mostly to the relevant articles published on the Audio Culture website, funded by NZ On Air.
Listen to a couple of New Zealand's Folk songs recently discovered and recorded by Scottish Musicians!
Traditional folk music has always depended on enthusing the next generation to enjoy the music, to reinterpret it and to reinvigorate it. Traditional folk music is like a tree. From its roots in Medieval times, and on through the ages, grow the music and stories; of celebration and ritual, of lovers parted by cruel circumstances, tall tales of daring and trickery, tales to entertain and tales from which we can learn about life. Choruses to join in, tunes to dance to, tunes to play together. Our task is to nurture the tree, to keep it growing new branches relevant for the present and supporting a future which is always connected to the past.
