Classical

A rediscovery project has unearthed highquality local songs.

Prolific New Zealand composer Alice Forrester Mackay wrote a moving song early in World War I called The Grey Ship, part of a cycle called Māoriland. A setting of poetry by her sister-in-law Jessie Mackay, it depicts a woman watching a troop ship carrying her new husband away from shore.

This week, RNZ Concertt will broadcast The Grey Ship andnd other songs by the Mackays in a programme of 37 songs titled Call of the Huia, volume one of a “rediscovery” project by conductor and music editor Michael Vinten, the 2020 recipient of the Lilburn Research Award. Some 116 art songs of the three-volume collection were composed here betweenween

1895 and 1950 and are beingng pub-published with accompanying CDs featuring New Zealand singers.

Most of the songs were previously unavailable. Aware that singers and teachers were troubled by a dearth of good local repertoire, Vinten sought high-quality songs “that people would want to perform these days”. The collection is not, he says, a historical overview, although some songs create a picture of life in Aotearoa at the time.

About a third are by women. “Women have always been accompanists, singing and piano teachers; it’s not surprising to find them writing music on this domestic scale,” Vinten says. Māori women were

Rediscovered composers Alice Forrester Mackay and, below, Erima Maewa Kaihau.

both poets and composers. Four waiata in te reo Māori by Erima Maewa Kaihau are part of this week’s broadcast, including Haere Rā, originally published as Now Is the Hour.

Another third of the songs are by menmen who travelledt to this country fromfrom overseas,o the rest by New Zealand-Zeaborn men, many with careersca outside music. “Mathematiciane Alexander Aitken wrotew a fabulous song whilew a student, but didn’t continue composing,” says Vinten. “He became a professorp of mathematics ata Edinburgh University.” Some who immigrated to New Zealand were musicians. EnglishmanEngli Bernard Page, a WellingtonWellingt city organist, dedicated two songs to Katherine Mansfield’s younger sister, Jeanne Beauchamp. Vinten notes Page’s “risqué” songs Your Grave Grey Eyes and Cinnamon Curls were probably compromising for the married composer.

Singing teachers are already pouncing on the collection, which fills a significant gap. Volume one is available from SOUNZ, Centre for New Zealand Music. l

Call of the Huia, a volume of NZ art songs rediscovered by Michael Vinten, Music Alive, RNZ Concert, Tuesday, 8.00pm. Scores with recordings available from sounz.org.nz.