Making Our Own—Two Ethnographies of the Vernacular in New Zealand Music: Tramping Club Singsongs and the Māori Guitar Strumming Style
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Making our own—two ethnographies of the vernacular in New Zealand music: tramping club singsongs and the Māori guitar strumming style by Michael Brown A thesis submitted to Victoria University of Wellington/Massey University in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Music New Zealand School of Music 2012 ii Abstract This work presents two ethnographies of the vernacular in New Zealand music. The ethnographies are centred on the Wellington region, and deal respectively with tramping club singsongs and the Māori guitar strumming style. As the first studies to be made of these topics, they support an overall argument outlined in the Introduction, that the concept of ―vernacular‖ is a valuable way of identifying and understanding some significant musical phenomena hitherto neglected in New Zealand music studies. ―Vernacular‖ is conceptualised as an informal, homemade approach that enables people to customise music-making, just as language is casually manipulated in vernacular speech. The different theories and applications which contribute to this perspective, taken from music studies and other disciplines, are examined in Chapter 1. A review of relevant New Zealand music literature, along with a methodological overview of the ethnographies is presented in Chapter 2. Each study is based upon different mixtures of techniques, including participant-observer fieldwork, oral history, interviews, and archival research. They can be summarised as follows: Tramping club singsongs: a medium of informal self-entertainment among New Zealand wilderness recreationists in the mid-twentieth century. The ethnography focuses on two clubs in the Wellington region, the Tararua Tramping Club and the Victoria University College Tramping Club, during the 1940s-1960s period, when changing social mores, tramping‘s camaraderie and individualism, and the clubs‘ different approaches, gave their singsongs a distinctive character. Chapters 3–5. The Māori guitar strumming style: a self-taught, accessible, and versatile accompaniment used widely in Māori music since the 1940s. The ethnography includes interviews from the Wellington region about the use of the Māori strumming style for party singing, a field study undertaken with the kapa haka group Ngāti Pōneke Young Māori Club (Wellington), and a survey of the style‘s use in New Zealand recorded music and its reception in public discourse. Chapters 6–8. iii Both ethnographies show accessible forms of music-making being shaped in numerous ways through participants taking a vernacular approach. Although they also reveal that this approach may be subsumed by other musical values, in each case the special value of the vernacular is clear: with tramping club singsongs, it enabled these informal events to embody the liberties trampers craved in post-World War II life; and with the Māori guitar strumming style, it has helped Māori people for many decades to sustain their social values and cultural identities as an indigenous minority under pressure. Both studies highlight the liberties the vernacular bestows upon people to directly make-their- own music to suit changing circumstances. Conclusion. The ethnographies are supported by additional appendices on a CD-ROM, including listings of tramping-singsong repertoire, selected tramping texts, musical-instrument import statistics, and a discography, while a CD and DVD provide selections of archival sound recordings, and ethnographic audio and video. iv Acknowledgments This thesis was researched and written as three ethnographies, but due to administrative requirements placed on word limits, one case study—community singing in 1930s Wellington—has been cut. Many people have contributed to this thesis and I am grateful for all the support I have received. This project was made possible due to the enthusiasm of those people whose music-making was being studied. Thank you to everybody who agreed to be interviewed and the many others who have helped by way of conversations, letters, emails, and by providing material. With each ethnography, I would like to acknowledge the help of: Tramping club singsongs: Dave Gobey, Brenda Neill, Andy Andersen, Chris Horne, Janet King, Don Brown, Denis McCord, Lindsay Cuthbertson, Don Boswell, John Ross, John O‘Malley, Colin Dalziel, Maurice Perry, David Somerset, Frank Fitzgerald, Pip Piper, Betty Purdie, Jan Heine, John Rundle, Judith Claridge, Graham Claridge, Kath Offer, Wayne Griffen, Bill Gates, Pam Gates, John Gates, Andrew Gates, Ian Baine, John Grace, Trevor Mowbray, Mary Mowbray, Jean Nolan, John Atkinson, Christabel Jackson, David Somerset, Tony Somerset, Frank Dement, Naomi Dement, Linda Lawrence, Anne Milburn, Mike Murray, Hugh Price, Beverley Price, Stephanie Cocks, Tong Young, Vicky Wogan, Bruce Popplewell, Margaret Brown, Peter Kitchin, Gary Henderson, Chris Maclean, Barry Hanlon, John Rhodes, Barbara Marshall, Geordie McIntyre, Howard Jones, John Patrick, John Moulden, Tony Vercoe; and the Tararua Tramping Club. Māori guitar strumming style: Himiona Grace, Te Wareko Angina, Lawrence Wharerau, Diane Pivac, Adrian Wagner, Charles Royal, Claude Hooper, Ray Isaacs, Te Ripowai Higgins, Bill Wollerman, Carmel Russell, Nick Bollinger, Stephen Bain, Jamie McCaskill, Robbie Duncan, Ray Ahipene-Mercer, Aroha Harris, Emily Tutaki, Michael Loader, John Whiteoak, Bryce Galloway, Diane Bardsley, Ross Harris, Grant Gillanders, Margaret Hayman, Phillipa Gandell, Robin Park, Mitch Park, Judith McNeil, Marcus Turner, Mike Moroney, Geoff Ellett, Russell Gillies, David Earle, Dave Hart, Arthur Toms, Sister Sarah Greenlees, Puti Mackey, Scott Bartlett, Micky Stevens, Denis Crowdy, Eru Rerekura, Te Manaaroha Rollo, Karl Neuenfeldt, Asher v Skerrett, Angela Karini, Murdoch Riley, Keith Southern, Tony Vercoe; and to Michael Priest, Bill Nathan, and everybody at Ngāti Pōneke Young Māori Club. Archives and libraries also helped with the research process. Special thanks go to New Zealand Film Archive (Shara Hudson); Victoria University of Wellington library (Nicola Frean); Archive of Māori and Pacific Music (Christina Muaiava); Alexander Turnbull Library; and Wellington Public Library. I am also grateful to those who granted special permission for visual, aural, and audiovisual material to be included with the thesis. Thank you also to many friends and acquaintances who have provided useful research leads, additional material, comments, ideas, and encouragement, with special thanks to David Dell, Chris Bourke, Kirstie Ross, Roger Steele, Mark Derby, Moira Smith, Elizabeth Hudson, Arthur Pomeroy, Jennifer Shennan, Wendy Pond, William Dart, Jennifer Cattermole, Charles Keil, Richard Nunns, Marie Russell, Les Cleveland, Rudy Sunde, Phil Garland, Alistair Gilkison, Mike Lloyd, and Shen Nalin. Also thanks to the staff of the New Zealand of Music, including Roy Carr for help with sound transfers. Gratitude is also due to Paul Wolffram for supplying video recording equipment and for assistance with filming; and my two research assistants—Nell Thomas and Lisa Reynolds—who helped with the interview transcriptions. Much gratitude is also due to my supervisors: Megan Collins, the late Allan Thomas, and Robert Hoskins, who helped see the thesis home. Lastly, I wish to thank my family— especially my partner Diane—for supporting me during this lengthy project. vi vii Contents Figures viii Illustrations ix Additional material (CD-ROM) xi Compact disc (CD) contents xii Digital versatile disc (DVD) contents xiv References and abbreviations xv Introduction 1 PART ONE Theory, literature review, and methodology Chapter 1 Vernacular 13 Chapter 2 Locating the vernacular in New Zealand music 37 PART TWO Off the beaten track: singsongs in two Wellington tramping clubs Chapter 3 Tramping club singsongs in Wellington 63 Chapter 4 The ―singsong‖ 101 Chapter 5 Perceptions, extensions, and decline 139 PART THREE Jingajik, rakuraku, Māori strum: the Māori guitar strumming style Chapter 6 Introducing the Māori guitar strumming style 177 Chapter 7 Kapa haka guitar accompaniment 221 Chapter 8 The strumming style in New Zealand 263 Conclusion 297 Bibliography 305 viii Figures Figure 1 Tararua and Rimutaka Ranges 78 Figure 2 Population of Wellington urban areas, 1926-1981 154 Figure 3 The jingajik (a.k.a. ―the Māori strum‖) 188 Figure 4 Selection of ―Māori chords‖ or ―party chords‖ 201 Figure 5 Comparison of ukulele and guitar accompaniment styles 207 Figure 6 ‗Ten guitars‘ strums 217 Figure 7 Māori population of Wellington urban areas 1926-1981 226 Figure 8 ‗Haere mai rā‘ opening 233 Figure 9 ‗Me he manu rere‘ opening 234 Figure 10 ‗Wairua tapu‘ strums 243 Figure 11 ‗Ko wai enei‘ strum 244 Figure 12 ‗Aku mahi‘ strum 244 Figure 13 ‗He taonga nui te reo‘ strum 247 Figure 14 ‗Haere mai‘ strum 266 Figure 15 ‗Gutter black‘ and ‗Spellbound‘ strums 282 Figure 16 ‗Don‘t dream it‘s over‘ and ‗Together alone‘ strums 283 ix Illustrations Plate 1 Tramper interviewees 67 Plate 2 Mountain scenes 72 Plate 3 Bush tracks 73 Plate 4 Tararua Range from Wellington 76 Plate 5 Powell Hut, 1941 80 Plate 6 Allaway-Dickson Hut 86 Plate 7 TTC trampers, 1946 90 Plate 8 TTC trampers, 1954 91 Plate 9 Tauherenikau barn dance, 1962 94 Plate 10 Singsong at Tararua Hut 95 Plate 11 Sports Meeting bonfire, 1944 96 Plate 12 ‗Tararua song book‘, ca.1943 103 Plate 13 Party singsong, 1950s 112 Plate 14 Musical instruments and percussion 123 Plate 15 Singing trampers 143 Plate 16 Bush Singalong (1963) 156 Plate 17 Tramping song books, 1950s to 1970s 161 Plate 18 Tramping song book