Polynesian Mythology · Chapter
Appendix I: On the Native Songs of New Zealand explained
This appendix examines the musical scales and intervals found in Māori songs, comparing them to the enharmonic, chromatic, and diatonic genera of ancient Greek music.
What happens
This appendix examines the musical scales and intervals found in Māori songs, comparing them to the enharmonic, chromatic, and diatonic genera of ancient Greek music. The author argues that Māori music retains natural, uncultivated intervals akin to the Greek enharmonic scale, and provides notated examples of Māori airs alongside commentary on notation, rhythm, and the difficulty of capturing these sounds in Western musical notation.
Themes in this chapter
Cultural Preservation and Loss
The author suggests that Māori songs may preserve ancient musical intervals lost in European classical music, linking them to the Greek enharmonic scale.
Language and Communication
The chapter explores how Māori music uses microtonal intervals to express emotion, comparing this to the natural musical impulses of all nations.
Key passages
“All nations, perhaps, without excepting any, have some method of expressing the more energetic emotions beyond mere speaking or acting; a sense of joy or pain, naturally calling forth ejaculations and vociferations exceeding in limit the tone of voice used in ordinary discourse.”
Every culture has ways to express strong feelings through sounds that go beyond normal speech, like cries of war or grief.
The author introduces the universal human tendency to use heightened vocal expression for intense emotions.
“The cry of war, the encouraging to battle, the shout of victory, or the lament of the vanquished, the wailing over a deceased friend, grief at the departure of a lover, each in its turn has prompted or suggested some modification of sound beyond the ordinary range of mere tame everyday discourse; and this modification of voice we may call, in a wide sense, natural music.”
Sounds like war cries, victory shouts, and mourning songs are all forms of natural music that go beyond everyday speech.
The author categorizes these emotional vocalizations as 'natural music,' distinct from formal musical systems.
“I have studied the subject for more than twenty years, and have read something out of almost every book of note that has been written on it; but yet I only offer these airs as an approximation, and if anyone shall be found who may do more justice to them, I shall be delighted to hear of the result.”
After twenty years of study and reading many books, I present these songs as an approximation, hoping others might improve upon my transcription.
The author humbly acknowledges the difficulty of accurately notating Māori music and invites further refinement.