Songs of a Kaumatua Sung by Kino Hughes (review)

Abstract

By example rather than rhetoric, Mervyn McLean and Margaret Orbell have placed decades of scholarship into the service of New Zealand's indigenous Maori communities. Songs of a Kaumatua Sung by Kino Hughes is an eloquent volume of musical transcriptions, lyrics, and commentary that [End Page 686] raises the bar for music editing endeavors. The heart of the volume is a set of sixty songs transcribed in a modified version of Western staff notation. Separate appendices present notes on text sources, and on the songs and transcriptions. Introductory matter includes a biographical sketch of Kino Hughes, historical notes on the Tuhoe people who live along the east coast of New Zealand's North Island, commentary outlining six major categories of song styles—recited (haka,karakia,patere) and sung (oriori,waiata,pao), and notes on transcription methods. Two compact discs packaged with the book present Hughes's own performances of forty-nine of the songs, drawn entirely from McLean's extensive field recordings made in the 1960s and 1970s.