Two Main Types of Maori Music
The Maori are a group of Polynesian people in New Zealand that call their homeland Aotearoa, The Land of the Long White Cloud. The various tribes that make up the Maori have great reverence for the earth and nature, seeing nature itself as a living entity. Because of this, they believe the communication between humans and nature should be ritualistic and respectful, a concept that is present in the way they play music. There are two types of Maori music.
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Characteristics
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Traditional Maori music can broadly be defined in two categories. They can either be grouped as recitatives or songs. Recitatives lack organization with a fixed pitch and have a higher tempo. Songs were typically accompanied by a koauau flute.
Recitatives
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Recitatives can be a powihiri, a type of ceremonial welcome chant performed by fiercely shouting men and melodically harmonizing women. The powihiri includes a ritualized dance where the men stand before the women and indicate with weapons that they are ready for battle, women then carry green leaves and walk towards them, then the men get down on one knee and lay down their weapons. Two similar seeming recitatives, haka taparahi and haka peruperu, are performed with dances and the haka peruperu is a dance performed with weapons. The haka peruperu are performed without wepaons because they are more versitile recitatives meant to convey a wealth of emotions, while the haka peruperu is always a shouted speech accompanying a war dance. Paateres are recitatives whose words are a reaction to gossip. Karakias are recitatives that can be sung at any time but that double as spells or incantations during rituals. In ritual form, they necessitate two performers that alternately breathe to avoid a thought-deadly silence. The karakias, if performed incorrectly, are thought to bring bad luck, sickness or death.
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Songs
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Some groupings of songs includes the oriori, which has a narrative lyrical structure intended to teach Maori children about the group`s history, ranking system and unique decent. A song that had an accompanying dance, one during which Maori women hit their body with cotton balls attached to string in time to the music, is called a poi. The Maori love songs are called waiata ahore, the laments are named waiata whaiaaipo and the pao are freestyle, improvised songs relating to the local community that can be humorous or serious. Waiata tahit are pieces of sung poetry or chants sung in groups in unison alongside musical instruments such as the pututara or conch shell, koauau or round flute, nguru or nose flute or the putorino, a small slute. They are respectful, sung eulogies for the dead and are usually written by women.
Modern Maori Music
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These two types of Maori musical styles have been traced back to the early years of the culture. In modern times in the area, the influence of these styles have been incorporated into modern music, with debates about the authenticity of the connection to traditional Maori music of recitatives and songs.
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