Janet O'Reilly (pictured) tuned into one of the custom made 'Edwardian listening devices' at the opening of the 'Farewell Zealandia' exhibition at ANZAC Hall, Featherston, on Friday. The devices are playing 20 WW1 songs written by previously 'forgotten' New Zealanders and these will also be performed in a concert series at the Hall, kicking off on 27 March.
Mayor Adrienne Staples, who opened the show, said the town was lucky to have the 1900s venue still in its original state, as many others had fallen prey to unsympathetic makeovers that covered woodwork in paint and cladding. The historic woodwork and decorative pressed tin walls had a noticeable gleam on for the occasion, the Hall having recently been refurbished.
Music historian David Dell, who developed the exhibition with curator Tony Rasmussen, described how he found that libraries and archives around the country had little or no information on historic NZ sheet music, original pieces of which he had been collecting for 30 years as founder of the Upper Hutt-based Musical Heritage New Zealand Trust. Aware that the writers, composers and songs themselves could fade into obscurity, Dell and Rasmussen began researching the stories behind the names.
'I think if these writers and composers had a dream it would have been to hear their work played by a salon orchestra,' he says.
'Many of the songs were privately published and only 50 or so copies would have been printed. As people died, the sheet music often got thrown out by subsequent generations. There was also the feeling that New Zealand music wasn’t worthy compared to English music, so many of the writers and composers got discouraged and gave up creating music.'
But the dream became a reality when Dell teamed with Radio New Zealand to record the songs with singers and an 11-piece orchestra for the exhibition. The concert series will be another chance to hear them, as well as other songs 'that didn’t make our 'top 20' but are still great songs,' says Dell.
One of the composers was Jane Morison, a spinster based in Masterton. 'We found out that she wrote four songs, one of which is called 'We'll Never Forget Our Boys ' says Dell. 'This was written in Masterton in 1917 and was one of our very first ANZAC songs.'
Caption: Janet O'Reilly listens in to one of the songs in 'Farewell Zealandia’ - 'E Pari Ra’ by Paraire Henare Tomoana (left), which was used as a tangi for Maori soldiers lost in battle.