The Rotorua Maori Choir - A History, Discography and Analysis (original) (raw)

Collecting in context: reissuing forgotten sounds from Australia and beyond

2017

This paper focuses on how I collect and curate sound recordings, particularly the 78rpm shellac format. It deals with the motivating forces behind why I collect sound recordings and how I situate them in their appropriate historical context - through curated exhibitions, blog writing and reissue projects. I touch upon curating methodology involving sound and how the reissue "package" can function as a physical site in a similar way to an exhibition space. I also draw attention to the importance of sound recordings as an active, living history in an Australian context, and why we should do more to share and disseminate them.

Celebrating Maori and Thai Music Magic: Implications of World Music Collaboration

Phoasavadi, P. & Hebert, D. G. (2006). “Celebrating Maori and Thai Music Magic: Implications of World Music Collaboration,” Research in New Zealand Performing Arts, Vol.1. [http://drama.org.nz - Note: David Hebert is the 2nd author; An imperfect screen capture of this article is posted here because the ejournal was unfortunately taken offline]. Abstract: This photographic essay documents the first Thai-Maori Musical Exchange Project, which was implemented in June 2005, as a collaboration between the Graduate Program in Music at Chulalongkorn University (Bangkok, Thailand) and the School of Performing Arts at Te Wananga O Aotearoa, New Zealand. The article concludes with theoretical discussion of the myriad ways such endeavors may contribute to intercultural understanding, and proposes new directions for research on international arts exchanges.

Australian Discographic Reissue Project - Outline

2016

The following is an unpublished outline for the "Australian Discographic Reissue Project" - an unrealised venture that would have seen Australia's entire recorded output of 78rpm recordings (from 1925-1958) digitised, remastered, researched and reissued through a combination of physical CDs and digital outlets like iTunes and Spotify.

"A Preliminary Annotation of Selected Discography by Filipino Artists, 1913 - 1946"

The project in its original title "A Preliminary Selected and Annotated Discography of Existing Recorded Art Music by Filipino Artists in the Philippines from 1910 - 1946" was initially conceived when the Cultural Center of the Philippines commissioned this researcher last year to collate materials, including pictures, for the commemorative web site of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra. This researcher discovered quite a substantial amount of significant and memorable pictures of various performing artists who have performed at the National Theater. However, pictures only portray the visual aspects of the glory of performances. Critic's reviews chronicle in vivid details an account of the performances. Neither picture nor chronicles can capture the spirit of a performance. Nothing could have completed the picture than a recording of a performance or an actual broadcast frozen in recorded form. This researcher thru an article published by the Philippine Daily Inquirer discovered the collection of Mr. Vera Cruz. The collector, a septuagenarian, was worried that his collection shall be totally forgotten in oblivion. Likewise, this is a particular concern of this researcher. The collection shall be the starting point of a rediscovery of a cultural heritage that every Filipino should rediscover and be proud of. This researcher aims to address the urgency of collating existing Filipino recordings that have survived the ravages of time and oblivion. The first recording ever of Filipino music was done in 1906 in Louisiana, USA by musicologist France Desmore. These were not included because these recordings were done in the context of musicological research as sound samplings. (Played were the indigenous instruments, which were on display at the United States of America at that time. The said recordings and musical instruments were later donated to the Smithsonian Institute.) Much of the cultural heritage of the Philippine musical world has to be literally unearthed from the dustbins of collectors and brought into their proper place in Philippine Music History- that of recognition. Many of these Filipino artists’ recordings have been mentioned in the annals of Philippine Cultural History. The recovery and rediscovery of these recordings’ existence could give our present and future generations a new perspective into the glorious years of pre-1946 cultural and artistic environment. When I commenced teaching music history courses, there was an enormous amount of frustration involved when I started describing the works of musical masters without the benefit of listening to the musical example. I compared it analogous to describing the heavenly delight of eating a Chocolate Devil Cake without the benefit of tasting the cake itself. Even if one is to describe the cake with all its ingredients and an explanation of the whole baking process, the description does not suffice. Even if a nice color photo is brought, the visual aid still does not suffice. The same holds true with the many historical accounts of Philippine Music History, a vast amount of cultural artifacts exists but the historical descriptions of this rich cultural heritage seems like cold facts or just plain romantic thoughts of ages that has gone by.

The contributions of the Melbourne Festival of Organ and Harpsichord and its successors: 1971-2010

The Melbourne Festival of Organ and Harpsichord (MIFOH) and its successors ran from 1971 to 2010 under various other names. MIFOH is used as shorthand term covering the whole period including the names: Melbourne Autumn Festival of Organ and Harpsichord, Melbourne Autumn Festival and finally Spring Autumn Early Music Festival. It hosted ~1000 different performers at all stages of their careers. It fulfilled for many a complete arc from enabling students to perform and attend master classes with major international figures in a collegiate mode to becoming the pre- eminent Australian early music festival. The present thesis is both an examination of this largely lost legacy to musical Melbourne and Australia, and also a work of eScholarship on the substantial physical and digital music lost prior to this work. It covers the requirements for the creation of a digital archive to house the material recovered from magnetic media from the 1970’s onwards, and the recovery of analog media. There are substantial Intellectual Property barriers to assembling such large collections of original historic performances, if they are to become accessible through an Open Music Repository. This task is complicated by almost all now being classified as Orphan Works. The evolution of MIFOH matched the evolution of the absorption and professionalization of early music in Melbourne, and to further a critical mass of performers who went on to teach new generations. Organ and Harpsichord, choral and modern composition, and early music all benefited. MIFOH and its successors contributed forty years of performance and teaching to Melbourne and left a major legacy to many people. It is surprising that such a large body of work had slipped almost out of visibility. This research has delivered an overall perspective and the supporting materials to enable this long running substantial Festival to be seen in a clearer light (Wigan 2017). It covers the contributions it made, and also addresses the repository and analog to digital recovery aspects now required to fully realise its musical legacy for the community at large. The substantial Appendices provide a basis for future scholars and interested parties that simply did not exist previously. Social network explorations are now possible. Large scale digital recovery - already ~83Gb - from original recording media is now possible, to create a major Music Repository. This will require the issues identified on music metadata, Intellectual Property, clearance and access requirements to be integrated into a fresh and living repository archive for musical works.