new_zealand

The INTERNATIONAL HISTORY OF MUSIC EDUCATION Website

A project of ISME’s History Standing Committee

Guido d’Arezzo

Guidonian Hand

NEW ZEALAND - Historical Overview by David Sell LIFE AND MUSIC IN A NEW COUNTRY The Beginnings New Zealand is a new country, geographically isolated from the major world cultures, so that even the indigenous Maori people who settled there more than 700 years ago had travelled thousands of kilometres by canoe from their original homes in the eastern Polynesian islands. Relatively little is known about the music of the early Maoris, except that it played an important part in their social and ceremonial lives where it was learned through assimilation and participation. Although visited by explorers from the seventeenth century, European settlement began slowly from the 1790s, mostly by whalers and sealers who had deserted ship and, from the early nineteenth century by British missionaries. A formal treaty with Maori chiefs in 1840 – the Treaty of Waitangi - gave Britain sovereignty and the right to set up colonies in the country. From that time, what had been a trickle of European, mostly British immigrants, became a torrent. Institutions such as schools and churches were set up in the British model, music being included in school curricula from the start. Missionary schools included the music that prevailed in early Victorian England, and Maori children and adults were quick to absorb musical idioms based on simple primary harmonies and melodies in parallel thirds and sixths, often blending these with their indigenous Maori chants. Schools It is documented that there were “schools” on the emigrant ships that came to New Zealand in increasing numbers following the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. At first, as immigrant settlers staked out their land, education was provided mostly by the missionaries and some private teachers until legislation in 1852 established the six provinces with their own governance, vesting them with responsibility, though not the obligation, for providing primary education for their children. As to be expected, the nature and content of this varied a great deal, though it is known that Singing played a part in many schools, especially those that had been set up and run by the churches. The 1877 Education Act allowed for a national system of primary education that was to be “free, compulsory and secular”. Music was included in a curriculum that was divided into “pass” subjects (reading, spelling, writing, dictation, arithmetic, grammar, composition, geography and English history) and “class” subjects (including music, sewing and drawing). Secondary schools were mainly the domain of the moneyed until 1877, when an Act was passed providing state support for a few private secondary schools. Some, such as Christ’s College in Christchurch, were built on the English public school model including the chapel choir upon which its music education was based. Universities The University of New Zealand was established by Act of Parliament in 1870, allowing for university colleges to be founded, initially in Otago, Canterbury, Auckland and Wellington. It is significant that the University of Otago was in fact founded a year earlier, when the Otago Provincial Council authorised it to grant degrees in Arts, Medicine, Law and Music. Auckland started teaching music in 1888, and Canterbury followed shortly afterwards, its first MusB degrees being awarded in 1900. Despite its precipitate authorisation, Otago started teaching music only in 1925 with “informal” lectures, going on to offer a full Bachelor of Music degree from 1928. Victoria University of Wellington had to wait until 1946 for its Music Department. The Private Sector That music teaching was in demand virtually from the arrival of the first immigrants is illustrated in the number of advertisements in the first issues of the Lyttelton Times from 1850, the year that the passengers on the “first four ships” arrived to set up the Anglican Canterbury settlement and its already designed city of Christchurch. A piano tuner offered his services, and in 1851 the Collegiate Grammar School announced the appointment of an Assistant-Master who will teach “more especially, Writing, Arithmetic, Drawing and Singing” (Beattie p2). In 1854, the Lyttelton Times (Beattie p 54) reported on “A Lecture on Music, with illustrations” by the Lyttelton Colonists’ Society. At this early stage in the country’s history there was a strong demand for musical activity and learning which many were willing, and quick, to meet. THE EDUCATION ACT 1877 AND THE DEVELOPING COLONY Implementing the Act The Education Act of 1877 set up the national system of education that notionally started in 1878. It outlined a broad curriculum that included vocal music as a compulsory subject. Furthermore, it was surprisingly detailed in its prescriptions at each of the class levels standards 1 to 6. For example, the standard 3 prescription called for “Easy exercises on the common chord, and the interval of a second in common time and in 2/4 time, not involving the use of dotted notes; use of the signs p., f., cres., dim., rall., and their equivalents; songs as before, or in common with the upper parts of the school.” (Braatvedt p27). Needless to say, it was some years before the Act was implemented throughout the country, and longer still before its curricula were followed by even a majority of schools. Teacher Training Colleges had opened in Dunedin (1876) and Christchurch (1877), so that there were a few trained teachers ready for the opening of schools in 1878. Most schools in the first few years had in fact already been operating as private or church schools, the Act having the effect of providing state payment or subsidy for their operations. Training Colleges in Wellington and Auckland were opened in 1880 and 1881 respectively. A number of school inspectors were appointed to ensure that the curriculum was being followed to an acceptable standard. The inspectors’ reports can sometimes make interesting reading, ranging from the comment that “Surely there are many bright and sparkling songs now published” (Sell 2003 p39)) to a suggestion that a system of payment by results should be introduced. An inspector in Taranaki observed in 1882 that: “The little that is taught has done great good in improving the quality of tone in reading and recitation. Gruff rusticity of voice is slowly disappearing.” (Sell 2003 p39). In the decade 1890 to 1900 music in New Zealand’s primary schools was typically uneven, usually depending on the work of individual teachers and leaders. Guy Jansen observes that: “Only in three districts were results [of singing teaching] particularly satisfactory. These were Wellington, North Canterbury and Southland.” (Jansen p24). A concert by seven hundred children in 1894 in the Wellington Opera House, was hailed as outstanding, and recognised this as resulting from the teacher training provided by an important musical figure in the Wellington region, Robert Parker.1 While secondary schools were at first not greatly affected by the 1877 Act, the increased general level of primary education gradually flowed through, encouraging children to seek education beyond the compulsory primary level. Secondary schools were mostly state subsidised, but were not yet obliged to follow a set curriculum. Consequently there were wide variations in what was taught, and in the standards of teaching. A few secondary schools appointed music specialists, but mostly this was a subject that dropped out of the curriculum at the end of primary school. Revision and Consolidation Three revisions of the school syllabus were made as the education system consolidated in the first twenty five years of the 20th century. None of these directly affected the practice of music in primary schools, which continued to be based on singing. However, the years up to the First World War were a period of unprecedented growth, enterprise and social change in the country as a whole. The population reached one million soon after 1900, and was accompanied by a trend to urbanisation as the main centres were identified and, for their various reasons, grew.2 Educationally, this was also a time of growth, under the Inspector-General, George Hogben. Hogben is remembered as having freed up a hitherto rigid educational system. His 1904 syllabus retained the prevailing school subjects, but reclassified them as ‘compulsory’ and ‘additional’. Singing was still a compulsory subject, but little provision was made for the adequate musical training of teachers. Singing was one of the subjects in which trainee teachers were examined, though preparation for the examination was generally sparse. As a consequence, teachers usually went to their schools with little or no skill to teach Singing effectively. However, as demonstrated by the work of Parker in Wellington since the latter years of the previous century, there were pockets of good training in the teaching of singing, the results of these being readily apparent. Maoris and music education The indigenous inhabitants of New Zealand are the Maoris. However, formal education systems are distinctly European. So when the early missionaries, and then the British immigrants settled the land from the mid-eighteen hundreds, they brought the British forms of education and the underlying attitudes with them. It was recognised that there was a distinctively Maori music, though, typical of the attitudes of most immigrant settlers of the time, this was regarded as “primitive”. The missionaries had set about replacing the Maori waiata (traditional songs) with “wholesome” hymns. Early governments set up “native” schools to help Maori children learn the English language and culture. From 1892 the Zealandia Song Books were published, and described in the education Syllabus of 1904 as “useful” for schools. These song books included no Maori songs. There were, however, some interesting publications of songs specifically for Maoris in the late nineteenth century, such as a 1873 collection of Temperence Songs in the Maori Language (Braadvedt p128). Later, Maori songs were often included in the repertoire of school singing lessons, but were usually accompanied by piano parts that would have been appropriate for any Victorian art song. Even in Broadcasts to Schools (see 3.3 below), some songs were adaptations of Maori waiata, but with English words, piano accompaniments and staff and tonic-solfa notations. The microtonal pitch systems of Maori songs were mostly “corrected” to fit the western tonal system. Despite this, there are some interesting examples of early social and political leaders’ attempts to reconcile the music of two very different cultures, a particularly good example being the inclusion of four Maori songs in an 1885 publication, Mythology, by Sir George Grey, an important early Governor of New Zealand. 3 Private music teachers and the examination system Private music teachers were by now starting to organise themselves in some regions. Societies of Professional Musicians were established, competitions societies formed, and the British music schools were including New Zealand in their examination operations. By as early as 1895 both Trinity College and the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music were sending their examiners to New Zealand, and have had a presence here ever since. In the earlier days their visits were important events warranting generous coverage in local newspapers, and examination results were published in full. BETWEEN THE WARS Five Englishmen By 1925 Robert Parker (see 2.1) had become established as an effective leader of the music profession. He was President of the Society of Musicians in Wellington, and had the ear of politicians and senior officers of the Department of Education. Earlier that year Parker had been a member of a deputation from The New Zealand Society of Professional Musicians to “get a man from England to take charge of music in schools.”5 The deputation was to a conference of inspectors at which the Minister of Education, Sir James Parr, was present. Supporting the New Zealand Society of Professional Musicians, there was an undercurrent within the teacher profession of dissatisfaction at the low standard of singing in schools, the lack of musical equipment and the absence of a systematic syllabus for voice training and sight singing. The Minister was duly impressed, and shortly afterwards a new position, Supervisor of School Musical Education, was advertised in New Zealand and England. The Government appointed Sir Walford Davies6 to select a suitable person for the position (Jansen p55). His choice was E. Douglas Tayler, a fine teacher, examiner, composer and organist from Lancaster. At Tayler’s urging, four more highly qualified Englishmen were appointed in 1927 and 1928, as full-time lecturers in music at the four teachers’ training colleges, in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.7 Two of the five Englishmen were Cambridge University-trained, one was from the Royal College of Music, and one from the Royal Academy of Music, while the fifth was an experienced organist, pianist, conductor and school music administrator in England and Northern Ireland. On their arrival these Englishmen set about their tasks with enthusiasm and confidence, determined to apply the English methods of music education in which they were well versed. By 1928, Tayler had written a book, A Scheme of School Music Related to Human Life, which was distributed to every school in the country. The four Teachers College lecturers used it as the basis of their training of future teachers. Tayler also wrote regular articles in the New Zealand Education Gazette8 on aspects of music teaching. The principle behind Tayler’s book is sound to the present day. “If music is to flourish, we must train children to create music, to perform it, and to listen to it.”(Tayler p7) There is an impressive amount of information in the book of precisely 100 pages. Detailed instructions and syllabii were given in five age divisions from infants to high schools. Most were divided into musical categories of Breathing and Voice; Speech; Ear-Training; Rhythmical Movement; Theory and Sight Singing; Songs; Musical Invention; Musical Appreciation, Gramophone, etc. Of course, such detailed material had to date. But Tayler’s book remains a valuable source of sensible advice as well as an excellent repository of philosophies, attitudes, teaching materials and methods from eighty five years past. Regretfully, the great economic depression and then the Second World War were to slow down the momentum of this far-sighted movement. Tayler resigned in 1931 and moved to California, where he died the following year. Also in 1931, two of the four teacher training colleges were forced to close for economic reasons, resulting in the Dunedin music incumbent, J. Crossley Clitheroe returning to England. The other three, Horace Holinrake (Auckland), Vernon Griffiths (Christchurch) and Ernest Jenner (Wellington) remained in the country where they continued to provide expert leadership and make impressive contributions to the profession into the 1960s.9 Schools and festivals The work of the five Englishmen led to an increased interest in music, not only in the schools, but also in the community as a whole. Douglas Tayler, and especially Vernon Griffiths had a strong philosophy of “music for all”. This naturally led them into enterprises designed to draw “ordinary” people into musical experiences. Griffiths, for example, set up choirs and bands in communities as diverse as the Addington railway workshops in Christchurch and the small rural community of Granity on the South Island’s west coast. Like Tayler, Griffiths regarded music as an active experience for everybody. Griffiths, who was originally appointed to the Christchurch Teachers’ Training College, introduced a scheme of music classes for children which by its second year, 1930, had more than 1000 children and thirty teachers in classes for the learning of all range of orchestral instruments. This scheme was to be replicated when, in 1933, he was displaced by order of the Department of Education by Ernest Jenner who had lost his original position on the closure of the Wellington Training College. Griffiths then went to Dunedin where he made a world-renowned reputation with his scheme of music at the King Edward Technical High School that involved active performance by every pupil in the school. He had a huge orchestra, many of whose members became musical leaders in New Zealand and Australia, and players in professional orchestras. In 1922, 1600 children presented a choral festival in the Royal Albert Hall in London, moving the Education Gazette in May 1923 to express the hope that “something of a similar kind will be attempted in the larger centres in New Zealand.” By the following year, groups of schools in some regions banded together to arrange concerts for and by school children. These increased in numbers and size and were given a strong boost on the appointments of the Five Englishmen between 1925 and 1928. A massed concert in the Wellington Town Hall in 1930 was conducted by Tayler and accompanied by Jenner. Many other regions organised non-competitive festivals during the late 1920s and up to the start of the Second World War in 1939. In some of the bigger centres, Festival Associations were formed to set up festival procedures and ensure their continuance. In Christchurch, for example, a group of teachers formed a deputation to a meeting of the Headmasters Association in 1939, seeking their support to hold a festival that year. This was readily given, and in March the Christchurch Music Festival Association was formed. Two festivals were held before the Association was forced to go into recess due to wartime shortages of personnel and resources. It was enthusiastically revived again in 1945, and has been operating ever since, even through the upheaval of the earthquakes in 2010 and 2011, which deprived the city of its Town Hall. Starting with 25 schools in 1939, since the early 1980s, more than 100 schools take part each year in a festival that may be spread over as many as eight performances. As well as the massed choir, there is each year a festival orchestra, senior and junior representative choirs, and various specialist ensembles such as recorder band and concert band. Broadcasts to schools In 1927 the Department of Education carried out tests on the possibility of broadcasting lessons by wireless. Of the four speakers, Douglas Tayler gave “a lecture on rhythm” and illustrated his remarks by various passages played on the piano. But it was not until 1931 that regular educational broadcasts began. To start with, Tayler gave a broadcast every week, the programme being previewed in the Education Gazette, which often published the music notation of a song to be learned, or at least its words. On the departure of Tayler later in 1931, the broadcasts were taken over by Ernest Jenner, and became very popular, not only to the schools, but also with general listeners. For over fifty years from then, many of the leading figures in music education conducted studio sessions and gave talks that were heard by many thousands of children – and adults, until more sophisticated forms of technology displaced them from the 1980s. Publications From 1944, the National Broadcasting Service began publishing songbooks to supplement or accompany the school music broadcasts. Publication of these continued for the next forty years, and at their peak in the 1960s, more than 80,000 were published in junior and senior teachers’ booklets and melody and words pupils’ booklets. These provided a repertoire of hundreds of songs that schools continued to use for some decades after their production ceased. The Schools Song Books also provided an unofficial syllabus for teachers whose knowledge of music was sparse and limited. Prior to this, and on the initiative of the five Englishmen, there were a number of publications designed for, and widely used in schools. Douglas Tayler published the first Dominion Song Book in 1930. This was followed by others by Holinrake and, especially Griffiths, while other music educators such as Jenner, McLay and Newson wrote booklets on music appreciation. In the Secondary School field, and on the implementation of the Thomas Report (see 4.2), the School Certificate and University Entrance syllabus examinations, with their “set works” requirements, created a teacher demand for help and guidance. This was met by Ian Dando and David Sell with their series of Listening Guides that were published between 1973 and 1988. The Music Teachers Registration Board In 1928 an Act was passed by the New Zealand Parliament allowing for the registration and control of music teachers. The Music Teachers Registration Act was the culmination of work by the New Zealand Society of Professional Musicians under the leadership of Robert Parker. A Music Teachers Registration Board was established to administer the Act. Among its main functions the Board was to accept and decide on applications from music teachers for registration, to publish and promulgate the names of registered music teachers, to hold conferences, to generally advance the standards of music teaching and protect the interests of music teachers. Societies of registered music teachers were set up in the main centres of the country, forming a national federation that was effectively administered by the Registration Board. A major rewriting of the Act was made in 1981 to consolidate the organisation of music teachers as an institute, from which a registration board is formed. The Act remains current and effective into the twenty first century and, although anyone may teach music, registration continues to offer a check on teaching standards in the country. POST-WAR AND BEYOND Music in schools Music shared the strengthening of schools that resulted first from the return of trained teachers into the system, and secondly from the huge post-war “baby boom” that by the early 1950s necessitated the building of new schools in the newly developing housing areas. Music was still an obligatory school subject, though remained dependent on musical teachers rather than general trained teachers for its effective application. There had been no replacement for Douglas Tayler since his resignation in 1931 as Supervisor of School Music. New Zealand was therefore without any formal leadership in music education, apart from individuals such as Ernest Jenner, Vernon Griffiths, Horace Hollinrake and Keith Newson, who were at the various tertiary institutions. Some schools were fortunate to have skilled and inspiring teachers to lead their music programmes and to initiate festivals and, like Robert Perks in Christchurch and David Sell in Petone, to set up “Saturday morning music schemes” for primary school children to learn musical instruments in classes. Perks’ Christchurch School of Instrumental Music was especially successful, and has provided a model for similar schemes in other parts of the country. The need for reconstituting some form of music advisory service had been recognised since the 1940s but, primarily due to a shortage of teachers, had come to nothing until 1957 when the Department of Education advertised for an Advisor on School Music. The appointee, William Walden Mills, had a Kneller Hall background, and had come from England in 1953 to take up the position of director of music at King Edward Technical College, Dunedin. In this position, he followed the tradition of Vernon Griffiths, and Frank (later Sir Frank) Callaway. As National Advisor on School Music, Walden Mills’ first priority was for the placing of advisors on school music in each education district10 of the country. This was mainly achieved during the early 1960s. The resulting stimulation to music in primary schools especially flowed through to higher levels, providing openings in the colleges of education and universities that were filled by the then experienced and higher qualified music advisors. However, as the advisory service had by then become well-established, the first generation of music advisors were readily replaced, often with teachers that they themselves had earlier helped develop effective music programmes in their schools. So the music advisory service continued into the twenty first century, when it was allowed – and caused – to run down with the radical changes in the education system that began with “Tomorrow’s Schools” in the early 1980s (see 4.3). The Thomas Report As part of the process of gathering itself together at the conclusion of World War Two, New Zealand looked closely at its education system, especially at post-primary level. William Thomas, who had been for twenty years the rector of Timaru Boys’ High School, was appointed by the Minister of Education to chair a consultative committee on the post-primary school curriculum. The Thomas Report of 1944 recommended substantial reforms in secondary education, which sought to introduce a common core curriculum. This included music, which was one of a raft of elective examination subjects available generally at Form 5 (about age fifteen), and which also led through to university matriculation. The Thomas Report was profoundly influential in shaping the education of New Zealand youth for more than fifty years from 1945. It effectively presented a dual system that required a broad education, including music, alongside an examination system culminating in the School Certificate examination. Because the core music syllabus was not closely prescribed, it offered opportunities for music specialist teachers to develop programmes that suited their own skills and interests, and which stimulated teacher training courses in the training colleges. It was also in the interests of the work of secondary schools’ music specialists to encourage and help teachers in their feeder primary and intermediate schools to develop effective music programmes, while in the latter half of the century the music advisors were able to act as catalysts in encouraging the carry-through of musical interests from early childhood to senior secondary levels. “Tomorrow’s Schools” In 1987 a government task force was set up under the chairmanship of businessman Brian Picot to review the school system. The Picot report was adopted in 1988, the first part being to reorganise the administration of schools in the country, effectively abolishing the current structure and placing the responsibility for education in the hands of the communities served by the schools themselves. The Ministry of education retained control of broad principles only, including curriculum. Music as a subject in its own right mostly disappeared, being subsumed within a broader subject area, “the arts”, one of ten learning areas that make up the curriculum of “Tomorrow’s Schools”. There are four divisions within “the arts” - music, dance, drama and visual arts. Requirements for each of these at primary and early secondary school levels are minimal, though the time and expertise devoted to each varies greatly according to the inclinations of the community and teaching skills within individual schools. A change as radical as “Tomorrow’s Schools” turned out to be has taken a long time to work its way into and through the education system. Administrational reorganisation was only a first step of many. The curriculum changes were and continue to be very difficult for many teachers to adapt to. National standards were developed during the first decade of the twenty first century, and implemented in 2010. At the secondary level assessment changed from the outgoing structure of the Thomas Report to a newly introduced National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) that was phased in between 2002 and 2004. At the same time there are big and ongoing social adjustments to be made as demographic changes continue in what is essentially a multicultural society functioning as a politically bi-cultural community. Musically there is a greatly increased interest and understanding of the music of other cultures. Huge steps have been taken since the good intentions of the “Five Englishmen” of the 1920s and 1930s that dominated music education in New Zealand up until the 1950s. The demography of the country has seen big increases in immigrants from the Pacific Islands, from South-East Asian countries, and from the wider field of European states, whose music is not only respected in its own right, but is also actively taught in many schools.11 Alongside the proportionally increasing population of people of Pacific Islands and South-East Asian origin, are changes in the attitudes of “established” New Zealanders towards the many whose cultural origins are different from their own. Musically, in the past half-century, awareness of the diversity of New Zealand music has increased at every level, and is now the norm in music education as well as in the rich musical activity of the country. University courses in music Spurred on by rapidly increasing student numbers on the return of young musicians from war service, the four constituent colleges of the University of New Zealand developed their respective music programmes and, especially with the legislation of 1957 that gave the colleges their charters as independent universities, began to grow in accordance with the musical strengths of their respective heads. Auckland introduced performance teaching in1956, although, as with Canterbury and Otago, executant musicians had been appointed some years earlier. Victoria University of Wellington had set its position as the centre of composition on the appointment of composer Douglas Lilburn in 1947. Vernon Griffiths at Canterbury promoted musical leadership in the community, setting the way for the introduction of a degree course in music education on the appointment of David Sell in 1966. Otago’s strength initially focussed on musicology and general scholarship of a high order. In the course of the latter decades of the twentieth century, the four older universities were joined by Massey in Palmerston North and Waikato in Hamilton, both of which built music courses on the teacher training establishments that had grown in their respective cities. In Wellington, The New Zealand School of Music was established as a partnership of Victoria University of Wellington and Massey University, which by now had developed campuses in the main North Island cities. By the first decade of the twenty first century, all New Zealand teacher training colleges had become absorbed into the universities, although academic and executant music studies generally remain separate from teacher training functions. MISCELLANY Research As the colleges of education merged into the universities, they took on and encouraged a higher academic function of study and research. Their role was no longer concerned only with training teachers how to teach. Staff and students now engage increasingly in research on many aspects of music education. The universities similarly have seen an impressive increase in research at senior undergraduate and post-graduate levels, especially since the 1980s. The national Music Education Research Centre (MERC) was set up at the University of Canterbury in 2006 in response to a proposal from the New Zealand Society for Music Education (now MENZA; see 5.4). Among its activities are the e-journal of studies in music education (formerly Sound Ideas), and the New Zealand National Music Education Data Base that currently lists just under one thousand theses, books, articles and published papers by New Zealanders and about New Zealand music. Technology New Zealand is regarded as one of the most technologically active countries in the world. Beginning with the Broadcasts to Schools (see 3.3), progressive forms of technology have been embraced to help education reach communities in a relatively sparsely populated country. From an early age, children are at home with computers as aids to creating their own music. An international presence - ISME For its size, New Zealand has made a disproportionately large contribution to world music education. Three presidents of ISME have come from the country. Professor John Ritchie was Secretary-General, and then President; Professor John Drummond served a term as President; while the late Sir Frank Callaway, although spending most of his career in Perth, Western Australia, was a New Zealander by birth, education and early career as a music educator. Music education organisations In the early years of New Zealand music education local music education organisations were set up, usually lived briefly and disbanded. Travel and communication were too difficult, and the population was too sparse for viable national organisations until the New Zealand Society of Professional Musicians in the early twentieth century. Once the Professional Musicians had succeeded with the Music Teachers Registration Act in 1928 (see 3.5), it changed to the New Zealand Society of Registered Music Teachers that was established in terms of the Act. This functioned, and continues to do so as the Institute of Registered Music Teachers of New Zealand. There are a number of branches to meet the needs and interests of local music teachers, and a national conference is held annually. In 1960 the School Music Association was set up at a refresher course in Wanganui. Despite a vigorous start, the SMA ran out of steam during the 1970s. However, in 1983, a music education conference was organised in Wellington, and out of that was formed the New Zealand Society for Music Education. This was duly incorporated, and continues to this day with its name of Music Education New Zealand Aotearoa (MENZA). A number of local organisations are affiliated to MENZA, which holds national conferences periodically, and publishes a journal, Sound Arts. MENZA is accepted as the national music education organisation and is the New Zealand affiliate to ISME. The eclectic New Zealander The people of New Zealand are virtually all immigrants. The Maoris, who came here in waves of immigration from the east Pacific Islands more than seven hundred years ago, brought with them the music of their native islands; the whalers and sealers of the 18th and 19th centuries added to the country’s culture with their distinctive songs; the missionaries and formal immigrants from Britain and other European countries in the nineteenth century transplanted their music and educational systems; and more latterly, people from the Pacific Islands and south east Asia have been coming in considerable numbers. All have contributed to the colour of the New Zealand culture, its music and its education. All have assimilated the many musical influences that continue to add to the rich mix of cultures in the country. The attitude of the Maori people to the European-based inclination to exclusivity is summed up in a comment made by a Maori musician to the author, that “All music performed or listened to by Maoris is Maori music.” Furthermore, the traffic is not all one way. As inhabitants of one of the most isolated countries in the world, New Zealanders are used to travel, and are to be found amongst the finest musicians and teachers worldwide. Having readily absorbed musical experiences abroad, many modern New Zealanders return to teach and make music in the enriched and variegated community that it has become. For some the search for an identifiable culture is ongoing. Others recognise that it is they who are the New Zealand culture, and that they have no choice but to draw from and contribute to it as it continues to change. REFERENCES Please see the Bibliographic References webpage. ENDNOTES 1 Parker was an English-born musician who emigrated to New Zealand in 1869, working as organist, conductor and teacher, first in Christchurch, then Wellington, where he was to apply his musical and leadership strengths for more than fifty years. 2 Scottish settlement in Dunedin brought with it a strong impetus for educational institutions, while the discovery of gold in Otago brought to the region a big increase in population and wealth. Christchurch was a deliberate Anglican settlement, planned in England and stimulated by the wealth of Canterbury landowning settlers. Wellington grew especially from its declaration as the country’s capital in 1865. Auckland’s early growth resulted from the early northern missionary activity and its originally unofficial status as the capital town. 3 One of these, in staff notation, including microtonal intervals, is reproduced in Sue Braatvedt’s History (p129). 4 This title is from an article by David Sell published in the first issue of The Canterbury Series, Studies in Music Education. 5 From the Minutes of the Annual Meeting, Society of Musicians, Wellington, 25 July 1925 6 Sir Walford Davies was a distinguished English/Welsh composer and teacher who, in 1934 succeeded Sir Edward Elgar as Master of the King’s Music. From 1926 he became well known as a radio personality with his BBC lectures, Music and the Ordinary Listener. His concern with taking music to the general community no doubt influenced his choice of Tayler as the New Zealand Superviser of School Musical Education. Furthermore, it was Walford Davies who had included Vernon Griffiths in his short list, and recommendation for the Christchurch Teachers Training College position in 1928. 7 The appointees were Horace Hollinrake, to Auckland, Ernest Jenner, to Wellington, Vernon Griffiths, to Christchurch, and J. Crossley Clitheroe, to Dunedin. 8 The first issue of the Education Gazette was published in 1921, and has been issued bi-monthly ever since as the official organ of the Department (later Ministry) of Education. 9 Subsequently, Holinrake was appointed Professor of Music at Auckland University College (later the University of Auckland), Griffiths to the Chair of Music at Canterbury University College (later the University of Canterbury), while Jenner remained at Christchurch Teachers’ Training College where his influence remained long after his retirement in the high standard of music education in local schools. 10 At this time New Zealand was divided into ten education districts that geographically coincided with the Education Boards that administered primary school education. 11 Census figures between 2006 and 2013 show a striking increase in the proportion of south-east asians over the past seven years. For example, “Almost 1 out of 8 people living in New Zealand are Asian, up from about 1 in 11 in 2006.” (NZ Statistics, 2013).