An historical ethnography of music in the town of Hawera in 1946 : from the recordings of the Mobile Unit of the New Zealand Broadcasting Service and oral histories of musicians

Abstract

This work describes the music of a small New Zealand town, Hawera in south Taranaki, in the years immediately following the Second World War.

It is the first musical study to draw on the extensive recordings of the Mobile Recording Unit of the New Zealand Broadcasting Service, which operated in several regions of New Zealand between 1946 and 1948. The aims and activities of the Mobile Unit are examined in Chapter 2. Aspects of the music-making of the period are revealed by a study of the recordings, a selection of which accompanies the dissertation.

The work is also based upon the recollections of Hawera's musicians gathered in extensive oral histories recorded in 1997 and 1998. Their testimonies, together with documentary sources from newspapers, committee minutes, and programmes, furnish an ethnography of music in the town at mid-twentieth century. Chapters 4-7.

The elements of music-making which are common to the separate branches of music are identified. The emphases within music-making activities and the repertoire, evidenced by the recordings, give a particular character to the music of the town, traceable to the ideology and practice of British nineteenth century music-making. Chapter 8.

A broader look at music elsewhere in New Zealand in the late 1940s furnishes points of comparison with the music of Hawera. In the post-war years in New Zealand several new initiatives in music were taken such as the establishment of the National Orchestra and the Community Arts Service, the expansion of the radio network and the advent of a distinctive style of New Zealand music composition. These urban-based initiatives, reflecting social and political changes at the time, are briefly outlined to show the marked contrast to the older style music of small towns. Chapter 9.

The study employs techniques and theory which derive from historical musicology and from ethnomusicology. The distinctive contribution of each of these two musicological sub-disciplines is examined in the introductory Chapter 1. The final Appendix includes concert programmes of the time, a detailed dance band calendar, and the complete list of Mobile Unit recordings from Hawera.