Maori Music

Mervyn McLean is the acknowledged world authority on Maori music, author of the classic Traditional Songs of the Maori (AUP), as well as many other titles. This book is the best introduction available to Maori music - the instruments played, the songs and dance styles and what they were used for, performance, composition, teaching, etc. Based on 30 years of fieldwork that yielded 1300 recorded songs and hundred of pages of interviews and eyewitness accounts, this is a classic book. Maori music records and analyses ancient Maori musical tradition and knowledge, and explores the impact of European music on this tradition. Mervyn McLean draws on diverse written and oral sources gathered over more than 30 years of scholarship and field work that yielded some 1300 recorded songs, hundreds of pages of interviews with singers, and numerous eye-witness accounts. The work is illustrated throughout with photos and music examples