Category: Music
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The artistry of Africa’s forest dwellers
The people who live in the equatorial forests of Central Africa have a unique sense of artistry in their textiles and music. These people, although once all defined as “Pygmy”, a pejorative term that is no longer used, have a strong connection to their forest home and make use of its resources to create, amongst…
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A concert in Hokitika
Last night’s Summer Soirée in Hokitika was an excellent experience. Held in the Renton Hardware Building, an old brick-built building that narrowly escaped demolition and is now being restored thanks to its owners and volunteers, the huge space lends itself to performance. It currently houses some of the artefacts from The Luminaries, along with tapa,…
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This week’s Spotify playlist
Each week a Spotify playlist is created to go with the blog articles and to respond to current events. For those with a paid subscription to Spotify you will hear the whole list without interruption, those with a free subscription will have adverts every so often, and everyone else will hear excerpts.
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A Knitting Song
The company, Chappell & Co., began life in England in 1811, selling sheet music and musical instruments including pianos from its premises in London’s Bond Street. By the 1970s it had expanded its operations worldwide to include the North America and Australasia. Chappell and Co. began concentrating solely on its publishing business in 1980, selling…
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Travels in the South
Over the festive season we travelled through the central part of Te Waipounamu/ the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. The journey of more than 1,500 kms, once all the side trips were taken into account, took ten days and covered some of the most spectacular scenery and sights of the island. One of the…
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This week’s Spotify playlist
Each week a new playlist is created on Spotify, the music streaming platform. The playlist either follows the blog articles or is about current affairs and you can listen to it below. Anyone with a subscription will hear the uninterrupted music, while those who have a free subscription will be able to hear the list…
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A January concert
To begin the year’s programme of music there is to be a short concert in the town of Hokitika, south of Greymouth, at the end of January. The concert is a duo of works, Songs of Travel by English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams and Sings Harry by Douglas Lilburn. The latter, a New Zealander, studied…
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Of a scarf and a song
On Thursday this week the new choir met as usual. Being so close to Christmas, with all its activities and dinners, there were only a few of us, but more than one is still an opportunity to sing together so we met. When I arrived at the usual venue the alarm kept going off and…
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Christmas 2023
It is time for the blog to take its annual rest for the Christmas celebrations, and this will be the last one for a few weeks. Thank you all for taking time to read, write and comment over the last year. Your support has been tremendous and I have loved discovering a different rhythm to…
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Workshops for summer 2024
Over the next few months – after the Christmas and New Year break – the Southern Hemisphere summer really gets into its swing with workshops. Over the next few months there are lots of events and activities in Aotearoa New Zealand. Here are a few that are happening up and down the West Coast. Down…