The beginnings and development of a New Zealand music: The life ...

12
"He is most likely to be found teaching music.
He was born in New Zealand, of British stock.
He was an only child, or the oldest or youngest
member of his family by some years. He is something
of a loner, and his lifelong interest in music has
often been used to compensate for his lack of
companionship. And this is one case where the male
pronoun is not intended to include females also:
he is male."17
Subsequent essays in this special edition of Canzona amount to
little more than brief sketches on various organisations related to the
promotion and performance of New Zealand music.
Corporation of New Zealand" (Helen Young), 18
"The Broadcasting
"The New Zealand Symphony
Orchestra" (Peter Nisbet), 19 "Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council"
(Brendan Smyth),20 "APRA in New Zealand" (Ashley Heenan)21 and "A Brief
History of the Composers' Association of NZ" (Valerie Harris)22 are all
written by representatives of each organisation covered, and amount to
little more than listings, in varying detail, of the achievements of
each organisation in terms of help given to New Zealand c~mposers.
evaluation of those achievements is undertaken.
Dorothy Freed's "The Promotion of New Zealand 14usic,,23 and "New
Zealand Competitions for Composers",24 and John Rimmer's "Recent
Developments in Electronic Music in NZ",25 are little more than sketched
accounts of the subjects under consideration.
The remaining essay in this special edition of Canzona is David
Farquhar's "Applied Music". 26 In this, Farquhar attempts a systematic
documentation of the work of New Zealand composers in the area of film,
theatre, dance, 'happenings', radio and television productions. Whilst
valuable in that it documents the names of compos"ers and titles of works
in these various areas, Farquhar's essay provides few conclusions about
No
17 Valerie Harris, New Zealand composers. Canzona vo1.3 no. 10,
November 1981:37. .
18 Canzona vo1.3 no. 10,November 1981 :43-4.
19 ibid. p.45.
20 ibid.pp.46-7.
21 ibid.pp.62-5.
22 ibid.pp.48-9.
43 ibid.pp.38-9.
24 ibid.pp.40-2.
25 ibid.pp.60-1.
26 ibid.pp.50-9.