Description:
“Puhoi’s Musical Heritage” by Roger Buckton
At a time when over 50 million villagers and towns-people from 19th century Europe were emigrating to the new world countries such as Canada, USA, Australia and New Zealand, most came from social and cultural backgrounds which were based on language dialects and customs, rich in song, dance, costume and sayings. It is an accident of history, that many of these customs got lost in the battle for survival in homogenous settlements in new countries. This process was hastened by the advent of the radio and the recording industry and the first World War (1914-18).
Puhoi, New Zealand was a remarkable exception to this process since its settlers came from a small area of Bohemia and as a social milieu, lived together in a geographically and linguistically isolated village 50 miles north of Auckland.
Although these settlers quickly learned the surrounding dominant language of English, they continued to speak their dialect “Deitsch” for many years across three generations of families and it is only recently that the last person to speak the dialect passed away.
By transcribing from recordings and interviews over the past 80 years, Roger Buckton, Ralf Heimrath and Judith Williams have preserved and compiled a rich heritage of folk songs in the dialect, dance music, sayings and ditties.
In his illustrated talk, Roger Buckton will discuss and perform these songs within the context of a background of a Bohemian village in colonial New Zealand.
You are warmly invited to attend this event on Tuesday, 4 July 2023. Feel free to pass this on to other friends and family interested in German culture, language and the interrelationships between New Zealand and the German-speaking world.
This will be held in the Lecture Theatre HMLT103 at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington, 28 Kelburn Parade, Kelburn at 6:00 pm. Culinary contributions in form of food and/or drinks are very welcome. Please RSVP by emailing us.
Location:
Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington
28 Kelburn Parade, Kelburn, Wellington 6012
Lecture Theatre HMLT103
Date:
4 July 2023
Time:
6:00 PM
In 1990, with his family, Roger Buckton moved to Puhoi and discovered the rich world of Bohemian music kiwi style. His professional music career and interest in early European music helped him appreciate that in his neighbourhood was a wealth of European music which had been undergoing a transformation since the arrival of the early settlers in 1863. He quickly went about recording this music and two cassette/CDs and a documentary film for the University of Auckland were produced 1993/96. Then, after years of research and performances of the music, his book “Bohemian Journey: A musical heritage in colonial New Zealand” was published by Steele Roberts in time for the Puhoi 150th Anniversary in 2013. At that time, Judith William’s book, “It takes a whole village: the people of Puhoi” was also published and it was this liaison that caused Roger to see and appreciate the cultural value of Judith’s collection of song and verse texts. This then provided the catalyst for matching song texts and music to realise the rich heritage of song which was fast disappearing with the loss of the language.
Roger is now an Adjunct Associate-Professor at the University of Canterbury and lectures and tutors occasionally in ethno-music and musicianship. He continues to perform on the dudelsack alongside other instruments of early music and his aim now is to promote the songs and music in this collection so that these unique kiwi Bohemian musical gems take their place in the multicultural heritage of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Goethe Society Wellington 