UoA Folk Music and Instruments Association

According to NZ Folksong,

"Pronunciation Caution ! tarakihi, pronounced Ta-rakihi is a locust or cicada.
tarakihi, pronounced Te-riki by speakers careful to avoid saying something like the following word, is a common NZ fish.
But tarakihi, pronounced Tara-kihi, is, for some Maori, a highly potent social and sexual put-down. Be very careful! Look up "tara'" and "kihi" in your dictionary.
Tarakihi on record"

(https://www.folksong.org.nz/tarakihi/)

NZ FOLK SONG * Tarakihi Tarakihi (the cicada) is an ancient Maori chant made popular in 1999 as a song by Kiri Te Kanawa

An article by Clare Chan Suet Ching in the Malaysian Music Journal, on Tan P Ramlee's musical/cultural environment

ejournal.upsi.edu.my

Two events coming up; details will be sent to registered members only (refer to Instagram bio for form). 1. UoA music clubs quiz and performances, 2. 2023 Dominion Road Moon Festival performance expressions of interest.

Kia ora!

You are invited to our second-ever semester 1 all-club meet-up tomorrow night (Thursday).

The hypothetical question for the night is: how to fuse reggae with east or central asian music. The solution to that question could work for the next round of NZ On Air New Music grants, potentially.

We have confirmed a room booking for room 260-321 from 6:30-8:30 PM (6-9 PM booked).

Please circulate to interested people!

Hello! This is Andi Liu the current president of the UoaFMIA (traditional and folk music club at the uni)!

For a special theme for the club's next all-group meeting, we will theme it on central asian music.

We are currently deciding on a Wednesday in June (15, or 22, or 29 depending on exec availability).

None of us have particularly much experience with this area so we were hoping to reach out to ask if you know people well-versed in the musical cultures roughly near where the Ottoman empire was. We've just messaged the UoA Persian club, and a kamancheh professional, but hope to widen our call!

We may have to resort to just having powerpoint slides or videos of others, if we can't find real instruments and people! I will be bringing two Turkish musical instruments (the Turkish ney and the bağlama) and have a talk about them and the maqam scales, as one idea, but it's not enough!

Please let us know anyone who might be interested, to present or to take part! Message us!

We'll also try to apply for some grant money for food, hopefully.

Rıfat Varol is a craftsman, teacher, and performer of the Turkish ney, in Istanbul.

Our member Andi Liu recently stopped by to visit and learn about ney-playing and ney-making, and was impressed by the ingenuity of the process - particularly the home-made rig for straightening the cane, the ventilation/extraction system, and the methods of fitting the protective rings and the mouthpiece (başpare) to individual canes by having multiple sizes.

If you are ever visiting Istanbul, and have an interest in traditional Turkish musical instruments, Rıfat's workshop is right within walking distance of the Sultanahmet (Blue Mosque) area of the city, upstairs on the third floor of shops.

Les Arts Turcs is also nearby, and can connect you with and book in times for learning about many traditional Turkish art forms. They are very responsive and well-connected. Their web booking form works well, but contact them first to confirm availability if you have a tight schedule.

Get there early, find accommodation for more days, and spend more time in Istanbul There is a lot of accommodation nearby. Nearby in the area are also many museums, including ones with free admission around the university area, e.g. the Otroman-era bath-house (hamam) museum, and a fairly distilled archaeology museum aimed more at a domestic audience. That is all in addition to the more well-known nearby historical architecture.

Istanbul is a centre of culture and art, both brick-and-mortar and living, traditional and contemporary, such as an international music festival around June/July.

Kia ora!
You are invited to our first-ever semester 1 all-club meet-up on this Wednesday the 5th of April.

We have confirmed a room booking for room 119-120 from 6:30-8:30 PM.
Please circulate to interested people!

-

Meet people! Form groups! Share info!
Perhaps perform/jam/sessions?

Current confirmed topics for 5th April (5 mins each):
Upcoming and past local events and group forming for these e.g. “ethno-fusion” instrument groups and the Auckland Lantern Festival
Experiences with community arts grants
UoaFMIA goals for this year
Other topics to share are welcome!

-

Kind regards,
University of Auckland Folk Music and Instruments Association

Clubs Expo on on the week of 27th. We have stall number 52 on OGH Lawn (Old Pavilion). If you can make it there on Monday the 27th in particular, we have a stall from 10 AM to 3 PM. Would be good to have it manned. If any UoA students are keen to join this year, come have a chat on Monday 27th.

I (current president) will be there on the whole of Monday, but can't confirm Tuesday or Wednesday.

Tuesday I was planning to let Foraging club have the stall (I am exec in both) as one co-president can make it. They could answer questions and recruit for us as well.

Wednesday is undetermined as few current exec can make it, but if you would like to be an exec this year and man the stall from at least 10-11 AM on Wednesday it would be good for our club.

Why join club: we can book rooms, and provide networking opportunities to create music groups, perform, teach, learn, unlike existing UoA music clubs.

Current club assets: a zhongruan (missing a string), battery-powered amplifier and two vocal microphones and microphone stands.

Groups formed last year through this club for performances last year: 2.

On this weekend at Basement Theatre (near Aotea Square), Auckland, there's classical/trad/folk/fusion music groups RaagTime, NZ Blossom Art Troupe / 新西兰百花艺术团, and other more pop-culture Pan-Asian-Kiwi music and theatre groups, including a pop-up nightclub.

With this quite eclectic and inclusive collection of arts groups this weekend, there's bound to be something that piques your curiousity?

(photo is unrelated)

Kia ora koutou,

1. There's no session on this evening. Have a great week and finish your assignments!

2. For next Monday, and remaining mondays, please fill in the Instagram/Facebook story polls, to confirm whether you'd like us to make our usual room booking.

We could choose to meet in Albert Park e.g. behind the Art Gallery, away from studying students.

3. We need one more new UoA student to be club general executive members next year for our club. Please let us know if you can volunteer two hours of your time!

After semester end, before 2023 semester 1 start:

4. Over the summer we may have some instrument-making workshops (e.g. for flutes and fiddles) - stay tuned for registrations of interest. I may be able to apply for council funding.

5. The Auckland Lantern Festival needs voluteers (who I think may get some pay, or at least free food) to give some hands-on demos with some traditional chinese instruments. It's often the public's first contact with these instruments, and important to raise awareness that we have these here, for equity reasons. A few volunteers would be awesome - stay tuned for registrations of interest. It's typically in late February.

Kind regards,

Andi Liu
current 2022 UoA Folk Music Association president

Check out the traditional Indian (Carnatic, south india) music on at the Queen Street stage now! It's near the Civic Theatre. Lots of music and song scheduled on this stage for next few hours.

"DIWALI 2022

SOUNDS OF INDIA
14th October 7:30pm
$10.00
Te Oro Music and Arts Centre
Buy your tickets at https://www.eventfinda.co.nz/2022/sounds-of-india-by-the-basant-madhur-ensemble/auckland/glen-innes

or email us at [email protected] for more info

Performances will feature different aspects of Indian Music such as:

1. Traditional Classical Music
2. Fusion of East and West (Sitar and Violin)
3. Folk Music of India
4. Devotional Music
5. Tabla Duet - Rhythms of India

Featuring Instruments such as Sitar, Violin, Harmonium, Vocals and Cajon

The Ensemble comprises of three generations of the Madhur whanau on tablas, sitar, violin and Indian harmonium. Basant is the director of the renowned Sargam School of Indian Music (Auckland) and tutors there with brother Deepak and father Professor Shukdev Madhur who specialises in violin. Professor Shukdev is a recipient of the National Award from the President of India for his services to music. Basant's daughter Sargam on sitar and nephew Akhilesh on tabla complete the Ensemble.

Tabla master Basant has won numerous numerous awards in India and accompanied international legends such Grammy winner Vishwa Mohan Bhatt (Ry Cooder), flautists Ronu Majumdar (Ravi Shankar) and Rakesh Chaurasia, alto saxophonist Kadri Gopalnath, and mridangam master Patri Satish Kumar. He has also collaborated with Western musicians in fusion music.

Join us as we go through the journey on the Sounds of India!"

Sounds of India by The Basant Madhur Ensemble Sounds of India by The Basant Madhur Ensemble, Performances will feature different aspects of Indian Music ..., Te Oro, Auckland, Auckland, 14 October 2022

Reminder:
Annual General Meeting
19th September 6 PM
(refer to e-mail)

Other notices:
Meet-up/rehearsal tomorrow 12 September is cancelled since execs would like a rest after this weekend's Dominion Road Moon Festival Performances!

Though you are all welcome to coordinate a meet-up. The room is still booked.

UoaFMIA will have music performances from tomorrow onwards at the

Dominion Road Moon Festival

September 9th, 10th, 11th

Dominion Road

5:30 PM-8:30 PM

and there will be other activities as part of it as well, so come along with your friends and family, and enjoy the festivities!

Check out https://www.drdmfest.org.nz/ for full details of when we and others are performing, or just have a stroll down and check it out at your leisure.

Two community music events coming up next weekend - refer to Instagram story highlight for links to more details

Reminder: 421W-501 Mondays. We have the room booked from 5-9 PM but won't necessarily be there the whole time, and are prioritising rehearsals up to September 11. So best to message us if you are coming, and probably turn up around 6.

May also be one last Saturday afternoon rehearsal this week as well.

Continuation of previous post - history of jazz and piano improvisation.

The author clearly has quite a high, well-reasoned opinion of the improvisational capabilities that pianos have enabled!

I have scanned some parts of an intro on piano improvisation, which has a bit of history on improvisation in western classical music. The full scans I can send a google drive link to if you are interested.

Klezmer clarinet, interesting stuff

Hello folks, welcome back!

We have confirmed one regular room booking for this semester - room ALR6 / 421W-501 (Architecture building) on Mondays i.e. today***. It is currently booked from 5-9 PM*. We also have some Saturday bookings.

Because there are upcoming performances, e.g. UoA Open Day** (27th August) and the Dominion Road Moon Festival** (9-11 September, 5:30-8:30 PM), our focus is on those with existing music training and we can't cater for complete beginners until after September 11. By all means come along if you'd like to listen, though, or if keen for a jam, but please let us know that we're expecting you.

So, we'll be scheduling a beginner-friendly semester 2 welcome event and AGM later in September - details to follow. Tentatively, September 12th.

We can book other rooms if there is enough interest, and anyone needs a practice room. However, rules are that one exec member has to be present. Our current execs aren't always free. So, anyone interested in being a club exec, please let us know as well. If you are an exec the uni will let you be responsible for a room booking! 

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* (Some of us will be at the free dumpling-making session with the Han Culture Club from 5-7 PM today so the room may be a bit empty until 7. Please let us know if you are planning to be there earlier.)

** (If you are keen to come along and perform for these two performances, and form groups, and can play a basic level of music, let us know this week. Preferably today.)

*** Block scheduling for this evening, and possibly future Monday evenings - we plan to split the hours into blocks (see attachment) with each with a different focus. We've invited along the UoA Jazz Club to make things interesting as well.

A short summary of the origins of the Enka "genre" of music and its particular features. What is traditional, what is folk, what is pop, and what are they to Enka - is something to ponder.

Level 5 of the General Library is worth a browse.

It has some trippy artwork as well.

Sign-ups for semester 2 - you can use the sign-up form for semester 1 (see our Instagram bio), or, come to our clubs expo stall at Level 3 of the engineering building and use the MHSSSO sign-up sheet today and tomorrow.

We're letting MHSSSO use our stall as our execs are either covid, overseas, or double-booked. Do consider joining their club, and UoA Jazz Club, as all these small music clubs are low on numbers because of these past few semesters of interruptions.

I haven't got the actual music line-up for the rest of this weekend, but I know that there is some performance planned by a local chinese trad/folk music group, somewhere around the war memorial hall near Domain Rd and Balmoral Rd, this Saturday around noon, as part of the WTAA‽ weekend music thing at Potters Park.

How I know is that I copied this from their WeChat group notices (which I subscribe to, but can't fully read without a dictionary):
​
演唱通知：2022年7月02 日12am，战争纪念馆门前广场舞台，节目单：
舞狮表演：陈革新，小红
吴一凡，陈独明
1，民乐合奏：闹新春 指挥：张秀荣
2，女声独唱： 游牧时光 演唱者：沃良红
3，二胡独奏：战马奔腾 演奏者：夏子 伴奏：本团乐队
4，古筝独奏:古城春晓 演奏者:逸 儿
5，板胡独奏：公社春来早 演奏：穆习 伴奏：夏子，赵维会 何卫等
6，葫芦丝独奏：渔歌 演奏者：田作全 伴奏：本团乐队
7，二胡独奏:奔驰在千里草原 演奏:张金茅 伴奏:李玉霖
8，古筝演奏: 行 者 演奏:妞妞
9，笙独奏：欢乐的泼水节 演奏者：赵维会 伴奏：夏子 王冬，何卫，王丽华，郭航，李玉霖
10，笛子独奏：收割 演奏者：陈独明
11，电吹管独奏:游牧时光 演奏者: 何 卫
12，女声独唱:我爱你塞北的雪 演唱者:刘丽萍 伴奏:本团乐队
13，杨琴独奏:龙船 演奏者：李玉霖
14，二胡齐奏:战马奔腾 演奏者:夏子，穆习，张金茅，王丽华，郭航
15，唢呐独奏：百鸟朝凤 演奏者：田作全 伴奏：本团乐队

总策划：李玉霖 ，李羽阳
艺术总监：田作全
指挥：田作全，张秀荣
节目主持：沃良红
联络：吴一凡，郭 航
舞台监督：陈独明
场务：赵维会
后勤：陈革新
1，集合时间：7月02日上午11am
2，演出地址：多美路战争纪念馆剧场对面广场舞台
3，团里统一服装，男士穿团里的白上衣，自己准备黑色裤子皮鞋 4，参加演出人员带口罩

团办公室
29-06-2022

It's a mix of different instrument and vocal bits for each of the 15 pieces they're going to do, and they are by the looks of it, some 20th century classics, using mostly 20th century trad/folk instruments except for a "电吹管" (internet search calls it a "windsynth"). That one looks quite novel.