Mediant Studies

Lillian Chrystall (Architects of Remuera) - A very inspiring and influential architect - Remuera Heritage Lillian Chrystall was an exceptionally gifted award-winning architect. She was accepted into the University of Auckland (UoA) School of Architecture as one of only five women and designed several houses in Remuera.

My interest in sociology led me to anthropology - particularly the study of culture - and the way our beliefs and values lie at the core of our community. Beliefs are ideas or convictions we think are factually correct - regardless of whether they can be proven. That can be a good thing - for example, if we believe that God wants us to serve others. It can also be a bad thing - such as the view held by early colonists that they were superior to the people they subjugated. Indigenous races were often viewed as savages, who needed to be "civilised". In Australia they were completely ignored - the country being declared "terra nullius" (unoccupied - literally "land of no-one"). New Zealand was fortunate in that early settlers admired Maori, for their strength, intelligence and ability to adapt to new technologies. Unfortunately, that was to shift to paternalism, and even contempt. Maori cannibalism did nothing to improve Europeans' view of them. However in recent years that initial respect for Maori has returned, wrongs of the past are being righted, and the country is gradually becoming bilingual. Maori and Pakeha (Europeans) are learning that they have something to gain from both cultures.

I have been refreshing my resources on the Cold War for students, and thinking of it as a sociological event – not only the way it affected lives, but also the way in which it was an expression of suspicion, fear, and sometimes hatred. I remember touring through what had been East Germany, and noticing how living through firstly Na**sm and then communism had affected older people. One dictator had been followed by another. The propaganda, repression, military parades, and fear of mouthing anything that could be seen as a personal view, had an ongoing impact.
That tour also took me to Hungary, where I saw a nation busy re-inventing itself, while remaining true to its past – as attested by memorials to Hungarian leaders and to composers Franz Liszt and Béla Bartók, as well as a very impressive parliament building. Decades earlier we had been shown slides taken by the local minister, who had been working to support refugees from the Hungarian revolution against Russian overlords – a couple of whom joined our family for lunch.
On the other hand, American McCarthyism bristled with mistrust and condemnation. Threats were made, and rights won in Magna Carta were curtailed. The United States became a fortress which could annihilate much of the world at the touch of a nuclear button, in a MAD act of Mutually-Assured Destruction.
So my earliest memory of the Cold War is the Cuban missile crisis - which brought home to us the possibility of a nuclear war. Doomsday movies about life after a nuclear bomb were frightening. I remember wondering whether I would grow up to be an adult. I also remember clearly the relief I felt when the SALT treaty, limiting the development of nuclear weapons, was signed.
New Zealanders were exposed to radiation when observing British and French nuclear tests. In 1973, cabinet minister sailed into the waters where French nuclear tests were being held, and in 1985 a photographer died when French agents sank a Greenpeace ship in our waters. (France saw the perpetrators as heroes. I have to confess to having negative thoughts about the French for some years!) Consequently, in 1987 we adopted a nuclear-free policy, refusing entry into our waters by ships which were propelled or armed by nuclear energy. This brought us both international respect and condemnation, especially from the United States, which limited our exports and removed us from the ANZUS Treaty. We were welcomed back into the fold many years later, when the United States recognised that, in view of the respect our stance commanded around the world, we made a better friend than an enemy – and our efforts in helping to keep the South Pacific secure helped to free the United States from doing the job.
When we began to see on our television screens Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev, a lively person with an engaging smile – and the ability (like that of our own leading Maori negotiator Sir Tipene O’Regan) to speak to Europeans in a language they could understand (and to compromise when necessary) – and the fall of the Berlin Wall, we thought things had changed. Seeing Gorbachev chatting with leaders like Ronald Reagan and Maggie Thatcher was a marked change to seeing Leonid Brehnev hammer the pulpit in the Uniter Nations angrily with his shoe. However Russia had moved a long way very quickly, and the establishment were never going to allow that. The Cold War suffered a hiccup; yet to some it now seems as strong as ever, as an intransigent leader attempts to recover the parts of the Russian Empire that Gorbachev lost, just as a similarly intransigent American President tries to gain control of his neighbours.
The Cold War spread to space – the “final frontier”, as television called it. I remember in 1969 seeing a school class glued to a TV screen to see Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. It was American spaceships we saw orbiting the earth in 2001, a Space Odyssey, to the tune of a Strauss waltz The launch of the International Space Station in 1998 offered hope. Yet huge amounts of money are spent on protective nuclear shields, and – to the amazement of those of us who watched those “doomsday” movies – threats of using nuclear weapons are again being made.
The world has become full of mistrust and condemnation, not only of different political systems, but also of people of different races, ages, religions, cultures, and political views. New Zealand has been fortunate to be isolated from the worst of that, although being a fully inclusive society is still a lively hope, rather than a present reality. We do not dare to offend our big trading partners – so having once led world opinion, we now seem to have no opinion. My father volunteered to fight to limit the ambitions of one cruel dictator. Is holding our heads up in a world dominated by egocentric dictators no longer worth the risk?

Recently I came across a book, "Exploring Society", which presented sociology for New Zealand students. It boosted my interest in sociology, and how it can be applied to the New Zealand situation. It will be useful when English or music students ask me for help with social studies (humanities) - as often happens. I was disappointed to find that there was little about the sociology of music, which has considerable relevance for the study of composers and their compositions. For example, Mozart wrote serenades to accompany a common social activity - wedding breakfasts, in a style that appealed to the Enlightenment, while Beethoven's "Fidelio" and the so-called "Ode to Joy" express Romantic ideals. The violin appeals to many Chinese immigrants, as its sound resembles that of the Chinese erhu, and high sounds of Mozart sonatas tend to appeal more than the deeper sounds of composers like Brahms. Asian immigrants often learn musical instruments - but is this for pleasure, or to enrich their lives, or to enjoy making music together - or is it to impress listeners with the speed of their performance? And why has an interest in Classical music faded amongst Europeans? We are fortunate to have a great deal of Maori music, much of it in Te Reo, and some performed on traditional instruments (such as the nguru nose-flute) - sometimes with guitar, or with a standard western orchestral or choral backing. To what extent is this an expression of Maori aspirations to take a greater role in education, health, society and politics? Interesting questions!

In referring to the comments made by the Whakarewarewa guide in conversation this afternoon, I was reminded that, as often, the missionaries came in for attack. Many Maori are convinced that (a) The missionaries who translated the treaty into Maori deliberately changed the meaning and (b) Missionaries forced Maori to become Christian.

In fact Henry Williams, who (with his son) created the translation, was forced to do it very quickly (overnight), under instructions by British emissary Hobson. He had trouble with the word "sovereignty", as Maori saw themselves as a collection of iwi (tribes) rather than a nation, so would have little understanding of the concept; however, in translating the Bible into Maori, he had used the word kawanatanga (a transliteration of “Governor’s business” – in other words ‘government’), so used that. Now, heading for 200 years later, there is lively discussion about whether Maori ceded sovereignty in the same way that a small collection of local chiefs did in 1835. The Tino Rangatiratanga flag which has become popular in recent years is now giving way to the flag agreed by those local chiefs in 1835. The discussion is then focussed on whether an agreement between a few Northland chiefs and a British representative could bind the whole of Aotearoa New Zealand.

The second issue is whether Maori were forced to be Christian. Some chiefs were very happy to form links with missionaries, so the missionaries would educate the chief’s families in western language and culture. Certainly Maori came under pressure to dress in ways their European settlers thought were acceptable; but these were possibly more an expression of British modesty than Christian beliefs. It was only during the “New Zealand” wars, when supposedly Christian British forces invaded and seized Maori lands, with missionaries acting as chaplains, that Maori turned against Christianity – a process aided by the creation of Ratana and Ringatu faiths, which blended Maori and Christian (largely Jewish) beliefs.

We are in Napier at the moment. On Monday we drove from Auckland to Rotorua, stopping to walk part of the Mount William track. The weather was atrocious. In Matamata, getting caught up in some things I was interested in, I didn't notice the time, then discovered that I was not going to be able to make it to Whakarewarewa in time for the tour I had paid for. I also discovered that, in a senior moment, I had booked the Huka Falls Cruise for the wrong day. (We had to move our dates back a day in order to get accommodation in Gisborne after the Rhythm and Vines festival, and I forgot to change the date of the cruise.) However we managed to book both events for the following day.

We spent last night in Rotorua at what turned out to be very basic accommodation, but we Kiwis are used to roughing it, aren't we?

The tour was interesting, although the guide had imbibed the current Maori propaganda, and, as a student of New Zealand history, I disagreed with her on many points. When she was criticizing the colonizers for the umpteenth time, I felt like reminding her that Maori were actually cannibals, and in the early years of the 19th century were busy trying to exterminate each other. A couple of times - such as when she assured us that the government wanted to annull the Treaty of Waitangi, I had to remind her that that wasn't quite true: some people in the government might Act as if they want to replace it with something else, but it is not true to say that the government intends to abolish the treaty. It is not even true to say the government and tends to remove the treaty from the school curriculum; it intends rather to focus on the three R's until most students have mastered them. Until then all (not just Maori) cultural education will take a back seat. (One hopes that it will be moved to the ninepenny stalls in the front later!) I must have been reasonably diplomatic because afterwards she thanked me.

After that tour, we made it safely in time to Huka Falls. During the cruise we peered through rain covered windows to see the sights the operator drew to our attention. When we reached the rapids, the he kindly did several circuits so that we could all take photos of the descending torrents.

We were able to see more lakes and falls on our way to Napier, and before going to bed were treated to the sight of fireworks celebrating the end of the year. The next time you hear from me it will be next year!

I have completed a minor revision of the notes about the Mozart Cosi fan tutte, adding to some files and creating one new file. I am now revising the Saint-Saëns; in particular I am updating the bar numbers, since Trinity has announced that candidates will be expected to regard the symphony as being in four movements, and to number the bars in each movement separately.

Notes about the Saint-Saens Symphony number 3, the Organ Symphony, and the first act of Mozart's opera Cosi fan tutte have been completed. There are already notes available for the Bach suite. As a result, students have a far wider choice in the questions they answer in AMusTCL. Information is on the Set Work page of the website.

Today we took a tour of the Eastern half of the island. We saw some cows (reminding us often New Zealand, although there were very few of them, and some were grazing on the side of the road.)

A highlight was a blow pool, rather like that of Kiama in New South Wales, although we were able to swim in this one - after negotiating a very steep set of slippery steps, which I found the most challenging experience for quite some time! We were rewarded by seeing tiny bright-blue fish swimming around the tourists - and a cooling dip in the water. The tide was low, So no blowing was observed.

The buses are interesting; every village has its own. Passengers can be seen squashed in like sardines, arms extending from the window frames. (Only modern buses have glass in the windows.) Most people have wagons, the size necessary for accommodating the family, which could be sizable. Sua, our guide, has a dozen children and one grandchild. There is little social welfare in Samoa, So parents have to produce enough children to take care of them when they're old.

Other highlights were visits to the former home of Robert Louis Stevenson, known to the locals as Tusitala, and the Baha'i Temple. Both were heavens of beauty and calm - and both places where stories have been told and honored. My students will continue to be given poems by RLS to analyze.

It is now time for dinner. Last night's was miserable; however the head chef introduced himself to me, provided a complementary course of fruit, and has promised to look after me tonight!