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In 1913 Palings published a piano-variations piece in Australia, Swiss Cradle Song. In 1915 its opening theme was modified for the singing of Po Atarau to farewell Maori WW1 soldiers. In 1920 Maewa Kaihau wrote a This is the Hour verse, and in 1935 she modified the Po Atarau verse. This became the Haere Ra Waltz Song, which was sung when steamships were departing overseas. In 1945 English wartime singer Gracie Fields learnt Haere Ra on a visit to New Zealand. Her version of it, known as Now is the Hour, became a world-wide hit in 1948. |
Pö atarau E moea iho nei E haere ana Koe ki pämamao Haere rä Ka hoki mai anö Ki i te tau E tangi atu nei |
On a moonlit night I see in a dream You going away To a distant land Farewell, But return again To your loved one, Weeping here |
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"Haere ra," te manu tangi pai. E haere ana, koe ki pamamao. Haere ra, ka hoki mai ano, Ki-i te tau, e tangi atu nei |
"Bon Voyage" cries out the seabird as you depart for a distant land. "Farewell, but return again to your loved one, weeping here." |
Now is the hour, when we must say goodbye.
Soon you'll be sailing far across the sea.
While you're away, oh please remember me.
When you return, you'll find me waiting here.
Swiss Cradle Song
In
1913, Palings published Swiss
Cradle Song by "Clement Scott". This was a piano
piece (a music score of seven large folio pages)
consisting of about 8 variations the 16-bar theme shown
below. Palings sold 130,000 copies of Swiss Cradle
Song; several thousand of these would have been
sales in New Zealand.
Here is the melody line of the first 16 bars.
Po Atarau: several stories of its origin
A Maori elder who was at Te Aute College in 1915 and 1916 said everyone was singing it there at the College because of its appropriate farewell theme during those war years when so many young men were embarking for Gallipoli and France.
These words seem to have been added to and modified by various people. The Grace and Awatere family shearing gang from Tuparoa on the East Coast used the Swiss Cradle tune in 1919.
According to Dick Grace, who was a small boy at the time, after hearing the Swiss Cradle song played by the pianist accompanying the silent movie pictures at Gisborne they wrote a verse in English and two in Maori. They called the song Po Ata Rau. The 1973 LP, Maori Song and Rhythm, by the Ma-wai-hakona Musical group concludes with Po Atarau (farewell song) attributed to the Grace and Awatere families.
Ratana
This
verse was collected by Angela Annabell from a woman who
had learnt it at Ratana services as a child in 1925.
Notice
that it was sung to the original 4/4 time Swiss
Cradle Song tune, with the first seven notes
holding the same pitch. It translates as Everybody, everybody, turn back to the Mouthpiece (i.e. to the prophet Ratana). The Ratana movement began in 1920, and Anglican hymns first used by the church gave way to Ratana "Mangai" hymns. This may have been a modified Maori Anglican hymn, as shown below in the 1928 version.
Maewa Kaihau
Emira
Maewa Kaihau (b.1879 - d.1941) was born Louisa
Flavell at Whangaroa, in Northland. On her father's
side she is said to have descended from French
nobles fleeing the French Revolution, and from a
musician from the court of the Austrian Emperor. On
her mother's side she was a direct descendant of Nga
Puhi chief Hone Hika of Ngati Rahiri and Ngati Rehia
Hapu.
Maewa was the second wife of Henare Kaihau, (of
Waiuku, near Manukau), the
Maori Member of Parliament representing Western
Maori until 1920, and she bore him six daughters and
two sons. Maewa was musically gifted; she played the
piano, sang, and also taught music. She was also
well known for reading her poetry.
The Prince of Wales visited NZ
in 1920. At a ball in
Rotorua, Maewa's eldest daughter was one of a group
of teenage girls who, in bare feet and piupiu,
entertained the Royal entourage, and the girl formed
an attachment with one of them. But he had to depart
with the Prince.
So Maewa quickly wrote this for her daughter, using the well-known Po Atarau tune as a basis, but with some of the opening phrase lowered, as shown here. This was published privately in the early 1920s, with ornate Maori translations added to the original English verses.
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This
is the hour, for us to say goodbye.
Soon you'll be sailing far across the sea.
Do not forget, but, remember me.
When you return, you'll find me waiting here.
I love you dear, but duty calls you now How I will miss you, when far, far away. God guard you dear, and guide you safely home, When you return, you'll find me waiting here.
Kua tae mai te wa, he we he nga mo tatou |
Now is the Hour
This was published in 1935,
with the first verse of Maewa's version, a Christian
version of the Ratana Te Iwi verse, and then the Po
Atarau verse with a crying sea bird replacing the
moonlit dream.
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1. |
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The
first and last verses became extremely popular, and
Maewa Kaihau claimed that all the words and tune were
her own work. But Palings soon claimed copyright for the
tune, and Maewa Kaihau's words were not copyrighted
until 1928, by
Robertson's Publishers, a company that was later taken
over by Lewis Eady which was in turn taken over by
Charles Begg & Co. More recently Dick Grace has
claimed most of the words as the work of his family.
In
those days before radio and before locally-made
recordings, the the lyrics of this song were probably
being changed constantly according to circumstance and
memory, and Kaihau's genius was to mold a version whose
words could be understood and appreciated by both the
Maori and British communities.
Says researcher Angela Annabell
"Perhaps the chief factor contributing to the success of Now is the Hour as a representative New Zealand song is its reflection of the Maori/English amalgamation fundamental to the national fabric."
Over the next 25 years Haere Ra became a favourite as the last waltz at dances, and was sung an the wharfside to farewell friends and troops on departing steamships. I remember hearing Haere ra, te manu tangi pai sung on the wharf in Wellington in about 1948 (I was a 7-year old) when the Wanganella was pulling out, and everyone on the wharf was holding streamers with the passengers lining the rails (JA).
The song was recorded by Ana Hato 1927, Ernest McKinlay c1928, and George Nepia c1935, all of which included English and Maori words, although there are minor variations in the text.
Gracie Fields
In
1945 British wartime singer
Gracie
Fields visited New Zealand, where she was given a
reception something akin to a Royal Visit. At Rotorua,
she heard Haere Ra sung by Guide Kiri's concert
party, and later in her limousine, her driver, an
Auckland dance band leader, taught her the song.
Gracie's manager Dorothy Stewart was also her American
agent.
In July 1947, Gracie Fields sang her version on a BBC radio programme, and around the same time recorded it for English Decca with fantastic success.
Gracie Fields did not include the Sunset glow passage in her version. It seems that the Sunset glow bridge -words and music - were composed by Dorothy Stewart. Hence her share in the copyright.
(Also at about this time Albert Saunders died. He comes into this story later. Or should he be at the beginning?)
Bing Crosby
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Now is the hour, when we must say goodbye. Soon you'll be sailing far across the sea. While you're away, oh, then, remember me. When you return, you'll find me waiting here. Night o'er the valley is creeping. Birds cuddle down in their nest Soon all the world will be sleeping. Soon you'll be sailing far across the sea. While you're away, oh, then, remember me. When you return, you'll find me waiting here. |
Crosby's version was probably released and distributed after Fields' version had already made an impact in America. Around Christmas 1947, because of industrial action in the US, it may have been difficult to distribute US-made recordings, including the distribution of Crosby's Now is the Hour. This is probably why in January 1948 a planeload and shiploads of Fields' version were sent to the US to satisfy demand for the tune. And that is how Gracie Field's version was as successful as Bing's in America at that time. Several million copies of the record were sold.
Bing Crosby's Now is the Hour entered the Top Ten charts on 5 Feb 1948. It was No. 1 or 2 from 28 Feb to 29 May. It stayed on the Top Ten charts until 3 July 1948. (23 weeks). It was Bing's 42nd and last single to reach the top of the pop charts.
Albert
Saunders a.k.a Clement Scott
n
1948, two years after
Albert Saunders had died, his widow claimed that it was
her late husband who had written the "Swiss Cradle
Song," way back in 1906. She said they had had a family
of 11 children to feed and her husband had sold the
copyright of Swiss Cradle Song for two guineas
ready cash to Palings Music Publishers, as part of a
series of his compositions called "Songs of all
Nations," using the name Clement Scott as a pseudonym.
Peter Downes, a retired Radio NZ executive producer, says that although Albert Saunders was on the music staff of Palings as an arranger and composer, his compositions were mostly dance tunes (like the Mad Pranks Foxtrot) or military marches (like the Comet March, commemorating the coming of Halley's comet), all vastly different from the type of composition listed for Clement Scott.
This is not to say that they weren't one and the same person, says Mr Downes. Saunders could have used the pseudonym for his piano solos and more romantic pieces in order to differentiate between the two very different composing styles.
Albert Bokhare Saunders/Clement Scott lived in Moree in Northern NSW,
Thanks
- Dr Angela Annabell for research in her PhD thesis, New Zealand's Cultural and Economic Development Reflected in Song - Aspects of the New Zealand Folk song Ethos, University of Auckland, 1975
- Gordon
Spittle for allowing me to use information from
his book Counting the
Beat, a History of New Zealand Song (1997),
- Roger Flury of the music section of the National Library of New Zealand,
-
and Peter Downes, retired Radio New Zealand
executive producer, and author of several books on
aspects of NZ theatre and music.
Other
Maori Songs - Main
Song List - Home
Published on the web Sept 19, 2001, revised Nov 28
2001, revised Oct 2006, revised and reformatted 2021