The Verbrugghen Quartette at a Maori Wedding

During the course of the New Zealand tour of the New South Wales State Orchestra in January and February of 1920 there occurred many doings of interest, but there was one which lives in our memories very agreeably. This occurred at Hastings. We had given our concert there on Tuesday, January 20, and on Wednesday morning were breakfasting, prior to our departure for Napier, when the various hotels where orchestra members were staying began to receive visits and telephone messages from our New Zealand manager, Mr. Gladstone Hill, telling us that we were ah invited to a Maori wedding and must be at the station a little earlier, to catch the train for Te Hauke, where there is a Maori settlement and where the wedding was to take place. On hearing this some of us were for pressing on to Napier, but eventually we were all prevailed upon to go, and I think, when it was over, we were more than glad to have been present. Personally, I feel that I experienced something that day which was very good. There are certain great principles in man’s nature which will awaken to life when stimulated from without. Principles which it is very good to awaken and others which it is well to leave dormant, and on this occasion the spirit of friendship and goodwill which the Maoris showed us stirred the very best in us.

On arriving at the station we found our three reserved carriages and were soon spinning along towards Te Hauke. There is no station, only a little shelter, and we descended on to the track itself and struck across towards the Maori settlement. On the way, it was explained to us that we should bear in mind a few points of Maori etiquette, and so avoid any behaviour likely to hurt their feelings. Near to a Maori house in an open space were lined up a number of Maoris of both sexes, the women bearing palm leaves in their hands, and as we drew near they performed dances for our welcome. I fear it would require a more able pen than mine to convey an adequate idea of these dances, with their characteristic movements, of the grimaces, the upturned eyes and lolling tongues and, to us, curious singing. Very impressive they must have been in by-gone times, when they were a part of their daily lives. But I think this welcome was impressive to me in a different way. It was the ghost of the departed, a pale reflection of that which once had been a vigorous, living reality. Here were sturdy Maoris, pure and also half-caste, but attired in our ugly shirt and trousers or blouse and skirt; the dances they performed were pulled through with considerable effort and after special rehearsing. It all seemed very pregnant with the sadness which attends the passing of something which once has flourished in power and beauty. But, then, how touching it was—this resuscitation of the old form for our entertainment. How real was the welcome and how sincere its quality. The dances over, we were presented to the chief, a magnificent specimen of Maori manhood. A big man, with a fine figure, splendid features and friendly expression, and a mass of pure white hair. He shook us by the hand and chatted and smiled, posed most good-humouredly for innumerable snapshots and generally made us welcome.

Presently our chief, Mr. Verbrugghen, arrived by motor-car, and it was a fine sight to see him (the “pakeha” chief) and the Maori chief talking together, and cameras were freely levelled in their direction, also later on when Mr. Verbrugghen took the arm of a bonny Maori lady. At the wedding we were given as a most unprecedented honour, the places which otherwise had been occupied by their own people, and we filled the whole of one side of the Maori house, sitting on the floor and standing against the wall. This Maori house consists of one large oblong room, with entrance door and windows at one end and windows again at the opposite end. The walls are hung around with a kind of woven matting and the roof is supported by several central pillars, beautifully carved with representations of native deities and heroes. At the entrance end, outside, the roof overhangs and the side walls are prolonged, to form a kind of porch, and here again the woodwork is carved. The whole decoration was beautifully worked by Maoris from Rotorua, and the house, or “whare,” presents a most characteristic appearance.

The bride and bridegroom were a fine, handsome couple, attired in orthodox European wedding dress, complete even to the white gloves. They were married by a young Mormon clergyman, who read the service in the Maori tongue, and although it was not a native ceremony, it was in many ways very interesting and impressive. Afterwards speeches were made in both Maori and English. Before the wedding party filed in for the ceremony and whilst waiting we were entertained by some of the Maoris present, who sang several unaccompanied Maori songs, which were musically and historically interesting and were much enjoyed and applauded.  

At the close of the ceremony and speeches we all passed out into the open and preparations went forward for the performance of Mr. Alfred Hill’s Maori Quartette in G Minor by the Verbrugghen quartette. To music lovers this performance would have presented many features of unusual interest. Those who are acquainted with Mr. Hill know the splendid work he has done in connection with Maori native music in, as it were, immortalizing it, by presenting it to us in our accustomed idiom. He knows their songs and their dances and can himself perform some of these as readily as any Maori. He knows the poetic Maori spirit, knows and loves their natural, happy simplicity, their generosity, their freshness and sensitiveness, their nearness to Nature and their knowledge of certain psychic laws and phenomena. He knows all this at first hand and he feels that in it dwells a spirit which is fresh and beautiful and unusual and he has. endeavoured to divert some of its essence into the channel of our own musical idiom, and so make its. beauty and charm a possession for all, and his Maori quartettes and Maori songs are the result. Mr. Hill was present on this occasion, and it afforded a unique opportunity to ascertain whether the Maoris themselves could detect in the music something of their own spirit.

The audience was composed entirely of Maoris, and before Mr. Verbrugghen and the artists and his quartette played, Mr. Hill explained through the medium of an interpreter just what they were going to hear.  He told them how these players were four of our great artists and that their instruments were the wonderful work of the great masters of the past; then he told them how he had embodied in the music some of their own legends and some of their own tunes and asked them to listen carefully and see what they could recognize. Then the quartette was played and it was made evident by the flashes of interest and understanding which showed on their faces that they really did respond to something they well knew in the music. It must have been a great event for them, and certainly it was something out of the ordinary for the Verbrugghen quartette.  

It was now nearly lunch time, and the Maoris wished to give us lunch. Some who had come by motor-car were able to stay and partake of the lunch prepared, but the majority, who were dependent on the train, some 80 odd, had to return to the railway in readiness for the train, which was nearly due, but our hosts were not to be outdone and were determined to give us lunch, and speedily solved the difficulty. They sent us on to the little shelter by the line and presently followed us down, dragging a large four-wheeled cart loaded with eatables. Hot tea, cakes, beautiful Maori bred [sic] and butter, fruit, jelly and biscuits, and whilst we partook of their good things they got up into the cart and sang and danced for our entertainment, and I am sure they exerted themselves body and soul. Presently the train drew up and we clambered into our carriages and then these warm-hearted creatures let go all restraint and chattered and shook our hands and beamed and laughed, and as the train moved away thrust into our hands whole cases of fruit and tins of biscuits, and, more than that, they thrust into our hearts that feeling of brotherhood and humanity which makes the pulses quicken and the eye grow dim and the spirit of man seem more like unto the spirit of God.  

The tour of the orchestra through the Dominion has undoubtedly proved an epoch-making event in the annals of music in the Southern Hemisphere, and our departure from Te Hauke brought to a close one of its most interesting and delightful experiences.  

Sourced from the National Library of Australia

Boult, Charles Valentine. "The Verbrugghen Quartette at a Maori Wedding." The Conservatorium Magazine, April, 1920, 6-7. https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3431547062.