Blog Archives
High standards and fine judgement, Marian Minson
Opera in New Zealand: Aspects of History and Performance, Adrienne Simpson (ed), Witham Press (PO Box 28-074), Wellington, 1990, $24.95 Since her recent return to New Zealand, Wellington musical historian Adrienne Simpson has made a strong impact with regular talks…
Tagged with: Adrienne Simpson, Issue 2, Marian Minson, Winter 1991, Witham Press
Posted in Music, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Music, Non-fiction, Review
Autobiography of grace and clarity, Andrew Mason
Bonfires in the Rain Lauris Edmond Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 1991, $27.95 In outline, the story Lauris Edmond has to tell in this, her second volume of autobiography, would be typical of many New Zealand women who married about the…
Tagged with: Andrew Mason, Bridget Williams Books, Issue 2, Lauris Edmond, Winter 1991
Posted in Autobiography, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Autobiography, Non-fiction, Review
The sparks which ignite music from Boethius to Bob Dylan, Lyell Cresswell
The Concept of Music Robin Maconie Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1990, £22.50, $91.95 The broad scope of Robin Maconie’s conjectural inquiry into music is succinctly expressed in his first chapter: ‘Music is an information process working simultaneously on many different levels,…
Tagged with: Clarendon Press, Issue 2, Lyell Cresswell, Robin Maconie, Winter 1991
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Civilised, precise and somewhat quizzical, Bill Sewell
Winter Walk at Morning Iain Lonie, Victoria University Press, Wellington, 1991, $16.95 The cover of this posthumous collection shows a pair of dividers resting on a chart, which on closer examination turns out to juxtapose Western Scotland and an unidentified…
Tagged with: Bill Sewell, Iain Lonie, Issue 2, Victoria University Press, Winter 1991
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
Music as a cultural force: the lineaments of a tradition, John Roberts
The Oxford History of New Zealand Music John Mansfield Thomson Oxford University Press, Auckland, 1991, $69.95 This eagerly awaited book will take a high place in the company of recent reference works. The only cause for regret is that the…
Tagged with: Issue 2, John Mansfield Thomson, John Roberts, Oxford University Press, Winter 1991
Posted in History, Music, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in History, Music, Non-fiction, Review
To make the world intelligible, Max Anderson
Selected Poems 1940-1989 Allen Curnow Viking hardback, $49.95 (Penguin paperback, Auckland, 1990, $27.95) When Allen Curnow published Continuum, his collected poems 1972-1988, he organized the book back-to-front: most recent poems at the beginning, earliest at the end. The selection, a…
Tagged with: Allen Curnow, Issue 2, Max Anderson, Penguin, Viking, Winter 1991
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
Concentrated energy and irreverence, Diane Moir
Grievous Bodily Craig Harrison, Penguin Books, Auckland, 1991, $24.95 Grievous Bodily, subtitled A Very Funny Novel, has been written with the film in mind. Not any old film, but a very funny film with enough references, cross-references and sight and…
Tagged with: Craig Harrison, Diane Moir, Issue 2, Penguin Books, Winter 1991
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Poem — Hone Tuwhare
Shadow Implicit above all and as pervasive as the Duende of Federico Garcia Lorca is the sense that I must tread the liveliest and loneliest of measures on my way to Rarohenga cocking a snook at the shadow of…
Forging a political language, Tony Simpson
Posted in Comment