Samantha Owens reviews After Winter Comes the Summer: Pūhoi's musical heritage in song, rhyme and dance by Roger Buckton, Ralf Heimrath and Judith Williams:
‘MANY NZJH READERS driving north from Auckland will have taken the short detour
off State Highway 1 to the village of Pūhoi, nestled on the banks of the Pūhoi River,
perhaps stopping for a drink at the historic pub or venturing inside the picturesque
wooden Church of Saints Peter and Paul. Situated on land originally owned by Ngāti
Rongo, the settlement was founded in 1863 by around 80 German-speaking Catholic
Bohemians from villages southwest of Plzeň (Pilsen). Critical to the community’s
success in their new home was the generosity shown by local rangatira Te Hemara
Tauhia and his people, who supplied the migrants with food and taught them how to
survive in the bush.
This book’s cover reflects the ongoing vibrancy of the Pūhoi’s settlers’ cultural
traditions, featuring a photograph of two dancing women, arms entwined, wearing the
colourful costume (Tracht) characteristic of the village of Chotěšov (Chotieschau),
complete with its trademark red stockings. Compiled by Roger Buckton, Ralf
Heimrath, and Judith Williams (a descendant of Pūhoi’s early settlers), with significant
contributions by Pūhoi Heritage Museum co-ordinator Jenny Schollum, the volume
documents songs and instrumental music used for the dancing that was a key part of
the community’s life, helping to provide it with a ‘sense of social cohesion’ despite
being ‘isolated by geography and language’ in New Zealand (p.130).
As noted in an opening message contributed by Nicole Menzenbach, German
ambassador to New Zealand, Pūhoi was ‘one of the farthest-flung outposts to be home
to a unique dialect’ (p.7). Known as Deitsch, this German dialect is almost identical
to that still spoken in the Upper Palatinate region of northern Bavaria but has now
effectively died out in New Zealand. The last known speaker was Pūhoi local Fred
Rauner (1928–2022).
The first part of the volume documents more than 30 individual songs, pieces of
dance music and rhymes, drawn from a variety of sources. These include manuscript
music books compiled by home-grown musicians, texts noted down by Judith
Williams (who sadly passed away in 2022 – the book is dedicated to her), recordings
of community singing dating back to the 1960s, and published versions of songs
collected by visitors from the historical region of Egerland (north-west Bohemia) in
1984.
Organized by topic, the songs are presented in categories – such as ‘Songs About
the Seasons and Animals’ – beginning with Nao an Winta kinnt da Summa (After
Winter Comes the Summer). For each one, the music is reproduced complete with
its Deitsch text, followed by literal translations in both English and High German.
Notes on the piece’s sources (both local and European) and known performance
traditions are also provided. The final selection is a finger-wagging dance known
as the Finger Polka, which remains popular in Pūhoi to this day. Fascinatingly,
this originated as a Bohemian peasant dance; however, following its introduction
to Prague ballrooms in 1835, it quickly became fashionable across Europe and the
United States.’
Read the rest of the review here.
