Watch: Suffrage Songs Recomposed

Watch some of the songs from our Suffrage Songs Recomposed concert held on 14 October, filmed by SOUNZ.

30 November 2018

The New Zealand School of Music - Te Kōkī, at Victoria University of Wellington presented 'Music From Her' in October 2018, a festival to celebrate, support and encourage diverse voices of women working in music in New Zealand, in the year of the 125th anniversary of women’s suffrage in New Zealand. The pinnacle event of the festival, the Suffrage Songs Recomposed concert at Hannah Playhouse on 14 October, saw a collection of 1890s women’s suffrage songs texts made modern by nine female composers. Various singers were joined by instrumental, electronic and taonga puoro musicians to perform re-imaginings of these politically trailblazing texts, and SOUNZ captured these on film. Check out the trailer here or watch some of the individual songs below.

Ariana Tikao - Clinging Things

The words of Eliza Sproat Turner inspired this new composition by Ariana Tikao in this first song from the New Zealand School of Music - Te Kōkī’s ‘Suffrage Songs Recomposed’ concert. Ariana is joined by Ruby Solly and Lee Stuart on the stage of Wellington’s Hannah Playhouse.

Emma Bernard - Old Ballad

Emma Bernard (aka Ludus) takes up the fighting words of ‘Old Ballad’, which appeared in the pages of ‘The Prohibitionist’ on 3 December 1892: “That one man shall not rule another Unless by that other’s consent, Is the principle deep underlying The framework of this government. So, as woman is punished for breaking The laws which she cannot gainsay, Let us give her a voice in the making, Or ask her no more to obey.”
Emma performs on an APC 40, a laptop and a Micro Korg synthesiser.

Jasmine Lovell-Smith - Oh Dear, What Can The Matter Be?

Hannah Griffin (voice), Louisa Williamson (tenor sax) and Anita Schwabe (keyboard) perform Jasmine Lovell-Smith’s ‘Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be?”, with words taken from the RNZ programme “Ladies A Plate, Please”.

Susan Frykberg - Dr Hodgkinson and Women Voters

One Dr Hodgkinson was a persistent objector to the prospect of women’s suffrage, writing a series of letters to the Southern Cross (Invercargill) in 1893 under the headline “The New Heresy - the equality of women”. Composer Susan Frykberg sets the biblically driven riposte of an anonymous writer in her ‘Dr Hodgkinson and Women Voters’, for the voice of Barbara Paterson and percussionist Hannah Neman.

Alison Isadora - That One Man (Shall Not)

Alison Isadora’s ‘That one man (shall not)’ is a second setting of ‘Old Ballad’ (see the earlier video of the work of Emma Bernard), a text that appeared on the WCTU page of ‘The Prohibitionist’ on 3 December 1892. The work, “explores, with playful seriousness, shared decision-making and the tensions between the composer’s script, the performers’ own choices and how these choices relate to their neighbours.” The initial delicate spaciousness of the playing of Michelle Velvin (harp) and Jake Church (electric guitar with effects) contrasts Jonny Marks, recently described by Michael Norris as the finest exponent of throat singing to emerge from the Hutt Valley.

Miriama Young - Suffrage Song

In ‘The Man Who Didn’t Believe in the Franchise’ Miriama Young sets, in a Victorian steampunk style, a tongue-in-cheek poem submitted to the Pelorus Guardian on 26 September 1893.

Sung by Ruby Solly, with electric ukelele.

Ruby Solly - Precious are the Things (That Fly Without Wings)

Ruby Solly is joined again by Ariana Tikao and Lee Stuart for ‘Precious are the Things (That Fly Without Wings)’, a setting of ‘Woman’s Sphere’ by Ada E. Ferris, a submission to the WCTU page of The Prohibitionist on 21 November 1891.

Chanelle Davis - Papa Minds the Baby

Our Suffrage Songs Recomposed concert concluded with a special airing of the winning work in the school’s ‘Lullaby Competition for the Prime Minister’. This was won by singer-songwriter Chanelle Davis with ‘Papa Minds the Baby’, a setting of Thomas Bracken’s ‘A Lullaby’ from the 1892 publication “The Triumph of Women’s Rights: A Prophetic Vision”. A recording of the song has been gifted to Jacinda Ardern.