In the middle of the nineteenth century people from England who migrated to New Zealand took along with them the seeds of choralism to plant them in their new land. At this time in New Zealand musical activities were on the rolling and the emigrants took initiative to establish choral societies and church choirs. The settlers first developed their vocal skills and later on experimented with the instruments. Music of New Zealand gradually developed following a pattern similar to that of civilized nations of the world.

The earlier New Zealand folk music was related to that of Australia. For the micro-tonal maori folk music, a variety of blown, struck and twirled instruments known as taonga puoro was used. New Zealand folk music also narrates the story of colonial heritage of bagpipes and of brass bands which has won several international accolades. It is an interesting fact that New Zealand has more pipe bands than Scotland.

During the 1960s various garage bands with power-pack energy were formed in New Zealand laying the foundations of rock. Rock bands called The Human Instinct, Living Force, Dragon, Hello Sailor and Space farm came into the being in the seventies. As time passed by the rock bands of New Zealand had audiences internationally in countries like Australia.

The US movie The Warriors released in 1979 was responsible for the birth of hip hop music in New Zealand. The early hip-hops of New Zealand developed a social conscience in the minds of people. But later on New Zealand hip hop conveyed the idea of persecution and racism.

In the mid seventies independent music began in New Zealand by creating a environment for punk rock. Thus several punk bands were formed in New Zealand. The enemy, Nocturnal Projections, suburban Reptiles, The Scavengers and Proud Scum were some of them.

Though much details are not known about the New Zealand traditional musical instruments the Maori musical instruments are often associated with New Zealand. Koauau is one such Maori instrument which resembles the flute made of wood or bone. It is believed that earlier the bone of birds and humans were used to make Maori. Other popular Maori musical instruments were the Nose flute, The Pahu,and the Putatara.

Douglas Lilburn is the first composer who committed himself to give the true music of New Zealand. Lilburn and Edwin Carr developed a new distinct style of New Zealand music and Lilburn was the pioneer in the field of electronic music. Composers like Jenny Mcleod, Larry Pruden, David Grifffiths, Jack Body, Anthony Ritchie, Martin Lodge, Nigel Keay, Ross Harris, Dorothy Buchanan, Gillian Whitehead, Ivan Zagni and David Farquhar made several contributions to New Zealand music.

This site covers all areas for Music History of the World.

Ottoman Empire History