The words-piano performance‖ typically conjure up the image of a famed virtuoso playing to a packed concert hall and receiving tumultuous applause. In colonial New Zealand the instrument was certainly associated with professional musicianship. Touring virtuosi, each with the glamour of an international reputation and training, regularly attracted crowds, applause and a generous fee. As early as 1851 the visiting Mrs John Bell enchanted audiences at two piano concerts in Auckland, while Ralph Hood's two-Grand Pianoforte Recitals‖ were sold out in Wellington in 1885. 2 The Polish pianist Jan Paderewski's performance of Beethoven-enthralled‖ Willie Tarling in Christchurch in 1904 and his rendition of Liszt's Rhapsodies in 1927 led Frederick Page to eulogize that-there was a hint of gold in every note.‖ 3 However, for most colonial New Zealanders, the opportunities for hearing such performers were rare. The pianists who entertained audiences were more usually local amateurs whose defining characteristics were versatility and adaptability. They performed solo works; accompanied singers, violinists and flautists; tapped out the rhythms for dances; and alternated between the compositions of classical greats, popular favourites, and the occasional local composition. Four overlapping motifs underpin this discussion of the indispensability of amateur pianists to a wide range of colonial entertainments, and in its interpretation of each motif, this article elaborates the meaning of-colonial performance.‖ First, both the popularity of the instrument itself and the repertoire performed upon it highlight the transnational nature of early New Zealand society. As Caroline Daley emphasizes, colonial society-bore the cultural imprint of its parent (Britain) and its older white siblings (other white settler societies, including America).‖ 4 Piano playing and performance in New Zealand reflected the practices of these cultural reference points and models, showing how performance was widely understood across cultural, geographical, and social borders. Second, within this overarching pattern of cultural importation there are distinctively New Zealand nuances and variations evident in piano performance, particularly in relation to Māori interaction with the piano and to the gender and class associations of the instrument. Performance in New Zealand took specific forms and presented new questions for its meanings in a colonial setting. Third, while piano performance was at times associated with social improvement and with raising the tone of colonial culture, amateur performers primarily played to give pleasure and to enhance community and conviviality. Finally, this discussion demonstrates that in colonial New Zealand the word-amateur‖ did not necessarily denote lack of skill. While some newspaper reports, letters, journals, and novels did deride amateur pianists, most accounts praised the skill and versatility of performers. The word-amateur,‖ particularly when associated with music, is a contested term. For the lexicographer Dr Hugo ...

This article describes, discusses and reflects on a teaching and learning experiment in a first year BA course. Students were led out of the lecture room to a different space, the New Place Theatre. While this move out of the usual teaching space was appropriate for the text being studied, William Shakespeare's The Tempest, the strategy aimed to develop students' grasp of a critical concept we had identified as troublesome to students who had encountered it in the past: subjective interpretation. For us the concept of subjective interpretation shared the transformative and integrative, as well as the troublesome, characteristics of 'threshold concepts'. According to threshold concept theory, threshold concepts are critical points where students may get 'stuck' before making 'learning leaps' as they journey towards a 'new conceptual space and enter . . . a postliminal state in which both the learner and the learning are transformed' (Land et al., 2010: ix). Students first participated in a collective exercise, creating the storm which opens the play through movement and vocalisation, and were then invited to intervene in a performance of the opening act, supporting the characters with whom they sympathised. Student feedback confirmed that this teaching strategy not only assisted them to grasp the concept of subjective interpretation, but also promoted transformative shifts in understanding through their active learning. A key factor in the resulting student engagement was movement to a different physical space, and a fresh, creative learning place.

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The piano was an important cultural symbol in colonial New Zealand, yet although there is a significant body of international scholarship on the social and cultural history of the instrument in Britain, America, Canada, Norway, Spain and India there is a dearth of scholarly criticism relating to New Zealand. Research to redress this absence has revealed that the piano was central to settler culture, demonstrating a migrant desire to replicate the known and familiar but also highlighting settler innovations and an emerging nationalism. International connections between New Zealand, Britain, Western Europe, America and Australia are also apparent in relation to migrant patterns, the importation of instruments and sheet music and networks of musical performance and study. The instrument played a role in the complex dynamic of cultural encounter between Maori and settler, with an initial indigenous negativity and bemusement giving way to an interest in the piano and an appropriation of the instrument into Maori cultural contexts and spaces, including the marae. Prevailing perceptions of gender roles and identity are also challenged by research on the piano. Likewise, an examination of piano and class reveals that the instrument was popular with New Zealanders from all socio‐economic backgrounds.

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