Ask to use material, get more information or tell us about an item
Owen Jensen interviews Professor Vernon Griffiths who discusses the influences that have developed his charachteristic style of music which include his teachers, growing up in a slum vicarage in England and army years during WWI.
Griffiths explains he came to New Zealand for Teachers College in 1927. He found the first couple of years very tough. He talks about the pioneers for New Zealand's culture and growth.
Griffiths was appointed to King Edward Technical College, Dunedin where he wrote a book titled, 'An Experiment In School Music Making'. It was widely known that his interests incuded invloving every child in music so that they might experience the joy of community choir and orchestra. They learned British folk songs before international folk songs.
Griffiths explains how his long association with both student and amateur groups has influenced his compositions. After 41 years in New Zealand he now sees himself as a New Zealander. He talks briefly about his idea of the New Zealand composers' duty to express the country's life to its people.