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Richard Moyle Tonga recordings

 Collection
Identifier: AMPS 2022/101

Scope and Contents

Collection comprises audio recordings made by Richard Moyle in Tonga during the period 1973-1977. The recordings present a survey of traditional Tongan music from some sixty-two villages throughout Tonga, and the first ethnomusicological study of Tonga’s oral traditions. Recordings are arranged by source and appear in chronological order. Field Recordings, the primary material made by Moyle, are arranged by island group. The Tonga Broadcasting Commission recordings were made available to Moyle by successive Station Managers of Radio Tonga for research purposes, as were copies of third-party recordings from other sources. Some in-house transcriptions, for some items, are present in the Collection File. Please contact the repository for more information.

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Dates

  • 1973 - 1977

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

To request access to items in this collection, or to provide comment or corrections, please complete the following: Archive of Māori and Pacific Sound request form

Biographical / Historical

Professor Richard M. Moyle is a New Zealand ethnomusicologist, educator and author specialised in the music and oral histories of the Pacific and First Nations Australia.

Moyle began recording in Samoa and American Samoa between 1966 and 1969 during field work for his Masters and Doctoral degrees at the University of Auckland. He later expanded his research to the Kingdom of Tonga, Lau Islands in Fiji, Niue, Northern Cook Islands, Takuu Atoll in Papua New Guinea, and Central Australia.

After completing the University of Auckland’s first PhD in ethnomusicology in 1971, Moyle has held teaching positions at Indiana University, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and Griffith University Queensland. For eight years he was Research Fellow at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) in Canberra, publishing a trilogy of books on the music of Central Australia with wife Linden Moyle. Returning to Auckland in 1985 to take up an appointment in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Auckland, he went on to become Director of the Archive of Maori and Pacific Music in 1993, followed by Director of Pacific Studies in 2007, until his retirement in 2010.

Extent

3.6 metres (Includes 179 open reel tapes and 6 audiocassettes)

Language of Materials

Tonga (Tonga Islands)

English

Arrangement

Recordings are arranged by original tape sequence and appear in three series: Field recordings, Tonga Broadcasting Commission recordings, and Research copies. Item numbers reflect the original sequence.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donated by Richard Moyle 1974. Additional material received 1977.

Selected bibliography

Richard Moyle (1987). Tongan Music. Auckland, NZ: Auckland University Press.

Richard Moyle (1995; 1998). Fananga: Fables from Tonga in Tongan and English, vol.1-2. Nuku'alofa, Tonga: Friendly Islands Bookshop.
Title
Inventory of Richard Moyle's Tonga recordings
Status
In Progress
Author
Huni Mancini
Date
September 2024
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Archive of Māori and Pacific Sound, University of Auckland Repository

Contact:
Level 3, General Library
5 Alfred Street
Private Bag 92109
Auckland 1010 New Zealand
+64 9 923 5008