MUSIC AND ART

New Zealand Art has a great variety or kind of expressions, such as woodcarving and tattoos, which, also possess a cultural meaning; moreover, magnificent paints made by artists, who were able to go beyond of the common and able to capture the only and wonderful landscapes from New Zealand over canvas. Folklore music from New Zealand, which through of commemorative and narrative epic hymns is able to reflect in the letter of their songs the culture and traditions from country; moreover, these songs are companied by dance and, for the other hand, the important of the national dance, which express in an only way the nation great passion and fortitude.In general, music and art are a mix of Maori culture and New Zealand’s culture, fact which allows to New Zealand to have a wide variety of exponents inside every one of art branches and thanks to the huge variety of landscapes, weathers and cultures New Zealand brings to the art more and more issues. Due to these facts, New Zealand possesses an innovative and creative art.Nevertheless, before of a depth analyze of New Zealand, we are going to know some information about it; in general, New Zealand as a nation, its geography and history.New Zealand is a big country limited to two great islands and some little islands, such as Great Barrier Island and Stewart Island; furthermore, there are two island called Cook and Niue, which are autonomous states. New Zealand is isolated from the rest of the continents, due to New Zealand’s wildlife is singular, and this wildlife is dominated by birdlife, but many of these unique species were wiping out due to arrival of humans and also, those mammals introduced by humans.The New Zealand Island’s origins are based in the native people from the zone, the Maori, who with their native history, six hundred years before the very first arrival of European people, who came back one hundred years after to colonize the islands to establish the new colony on New Zealand’s Islands.New Zealand, in addition to being a rich country in matter of terrestrial and marine wildlife, is one of few countries; at the same than Uruguay, who until today keeps and uses; proudly, their own native tongue and culture.Nowadays, New Zealand is an institutional monarchy, furthermore and at the same time, it is a Parliamentary democracy but its constitution is not codified. New Zealand’s head of state is the Queen Elizabeth II, who is represented by the governor, whose advisor is the prime minister. Prime minister gives an exclusive consultancy to the governor. Parliament is the legislative power representative of New Zealand, which to make difference of Chile, is formed by an only one house, the House of Representatives.In all related to climates; New Zealand, at the same than Chile, is a very complete country, owing to the great diversity of climates, which vary according to geographic location, and it is possible to find from tropical landscapes to sceneries completely covered by snow or snowy; as well as, deserts and humid place and climates.Prior to this little description about New Zealand, we come back to the main issue; art, which is an mean where artists show everything whose belongs to New Zealand, such as its sceneries, its popular culture, its ancestral culture (Maori culture) and some historical factsOver the very New Zealand’s beginning, art was divided In two parts, Britain art (brought by England colonizers) and the Maori art, both arts were mixing throughout of the time (Maori art needed the Britain art for expressing themselves through of the writing), and were creating a new kind of art, named New Zealand’s art.This art, in many of its representations, has great exponents such as Sara Hughes (painter), Jeffrey Harris (painter), Neil Pardington (photographer) o Chris Booth (sculptor).On the 19^th century, Colin McCahon introduces the cubism in his works, being the first artist in use this technique on New Zealand. This fact gave way to a kind of “liberation” between the artists, because they were introducing to their works the European Modernism and this was mixed with Maori.  This fact, as a whole, marked an important phase in the New Zealand Art’s history, because this gave way to the foundation of the famous art college “Te Puia”, located in Rotorua.The tattoo, which is purely Maori, is an exceptional body art, their ancestors used tattoos to represent the social status that they had or the tribe that they belonged. Nowadays tattoos represent the strong identity that they feel for being Maoris, using the same designs or patterns of their ancestors.One of the important kinds of art is the music, which is influenced by the Maori culture (ethnic and social group most important in the country) and is influenced by other styles from the pacific regions. As well as every country has its own music style that distinguishes it, this country also has one. It is folk and is composed by “Maori music”, this can have a smooth touch or an active melody with strong voices along with a lot of vocal energy. It is lyrics can be related with war or love. Instruments are built with bones, stone, wood, or shells. These instruments are mainly for percussion or can be wind instruments, and with this the folkloric music takes an amazing form.The contemporary music is represented in several styles, some well-known artists are the rapper OMC and the rock band Crowded House.The most popular styles of music at this time are Dubstep, Electro and Maori reggae. There are two famous bands of reggae called Fat Freddy’s Drop and Herbs. The other two styles are influence of other countries.There is a famous festival that happens only once in a year called Big Day Out (BDO), this takes place in New Zealand and Australia. This festival has eight sceneries each one with groups of metal, rock, electro music and other artists not so well-known.As well as music is a New Zealand’s cultural expression it is also art. In this cultural area the carvings on wood, abstract paintings and tattoos or “Moko” (called in Maori) are the most relevant. One of the most influential and acclaimed artist is Frances Hodgkin, New Zealand’s artist who painted the most beautiful landscapes of this country along with several portraits.As a conclusion we can appreciate that music and art represent in a unique way New Zealand, which it’s closely related with its ancestors and with the traditions of its land. Also it demonstrates that it is a warrior country which it takes form through music and art. As a final point, we can establish that New Zealand, at the same than the rest of countries, art is one of the means by a country show itself to the world, and the mean by New Zealand show its culture, popular and native traditions, through great artistic works with world famous exponents. Furthermore, artistic works are closely related with the traditions from their land, and it is able to demonstrate by means of these arts, this country, with a warrior birthplace, closely related with tribal tattoos and expressed in its music and folkloric dancing.