Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Hooning on Radio Tonga



I blogged earlier this year about Maikolo Horowitz's part-time job as a DJ for Tonga's public radio network. Maikolo's monthly classical music show, which is sponsored by the Vava'u Aacademy and by a couple of Nuku'alofa's more upmarket Italian restaurants, normally features the serene sounds of eighteenth and nineteenth century masters like Haydn and Chopin.

In the instalment which will be broadcast tomorrow (Wednesday) night, though, I storm Radio Tonga's studio and force Maikolo to spin discs by several contemporary composers. Dr Horowitz grumbles about the alleged dissonance of my offerings, and the show ends with me being escorted from the premises by burly security guards.

During the recording session for tomorrow night's show I dedicated John Adams' 'Short Ride in a Fast Machine' to the teenagers who hoon up and down Nuku'alofa's waterfront Vuna Road on Friday and Saturday nights in cars that manage to be both souped up and semi-derelict. It occurs to me now, though, that the finer meanings of  'hoon', a word which apparently has its origins in that incomprehensible dialect known as Kiwi vernacular English, might be lost on a Tongan audience. I hope that they can enjoy the music, even if their host is talking nonsense.

You can hear Maikolo and me from 8.30 pm Tonga time on Radio Tonga One, which streams online here.

[Posted by Scott Hamilton]

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

re eyeties

http://storialavoro.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/my-adventures-with-ep-thompson/

10:26 pm  
Blogger Richard said...

There a lot of fascinating contemporary music of all kinds (acoustic to electronic or mixed) on the Concert Programme (NZ) on Tuesday nights. One night they had Bill Direen on with his group in France or Germany. But there is a lot of other stuff. Adams would only be one. Various ethnic, jazz-classical, "noise" music, even some kinds of "pop", innovative (e.g. one German chap improvises all his music): but the range goes beyond Europe much 20th to 21st music on Sound Lounge.

Kate Meads usually hosts it. You might be able to do something like it once a week and even have some poetry etc

They might be interested in local Polysnesian works.

10:36 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

sounds bourgeois

11:06 pm  

Post a Comment

<< Home