English astronomers had a 2 in 120 year chance of
finding the size of the solar system if they could time
the transit of Venus across the front of the sun in two
widely spaced places. Tahiti
was sunny and friendly, and about as far from England as
you could get, so Capt James Cook was sent there to
observe the 1769 transit. His young scientists did the
job, but they were more interested in the Tahitian
Venuses!
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Oh young
James Cook was a sailor bold,
he was brave, he was good, he was clever.
He rose to be captain in the king's navy
and commanded the good ship Endeavour.
He said to his wife, "You're the joy of my life
though oceans may roll between us,
but I must be off to the isles of the south
to observe the transit of Venus.
Then he
sailed away out of Plymouth Bay
with his doughty crew beside him,
with a ready sail for breeze or gale
and the faithful stars to guide him.
They journeyed that way for many a day
this band of gallant freemen,
far to the south in the tempest's mouth
till they passed Cape Maria van Diemen.
Then "Land ahoy!" cried the cabin boy
and eager they were to see land.
Then going ashore raised the flag they bore
on the bush clad hills of New Zealand.
As they made this claim in their sovereign's name
they heard the bellbirds singing,
and the news they did send at the journey's end
set the bells of old England a-ringing.
James Cook was a man who was kind and just
though his enemies learned to fear him.
The Maori chiefs took his word on trust
and his men grew to love and revere him.
My tale now is told of the sailor so bold
who was brave, who was good, who was clever,
who rose to be captain in the king's navy
and commanded the good ship Endeavour.
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The Ballad of
Captain Cook on record
1959 -
William Clauson and the Folk Song Five, Be Japers
45rpm record, His Masters Voice, 7EGM 6010
The Transit of
Venus
Tahiti was comfortable and well provisioned for human
life; the islanders were friendly and eager to deal with
Cook's men. Banks deemed it "the truest picture of an
arcadia that the imagination can form." Endeavor's
crew was absorbed, amazed.
No
wonder Cook and Banks had so little to say about the
transit when it finally happened on June 3, 1769. Venus'
little black disk, which could only be seen gliding across
the blinding sun through special telescopes brought from
England, couldn't compete with Tahiti itself.
Banks' log entry on the day of the transit mostly tells of
a breakfast-meeting with Tarr�a, the King of the Island,
and Tarr�a's sister Nuna, and later in the day, a visit
from "three handsome women." Of Venus, he says, "I
went to my Companions at the observatory carrying with
me Tarr�a, Nuna and some of their chief attendants; to
them we shewd the planet upon the sun and made them
understand that we came on purpose to see it. After this
they went back and myself with them."
Banks was obviously captivated by another aspect of Venus.
Willow Macky
Q.S.M.
Katherine
Faith (Willow) Macky (b. 1921, d.2006) was one of New
Zealand's leading composers of folk-style music and songs
about New Zealand's towns,
history and heroes.
Willow showed talent at an early age. She chanted her
first poem to her parents when she was three, and in 1938
published Ego of Youth, poems she had written between the
ages of 3 and 15.
 She
was educated at St Cuthbert's College, Iona College and
the Elam School of Fine Art. She
began to play a Gibson guitar her American mother
brought from Texas and never looked back.
During World War II she met a young Jewish member of the
US Army Medical corps. However marriage plans fell through
because of family opposition on religious grounds. But she
retained a strong interest in the history of the Jewish
people. She wrote a film script, Song of Zion, which took
seven years to complete. She self-published it as a book
(it is in the NZ National Library), and took it to
Hollywood.
Producers there were impressed with the script and Willow
was invited to join a team of Hollywood writers. But that
unfortunately was not to be, as her recently widowed
mother needed her help. (Thomas Hugh Macky, son of Joseph
C. Macky, in 1965)
In Sydney during the early 1950s she met Alfred Hill. "The
Hills were both very keen on folk music," she related to
Gordon Spittle. "They invited us to a meeting of the Bush
Music Society to hear the Bushwhackers band play dinky-di
Aussie music. We were very intrigued by their homemade
instruments."
Singer and songwriter
By the late 1950s she was singing in folk clubs: originals
about the Waitemata harbour and the Wellington cablecar
mixed with blues and boogie. Her songs were covered by
American balladeer William Clauson in 1959 (Hori and
His Spanish Guitar, Manawatu, Ballad of Captain Cook,
The Bishop and the Tohunga) and opera singer Inia Te
Wiata with the BBC Light Orchestra in 1962 (The Maori
Flute).
 The
Tarriers Three recorded We're A Great Big City with
Peter Cape's Down the Hall on the flipside. The
Four Cities and Two Gold Towns EPs were
recorded with the Mariners, and included Cathedral City
about Christchurch, I Remember Summer with Ka and
Tawhiri Williams, and The Ballad of Captain Cook
with the Wellington Junior Choir. Other titles featured
The Wood Pigeons and The Bellbirds, Waitangi and Milford
Track, and Kupe and Sir Edmund Hillary from
The Voyagers EP. In more recent times, Tamaki
Moonlight was recorded by girl group When The Cat's
Been Spayed.
Her best-known song is the NZ
Christmas hymn,
Te Harinui (The Great Day), first published in
1957. It is featured in the Girl Guides Songbook and has
become recognised as the unofficial New Zealand Christmas
Carol. It was recorded on the Bay of Islands extended
player in the mid 1960s, alongside other Macky songs, Waitangi
and the six-minute Marsden and the First New Zealand
Christmas.
Overseas tours
Apart from her NZ-themed works, in the 1960s she wrote
some anti-war protest numbers. In the early 1960s she
toured in England and the USA. Her photo and an article on
folk song in NZ were included in the EFDS 'folk'
publication No3 dated Jan 1963. She was among singers
performing at the 4th Festival of British Folk Music in
1962.
Graham McGregor has her old Gibson guitar. He says the
guitar still has glue marks where Willow stuck a plastic
fern leaf to signify her New Zealand connection when she
was touring the U.S.A. Then she started playing a
classical guitar and The Gibson was left in the wardrobe.
A
long interview with her was published in 'Music in New
Zealand', No. 26 Spring 1994.
In 2003 she moved to the Caughey-Preston Home in Remuera,
and in the 2006 New year's Honours she was awarded the
Queen's Service Medal for public service. She died on the
10th of December 2006. She was 86.
Family background
Willow used to sing at Rafters Folk Club which met in the
Auckland Unitarian Church in Ponsonby. She was a
descendant of one of the families who were founder members
of this church over 100 years ago. The Mackys and the Orr
family emigrated to NZ from Northern Ireland and both
claim descent from the family of William Orr, a famous
Irishman who was hanged by the British in 1707 at
Carrickfergus Castle for his support for the United
Irishmen's cause. They believed that no matter what
religion they were, the Irish should govern themselves
under one Government - a radical political view!!
The Mackys were prosperous and prominent Auckland citizens
a hundred years ago. Thomas
Macky (d.1896 Devenport), set up a trust for the
(Unitarian) church. A
bronze plaque to Joseph Macky and his wife is on one wall
of the (Auck Unit) church. Joseph Macky and his wife were
drowned in the Lusitania in 1915 and a manse was given to
the church in their memory.
- My
First Song
- Willow
Macky told Gordon Spittle
- "I
started writing because I'd been collecting
folk songs from all over the world and thought
I'd like to sing something about Auckland. But
I couldn't think of anything.
"I thought what do I like best about Auckland?
So I wrote a song about the Waitemata Harbour.
I only used three chords."
- 1.
"I'd been collecting folk songs..."
- ...and
so she had learnt what were the most popular
folk song forms: topics, mood, rhymes, rhythms.
Too many bad songwriters start off without
looking at other similar songs. Then they wonder
why nobody likes their unstructured,
self-centred, dismal creations.
Learn from others.
- 2.
"I thought I'd like to sing something
about Auckland..."
- ...where
she had lived and loved and learnt about life.
She wrote about what she had experience of.
Write about what you know best.
- 3.
"I thought what do I like best about
Auckland?..."
- ...not
"What has caused me the greatest misery in
Auckland?"
She wrote positively, to increase her happiness,
and the happiness of others.
She could have written about her lost love, the
Jewish soldier, and her oppressive mother.
Some people fill whole CDs with such neurotic
junk. But why depress others by wallowing your
woes?
Have some self discipline in what you sing
publicly.
- 4.
"I only used three chords..."
- ...because
that makes it easy for others to learn and sing
the song.
She wrote a simple tune to focus attention on
the words.
As an accomplished jazz guitarist, she could
have added half a dozen dimished seventh chord
runs to show everyone how clever she was,
but....
Create folk tunes that ordinary folk can
play.
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Main Song List - Home
Published
on the NZ Folksong website on 5 June 2004, QSM addition 9
Jan 2006
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