After Winter Comes the Summer

New Zealand’s German-Bohemian settlers have played, sung and danced to the music, songs and rhymes documented in this treasury of folk music for over 150 years.

Sung in their unique dialect and played with traditional instruments, this music is a link between New Zealand and Bohemia, now part of Czechoslovakia. To create this important book, the authors rebuilt the songs through interviews with descendants of the first settlers, research into European folk songs and transcriptions of recordings. They can be played on most instruments and are a thoroughly readable and singable resource for young and old.

After Winter Comes the Summer also offers insights into the lives of the people of Puhoi, and later Ohaupo, both in their native country and in a new and unfamiliar land. It is a case study of a small colonial New Zealand village, its development and growth, its music and culture, and its relationships and links back to Bohemia.

Dr Roger Buckton and his family moved to Pūhoi in
1990 and discovered the rich world of Bohemian music
Kiwi style. His professional music career and interest in
early European music helped him appreciate that in his
neighbourhood there was a wealth of European music
which had been undergoing a transformation since the
arrival of the early settlers in 1863. He quickly went about
recording this music, and two cassettes (later CDs) and a
documentary film for the University of Auckland were produced from 1993 to
1996.
After years of research and performances of the music, Buckton’s book
Bohemian Journey: A Musical Heritage in Colonial New Zealand was published in
time for Pūhoi’s 150th anniversary in 2013. The simultaneous publication of Judith
Williams’s book It Takes a Whole Village: the People of Puhoi showed Buckton the
cultural value of her collection of song and verse texts and was the catalyst for
matching song texts and music to realise the rich heritage of song which was fast
disappearing with the loss of the language.
Buckton was an Adjunct Associate-Professor at the University of Canterbury
and lectured in ethno-music, musicianship and music education. He continues to
perform on the dudelsack, alongside other instruments of early music. His aim is to
promote the songs and music in this collection so that these unique Kiwi-Bohemian
musical gems take their place in the multicultural heritage of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Judith Williams lived her early years in the village of
Waiwera and started her schooling at the Pūhoi convent
school. She formed friendships with local Bohemian
families and these early relationships fostered her interest
in the local dialect, its songs and dances. She trained as
a teacher and studied German to Master’s level at the
University of Auckland, followed by three years teaching
English at secondary level in Oldenburg, Germany.
Williams was intensely proud of being a descendant of the early settlers in the
area (Pittner) and her decision to learn German and to live in Germany derived
from her early links with Pūhoi families. So it was unsurprising that later she
returned to Pūhoi, and developed a smallholding there with sheep and chickens.
At this time, Williams began a second career, in journalism. She helped establish
the Puhoi Historical Society in 1976 and contributed to many community
activities. In 2014 she was awarded the Queen’s Service Medal for services to the
community. She continued to visit Germany and the Czech Republic and fostered
strong links with Egerlander visitors to Pūhoi.
At that time the old songs and dances were a regular part of local events, and
traditional musical instruments were often played at the local pub. Williams’s role
in documenting these traditions cannot be overestimated. She was a well-known
identity for many years, taking great interest in traditional cultural activities and
doing all she could to ensure that they blossomed and thrived.

Dr Ralf Heimrath majored in German language, literature
and history at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
His distinguished scholarly career encompasses teaching
and leadership positions at a Bavarian open-air museum,
the National University of Mongolia and the University of
Malta. His research interests include German dialectology,
contact linguistics and the history of folk music. He is the
author and editor of a wealth of publications, including a
number of folk-song collections. As well as his scholarly expertise, his family heritage made him an asset to this project. His mother and
grandparents, as well as the parents of his wife Margret, came from the same region
in Egerland as the Pūhoi settlers. Brought up speaking the same dialect, they knew
many of the songs and tunes, especially as his grandparents loved making this
genre of music. Later Heimrath lived in the Upper Palatinate in Bavaria, which
adjoins the region of the Egerland and has an almost identical dialect.
As one of the few scholarly experts in the dialect, he has served his culture
by working with several cultural organisations: from 2007 to 2009 he was the
president of the Bund der Egerländer Gmoin (Union of the Egerland Communities)
and in 2015 he was awarded the Egerländer Kulturpreis Johannes-von-Tepl, the
highest award given by any Egerlander association.