Talk:Now Is the Hour (song)

How "Pö Atarau" morphed into "Now Is The Hour"
There's a very definitive seven-page analysis at http://folksong.org.nz/poatarau/index.html of the evolution of the 1902 Australian "Swiss Cradle Song" melody into Maori "Pö Atarau" and thence into "Haere Ra" and finally English "Now Is The Hour". On page 1 of the analysis it's clear that although "Pö Atarau" and "Now Is The Hour" share the same base melody (derived from the Australian "Swiss Cradle Song" music of "Clement Scott"), it's also clear from the analysis that Maori lyrics for "Pö Atarau" are significantly different than the Maori lyrics for "Haere Ra" and English "Now Is The Hour". The implication I get from the lead of first paragraph of this article is that the English lyrics snippet of "Now Is The Hour" is a translation of the Maori lyrics snippet of "Pö Atarau", which it isn't. The analysis link will help make clear the difference for you. K. Kellogg-Smith (talk) 03:32, 14 May 2011 (UTC)


 * Why don't you go ahead and make the edits to the article that you think are needed, so that everyone can see what you have in mind. Then, if anyone disagrees, they can discuss it here. By the way, I took a shot at clarifying the "Clement Scott" issue, but if you disagree with those edits, please explain here.  Happy editing!  -- Ssilvers (talk) 22:53, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

The Australian National Library seems to have accepted evidence from Saunders family that the tune "Swiss Cradle Song" was 'collected' and first published by Albert Bokhare Saunders and the Catalog reflects this. It seems reasonable to assume that the pseudonym flatters the fame of the journalist Clement Scott but the music is part of a series of national cradle songs proven to be the work of Albert Bokhare Saunders. The citation which mentions the journalist as composer does not seem particularly strong Tradimus (talk) 05:48, 19 March 2020 (UTC)