BOOKS

THE BIRDS BEGAN TO SING: A MEMOIR OF A NEW ZEALAND COMPOSER

by Dorothy Buchanan The Cuba Press — $40

Dorothy Buchanan is a composer and teacher of considerable renown. Her “Peace Song” is one of New Zealand classical music’s all-too-few hits, performed and heard around the world.

Proficiency in those two areas is not always accompanied by a life story with the depths that this one has. But written in Buchanan’s own words, with a little help from Lindsay Mitchell, her autobiography is a thing of joy.

The style is frequently wry and usually idiomatic with occasional echoes of Ronald Hugh Morrieson: “Nan got extremely pissed off when [Grandad’s] home brew exploded in the outhouse one day.” Buchanan seems to have escaped heavy editorial intervention and her personality shines through unfiltered. It is easy to see how so congenial a companion would have made an excellent teacher.

She has another quality shared by New Zealand musical achievers: a personal modesty accompanying a realistic assessment of just how good she is. Equally typical of how New Zealand works are the number of “it’s a small world” connections in her life. These include modelling in a children’s fashion parade alongside the future filmmaker, and now dame, Gaylene Preston.

Hers was