Pokarekare Ana

Pokarekare Ana is a Maori folk song written down during the early years of World War I by Maori soldiers longing for home. Again, I ran across this song while playing as the Maori in Sid Meier's Civilization VI. The song kept playing over and over in the background along with a haka, and eventually I looked it up to find out more about it.

Hard Times Come Again No More

I've been playing Sid Meier's Civilization VI and am enthralled by the music. My son, Evan, told me the music for the United States was particularly good, so I gave it a listen.  The song chosen is a composition from 1954 by the iconic American composer, Stephen Foster. Wikipedia says:

It was published in New York City by Firth, Pond & Co. in 1854 as Foster's Melodies No. 28. Well-known and popular in its day, both in the United States and Europe, the song asks the fortunate to consider the plight of the less fortunate and includes one of Foster's favorite images: "a pale drooping maiden".

The song became very popular during the Civil War and inspired one rather witty parody entitled, "Hard Tack Come Again No More," I'm putting a link to a recording of this at the end of the post.

Waltzing Matilda

Bear with me for a bit. I've been on a bit of a gaming binge lately, playing Sid Meier's Civilization VI. One of the nice features of that game is the background music that takes (usually) a folk melody from each of the civilizations in the particular game you're playing and which advances in complexity as your civilization grows. For Australia, that melody is Waltzing Matilda.