Music by Gillian Whitehead for string quartet and Taonga Puoro
- February 2nd, 2010
Richard Nunns.
New Zealand composer Gillian Karawe Whitehead has written two quintets for the New Zealand String Quartet and Taonga Puoro (Māori instruments) specialist Richard Nunns.
These outstanding works, Puhake ki te rangi (“spouting to the skies”) and Hineputehue (“the woman of the sound of the gourd”) have been performed many times in New Zealand, Europe and North America and audiences have found them fascinating, evocative and moving.
Both works are available on the Atoll Records release Puhake ki te rangi, (ACD 107, 2008) a CD set which includes a DVD of the recording session of one of the quintets and further details about the whalebone instruments. Listen to an audio sample.
Programme notes and a biography of the composer provide more details.
What the critics said:
The real eye-opener of this concert and perhaps the most authentic sound of New Zealand came with the last work Puhake ki te rangi for string quartet and Māori instruments by Gillian Karawe Whitehead. For this, the Quartet was joined by Richard Nunns who has spent a lifetime of dedicated research into every aspect of taonga pūoro (Māori traditional instruments). During the interval I had the opportunity of having a close look at some of the instruments carved from whale bones and teeth and albatross bones. They were every bit as beautiful as they sounded. Gillian Karawe Whitehead has a love of whale song as deep as that of Messiaen for birdsong and she has incorporated its sounds into her music. You could sense the voices of these creatures singing through the string playing and the whole work was punctuated by the sounds of the Māori instruments.
Alan Cooper, Aberdeen University, Aberdeen, Scotland – November 10th, 2008
Read reviews:
- Vivid authenticity
- New Zealand String Quartet features composition with Maori instruments
- Sounds of the Māori on whale bones
A still from the Puhake ki te rangi DVD.
