Irirangi (flute, Taonga Puoro)

Irirangi (a meditation) for Flute, Taonga Pūoro and Tape was commissioned by and dedicated to Bridget Douglas and Alistair Fraser.

In Williams Dictionary, under Irirangi, is a quotation originally obtained from Elsdon Best “Mehemea ka waiata tatou ki roto I irirangi tena (If we are singing in the house and a voice is heard singing outside, a spirit-voice, that is Irirangi).” "Te Rangi Hirta remarked casually that the people when singing together often thought they heard a floating voice, or spirit voice singing with them; they called it Irirangi. It was a chance remark but I remembered it when, at Whareponga, I first heard, as it were, a faint voice sounding above the voices of the women singing. I asked Hon. A.T. Ngata wha was present, if the faint voice, to which I drew attention, was what they called Irirangi; he said, Yes; and soon one of the women who also must have heard it, raised her pitch and sang the same note as the faint voice.” (Johannes Anderson) "So too in instrumental music is Irirangi (or rangirua) sought after. My sense is that a range of whistling, multi phonic, drone and overtone sounds were the ones being looked for in this important area of instrument-playing." (Richard Nunns) Thanks to Grant Finlay at naturesounds.co.nz (opening and closing Aroha Island Crickets) Tim Prebble (rain), David Downes (birds), and Dave Whitehead (Pureora dawn chorus).

The bird recordings in this piece are symbolic and functional in a number of ways. In a number of places I found recordings that contribute to the sense of seeking within the piece. In the opening and the ending there are foregrounded bird calls (E natural) surrounded by more distant calls (almost memories of birds) on very faint F#’s. Given the piece is in G, and a lot of the flute's part is around the F and F natural, there is an underlying ‘aspiration' throughout most of the piece of trying to reach home (G) - I equate this, symbolically, to trying to break through the veil between the netherworld/afterlife and the one we live in. This is why I’ve included the word Meditation in the title. I’ve tried to evoke the sense of sitting and listening to the natural world and reaching out from within to hear the hidden voices around us. I've tried to blur the boundaries between the two performers. I was encouraged when Bridget and Alistair both responded with a comment about not being sure who was doing what in the demo recording. For example, after the Taonga Puoro has moved from the stones to the Putorino; the flautist continues playing a busy multi-phonic, which has sonic artefacts that are reminiscent of the stones. It feels like the stones are still being played, or that some of the voice of the stones has entered the flute. I find these moments unique and powerful.

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Taonga Puoro instruments used in this work;

Porotiti

Kakara (dog collar rattle)

Tumutumu Kohatu and Kohatu Mirimiri (stones; basalt from Hauraki & adjalite from

Nelson)

Putorino (Te Kokiri A Te Tane and Putorino - Waiata A Te Hine)

Pakuru (from bird-wing bones)

Pumotomoto

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