NEW  ZEALAND
FOLK * SONG		 Hine E Hine
A Maori Slumber Song
Princess Te Rangi Pai, 1907

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A lullaby that this international singing star consoled herself with when
her health, career, and family life was collapsing all about her.            

E tangi ana koe
Hine e hine
E ngenge ana koe
Hine e hine .

Kati tö pouri rä
Noho i te aroha
Te ngäkau o te Matua  
Hine e hine. 		You are weeping
Little girl, darling girl
you are weary
Little girl, darling girl

Be sad no longer
There is love for you
in the heart of the Father
Little girl, darling girl

Some people sing mou te aroha instead of Noho i te aroha.

Old sheet music verse

The above E tangi ana koe verse is the only one Toby Rikihana gives in Waiata Maori, and Kiri Te Kanawa repeats this verse three times on her CD Kiri sings Maori, leading me to think it was the only verse still used.

But there are more verses about. I found this old piece of sheet music at the National Library. It has the words Kiri sings as verse one. Then it has another verse. I don't know if people still sing it. And I don't know if Princess Te Rangi Pai wrote the English.

A Maori Slumber Song
By the Princess Te Rangi Pai
Plaintive all through the night -
Hine, E Hine!
Weeping till morning light -
Hine, E Hine!
From my care why try to leap
There is love for you
Mother's arms their strength will keep
Hine, E Hine!
E tangi ana Koe
Hine, E Hine!
Kua ngenge ana koe
Hine, E Hine!
Kati to pouri ra
Noho i te Aroha
Te ngakau o te Matua
Hine, E Hine!
See where there comes the morn
Hine, E Hine!
Long rays of early dawn
Hine, E Hine!
Shining to Reinga far
Where thy noble grandsires are
Nestle Aroha!
Hine, E Hine! 		E Hari to moe moea
Hine, E Hine!
Marama ahua
Hine, E Hine!
I roto i to moenga
Mehemea he Marama
Ka tae mai te Reinga
Hine, E Hine!
                                    Hine, E Hine!   Maori for "little one"
                                    Te Reinga,   the spirit land
                                    Aroha,   Darling

The capital letters and footnotes are as on the music sheet.

Notice the English and Maori lines do not match each other in meaning.

Maori Chorale verse

And I have found the NZ Maori Chorale and the Saint Joseph's Maori Girls' Choir singing another completely different verse on the 1995 compilation CD, New Zealand; our land, our people.

Here is a sound clip of them singing that verse.

 

Archived papers

Princess Te Rangi Pai's papers are archived at the University of Auckland Library.        ( NRAM archive A83)6

Someone may like to visit the archives there sometime and see which of these verses, Maori or English are in her papers, or if there are any more verses she wrote. JA

Fannie Rose Howie     1868-1916
Pane Poata, Princess Te Rangi Pai
Te Whanau-a-Apanui, Ngati Porou

E ai ki ngä punawai korero a öna uri, ko te kokuru o Tokomaro ki Te Tai Räwhiti te wähi i whä mai ai a Pane Poata i te 11 o Hanuere 1868. Ko ia te mätämua o ngä tamariki tokoiwa Herewaka Porourangi Pötae (ko Te Rangi-i-paea a anö) räua ko tana hoa täne, ko Te Poata. Mö ngä tau e rima i a ia te tünga mea o Türanga.
According to family sources, Fanny Rose Porter was born at Tokomaru Bay, on 11 January 1868. She was the eldest of nine children of Herewaka Porourangi Potae (also known as Rangi-i-paea) and her husband Thomas William Porter who, for five years, was the mayor of Gisborne.
I kuraina a Pane rätau ko öna tëina tokotoru i te kura mö ngä kötiro a Mihi Sheppard i Ahuriri. I te tua tahi i akona räki te puoro i tö rätau käianga tonu. He reo hönonu, he reo pai rauangi-kore te reo o Pane Poata, i a ia ka tïmata ki te waiata ki te hunga whänui. Nö muri tö räua märenatanga ko John Howie, hekai mahi nä te käwanatanga, i te 15 o Oketepa 1891 i Ötautahi, ka wehe atu a Pane ki Ahitereiria ako ai ki te waiata. E ai ki ngä körero, he mea whaka-atu haere näna tana kaha ki te waiata i reira i te tau 1898, i mua i tana hokinga mai ki Aotearoa nei.

Tau rawa ki te tau 1900 kua tangohia këtia e ia ko Te Rangi Pai, he whakaräpopototanga nö te ingoa o töna köka, hai ingoa whatärangi möna.
Fanny and her three sisters attended Mrs Sheppard's Ladies' School in Napier. They received their early musical education at home. Possessed of a fine natural contralto voice, Fanny Porter began to perform in public. After marrying civil servant John Howie in Christchurch on 15 October 1891, she studied singing in Australia. And she is said to have toured there in 1898 before returning to New Zealand.

By 1900 she was using as a stage name a shortened version of her mother's name, Te Rangi Pai (The Beautiful Spirit).
Nö taua tau anö a Pane i whakawhiti atu ki Ingarangiki te taha o te kaiwaiatareo tanguru rä, o Charles Stanley, ako ai. Nö tö räua taenga atu ko tana hoa täne ki Ränana i ngä marama tömua o 1901, ka tïmata te akaoranga a Pane hai kaiwaiata könohete, whakaari tapu ä-waiata me ngä oriori paki.
In December that year Fanny departed for England to study with the baritone Charles Stanley. Arriving in London with her husband in early 1901, Fanny embarked on training for concert, oratorio, and ballad singing. 
Nä te taea e tö reo mai i te reo pekerangi ki te reo taka i waenga i te reo töiri me te reo hakahakarawa o te wahine, i ähei ai ia ki te waiata i tehuhua noa o ngä tümona waiata. I raro i te ingoa o The Princess Te Rangi Pai, kai Riwapüru töna kökuhunga whakaaturanga, i tïmata ia i te tata paunga o te tau 1901. I tino whakanuia e ngä kaiwänanga taua putanga äna. Nö muri mai i tenei, ka pö ia e ngä tono maha ki te whakaatu i öna pümanawa reo reka.
With a vocal range from mezzo-soprano to contralto, she could handle many styles. Using the name The Princess Te Rangi Pai, she gave her début performance in Liverpool in 1901, and was highly praised by the critics. Thereafter she was in much demand for recital work.
Nä te matenga o töna köka räua ko Robert, te mea pötiki o öna tungäne, i te tau 1904, me te hanga matemate tonu öna, te take i hoki mai ai a Pane ki Aoteroa nei ni tau 1905. I manakohia te maha o ngä könohete näna i hari haere puta noa i Aotearoa nei, i ngä tua o 1906 me 1907, ana i tana haerenga whakamutunga ki taawahi i rongonui a ia me tana ake puoro, a Hine E Hine.
The deaths of her mother and youngest brother Robert late in 1904, and her own ill-health led Fanny to return to New Zealand in 1905. She made several popular tours through New Zealand in 1906 and 1907, and on her final tour she achieved aclaim with her own most famous composition, Hine E Hine.
Kia atahia, nä ëtahi atu mate e whakataumaha ana i a ia me ana tautohe ki töna päpä mö te hokanga atu a tërä i ngä pä whenua Mäori rahi tonu o töna kökä, konei ngä mea näna i whakaruhi öna kaha, i whakamutua rawatia eia tana mahi waiari. I mate mai a Fanny Howie i Opötiki i te 20 oMei 1916, ä kai raro i tëtahi pöhutukawa i Maungaroa e täpuke ana.
But further health problems and disputes with her father, who had sold her mother's extensive Maori land interests, sapped her strength and she was forced to retire. Fanny Howie died at Opotiki on 20 May 1916, and was buried at Maungaroa, under a pohutukawa tree.

Goodnight Kiwi
Hine E Hine became the most familiar Maori song in NZ when, from 1979 to 1994, it was used as Tv Channel 2's closing-down song.

Viewers were gently encouraged to follow the example of a cartoon kiwi tv technician who switched off the tv transmitter and went to sleep with his pet cat in the tv transmitter tower.

A search on the Gracenote CD database search shows Hine e hine is recorded on about 40 CDs, about twice as many as the next most popular Maori song, Pökarekare Ana

Papers about Te Rangi Pai's life may be found at the University of Auckland Library.   MSS & Archives A-25


Old Music Scores

In the British Library, London. A Maori Slumber Song. Hine, E Hine!-Dearest.-Written and composed by Princess Te Rangi Pai
London and Burnley: Beal, Stuttart & Co. [1905] folio
Shelfmark: H.1794.v.(5.)
In the Turnbull Library, Wellington, NZ. [Music Box TER Mao 1911 (262596)] A Maori slumber song : hine, e hine! = Dearest written and composed by Princess Te Rangi Pai.
London : Beal, Stuttard,
For voice and piano, in E-flat major.
English words, printed also as text with Maori version.
Cover -"Sung by Princess Te Rangi Pai, the New Zealand contralto." Turnbull copy has a stamp on the cover: "Sung by Iwa at the Maori Theatre, White City" ; also handwritten inscription on cover: "Whakamaharatanga, Iwa, 16.9.11". *

*Fond memories, Iwa, 6th Sept 1911 

This photo is of an earlier edition I think - see the HEINE E HEINE spelling mistake.


Princess Iwa (1890 - 1947)

Another Maori woman who followed after Te Rangi Pai with a singing career in England.

She was born Evelyn Skerrett on Stewart Island in 1890. Her father, George Skerrett, (son of Charles Skerrett who migrated to Otago from Ullingswick, Herefordshire) was a bullock driver hauling logs to sawmills. Her mother Hannah (nee West) was from Ruapuke Island.

They all enjoyed singing and people came to hear Eveline from an early age. She was a contralto, with a deeper voice than her brother George, a tenor.

After the family moved to Bluff, she was trained in singing and sang in musicals there, and later competed successfully at the Dunedin Competitions.

In 1909 she joined Maggie Papakura's Maori concert party as the lead singer on tours of Australia and England. She stayed in England, married (twice, to a Mr Barclay and to actor Wilson Thomson) and sang from time to time in variety concerts with a small repertoire of songs including Hine E Hine, Hoki Hoki Tonu Mai, Waiata Poi and Home, Little Maori Home.

As Princess Iwa, the New Zealand Bellbird, she sang at the Royal Albert Hall and appeared in a royal command performance before King George V. She never returned to New Zealand.


Page made July 6th 2001, revised 28 Nov 2001, London score details added 14 June 2003. Princess Iwa added May 2007. Modified for small screens Apr 2021