condensed from an article by Graham Reid in the NZ Herald 18 June 2003
The late Hirini Melbourne, who died of cancer in January 2003, aged 53, opened a window on the past which has allowed others to see a future. Through his work with fellow musicologist Richard Nunns, Melbourne brought traditional Maori instruments back into the spotlight through performance, teaching and recording.
And now a new CD, with accompanying DVD of discussions and performances, recorded in the final weeks of his life, has opened that window wider to allow an even brighter view.
The album Te Hekenga-a-rangi incorporates taonga pouro (traditional instruments) such as koauau (nose flute), putatara (conch) and pukaea (trumpet), but also takes a contemporary feminine slant by using the voice of Aroha Yates-Smith, dean of the department of Maori and Pacific Studies at the University of Waikato, and leading researcher of atua wahine.
The result is a package of music and performances, beautifully realised by producer Steve Garden and director Keith Hill, that is a leap forward from Melbourne and Nunns' 1994 album Te Ku Te Whe, which was greatly influential in giving voice again to the old instruments.
But while the gold-selling Te Ku Te Whe was austere and deliberately minimal, this follow-up extends the contract of Melbourne and Nunns' investigations into a deftly textured, thematic album which uses subtle layering of the sounds in the studio and invokes atua wahine (female deities).
It is an intensely spiritual album and the title refers to an ancient people said to have originated in the heavens who then occupied Aotearoa. Their spirit is in the shells and stones - and in these seamlessly melded evocative songs and inventive sonic structures.
"It was a natural progression," says Nunns, a research assistant at the University of Waikato. "Te Ku Te Whe was a reasonably accurate reflection of where we were at the time it was made. But there were eight or nine years between that and this and we've developed and grown, and worked on a wider range of instruments.
"We also recognised the one major missing component of Te Ku Te Whe was the female essence, and Aroha not only sings in a beautiful way, but also brings scholarship and a profound knowledge of female spirituality and goddesses: her doctorate was in that area. So she made a major contribution to the thematic, vocal and linguistic concerns."
Melbourne was diagnosed with cancer in January 2002 and Nunns said they lived with that knowledge, and his increasing illness, all of the year. However, the multimedia company Rattle, which had produced Te Ku Te Whe, offered an anytime-anywhere option of recording again. Late in the year Melbourne was feeling slightly better, so a studio at the University of Waikato was booked for five days in December and Melbourne made what Garden calls "a heroic effort".
Nunns: "He was very sick but came in with bright eyes sparkling with intensity, but moving very slow. You can hear it and a lot of people, especially friends and relations, will be distressed initially at the sound of his voice. It's nearly not there, it is definitely a man dying. "But it is also an artefact now and a document. Rattle have done us proud and the DVD is wonderful to look at."
By not having published scholarly dissertations about the instruments and the way they may have been played, there was some controversy a decade ago about whether the sounds Nunns and Melbourne were making with them was authentic. The new album leaps straight past that debate into a new yet somehow ancient style, but Nunns concedes the debate is still valid.
"That argument still stands, and we've only ever argued that based on research and face-to-face contact with hundreds of very old people over 30 years, we can say only that within a vector of probability, which is the cliche I like to use, this is how they were played. We've never claimed we were the last word on how these instruments should be played, but given their physical proportions and acoustic qualities there can't be a helluva lot else you can do with them."
Melbourne's passing is a huge loss for everyone, says Nunns, but particularly for him. "It was one of the most enduring musical relationships of this country. We were around for about 22 years. It is a daily and continuing loss. But Hirini's work will be reconstructed and reformed. There are all sorts of ways the music will live."
You can buy this CD from Marbecks.
Richard Nunns
Richard Nunns, a big red-haired pakeha, is one of New Zealand's most respected international performers and collectors of Maori music and instruments. I was lucky to meet him 20 years ago and watch him playing a nose flute.
Richard and Hirini evolved a unique form of action research. With a team of carvers called hau manu (to revive with the use of the breath), they worked together to identify original materials and methods used in the construction of instruments. Public demonstrations in both Maaori and Pakeha settings and their wide and inclusive partnership research methodology realized the vision of Te Tiriti o Waitangi at a personal and local level.
International interest in Richard's work has taken him to the Czech Republic, Germany, USA and Italy to perform and give presentations, lectures and workshops. He is an honorary life member of the New Zealand Flute Association and was awarded the Composers Association of New Zealand citation for services to New Zealand music.
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Put on website on 19 June 2003