24 Oct 2020

Eve de CASTRO-ROBINSON: Hau

From Music Alive, 8:04 pm on 24 October 2020

Performed by soprano Mere Boynton at the Auckland Arts Festival concert, 'Clarion', 16 March 2020.

Mere Boynton

Mere Boynton Photo: Supplied

Eve de Castro-Robinson writes:

While thinking about producing a tribute to Stockhausen specifically for singer-songwriter Karen Hunter to perform, I decided to base it on Stockhausen’s famous vocal work Stimmung, focussing only on names of Maori gods. I then learnt of the very sad early death of NZ singer Māhinaarangi Tocker, literally while I was eating muttonbird for the first time, at Moeraki. Various elements thus came into play in the work – tuning, lamentation, the elements, Maori waiata and a strong sense of ritual.

The Maori word hau has a variety of meanings including wind and breath.

Recorded by RNZ Concert in the Auckland Arts Festival's Spiegeltent, 16 March 2020
Producer: Tim Dodd; Engineer: Adrian Hollay

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