SOUNZ Centre for NZ Music's video: GILLIAN WHITEHEAD: Pu hake ki te rangi

GILLIAN WHITEHEAD: Pūhake ki te rangi Translating as ‘spouting to the skies’, ‘Pūhake ki te rangi’, a work for string quartet and taonga puoro by Gillian Whitehead, celebrates whales. Gillian writes, “The subject of the piece was kickstarted by Japan’s breaking of the moratorium on whaling in 2010. All the instruments written for in the piece, with the exception of two pūtōrino made of the wing bones of albatross, were made from whalebone. These instruments were created mainly by the master craftsman, Brian Flintoff, from teeth, a jawbone, a rib and even a cochlea from various whales that stranded in central New Zealand: the materials were gifted by various iwi. A section near the beginning is a transcription of part of the song of a humpback whale, and further into the piece, a more playful section was inspired by Tungia Baker’s description of watching, in the water around Campbell Island, a sperm whale allowing seal pups to climb up onto and slide down her flanks until she tired of it and gently brushed them away.” The performance depicted in this Resound film occurs on the same day and at the same location as its premiere by Richard Nunns and the New Zealand String Quartet some eight years past. On taonga puoro in this performance at the 2019 Adam Chamber Music Festival is Rob Thorne Toi Puoro. Audio recorded by Bob Bickerton. Film funded by NZ On Air Music Further information about the composer biographies associated with these films can be discovered at https://www.sounz.org.nz/ Explore our extensive catalogue of scores, CDs, books and resource library at https://www.sounz.org.nz/info-for/sounz-collection-library Connect with on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SOUNZnz/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/SOUNZnz Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sounz_nz/