Rerenga (journey/flight/flow) is an amplification of the innate voices and materiality of taonga puoro, Aotearoa’s indigenous musical instruments. Eight instruments were selected from Alistair Fraser’s collection to form the basis of his part. In particular, I selected instruments constructed from local flora and fauna: a hue puruhau made from a large bottle gourd plant, a porotiti made from the vertebra of an ūpokohue (pilot whale), three kōauau made from albatross bone, tutu wood and a small gourd respectively, a pūtōrino made from kōwhai, a pūkāea made from kauri, and a pūmotomoto made from tutu.
The work starts by evoking the journey from Te Kore (the void/nothingness) and Te Pō (dark/night), through Te Whai-ao (the glimmer of dawn) to the coming of Te Ao Mārama (the world of light). The opening sound is created by the large hue puruhau, which establishes the profound darkness of Te Kore. The electronics resonate and sustain this note to form a deep bass drone, enlarged and deepened by the orchestra’s acoustic textures.
The whalebone porotiti enters next, enlivened by the soloist’s breath. It is amplified and transformed by granular audio processes into delicate, wavelike ‘seascapes’, in keeping with the instrument’s cetacean origins. Then we hear the three kōauau, one by one. Their lingering melodies are woven, braided and overlayered by the orchestra and electronics, suggesting the practice of raranga harakeke (flax weaving).
As the piece progresses, the instruments become progressively higher and stronger, with more dissonant, strident impulses. At the climax of the work, the pūkāea is sounded. The brass section emphatically sustains and accentuates its unusual overtones to form a strident, polyrhythmic texture. After a time, however, the intensity dwindles, the soloist left introspectively playing in the low register of the pūmotomoto.
In the final sounds of the piece, the soloist plays whistle-tones, called the ‘voice of Wheke’ after the enigmatic patupaiarehe daughter of the atua Hine Raukatauri. A fragile, shimmering tapestry of high harmonics ends the journey in the whetū (stars), with the soundworld fused and melded to the point where it is no longer clear what is playing.
Rerenga was commissioned by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra for their 2019 season. Originally titled Mātauranga (Rerenga), it was premiered by the orchestra in July 2019 with Alistair Fraser on taonga puoro and Michael Norris on live electronics, conducted by Carlos Kalmar. It was awarded the 2020 SOUNZ Contemporary Award. It was revised and renamed for its subsequent performance by the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra in 2025.