Wai-te-ata Music Press

Rerenga (journey/flight/flow) is an amplification of the innate voices and materiality of taonga puoro, Aotearoa’s indigenous musical instruments.

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 electronics resonate and sustain this note to form a deep bass drone, enlarged and deepened by the orchestra’s acoustic textures, then, with the three kōauau, 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 sustains and accentuates its unusual overtones to form a strident, polyrhythmic texture.

After a time, however, the intensity dwindles, the soloist left playing introspectively in the low register of the pūmotomoto. 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 which instruments are playing.

Rerenga was commissioned by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra for its 2019 season. It was premiered in July 2019, with Alistair Fraser (taonga puoro) and Michael Norris (live electronics), conducted by Carlos Kalmar.