Singing the Mountain: music-movement-gesture borne from the Horizon Line

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Dr. Riki Gooch Pirihi (Māori composer) describes how Māori music was composed to reflect the land.  The perspective of the mountain and the location of the iwi/tribe, would guide the waiata/song,  determining the gestures and the movement.  The same maunga/mountain would create different songs with different textures, tonalities, emphases, specific to the locality, unique to the iwi.    The same mountain.  A different song. 

The land, the music, and the body were and are intimately interconnected, intimately related.  

Riki’s music included below is music we have used in the research workshops with Kōwhai Decheurs.

I invite you too to listen.

‘This link is a recording of our taonga puoro orchestra, Te Atea Nui. These are recordings of my rangatuone conducting method that we did at The Surgery, Wellington in 2024. They are short conduction compositions that I also conducted using a series of gestures that symbolise musical mechanics.’ – Dr. Riki Gooch Pirihi.