Waitangi Day music

Today is Waitangi Day in New Zealand, and a public holiday. It is day 6 of the music festival and I am pacing myself, staving off exhaustion. It is a familiar feeling about day six as the concerts and sketching combine to keep.me going beyond capacity.

I looked at today's program and wondered whether I had the stamina to attend: 10am - talk about recently (last 30 years) rediscovered Maori instruments and 2pm concert of NZ composers for those instruments and string quartet. 

I should have trusted the curators. It was one of the most moving concerts I have heard for a long time. I found tears welling up as the Maori flute (pūtõrino) and another long hollow instrument, both played by Rob Thorne, created sounds that seemed to connect the audience with eternity. He also played a conch instrument that sounded human and ethereal at the same time. These instruments were accompanied by string instruments played by the NZSQ to great effect.

Rob Thorne is an anthropologist and had been part of the group of four (including composer Gillean Whitehead and carver of instruments, Brian Flintoff) who explained the instruments this morning. I found his answers to questions thoughtful and nuanced. He is the sort of teacher you wish for every child (or, in our case, adult).

Addendum (8/2) : how you feel about music has so much to do with context. An Australian told me yesterday that he thought the 'piece' played at the concert was too long  and he was sorry the Maori music had not been more integrated with the western music. In fact there were 6 pieces played one after another (all described in some detail in the program). He looked very doubtful when I said I thought the music had been very successful in integrating the two cultural traditions but that the melding seemed to me to be the western musicians responding to the Maori instruments rather than the other way around.