SOUNZ

Gillian Whitehead

Year: 1999
for unaccompanied (low) voice

Programme Note

E rewa mai, e ra is an invocation to the sun, asking it to rise, to give light, so that all living things will thrive and be healthy, so that the rain will fall. It is 2000 years since the coming of Christ. Rise, sun.
Availability
- Whitehead: E rewi mai, e ra; computer-set
  
  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $17.50
  - Quantity:
  - Borrow

Duration: 03' 00" Year: 1981
for voice and piano

Duration: 02' 00" Year: 1999
an arrangement for voice and piano

Year: 2007
four songs for voice and piano

Programme Note

These short songs were written out of a desire to provide settings of indigenous texts for very young singers – perhaps even suitable (i.e. simple enough) for pre-school singing. The pitch range is kept mostly within the octave from middle C to the C above, and the melodies are fairly repetitive.

The first two songs are settings of poems by one of New Zealand’s best-known hymn writers, Colin Gibson. The first poem is a counting song, and the original poem is headed “play with fingers and toes”! The poem names various birds which can be seen around the country. The second text is another counting song, this time adding one more penguin to each line. As with the first of these two texts, this is also a lullaby text.

The third song sets a simple Maori text by Henare Everitt about a mouse looking for food. The poem was originally suggested to be sung to the tune of ‘London Bridge is falling down’. The text translates as:
The mouse is looking for food
It comes out of its hole looking for food.
Night is falling, and the mouse is looking for food.
There are plenty of eggs in the tree, plenty of food.
The owl flies towards the mouse, looking for food…

The final poem, Alphabet Stew by Joy Watson, lists various well-known foods, naming them in strict alphabetical order.
Availability
- Hamilton: Kiwi Stew; computer-set Year: 2007
  
  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  - Borrow