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Hineputehue translates literally as the woman of the sound of the gourd, and she is the Maori goddess of peace. The work was written in 2001, at the time of President Bush’s State of the Union address shortly before the invasion of Afghanistan, and suggests the fragility rather than the celebration of peace, particularly in a pre-European environment.

A number of instruments used in Hineputehue are made of gourds – the gourd, which carried food and water, is a symbol of peace. These include the poi awiowhio, a very quiet bird lure which is swung around the head, the tiny koauau ponga ihu or noseflute which ends the piece, the hue puru hau, a large gourd which is blown across its top opening and the gourd rattles played by the quartet. Two other wind instruments frequently made from gourds, the nguru and the ororuarangi, are also used. Other instruments are the putatara or conch shell trumpet, traditionally used for signalling, the pu kaea or war trumpet, a nguru niho paraoa or flute made from a whale’s tooth, the pumotomoto, associated with birth, and tumutumu (tapped percussion).

There is a similarity between the stringed instruments of the quartet and the gourds, in that they are made from plant material, with sound emitted through sound holes. Another link is the ku, the only stringed instrument known to Maori, which is a small musical bow played like a jaws harp (jews harp) using the mouth as a resonating chamber. The idea of ororuarangi, which can be translated as spirit voice (or double stopping in a different context) has had some influence on this piece as in the parallel movement of the strings.

• Whitehead: Hineputehue; computer-set 

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• Whitehead: Hineputehue; computer set 

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• Whitehead: Hineputehue; computer set 

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• NZIAF: Gillian Whitehead Portrait; part 2 

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• Whitehead: Bright Silence  Year: 2002 

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• Gillian Whitehead: Puhake ki te rangi  Year: 2007 

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Hineteiwaiwa is a wahine atua – a Maori goddess – the exemplary wife and mother who provided the pattern that all women follow. She assists at the entrances into and the exits from the world, with rituals concerned with tattooing of the lips prior to marriage, with the raising of tapu, and she is credited by some iwi with the introduction of weaving into the culture. Generally, she supports the role of women in traditional society. Hineteiwaiwa was written at the time that Tungia Baker, herself an exemplary wahine toa, or woman of strength, was dying, and is dedicated to her memory. In the improvisatory sections, which are guided and shaped by the taonga puoro player, there are few indications in the score. Generally, the improvisations involve the percussionist. Maori texts, devised and sung by the Kaikaranga, may be integrated into these sections. Also embedded in the improvisatory sections of the piece is a separate vocal composition by Aroha Yates-Smith, woven around the attributes and quality of Hineteiwaiwa.

• Whitehead: Hineteiwaiwa; computer set 

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• Whitehead: Hineteiwaiwa; computer-set 

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• Whitehead: Hineteiwaiwa; computer-set 

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Puhake ki te rangi, which translates as spouting to the skies is a celebration of whales, and was written late in 2006 for the New Zealand String Quartet and Richard Nunns as a project undertaken while I was the CNZ/NZSM composer-in-residence, living in the Lilburn House in Wellington.


Although one section is based on a transcription of whale song, there is no programme to the piece – no confrontation with humanity, for instance. The guiding principles were the extreme range of whale song, the changing patterns of their song, and the image, given to me by the late Tungia Baker, of a whale in Campbell Island waters allowing seal pups at play to slide down her flanks over and over again until, tiring of the game, she flipped them gently away.


The taonga puoro (Maori instruments) used in this piece are all made from whale bone or the bone from the albatross, the whale’s avian counterpart. In the order they are played, the taonga are, the percussive tumutumu, made from the jaw of a pilot whale washed up on Farewell Spit, a karanga manu (bird caller) made from an orca tooth, two nguru (flutes) made from the teeth of sperm whales that stranded one in Tory channel and one at Paekakariki, two putorino koiwi toroa (instruments made here from albatross bones, which have two different voices, being played as flute or trumpet), made here from the wingbones of a wandering albatross from the sub-Antarctic islands and a young royal albatross from the Chatham Islands, a nguru made from the cochlea of a hump-backed whale and finally a putorino koiwi toroa, especially made for this piece from the rib of a right whale that beached at Cable Bay. Members of the Quartet play percussive instruments – whalebone tumutumu and tokere (castanets). All these instruments were made by Brian Flintoff.


In the score, the taonga puoro sections are improvised; mostly the quartet parts are notated, but sometimes the players are required to improvise.

• Whitehead: Puhake ki te rangi; computer-set 

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• Whitehead: Puhake ki te rangi; computer set 

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• Gillian Whitehead: Puhake ki te rangi; audio 

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• Gillian Whitehead: Puhake ki te rangi 

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• Gillian Whitehead: Puhake ki te rangi  Year: 2007 

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Te Hau o Tawhirimatea is dedicated to Richard Nunns and Bridget Douglas. The music aims to create a space in which the musicians, and the voices of their instruments, may speak together. The musical space is flexible, encouraging spontaneous dialogue between the various instrumental voices. Tawhirimatea, the wind god, child of Earth and Sky, represents powerful elemental forces, but he is also capable of gentle playfulness. Te hau refers also to human breath, the force which animates the wind instruments. From the mingling of breath, sweet voices are brought into being.

• Brownlee: Te Hau o Tawhirimatea; computer-set 

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• Te Hau o Tawhirimatea 

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• Selection 05  Year: 2005 

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