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Matariki is the Maori name given to a group of stars that rises in the north-east around the end of May each year. This constellation is known traditionally at the Pleiades, and in the ancient world was known from Greece to India. Maori gave names to seven of the stars, and the first moon after the appearance of the stars was celebrated as the Maori New Year. This was a time of feasting (the crops had been gathered and food was plenty), and a time to remember those who had passed away. As with many myths and legends, there are contradictory ideas – some suggest that Matariki is the name of the largest star (with the other stars being her sisters) while others suggest the name refers to the whole cluster.

Maori mythology named the stars of the night sky “Te Whenua Marama” (the family of light”) – the children of Ranginui the Sky Father and Papatuanuku the Earth Mother. The word Matariki has conflicting origins: some say it is a combination of ‘mata’ (eyes) and ‘Ariki’ (God), while others see it as a combination of ‘mata’ (eyes’ and ‘riki’ (tiny).
For this work several traditional texts associated with Matariki are used, each of which presents a different facet of Matariki. No traditional music is used in the work although much of the melodic writing uses rhythmic patterns suggestive of traditional waiata. Bell sounds are also used to suggest the seven stars of Matariki.

Matariki was written for the choir Choralation (Westlake Girls’ and Westlake Boys’ High Schools) and conductor Rowan Johnston.

• Hamilton: Matariki; computer-set 

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• David Hamilton: Matariki; video 

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• David Hamilton - Music for Mixed Voice Choirs Vol. 1 

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• Whitehead: Naumai e te ao marama; computer-set 

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• Whitehead: Naumai e te ao marama; computer-set 

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• Tuhonohono 

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The performer tells the legend of Kaiaua, God of Winds, and the origins of the strong warm wind over the Canterbury Plains known as the nor-wester. The legend relates how a chief living on the plains is unhappy at the constant breezes coming from the direction of the Southern Alps. He instructs a tohunga to conduct a sacred ceremony to make the mountains taller, thus obstructing the wind’s progress; the subsequent stillness of air, however, causes the plains to be too damp for the people living on them, who request the winds to return. The winds then respond with ever more strength to force their passage over the Alps. The piece begins and concludes with homages to the four directions.

• Carey: Nga Hau o Kaiaua; facsimile 

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• Carey: Nga Hau o Kaiaua; facsimile 

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• Rachael Morgan: Nyx - downloadable PDF 

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• Rachael Morgan: Nyx - hardcopy score 

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• Works by Rachael Morgan 

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A song from The Maori Merchant of Venice.

• Cockburn: Patanio's Song; computer-set 

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Probably the best-known Maori song, Pokarekare ana exists in various forms including different time signatures and rhythms. There continues to be some dispute over who exactly wrote the original version (or even if the melody was composed in New Zealand!). It is usually attributed to P.H. Tomoana, although this now seems unlikely. It first appeared around the time of World War 1.

One account of the writing suggests it was written by a lovelorn young man who had been refused permission to marry his loved one. The song was composed and sung to win over his prospective in-laws.

This version of the piece was made for Auckland Boys’ Choir (conductor: Stuart Weightman) in 2008.

• David Hamilton: Pokarekare Ana - hardcopy score  Year: 2008 

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This short piece was written at the request of conductor Elise Bradley for the NZ Secondary Students’ Choir. The choir had been invited to sing in a broadcast performance while on their 2006 tour, and needed a short work on the subject of peace. The central part of the text for the work is the ‘Prayer for Peace’ which first appeared in England in the early 1980s. It is of unknown origin, and has no direct link with any particular religious or spiritual group. Added to this short text, is the ‘Dona nobis pacem’ from the Latin Mass, and a pair of lines in the Maori language from the Anglican communion service.

• Hamilton: Prayer for Peace; computer-set 

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• Hamiton: Prayer for Peace; computer-set 

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• David Hamilton - Music for Mixed Voice Choirs Vol. 1 

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• 2005/06 New Zealand Secondary Students' Choir: Choral Champions  Year: 2006 

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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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• Booth: Rawhitiwhiti; computer-set 

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• Waikohu: Mere Boynton and Friends 

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• Booth: Rere Atu Rere Mai; computer-set 

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• Waikohu: Mere Boynton and Friends 

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