Enticed into a spirited world

By WILLIAM DART

Helen Fisher's Taku Wana is a work that draws you into its world. The primal trumpetings of Richard Nunn's pukaea and Jo-Anne Ani Robinson's stirring karanga make sure of that. Taste a few seconds of it on Fisher's new Atoll CD, and you'll be in for the whole 37 minutes.

Fisher has a low profile outside Wellington. The only time I heard her music live in Auckland was when the New Zealand String Quartet played her String Quartet in 1995. The four players were asked to launch the work with a full-throated chant and Fisher now says some of the inspiration came from the loud, proud canvases of Emily Karaka.

This composer is happy to describe herself as a late-starter - "composing was part of my mid-40s crisis" - something she shared with the late Lauris Edmond, who provided some poems for Taku Wana as well as the material for a song-cycle, The Wheel Turns, also included on the new disc.

Exploring the Maori/Pakeha interface started taking place in her "student compositions" of 15 years ago. Some of these works, such as the flute solo Te Tangi a Te Matui, which asks the solo flute player to bend and blend her instrumental lines with her own vocalised karakia, are classics. Auckland flautist Catherine Bowie gives the definitive interpretation on Fisher's first CD, the indispensable Matairangi.

When Taku Wana first appeared as a stage piece in 1998, it seemed Fisher's most ambitious work to date. Last year it was extensively rewritten and this chamber-music version is the one recorded. The title, roughly translated as The Enduring Spirit, captures "the need to keep cultural and communication lines open" and on stage, Fisher recalls it was "a real community thing, all sorts of people doing all sorts of things"; in the later version the focus has been sharpened to "the Maori and Pakeha women's stories as an attempt to show there is a way forward".

Taku Wana is resourceful in its references. Fisher says she admires Bach as "the bridge between earth and the eternal", and to hear Linden Loader sing O Little One is to hear Pacific chorales. The composer praises Bartok "for a gutsiness really based in the land", and you can sense his presence in the bristling contributions from the Nevine String Quartet.

Helen Fisher describes her work as "aural weaving - it's just a matter of weaving the different musics together" and this was much evident in Nelson where kapa haka group and choir shared the stage. It's less dramatic on disc, although the criss-crossing tones of Kirsten Eade's flute and Richard Nunns' flute-like putorino seem to say more than any mere notes on manuscript might.

Mezzo April-Marie Neho brings out all the tangi of He Moteatea Ukaipo, one of several waiata contributed by the distinguished Wi Kuki Kaa. "Sharing tears is the beginning of healing," Fisher explains.

There are many stories of the making of this landmark recording. "Who is there apart from Richard to do what he does?" Fisher asks when Nunns' name comes up. With Neho, "it was lovely to watch her hand moving in the traditional quivering wiri while she was recording her Waiata Tangi."

The work comes to a close but the story and the struggle go on. Fisher describes the Celtic-tinged finale, Kokiritia, as "moving forward as a group: it's not just a lone thing, but whanau. It's just a bit of a knees-up and then we get on with the work. There are times when we need to celebrate what we have achieved so far, recharging ourselves for what still needs to be done."

* Helen Fisher's Taku Wana (Atoll ACD 203) is out now.