The Hula Pa-Ipu for soprano and cello - Full Score PDF
From the composer:
This setting of the Hawaiian chant The Hula Pa-ipu was written for soprano Lucy Deghrae of One Quiet Plunge. This song is part of my Book of Islands--a series of pieces informed by islands, using texts about islands, set in island languages, or referencing islands. Having lived in Hawaii, I tend to gravitiate toward Hawaiian texts like these. The text is explained in Nathaniel Emerson's Unwritten Literature of Hawaii:The scene of this mele is laid on one of the little bird-islands that lie to the northwest of Kauai. The iwa bird, flying heavily to his nesting place in the wiry grass (kala-pahee), symbolizes the flight of a man in his deep-laden pirogue, abducting the woman of his love. The screaming sea-birds that warn him off the island, represented as watch-guards of the shark-god Kuhai-moana (whose reef is still pointed out), figure the outcries of the parents and friends of the abducted woman. After the first passionate outburst (Puni’a iluna o ka Halau-a ola) things go more smoothly (ola * * *). The flight to covert from the storm, the cove at the base of Lehua, the shady groves, the scarlet pompons of the lehua--the tree and the island have the same name--all these things are to be interpreted figuratively as emblems of woman's physical charms and the delights of love-dalliance.
I chose to reference Hawaiian music in various ways. The ipu is a gourd that is used to accompany chants like these. Usually it is played like a drum, having a low tone and a high tone. The cello imitates this by drumming on the strings. Another famous Hawaiian instrument, the ukelele, is referenced in the frequent 4-string strumming. The excitement of the storm is represented by string tremolos. The metaphorical subjects of the poem (birds) are referenced in the vocal line's birdsong-like warbling pitch alternations. These chants are often very robust in performance and include heavy vibrato at times, a declamatory presentation, and a rough blend of tonal and atonal (or gestural) pitch expressions. All of these elements factor into the music in different ways. This duo was written for One Quiet Plunge for thier Hudson Valley series, in New York.
5 pages; duration 4'
